Photo Play

I bought a new book today and just had to try out some things in it  using Photoshop Elements .  I used Feathering, the Gaussian Blur Filter, Impressionist Brush and layers.  I took my original photo and applied Feathering and the Gaussian Blur Filter to blur everything but the American Horse.  Then I created a new file and used the Impressionist Brush and painted a background with various colors.  Then I brought in the American Horse with about 90% opacity just so I could get a little bit of the background effect.  Next step was creating another layer, used the rectangle marque tool to create a frame and inverted the selection.  The paint bucket tool was used to fill the "frame" with a color I had selected from the American Horse.  Not sure I am 100% satisfied but it's a learning experience. I see that red shirt needed to be toned down.

This is the original

My finished product.

"Sanibel Scribbles"

"Spend a semester in Spain." "Acquire the world's largest shoe collection." "Lose five pounds." These are some of the life dreams young Vicki Brightman and her best friend Rebecca giddily scribble on a paper tablecloth one night at the Till Midnight Cafe. A charmed childhood and a semester of college behind her, Vicki thought she had all the time in the world to pursue her own sweet pleasures. But a single event later that night shocks Vicki into putting aside her "to-do" list and confronting her mortality. The ensuing six-month journey -- at times harrowing, uplifting, and enlightening -- send Vicki to a remote island, Spain, and deep into her soul. Her experiences and the colorful strangers she meets -- a happy-go-lucky Spaniard named Nacho, the ever-charming but mysterious Rafael, a courageous matador, a saucy senora -- challenge her views and alter the dreams she once held dear on her list. This novel has all the elements that readers have come to love from Christine Lemmon, namely life-changing moments that demand women re-examine their priorities and live life with gusto.

This book took a little while to get moving but by the 2nd half I could not put it down.  One of the reasons I bought this book was that two of the places the Vicki lived was Holland, MI and Sanibel Island, FL.  Holland is close to me and I've been to Sanibel Island.  I found the book in a gift shop in Fort Myers, FL. 

The author states at the beginning of the book that she did not have an editor and had self-published it.  That shows occasionally in the book but it didn't bother me because I had been warned by the author.