The wild and free feeling from my adolescence seems to be an overwhelming feeling as of late. Maybe it is due to a big birthday I experienced recently or the doldrums of Florida’s summer weather urging me to a cooler climate. Whatever the source of my restlessness is really not important, however, I did have an ah-ha moment when I recently viewed a field of wildflowers. These flowers growing wild and in heavy concentration where living the epitome of a wild and free lifestyle totally unattended and where only the strongest survive.

I took several snaps as you can imagine. They were hard to capture due to a slight breeze and the sheer volume and density of the flowers. I didn’t want to wade too far into the field for fear of bug bites and who knows maybe even that ghastly poison ivy lurked. Once again I thought they are exhibited their wild and free attitude and this only added to their allure.

Many times I am pretty happy with my work right out of the camera, but right out of the camera didn’t do these wildflower justice, didn’t exactly portray their wild and free personalities. In Photoshop, after using the healing brush tool to clean up any sensor spots, I took the image into Nik Color Efex and used the Cross Processing Filter which give it more of the blue tone. I then used the Detail Extractor in certain places to pull out more of the intricacies of the flower pedal. And of course we have the bug! Love the bug!!

“Wild and Free”

Missouri Wildflowers

Thanks for stopping by and if you get a chance this summer, go out and do something that makes you feel wild and free! I know I will be.

More of my work can be viewed at www.susanmcanany.com.