With a few weekends under my belt, I'm starting to wander about the cottage community and visually explore the area. This is a nice time of year to do so; many of the wild plants are in bloom, including a rather vicious-looking but colourful Scottish Thistle.
The view of Bellmere Winds, looking onto Rice Lake. The second car on the left is our cottage. I love the tree break we have. It adds a little privacy and there's nothing like the sound of the wind blowing through the trees.
Technical note: This panorama was merged in Lightroom, but needed a visit to Photoshop to remove a couple distracting elements. Yes, LR does have a Healing Brush (of sorts) but PS gives me more control for detailed retouching. I also converted it to a Smart Object and ran Adaptive Wide Angle on the image to correct foreground curvature.
One of my favourite views of the cottage (AKA The Fortress of Moderate Solitude) itself. I realize we're not very isolated in this community, but the neighbours are all polite and quiet, and it's only a short walk to the lake.
Scottish Thistles
These plants are growing all over the resort, and as prickly as they are, they are also quite beautiful. Stand 3 - 4 feet tall, they produce several blossoms in rich magenta/purple.
The joy of photographing wildflowers; just as the shutter is pressed, a little breeze always seems to kick in. I lost a bit of the sharpness on the bloom head, but Shake Reduction in Photoshop brought things back a little bit.
A little treatment in Lightroom, and a slower shutter speed, gave me the look I wanted in this pastoral scene of daisies, clover and buttercups. Hard to believe that if I slightly angled the camera upwards, I'd have gotten a view of the water treatment plant for the resort.
Instagramming the life!
The cottage is a great place to kick back and relax, and what better way to do this than sipping on a Lemon Drop Martini?