Over the years, I've grown very happy with how the front yard garden has shaped up. This is a series I shot yesterday, over the span of about 45 minutes, just exploring the garden and relaxing. Many of these images were made using my 70mm Sigma macro lens, and others with my trusty 18-200mm Nikkor lens.
I shot this entire series handheld (I know, I know) mostly because I just wanted to take a break from the computer and do something different. The end results weren't super important to me; just the action of getting off my butt and thinking differently for a few minutes. As it turned out though, I made some pictures I liked, including some that were in the shade. Not wanting to push my ISO too high, I opted to slow down my shutter and - of course - introduced some camera shake. The first three images all have it to some extent.

However, by working with Lightroom (for image processing) and then bring the images into Photoshop as Smart Objects, and applying the Shake Reduction filter, I was able to rescue these shady shots.

The camera movement is minor and so is the correction, but there is a noticeable difference between the original and the finished image.
I love experimenting with NEGATIVE clarity values to see what dreamy image I can create.
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