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.
5 Comments
Gourd | Pumpkin Patch | Home Grown I was so excited the other day to see the tiniest little butternut pumpkin on one of my pumpkin vines. I haven't tried to grow pumpkins before, so I have no idea how they will fare here, but it was worth having a go. I've planted two types - butternut and a little round one whose name I can't remember and I can't find my book where I recorded it. Hopefully with eight plants a few will grow and actually produce something we can eat. The prompt I guess was really in preparation for Halloween in the Northern Hemisphere, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to record the beginnings of my pumpkins, and it does fit in with the sub-heading of home grown. My first little one. A couple of the other type just getting started. Promises of a lot more to come ...
The Ocean | The Sky | A WallOne of the previous prompts for the CY365 was Serene and I've had in mind an image for quite some time. I finally decided to get the camera out and see how it would work. It didn't. We have one of those Chinese temple statues kind of things that go in the garden. We had it in Cairns for a couple of years, however, when we got here we had no real idea of where we wanted to put it, so it found a home in the pool area and was forgotten. Once we redid the landscaping we moved it to a place of its own. I thought it would make a nice photo with gardens around it and the pool in the background - a touch of serenity. But it didn't work out regardless of how I tried to take the shot. While crawling around in the gardens I noticed the sunlight reflecting on our ceramic pot, and thought it worth taking a couple of photos. I'm glad I did. The glaze almost looks like blue lava flowing out of the indents in the pot, with the blur of running water flowing over the sides. I also like the orange reflections from the sun; yep, that golden hour for photography, that wonderful light. So while I didn't end up with anything for Serene I knew that there was also a prompt for Blue, so I've run with that for tonight. And that's another weekend over. I saw on Facebook that there are only 8 more Saturdays before Christmas. Where has my year gone? Has yours disappeared as quickly as mine? Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that you have a great week in front of you. Night for now.
I think it could be time to do something with my eggplants! I found an interesting looking recipe - Za'atar crusted eggplant, tomato & basil naan flat breads which I thought I'd try tomorrow after I've gone shopping and bought the rest of the ingredients, and I also have a recipe for baba ganoush that I think I will make as well. I will keep you posted with photos when I make them. Hope your Saturday is going well. I'm off to read and I think I'll retire to the hammock. I've started to read the Terry Brook's Shannara series (again), but I'm reading them in the order he suggests when revisiting this series - which is quite different to the order in which they were written, and the one in which I first read them. I think there are about 18 or so books, so that should keep me in reading material for some time. These shots aren't from any of the CY365 prompts. I was doing the usual throwing-the-ball-for-the-dogs this afternoon when I noticed the afternoon sunlight coming through the agapanthus and liked how the petals looked almost transparent. The camera was down in the office, and it had the macro lens on, so it was good to go. This was the flower that triggered this photos and I thought I'd convert it to black and white. I wouldn't mind doing more with the black and white rather than colour - there are many ways to convert colour to black and white, so a bit of experimenting will be required. So of course, once I had the camera in hand I couldn't stop at just one photo. The next two shots are from another agapanthus flower which is just slowly starting to open. I love how all the little petals are curled up just ready to burst out into full bloom, and I love that macro photography helps to see these details more clearly. I had a lovely time playing with post processing in both of these shots - guess that's pretty obvious. Every flower is a soul blossoming in Nature
Gerard De Nerval Look Down | No Socks | Patio Where I stand - one of the recurring monthly prompts where the idea is to stop and look down and to capture our world from a different perspective. Unfortunately today wasn't a particularly interesting or exciting day for this prompt, I just did the usual housekeeping type of stuff. Taking a photo of the vacuum cleaner or the mop and bucket just wasn't really all that interesting.
These photos of Bella and Zimi playing were taken after they'd eaten dinner this evening and they were playing while I was wandering around the yard trying to work out what to photograph. Of course they needed to be almost underneath me while doing this. Bella can be quite inconsistent - at times she's more than happy to indulge Zimi's play antics (like when he pulls her tail) and then at other times she just sits and growl at him for seemingly no reason at all. I'm glad Zimi knows what her different moods are; we can't work them out. I did try to show just how dry the grass is again in this photo and in the processing. The rain has been woefully inadequate this year. We get a little, the grass greens up, the rain stops and then the grass dies off again. I'm very thankful for our rainwater tanks, as they are helping to keep the plants going, but I don't like to use water on grass, and besides grass is amazingly resilient and will come back with a good downpour. Let's just hope we have some soon. Photos taken on the iPhone and processed in Lightroom and Perfect Effects 8 - for fun. This isn't a CY365 prompt, although I'm sure if I looked through all of them I could find something to fit the photo. However, I've been putting off doing a workout on the stationary cycle for some time and really should get in and do it - so as tempting as it is, I won't use looking through the prompt list as a reason to put off exercise. I'm not fond of cycling but seeing that going for a run is out until my hamstring is fixed, I guess cycling it is! I was wandering around the garden after breakfast this morning and noticed a tiny little mushroom that had popped up overnight near some ground cover I've planted. I decided to take a shot and have a play with the different sliders in Lightroom that I never use, mainly because I don't really know what they do, to see what sort of effects they created. Anyway I was after a fairyland/fanstasy type of feel in the colouring. I think it needs more work or I need to be more 'out there', but this will do for this morning's offering. I saw one of the parent curlews this morning on my walk, but decided against taking the dogs near the nest.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, whatever you may be doing. Dawn | Daybreak | SunriseI think I've always been a "morning" person. I love being up when the birds start singing and the early morning sunlight is flickering through the glass doors in our bedroom. I think my body is hard-wired to the rising of the sun, and I'm really thrown in cold countries when it doesn't get light until quite late in the morning - just ask my daughter who couldn't believe I was actually sleeping in when we were on holidays overseas. Yep, it was winter and the sun was late rising. I love the sense of solitude, the peace and the feeling of welcoming in a new day. The routines of what I do in the mornings have changed over the course of the years, from having young children, to working, and now I have the opportunity to get up in my own time, have a coffee and go for a walk around the neighbourhood with Bella and Zimi. I've been walking the same streets for just over three years now but have varied the directions (to make sure I'm doing the leading, not the dogs), and I am pleasantly amazed at the number of people who drive past me and wave, yet I don't know who they are. And there are the familiar faces of people who walk/run/ride by me on a regular basis as well - most of those I've spoken to over time. I guess I'm a familiar sight around these parts now: who could mistake the lady with the two German Shepherds. I had to remember to take my phone with me to take the photo for this prompt and this is taken looking back through the trees to the main road that connects us to the motorway. This is the little park where the grave is and is just gorgeous with the light streaming through the trees, casting long shadows. Bella and Zimi were quite well-behaved while I stopped numerous time to take various shots of the early morning light. This has been processed in Lightroom and Perfect Effects 8. |
By adding your email address you will be notified when new posts are published. FOOD BLOG
|