Cool Textures and Scenic Images to use in Photoshop

I've been on vacation in South Carolina with family and the place we stayed did not have Internet access so I had to find a way of entertaining myself and used my camera to get some really cool textures and scenic elements that I can use later on in Photoshop.


I thought I'd share some of my favorites here but if you want the larger size file to download or you want to see all the images; please go to my deviantArt account at http://eveyd.deviantart.com/gallery/

Here are a few of my favorite texture shots

from the trip

Rust on an old train car at Stumphouse Tunnel in Walhalla SC

I thought this rust pattern looked just like an animal print and

this one is my favorite shot of the whole vacation.

Cracked driveway where we were staying

I love how ordinary things like rust and this cracked pavement 

can be used to create art - textures are just so much fun to play with!

Cracked paint on an old Church in Pickens SC

 The great thing about Photoshop is that I can alter a shot like this if needed 

and reduce the larger cracks if this exact texture does not work for me.

Old dimpled paint from the Church door in Pickens SC

I'm glad I did not miss the opportunity to take this shot since it takes 

a lot of time and lots of layers of paint to create this kind of texture.  

The Church was almost 200 years old.

Texture of an old stone in the Church yard

I liked both the color and texture of this stone;

so I zoomed in and took the shot.

From a tree in the backyard

I loved this curly, peeling bark that was on a tree in the back yard 

of the lake house we rented.  I took 3 different shots 

of it for a bit of variety when I go to use it.

stone stairs at Stumphouse Tunnel in Walhalla SC

These old stone stairs would be great as a scenic element.

The backside of an old tombstone - Pickens SC

 There is just something so artistic in the shape of old tombstones.

I can't resits taking pictures of them when I'm able.

I took some traditional vacation photos as well of people, places and things but I really think it's the odd pics of textures and funky objects that become my treasured vacation shots; since some of them will end up in my art or maybe someone else's art since I've started putting these types of images out on the web.

What I like to do with texture photos

I enjoy creating my own digital scrapbook paper and 

find that textures are perfect for doing this.

Example of scrapbook background paper created by using 2 of the textures

I created this background paper in Photoshop using 

2 of the above textures in less than 1 minute.

• I created a base 12 x 12 page with the color code 4a8a90

• I added the cracked driveway pavement as a layer on top of that and set the Layers blending style to Luminosity

• I added the red stone texture as the top layer and changed the Layers blending mode style to overlay

Just a few clicks with two textures I took with my camera 

and I had a cool, new background paper.

 

The next time you are out and about with your camera;

I hope you look around to see the ordinary with new interest; 

and snap some funky texture shots of your own.

Happy Hunting!