Of course we want reality in our lives.

Leslie came out looking stunning with just the touch of an artist’s hand to bring out her natural beauty with some more color.

That’s why we put on make-up, and fake nails, hair, clothing that slims, clothing that builds up, paint our fences, and I could go on.  So the reality was that the sky was beautiful on Friday.  But the truth was that my picture didn’t show it right.  Here is your proof – Paul Bunyan standing around in Three Rivers.   This picture shows perfectly blue sky with no filter necessary.

See how blue the sky is? This photo is untouched by Photoshopic hands.

And right across the parking lot the sky was this color.

See how washed out the sky was? She got out without her make-up!  You can see between the trees , the sky is blue on the right side.  Splotchy sky – no good!

A warning to future photographers:  neither spit nor shoot pictures into the sun.  Or is that wind?

Anyway. shooting into the sun washes out the sky, and I don’t like the color of bleach it uses.  However, there are times that you either shoot into the sun, or you don’t get the picture, and this was one of them.  I didn’t want a backwards sign, and I wasn’t coming back in the morning.  So stuck between a rock and the sun, I chose the rock, and got rid of the sun’s damaging effect to my perfect sign and rock.

Like putting on make-up I want the effect to look natural. What do you think?

I fixed it.  And it was so easy.  I simply picked a color I liked from the many palates of color.  Then I used my paintbrush tool and colored in the lines.  I got fairly close to the trees, then I zoomed in by pressing command 1, and made the size of the paintbrush tip small.  I dotted between the leaves – click, click, click.  Now  close to the tree line with a little blue like a Monet – click, click, click.   Next, I went to the spray tip, and painted in a few white clouds.  Finally I blended them with the mixer brush until I was happy that they looked natural.  And voilá – a perfectly made-up sky, ready to face the day.

Do you like the look?