Macro Monday - Flowering Bush

Welcome! - It's Monday and time for another great round of Macro Monday photos.

You can find all the links here on Lisa's Blog.

I'm a little late getting my post up because I couldn't decide which photo I wanted to use.  I took a walk on Saturday with my little Granddaughter, Coleen and naturally took a lot of photo's.  Some were Macro and some were not.  We had a good time and discovered some things we hadn't seen before (see post below).

I finally settled on this lovely photo of a flowering bush on the college campus.  I'm not totally sure what type of a bush it is but I believe it is a type of flowering Heather.  At any rate it was so pretty and a nice spot of color which was refreshing since it's still winter here.

Enjoy!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - January 29, 2012

Well here we are once again at the start of a new week and it's time once again for,

Scavenger Hunt Sunday    on Ashley's blog, Ramblings and Photo's.  This is always such a fun challenge.  Each week you are given 5 "Prompts" and the object is to take photo's during the week relating to each of the prompts and then post them.  You can use (Archived) photo's if you get stumped but hopefully that doesn't happen.

This weeks prompts were:
Smile, Stand Alone, Rusty or Old, Artificial and Repeating Pattern.  So are you ready to go on the hunt with me?  Then let's get started:
Smile:

I tried earlier in the week to do a "photo session" with Coleen to get a picture of her smiling.  Let's just say none of those photo's were very successful.  Today however she was outside on my mom's porch and picked up the cat we've dubbed, "Piglet" and I snapped this sweet photo of the two of them.  Look at that natural smile, ah beautiful!



Stand Alone:

I live in a town called, Walla Walla and this is a statue of one of the Indian Chiefs of the Walla Walla Tribe,  His name was, PeoPeoMoxMox-Yellow Bird pronounced: (Pew, Pew, Mox Mox) - Try not to laugh. You can read about him here: 

While some say this statue is not a true rendering of how he actually looked I rather like it. 

Rusty or Old:  Oh this one was difficult.  Not so much in finding old or rusty things but more so because I had a hard time deciding which photo to share.  So I'm going to share 2 for this prompt.

Today Coleen and I took a walk and discovered these items along the way.  Both are located on the grounds of Walla Walla Community College.  The first is some sort of Metal Art Sculpture and the next one is part of a Sculpture called a, Campanile which means, Bell Tower in Italian. 

I'm also sharing a little video of Coleen playing on the Campanile.

Artificial:

I borrowed my mom's Artificial Fruit and got creative using texture and text in (Gimp and Picnik) I used a couple of Free textures from Bonnie (Pixel Dust Photo Art) the textures I used were: Goodness and Acceptance both of which Bonnie offers, Free.

Repeating Pattern:  This one stumped me a little and then I settled on this photo:

I think the Geometric Design of the College's Dome qualifies as a, Repeating Pattern; don't you?

So that's it for this week.  I hope you've enjoyed my Interpretations of the Prompts.  Don't forget to stop by Ashley's blog and check out some of the other links.

Next week:  Strike a Pose, Footwear, Hobby, Shiny, and Color Me Green.

Photo Art Friday - Jan. 27 and the Roast that almost wasn't.

Happy Friday! - It's been a good week.  The ice/snow has finally melted and things are back to normal around here.  Well almost...You see the challenge this week for Photo Art Friday (PAF) was to create a piece of Abstract Art using 3 photo's or cropped portions of 3 photo's and at least 1 of Bonnie's textures.  I was "scared to death" of this challenge.  I mean how on earth could I take 3 cropped photo's and create Abstract Art with such limited knowledge of Photo Editing. 

I decided to give it a try though so I begin picking out photo's that I wanted to work with.  I chose the following 3 photo's that were cropped to fit my needs.

I know it's a pretty odd combo of pictures but I like how this turned out.    Again I want to add that I "tried" to write down the steps that I used to get my final effect but after several different changes along the way things sort of got muddled up as far as what I did so I'm giving you the best explanation that I can but it may not be totally exactly what I did.    

 I started by taking the Cropped Frog photo and adding the Brick Building/Tree Shadow Photo over it.  First I re-scaled the shadow photo so that it was the same size as the Frog. Then I used Bonnie's texture:  Heavenly in  Difference Mode at 45.5%   Next I took the Cropped Portion of the Berries which had already been Posterized and added them using Soft Light at 69.3%  I added another layer of the Heavenly texture with the Hue adjusted using Soft Light at 20.8%

Here is what I came up with:

So how does all this fit into the title of my post?  Well you see after I finished this version I started playing around with it doing different things on Picnik (which sadly is closing) and came up with some other versions. 

This one is the same photo but I used the "Boost" feature on Picnik:

Pretty bright and certainly, Abstract.

Still playing around I Inverted the 1st Photo on Picnik and got this version:

So then my mom came over and I was showing her what I had done and decided to show her how I came up with my piece of Abstract Photo Art.  I messed around with the 1st photo this time using Gimp and some Color/Hue changes and created this last version, which is my favorite of all of them.

I didn't write down the formula for this one though so I have no idea how I got the final version.

At this point I looked at the clock, it was 4:30 and  it was time to start fixing dinner.  I went to the Refrigerator and discovered the Roast that I had bought and was going to fix for dinner.  Well needless to say at that late hour it was too late to start cooking a roast  and still eat by 6:00 pm so we opted for Take-Out from KFC and the Roast waited until the next day. 

I need to make a note when playing around to make sure dinner gets cooked on time!

Be sure to check out all the other Fabulous pieces of Photo Art on Bonnie's Blog.

Macro Monday 1-23-12 Frozen in Ice

Happy Monday! - I missed last week for Macro Monday so I thought I'd join in this week.

Due to the icy conditions outside the past few days I haven't really been out much so I wasn't sure I'd have anything to share.

I did manage to get out on Saturday and took a few photos outside around the house.  I'm sharing one that I took of a rose branch in my mom's flower bed.

 This was the side view and below was a view from the back where you can see one of the leaves encased in the ice.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - January 22

It's time for:

Oh my gosh it's been a BUSY week here.  Monday was a holiday so Coleen was home from school.  Tuesday she wasn't feeling well so she stayed home from school.  We had Bowling League so she had to go with us to the Bowling Alley.  She was home from School again on Wednesday which happened to be my mom's 83rd Birthday.  Wouldn't you know it...It snowed on Wednesday and the roads were nasty.  Had to bake a cake, do some shopping etc...but the family all made it over for the birthday celebration.  Thursday school was canceled due to freezing rain making the roads way to treacherous to be out on.  Thursday also happened to be Coleen's Birthday.  She turned 7.  We had a little party for her that evening.  Then yesterday was her "kids" birthday party.  She had 4 little friends over.  So where is all this leading...Well I didn't have much time for the
"Prompts" for Scavenger Hunt Sunday so I've combined 2 of the prompts and also used an Archives photo but at least I'm posting.  So without further ado let's get started.

This weeks prompts were:  Sunset, Black and White, A Day in My Life, Four (suggested series of 4 photos) and Colorful.

Sunset:  This one is from the Archives as there haven't been to many sunsets lately with the overcast, stormy skies of late.  I took this one back in November 2011 looking down our driveway towards the back neighbors.

Black and White:  These are my Granddaughter, Coleen's pet Rats (which now reside in our basement)  They are of course, Black and White rats but I took the photo in BW as well and I like how it turned out.  Meet, Cheesy and Wheezy:

A Day in my Life and Four have been combined.  I was a bit "stumped" about what I could use for the (Day in my Life) prompt.  I'm home most of the day and spend a lot of time on the computer but my craft/office space is a disaster right now so I really didn't want you all to see what a mess the room is.  So I'm sharing photo's from Coleen's birthday party yesterday which was part of a day in my life since she lives with us and is a big part of my life.  I've also shared 4 photo's from her party for the number 4 prompt.

Lastly:  Colorful:  These are the "Goodie Bags" that Greta fixed for Coleen to give to her little friends as a thank you for coming to her party.  I think they are pretty colorful.

Next weeks prompts are:  Smile, Stand Alone, Rusty or Something Old, Artificial, and Repeating Pattern. 

Wow I could not believe how many people participated last week.  Over 150!

Needless to say I did not get around to every one's blogs to comment.  But all the entries were great and I can't wait to start viewing this weeks entries.

Winter Magic

Well we finally hit 40 degrees today!!! - It's been a rough few days since the snow and freezing rain.  I know I've said this before and I think I'll say it till the day I die...I am so NOT a Winter person.  Didn't like it much as a kid and I like it even less as an Adult.
However....it does make for some lovely photo's so I guess the saying that there is beauty in everything must be true.

So for your viewing pleasure here are a couple of Wintery photo's that I took this week.

Branches from one of the 3 Fir trees we have in front of our house.

I'm not sure what kind of a tree this is but those seed pods are pretty interesting and haven't fallen off the tree so the snow on top of them make for an interesting shot.  I just wish it was a little brighter.

Lastly I'm sharing a picture of my mom's dog, Rusty.  He looked so "peaceful" sleeping on the snow with the sun shining down on him.  He's 13 years old and is 1/2 American Eskimo and 1/2 Chow.  He was a pup from our two dogs (Angel-Chow and Rebel-American Eskimo) both of whom have now sadly passed away.

Hopefully winter won't last too long or at least we won't get much more of the "white stuff" because while it makes for pretty pictures it also makes it very hard to get around and I hate driving on icy roads.

Photo Art Friday - Jan. 20 and some Birthday Stuff

Hey it's Friday! - Did you get snow in your neck of the woods.  Much to my dismay ours arrived late Tuesday evening (after 11:00 pm) so Wednesday morning we woke up to this:

I am so NOT a winter person.  - Wednesday was also my mom's 83rd Birthday and by evening the roads had gotten pretty doggone slick as it had started raining (freezing rain) by then.  Thankfully the family all made it over to celebrate her birthday in spite of the nasty weather.

So now let's head on over to Bonnie's Blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art for this weeks Photo Art Friday addition.

This weeks assignment was to create an Photo Art piece using the number 3 as a starting point.  For added excitement we could also use one of 2 new "Free" textures of Bonnie's on our Photo Art.  I loved both textures so I decided to pick one and use it for my Photo Art.
I started with this:

I chose the texture, Off Kilter :  Then I used the Difference Mode  (which now I can't remember what percent I used) and got this result:

This seemed a bit dark to me so I decided to hit the Auto Correct button on the Microsoft program and look what happened:

I played around one more time.  This time I used Difference at 70.1% then saved and used the Auto Correct button again in Microsoft and got this version:

How fun is that! - So which is your favorite?  I think I like the last one the best.

This week was so busy with 2 birthdays back to back.  My mom's was as I stated, Wednesday and Coleen's was Thursday.    She turned 7.  Due to the nasty weather School was canceled on Thursday and Coleen had been home all week due to the MLK holiday on Monday and she was sick Tuesday and Wednesday so she's had a long week at home (so has Grandma).

Here are the Birthday Girls:

There is school today although it's delayed by 2 hours so I really don't see why they even bothered.  Oh well. I knew the almost 70 degree weather on Jan. 4th wouldn't last but a girl can dream can't she!

So be sure to check out all the other great Photo Art enteries on Bonnie's Blog.

Have a great week.  Stay warm, safe and dry.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - January 15 2012

Hi,  Well I almost didn't participate in this weeks Scavenger Hunt Sunday due to the fact I just didn't have time to photograph all the prompts and some were really "hard" to find around here.  This weeks prompts are:  Stacked Up, Winter Wonderland, Sweet, Hole and Frozen.

But then I decided to go with what I was able to get this week and use a couple of photo's from the "Archives" to complete my set.

Let's get to the hunt:

Stacked Up:

My little granddaughter likes to come up with new things to occupy her time and one day she created a coin sculpture of Sponge Bob!  I took this Macro shot of his body.  Below is the full shot of Sponge Bob in coins so you can see the full creation.  She's a clever little girl.

Winter Wonderland (Where?) - Okay we have had just about "el zippo" of snow this winter so where was I going to get a Winter Wonderland shot? Now if this was next weeks prompt I might have been able to have got a photo since Snow is in the forecast but alas I had to resort to my archives for this one.  2008 was a "Banner" year for snow so check this out:

Oh yeah, that's a lot of snow.  I am so NOT a winter/snow person so I'm happy to have no current Winter Wonderland shots to share.  Sadly the people who owned those lovely trees across the street from us cut them down this year.  I miss them.

Sweet:  Okay I had planned to bake something yummy this week and photograph it but just never got around to doing so.  Instead I happened upon two of our cats sleeping together in a chair and the first thing I said when I saw them was, "How sweet" so guess what you get.  Give Up? 

This is Miss Dottie and Callie-Jo who usually don't get along that well actually being civil in the same chair.  I think they look pretty, sweet.

Frozen:  While we haven't had snow we have had cold temperatures and frost has been abundant on Van windows since we don't have a garage.  I hate having to scrape the windows but the frost does look kind of pretty. 

Last up:  Hole - This was another one I struggled with.  I thought about doing something out of the box like using a Donut Hole (not the actual hole in the donut) but those little pieces of the donut that are punched out of the donut.  I know, weird huh?

Okay I didn't get creative at all but I like what I came up with even if it's another one from my Archives.  This was taken last November at the city park.

  I took this looking inside one of the kids tunnels outward at the park bench.  I really like this photo for some reason.

I hope to visit as many of your blogs as possible and comment.  Last week there were over 100 entries and believe me it takes quite awhile to pop by all those blogs and comment so if I don't leave a comment on your blog it's not because I don't enjoy your work but time wise I'm finding it difficult to comment on every one's entries.

Next weeks prompts are:Sunset

Black and White

A Day in My Life

Four (suggested approach: a set of four photos that go together...four photos of your pet, around your house, scenery, whatever you like)

Colorful

Have fun joining in on the Hunt or just enjoying every ones interpretations of the Hunt prompts.

Photo Art Friday - Jan. 13 Birds of a Feather

Happy Friday! - Well the weather has certainly cooled down from last week and the dreaded (Snow) is in the forecast for next week, much to my dismay.  I am so not a "Winter" person but I'll survive.

In the meantime it's time for Photo Art Friday on Bonnie's Blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art.
This week Bonnie asked us to use one of her FREE texture's in our Photo Art.  She has some really great textures to choose from so be sure to check them out. 

I've chosen to do not 1 but 2 pieces of Photo Art this week and a couple of different versions.  I hope you like them.  I struggle with Photo Art because I don't know half the time what I'm doing and not having Photo Shop I've had to try learning to use Gimp (a free program similar to PS) and just haven't had much luck learning it either.  I would love to take a class so I could have someone show me how to do different things.

In the meantime I do what I can so here goes.

Original Photo #1 - Taken at our local city park Bird Aviary. 



This is a female bird:  The male is really a gorgeous bird.  I'll have to share his photo another day.

For my 1st Edit I used two of Bonnie's textures:  Sapphire Dust and Acceptance.

I also edited the photo on Picnik adding a Matte look to the photo and the quote.

For this edit the same two textures were used but at different levels.  Then I tried to get creative and added a layer of a photo of some leaves that I had taken as well.  They were softened on Picnik before adding them to the photo.

Here is the picture of the leaves.

They aren't real visable in the photo by you can see the color and some of the leaves in the upper portion of the photo.

Next up:  For this photo I've chosen the Male bird. 

Again I have two different edits of this photo.  For these photo's I used:

Bonnie's Cinnamon texture and Acceptance.

This was also edited on Picnik using different features there and adding a Canvas feel to it along with the quote.

My last photo uses  just the Cinnamon Texture and a few edits on Picnik.

I tried hard to write down what I had done but after several different changes my paper started getting all mixed up with different edits and before I realized it I couldn't figure out which edit went to which photo. 

I'll try harder the next time to keep everything straight.