PhotoShop - Fireworks

This image was resurrected from my slide archives and posted for PhotoHunt last week. I saw one of Imac's images where he applied PhotoShop "solarize" and "craquelure' to great effect, so I gave it a try. Imac suggested another "shopping" to this image: solarize, change to b&w, add lots of contrast and some brightness. The result is below. Thanks Imac!

Verified words? - 18-th edition

Verified Words are new words created by blogger to test our ability to decipher strange fonts (and foil the spammers). Occasionally, blogger provides a real word when I comment on your blogs. I will post new editions in place of "Odd Shots" for a while. Here are three more of my definitions along with the suggestions of dictionary.com and wikipedia. First edition was posted as Round 1. Today's words:

oventrot
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "eventerate".
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "overt".
Lew's definition: oven-trot - What the baker does when the cake starts smoking.

padsly
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "pads".
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "paddy".
Lew's definition: pad-sly - Sneaking extra charges on your bill.

porsid
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "poesied".
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "persid".
Lew's definition: por-sid - The non-visible Perseid meteor shower.

Reflections - Double view

After we put away Christmas decorations, Marianne created a winter motif for our mantle. Last weekend she wanted some pictures of the mantle. The two IKEA mirrors reflected my camera and me. (See Lew's other pics for the full mantle.)

Hosted by James at Weekend reflections.

PhotoShop - Birds in two trees

On a cold, gray February day three years ago, I spotted these forlorn birds  perched in dead trees. This February, I pulled the image from my archives and played with it in PhotoShop. The image below has glowing edge filter applied and the third has tracecontour applied.

 

Verified words? - 17-th edition

Verified Words are new words created by blogger to test our ability to decipher strange fonts (and foil the spammers). Occasionally, blogger provides a real word when I comment on your blogs. I will post new editions in place of "Odd Shots" for a while. Here are three more of my definitions along with the suggestions of dictionary.com and wikipedia. First edition was posted as Round 1. Today's words:

schlable
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "scalable".
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "scalable".
Lew's definition: schl-ble - Word game where words MUST be mispelled.

wakewedr
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "vecture".
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "Wakemed".
Lew's definition: wake-wed-r - What happens when you sleep in the rain.

witgra
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "vitra".
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "wingra".
Lew's definition: wit-gra - Pill for limp humor.

A note about the references I find on dictionary.com and Wikipedia. With a random grouping of letters, some real words will appear. In some cases the "words" will have meaning in another language or will be a person's name or a real place. No disrespect or insult is intended by my use of these "words". "Wakemed" is a real medical organization in Wake County, NC.

Reflections - But not in the mirror

Hosted by James at Weekend Reflections.

My Valentine

This is the thirty-first Valentine's Day that this lady and I have spent together. With her I got a love for music, a stepson and a first granddaughter. She joined me in my love of photography. Marianne, it has been a delightful trip through life with you and I'm looking forward to the next 30!

Love you bunches!

Odd Shots - Loose goose

Is it odd to see a goose flying out of a window? This one has been on the loose for a number of years, but has yet to reach a body of water. It is, in fact, a "trompe l'oeil", a painting created by William Cochran. What is a bit of happenstance is that on February 1 when I took this picture, the sun angle (see below) was close to that of the painted shadow of the goose.

For more "Odd Shots" visit Katney's Kaboodle.

Reflections - Lights by the creek

Hosted by James at Weekend reflections.

Odd Shots Encore - Crocus? blooming?

It's February 6! Are your crocus blooming?

For more "Odd Shots" visit Katney's Kaboodle.

Odd Shots - Cold seating

Plenty of seating at creekside for winter's snowy show.

For more "Odd Shots" visit Katney's Kaboodle.

Reflections - Bridge over calm waters

Hosted by James at Weekend reflections.

PhotoShop - Covered bridge

I use PhotoShop Elements to edit and resize the images I post on my blogs. Occasionally I decide to push the elements beyond gently improving the color or composition or contrast. The above image is just  resized to 900 pixels to make uploading faster. The next three images have been edited for contrast and/or brightness.

Increased contrast

Increased contrast, decreased brightness

Increased contrast to max, increased brightness