Tag Archives: Photography

Fun With Photoshop…Round 3…

Being stuck inside your house due to bad weather can get real boring, real fast.  Luckily, I have Photoshop to distract me.  Photoshop and a rather extensive archive of photographs to play around with in Photoshop.

While browsing through my archive, I came across a very old photo that I remembered turning into a digital art piece when I first obtained a copy of Photoshop.  I also remembered that quite a while ago, I posted this art piece here on my site in the “Digital Art” portfolio for you, my fine readers, to enjoy.

Now, let’s have a little fun with this, shall we?  The first person that can correctly guess what this started out as (i.e. what the original photograph was), will win.  The prize?  My ever-lasting adoration of your Sherlock Holmes-like skills!  But seriously though, I’ll be awesome and send the winner a signed 4×6 print of this art piece.  [^_^]

Care to try your hand?  Leave a comment!  Let’s see who’s brave enough to take a stab at this.  It’s so simple, it’s tough!

Glass Mandala

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M.

Unfortunate Occurrences…..Round 3…

My readers know well by now that I like to hike.  Well, I also like to go camping.

*GASP*  What?!  A girl…that likes to camp!?  Impossible!  A mythical creature!!

Well, it’s true.   Usually, by this time of year I would have gone camping at least once or maybe even twice, but sadly, it’s been raining non-stop for the past week and a half now and there’s still no end in sight.  That’s Maine for you.  And, once it does stop raining, I’ll have to wait for things to dry out a little or the mosquitoes will be unbearable.  [-_-]

I’m itching to get out into the wilderness and do some hiking and camping (especially since I picked up some new gear recently).  I’d say screw it and just go camping in the rain, but it’s a little difficult to toast marshmallows while the sky is dumping buckets on your head (and your campfire!).  I’m almost to the point of going Elementary school, pitching my damn tent in my living room, and toasting marshmallows over a sterno stove (I did get a new one for my backpack that I‘ve been meaning to try out…hmm…).

So, until the Maine sky stops being all emo and crying on me, it looks like I’ll be stuck in my house.  At least my little rose plant is still flourishing and giving me new buds to photograph.  Hopefully that’ll be enough to distract me until I can get outside again.

Until next time…

[-_-]

~A.M.

Selective Color

Every once in a while I like to take a photograph beyond just the “pretty shot” and closer to something more artistic.  I do this in a number of ways.  Sometimes I go for high contrast black and white shots.  Sometimes I alter color schemes.  Sometimes I add digital elements to completely change a photograph.  And sometimes I mix black and white and color in what’s called, selective color.

I used to go the long route when I wanted to do selective color.  I would copy my photograph into a new layer in Photoshop, turn the original layer to black and white, select the portions I wanted to remain in color in the top layer, and delete the rest.  Kind of a round-about way.

Now, thanks to my Sony HX9V’s “Part” feature, I have an easier, in-camera, way to do selective color for the primary hues of Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow.

My mother bought me a little rose plant for Valentine’s day this year and since then (and after one very needed plant pot transfer), it has been flourishing and producing several buds.  I decided to take a few shots of one rose bud using selective color.  Here’s the result.

Selective Color Rose

So much easier than all the work I would normally do in Photoshop to get the same result!

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M.

The Mists Of…Avalon?

I’ve always been enamored with mythology, namely Greek mythology and Arthurian legend.

Recently, I went on a hike at Quoddy Head State Park.  There was a thick blanket of fog and mist rolling in from the ocean that completely obscured the view of Grand Manan.  There were several spots where the mist had parted to reveal portions of Campobello.  It reminded me of “The Mists of Avalon”.  Either that or Stephen King’s “The Mist”.  But, I’d rather there be a magical isle in the mist and not monsters, so I went with “The Mists of Avalon.”  [^_^]

 

The Mists of Avalon

The Mists of Avalon 2

The Mists of Avalon, Yo!

Yes, I’m a nerd/geek, I know.  But I’m proud of it!

 

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M.

The Throne

No, I’m not going to be talking about the insanely popular book and television series “Game of Thrones”.  I’m going to talk about a rock formation that has been dubbed “The Throne.”

I’ve been hiking in Downeast Maine since I moved here a decade ago.  In all that time, I had never heard of, or seen, “The Throne” until recently.

I was searching for new geocaches in my area and came across one that was labeled “The Throne” and decided to check it out.  So, I downloaded the coordinates to my GPS and headed out to Catherine Mountain in Franklin, Maine.

After a nice hike up the side of Catherine Mountain, and several awesome views of Tunk Lake, I got to the peak and came upon the Throne in all its rock glory.

The Throne

Amazing what you can find when you get out there and look.  I actually think they could use something like this in “Game of Thrones.”

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M