Before and After...Delicious Daisy

Daisies make my heart sing.
There is just something about a daisy.
It's so simple.
So clean.
Wholly serene.
Honest.
I'm quite sure a daisy would never tell a lie!


We went camping last weekend and these little darlings were everywhere.
Now, if you happen to be a botanist and are reading this blog, feel free to correct me if these are not, in fact, daisies.
But for now, lets just say they are in the daisy family.
Wild daisies.


I loved the way that these little ladies were growing up against this railroad tie retaining wall.
Such a lovely, rugged backdrop.
As I scanned the grouping, looking for the perfect daisy, I was a tad convicted.
Why is it that I always look for the "flawless" one in the bunch?
How shallow of me.


So, I decided to give this sweet thing a chance.
Yes, she looks as if she has been "snacked" on by some hungry insects.
But, that doesn't make her any less of a daisy.



I was a little self conscious as I clicked these.
Only because these were growing on the stairs to the camp host's R.V.
I didn't want to raise a ruckus.
I'm a shady looking character,  ya know!
Anyway...not that great of a shot.
But never fear, photoshop is near!

I thought I'd give it a square crop.
Only because I like to walk on the wild side occasionally.
I decided to not clone out the little bugs chillin' in the center.
I figured they were an integral part of the story!




Finally....because I.Must.Add.Texture.Always...I went ahead and added it!

Ah, and now all is well in the world.




I just found out that Monica at Pixel Perfect  is not hosting this blog hop today.  She is taking a moment of silence for baby Cohen today. Let's lift this dear family up today.

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These were edited in Photoshop elements.
For the first picture, here is a quick run down of the steps I took.
1. First I ran a high pass filter and then used a black layer mask.
2. Then I painted out only the daisy with a soft white brush...leaving only the daisy sharpened.
3. Added a color adjustment layer in orange and set it to exclusion and adjusted the opacity.
4. I then added a navy to gold gradient map layer and set it to soft light and adjusted opacity.

For the second picture I added two textures and a frame mask from Shadowhouse Creations.