Ghostly | Mysterious | Creepy
Yep, good fun and a technique I wouldn't mind experimenting with a bit more.
Ghostly | Mysterious | Creepy Yep, definitely going right into the halloween theme with the daily CY365 prompts. This one came with instructions on how to create a ghostly effect. I haven't tried anything like this before and after taking these photos there are a lot of things I would like to try. Steve having a bright blue shirt with white writing on it, didn't really work, so I cloned the writing out. That's something else I haven't done a lot of and I'm not too sure just how to do it, but this attempt worked ok for the theme. I was surprised at just how strongly the keyboard came through on this one, with very little showing of me on the keyboard - just the slightest of shadowing. I used Perfect Effects 8 to get the light flare in post processing. Looking at this again, perhaps I should have taken my glasses off - how many ghosts wear glasses?
Yep, good fun and a technique I wouldn't mind experimenting with a bit more.
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Competition | Beginning | MeetThis is yet another prompt that comes from way back when, and one that has been on my mind lately. But it was also a prompt that was going to be difficult to achieve: no children or sports days around to be able to get a photograph of a real race, but I thought I could turn to my trusty little cars which live in the play room. Why should the children have all the fun? I set up the cars on the road play mat, got down on my tummy and took a few shots of the cars "racing" around the track. From there I edited the photo quickly in Lightroom and then moved it into Perfect Effects 8. Perfect Effects 8 is a plug-in extra for Lightroom I purchased a little while back. I use it mainly for textures and borders, and have nowhere near explored its full capabilities. However, amongst many other features, it has a series of blur effects which I thought would be able to achieve the effect of movement I wanted to create. I did this twice - once for the blur behind the red car, and then a second time to bring the blur from the car to the bottom of the photo. Somewhere along the process I also used an OnOne preset cross process in Lightroom. One day I'll actually get out and spend some time photographing 'real' moving cars and practising panning ... one day.
Left Behind | Deserted | JunkedI went out with the camera this afternoon (golden light) to take some macro shots of the flowering mango tree, and whatever else might take my fancy, when I noticed the toys in the sand pit. They reminded me of a prompt of not so long ago, ok, to be fair, it was back on 10 September, but I had it in the back of my mind. So we have a heap of toys for the grandchildren to play with when they come over - Tonka trucks, buckets, spades, balls, etc. While the children are here the toys get a lot of use, but once they're gone, the toys tend to just stay where they were left. I figured that would fit the prompt of Discarded. I took a few shots of different trucks and buckets and so forth, but it was this really old truck with sand on the floor inside and the missing gear stick that really caught my eye, and it felt just right for the prompt. I've edited this in Lightroom using one of the vintage presets and then added the border in Perfect Effects 8. Routine | Duty | ResponsibilityToday's prompt was the recurring self-portrait one, the one I don't particularly like doing, but I thought I could use it to record the new cottage garden we've been creating around the patio. Well, really, it's been mainly me doing all the planting, but Steve and I did the heavier work of putting down weed mat, pavers, mulch and pebbles before the plants went in. I know the prompt was A Household Chore, but I don't really see being and working in the garden as a chore. I really enjoy watching a garden grow and flourish and change over the years. Somehow I don't get the same sense of satisfaction when it comes to many of the repetitive chores one does in a house. Getting these new plants established has become part of my routine, just watering them in and checking how they're doing. I have no idea how they're going to handle summer as I have no experience with most of the plants I've put in, but it will be fun to see what happens. The little wire basket around the plant in the front is a rather poor attempt to protect the plants from the dogs. To be fair, Bella and Zimi have actually been pretty good, and I do smile when I see Zimi following the path through the garden. It all comes undone, however, if they hear something of interest - anywhere - and they take off full speed ahead with no care what they run through or over. Yes, definitely only hardy plants will survive here! I went to Bunnings this afternoon. I wanted to get some pastel coloured spray paint to paint some old tins and then I plan to put some plants in them. Not sure where I'll put them once they're potted, but I'll find a space. I did come home with quite a few new plants to put in. Probably not a good idea to let me loose in the gardening section at the moment. I know, I wasn't smiling. It's always quite a challenge to work out the focus and exactly where to stand when setting up a self portrait. I had a bit of fun playing in Lighroom and also in Perfect Effects 8. Every day brings something beautiful
If we are just willing to look up and see it Marjorie Pay Hinckley This is starting to become quite a familiar sight in our backyard! Backhoes and excavators! Trying to get the ground levels sorted and then hopefully we will no longer need to have this heavy machinery in our yard. Perhaps it will even become green grass once more - well if it rains!
Circle & SquaresI was wandering through Pinterest land last night and came across some great photos of rust - I found the textures and the colours really interesting. There were some great macro shots as well which got me tempted to take photos of rusty objects. How amazing that something so undesirable can produce such great images.
On my way home from taking photos at my grandson's footy gala morning I noticed these great red pipes all lined up in one of the industrial buildings near where I live. I turned the car around and took some photos as I had my telephoto zoom lens with me, and I knew I wouldn't drive back again just to get some photos. I've had a play with editing this particular shot in Lightroom and Perfect Effects, and just for curiosity have changed it to black and white. I think I might do some more texture photos over the next few days of things around the house. Left Behind: Forgotten | Abandoned | LostI've photographed this old VW before for the daily photo, but thought it is such a good subject I would take some more photos of it while we were out for our walk. I had also noticed some rather old and rusty cement mixers hiding down the back of some yards, and wanted to get some shots of those too, however I couldn't get into a spot that gave me a clear shot like the car. I would like to get a front on, but I have a feeling I was already on someone's property taking this shot. Trying to take a photo with the iPhone and holding the leads of two dogs in one hand and they're not interested in staying still while I take a photo is just a tad challenging. Luckily it didn't end up too blurry. This time I tried some different processing ideas to give a different feel to the shot. So this has been edited in Lightroom and then in Perfect Effects 8, then back to Lightroom and then PE8 for the border. Pride: Honour | Happiness | DignityOk, completely off prompt and off topic. Lots to be proud of and take pride in, but not a lot to photograph at home by myself. The email was about capturing candid moments in portraiture, which is what I really enjoy doing. And I could also think of a heap of photos in which I've done that. So what to take a photo of? During winter hens don't lay eggs as it's too cold and egg production drops off until it warms up. After about 2 months of no eggs, Barossa II decided to lay some. I've had three eggs from her in the last five days. I'm not complaining! Her egg gets pride of place today, complete with feathers. While I had the camera out I put the macro lens on and went on a bit of a photo shoot around the yard. Here are a couple of photos of the flowers from our stone fruit tree (hopefully this year we'll find out exactly what type of fruit is on this tree). Well, that's another weekend over. I do hope you have an interesting, relaxing and enjoyable week ahead of you.
Wearing A Favourite: Shoes | Clothing | A Cosy SweaterI'm still struggling with motivation to continue with this CY365, and I really didn't want to take yet another self portrait. So I let it go yesterday (which was the day the photo was supposed to be taken) thinking that today my post would be that I wasn't going to do this anymore. Well I came home from my morning walk (6 degrees - not as cold as it has been) and thought I'd just take a quick photo with the iPhone and if it looked ok, then I'd post it. What I'm wearing is pretty much my favourite cold weather gear for our early morning walks. A nice warm beanie and a woollen scarf and you can't see the gloves. Actually this beanie and scarf have seen quite a lot of cold countries over the past several years - very well travelled favourites! I think the worst thing about cold weather and photography is the need to take my hand out of a nice warm glove to take the photo - especially when using an iPhone as it won't work through gloves. I took about 10 or so photos and didn't particularly like any but did some processing to create a more artistic effect. This one was processed on the iPhone used Distressed Fx and then further refined in Lightroom. I then used Perfect Effects 8 to add the subtle border. I think I may have then touched it up again in Lightroom. These ones are for you mum - I'm smiling. The first one was processed in Perfect Effects 8 and Lightroom, the second one was processed in Lightroom only. The second was taken from that angle to get the dogs in the photo. All are taken on the iPhone. All American: Red White & Blue | Baseball | Apple PieNot a lot of All American things here and I didn't want to pull out another photo from the holidays for the prompt. I was very tempted to take a photo of our red, white and blue flag but decided against that. Then I was stuck. I was looking around and noticed this little frame that Steve had been given from Ethan for Father's Day last year, with his red and blue hand prints. So I took a photo of that. (Looking at the photo against the white of the page I can see that my white balance is off a bit - might need to work on that!) And that's the blog done for tonight. I hope that you are nice and warm wherever you are. I'm about to go and curl up in a nice warm blanket and watch Waking the Dead - night all!
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