Category Archives: Checking In

Textures from Tuscany

Along with the beautiful scenery, outstanding food, wine and friendly people, I was happy to find great unique textures in Tuscany and not your regular brick walls and peeling paint. These were old; definitely vintage in nature if not historic and gave added to the ambience and richness of the area.

Now you may be asking what I want to do with photos of textures from Tuscany? Texture photos are great for using in Photoshop as an overlay to create more depth and interest. They are also a terrific addition to a dull sky and allow you to put your individual touch on an image. Another idea is they are helpful creating a unique vignette.

Textures can also be used in Photoshop when working on a composite image. Compositing an image is a Photoshop technique where multiple images are brought together with layers and masking to create a new image. Using textures, layers and masking will help you develop your unique vision and style for an image.

Lastly, if you are a Crafter, texture images are useful in a variety of ways from scrap booking to decoupage and will help to stimulate creativity on a project.

Here are a couple of textures from my trip to Tuscany:

 

texture for photoshop overlay
Rust, Yellow, Brown Texture
gray texture for background
Gray Texture

Check out more of my textures at my Etsy Store.

Also, check out more of my fine art prints at susanmcanany.com.  Thanks so much for visiting and keep creating!

Sunrise Over The Bay

The sunrise over the bay this morning was awesome and very inspirational. I truly love this time of the year as the days are getting a tiny bit shorter and sunrise comes a few minutes later each morning. Both of those circumstances allowed me to capture this image below with my phone.

Sunrise Over the Bay

Enjoy and I wish you many beautiful sunrises and sunsets to enjoy!

More of my fine art prints can be viewed on my website.  Prints and digital downloads can be viewed and purchased at my Etsy shop.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to all!  This morning I listened to the reading of the Declaration of Independence written 241 years ago. I tried to imagine what it was like for the people in the Colonies while they fought for the freedom and rights we now take so for granted. The hardships and obstacles they faced were tremendous and yet the conveniences were few. No cell phone or land line service existed, no internet, no cars, no in door plumbing, thus they must have been very determined.

After listening, I felt extremely proud and humbled to be an American. Also, I felt so thankful to those who crafted that document and secured our freedom. Thankful to the many who fight today and have fought throughout the years to protect our rights as U.S. citizens. It also made me realize how fragile those rights are. They can easily be eroded and greater effort needs to be made to preserve and protect them.

I hope all US citizens take a few moments to read or listen to the words of our forefathers and the great document of the Declaration of Independence and remember just how luck we are this 4th of July!

Stars & Stripes

Happy July 4th

Thanks for reading and more of my work can be viewed on www.susanmcanany.com.

‘Tis the Holiday Season

As December rolls in, so does the holiday season and year end. This is a great time for reflection on personal matters and to review projects and work completed during the passing year. This year I created some truly unique, quality fine art photos that make wonderful prints to give as presents. Many of my newer pieces can be found in the Abstract or Nature Made Portfolios on my website, although, there are fabulous prints available in every Portfolio. Send me an email if you need more details about any print.

Selling stock images was recently added at my Etsy Store.  Many vintage ornament photographs not found anywhere else are available, along with other holiday themed images. These make great additions for your holiday greeting cards or invitations and decorative headers for your web site. The files are sold as royalty free jpeg images, free of any water mark and delivered instantly by digital download. Check them out if you have a free moment.

Here is a sneak peak at some of my holiday stock images.

vintage hand painted ornament

Hand painted holiday ornamental ball

stock photo of decorated holiday cookies

Stocking stuffed with coal with greenery and ornament.

I also have quite a few textures and delicious looking food clip art images available for sale.

Thanks for visiting my site and reading this post.  I wish you the a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous new year.  More of my work can be viewed on my website www.susanmcanany.com.

Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone a safe and spooky Halloween!

carved and lit pumpkin photo

stock image

I now offer instant downloads at my Etsy shop.  Currently, I have listed some great holiday (including Halloween), textures and food images listed. These are located in the Digital Images sections at the shop. The images may be used for a variety of purposes including website backgrounds and headers or printable content for note cards, invitations, prints etc. Texture image files make fabulous layers for image editing or composited art. Often I find the addition of a texture layer sparks creativity for an image or project I am working on.

Of course, basic knowledge of Photoshop or some other image editing software is required. All files are available via instant download upon receipt of your payment.

Terms of Use

The digital instant download images are high quality Royalty Free jpg files. You may resize, crop, print or manipulate the image and sell it as part of a new product you create. Also, you may use the instant download file multiple times.  In addition, you may not sell, resell, give, loan, share or transfer the image or file to any third party.  As with most instant downloads, the original owner maintains the copyright and is the sole owner of all images.

Thanks for stopping by. View more of my Halloween and other stock images are available at my Etsy Shop.  Visit my website to see more of my work.

Memorial Day – A Day of Thanks

For me each year Memorial Day gets more moving.  When I was younger, it meant off of school or work, with long weekends for play and party. Although, I still play a lot on any weekend and would like to think I am still young, I do give more thought to this holiday, Memorial Day. I often think about the circumstance our servicemen and women experienced being away from home and especially being faced with fighting a war. Mostly I believe they are just young people going to fight a war they maybe did not even understand and going to places on the other side of the world away from family and friends. Like with any decision, we all make them for many different reasons and often experience outcomes never anticipated. I am, however, eternally grateful for all military people who decided to serve and are currently serving, who work everyday to protect the life and liberties that we so enjoy and often take for granted.  You are very special people and I offer a very sincere Thank You!

“Red, White & Blue”

memorial day tribute Memorial Day Tribute to All Service Personnel … Thank you!

Thanks for reading and more of my work can be viewed at www.susanmcanany.com.

Copyright Symbol Tips ©

I probably use the copyright symbol ©  daily as I prepare images for the web. Not only does it make me feel as though the image is somewhat protected, I think it looks kind of cool on the image. It is so incredibly easy to do and I encourage you to put your name along with the copyright symbol on your work also.  Some people suggest the date should also be included along with the symbol. I think for commercial work this is incredibly important. For my fine art work, I find it to be a bit intrusive. I do of course complete the metadata file with the copyright symbol,  date, and also with the phrase:  All Rights Are Reserved for any images I post to the web.

Creating the Copyright Symbol

On a Mac: press alt/g

On a PC: Press the Alt key/key in 0169 on numeric keypad

Here are a couple of images with the copyright symbol on them. I created the symbol and text in Photoshop using the text tool. Once I knew my standard image size, it was easy to create an Action in Photoshop to generate the the copyright symbol along with any text, font size and color you may want to add.  With the addition of a Photoshop Action placing the necessary symbol and text on your images is now an extremely quick and easy task.  Another important step to protecting your work is to consider registering your images with the Copyright Office in Washington DC. Over the years this process has become quite easy also especially since currently it can be done all on line.

rustic farmhouse sepia toned print with copyright symbol

“Desperation” © Susan McAnany – All Rights Are Reserved

 

Pepper kitchen art print with copyright symbol

“Pepper Line” © 2007  Susan McAnany – All Rights Are Reserved

 

Thanks for reading and if you have time, check out more of my work at susanmcanany.com

2016 Motto

As the new year rolls in, I’m inspired to come up with a 2016 Motto versus a New Year’s resolution this year.  The problem with New Year’s resolutions is they are often forgotten by the end of January. I know I am guilty of that and I am sure many of you are too.  I am at a funny stage in my work, eager to branch into something new and exciting yet waiting for a few personal things to happen so I can move forward. But yet, I still have my camera, my eyes, my creativity and two strong legs to get me around. So as I look at my situation and my creative desires that need fulfilling.  I am making a commitment to the following 2016 Motto:

  “Strive to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary!”

I tend to to this anyway as evident in my Misconceptions Project.  To this day that work still inspires me and I am always on the look out for new and exciting ideas.  Finding words that pinpoint my 2016 Motto has helped me craft a vision for my work or maybe in my case renew my vision. Throughout my life and creative development I have found re-accessing a couple of times a year is always helpful.  Also good is to reflect and think about the things that have worked and not worked over the past 6 or 12 months. I probably should be doing that every 3 months to be perfectly honest. I guess as another inspired person once said, “Life is a evolution, not a revolution”.

Here are a couple of prints illustration my 2016 Motto “Strive to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary”:

2016 motto circular abstract art print

“Obsessive ” © Susan McAnany

 

Colorful condoms fine art print 2016 motto

“Security Force” © Susan McAnany

Thanks for visiting and check out more of my work at susanmcanany.com