I spent the last week as a volunteer forest ranger for the US Forest Service in our northern Colorado mountains camped at nearly 11,000 ft. (gasp!). While cutting trees that blocked trails and educating folks about "leave no trace" practices, I discovered many beautiful areas of wildflowers & clear mountain streams & lakes. During my free time I hiked back to these areas and photographed.
This is a type of purple aster that I found in deep shade with a bit of light shining through creating a glow within the blossom. I used Pixel Bender oil paint to soften the image. Then I added a texture that I had changed to purple with PS hue/saturation. I used screen blend mode at a reduced opacity for the added textured layer. After a lot of experimenting I decided upon Topaz Clean 3 stylize details, removing some of the effect from the flower. The horizontal borders are the texture without the blend mode.








