Hard to Believe It’s Almost Christmas!

I felt like I needed a walk this afternoon. I grabbed my Fujifilm X100S and headed down to Menlo Park’s Santa Cruz Avenue about 30 minutes before sunset.

I walked the avenue – camera in hand – and captured a few holiday shots. But I think one is my favorite – a Christmas tree shot through a store window. I had to do a bit of post-processing cleanup in Photoshop CC to remove some reflections – and then decided to apply a bit of a painterly feel to the image using a combination of Topaz Simplify 4 and Photoshop CC’s oil paint filter. I used a layer mask to keep the ornament details sharp and added a bit of burning to add some depth to the tree itself.

This one my be our holiday card cover for next year!