While I know that the dandelion is often considered a pernicious weed, I think of it as the sky-flower. In the beginning, it resembles the sun; later, it looks like the moon; but close up, the moon is made of stars. Here it is in its night form. Using the Blue Tint effect and then taking levels to its extremes, its rendered down to its essence and looks like fireworks or some sort of cosmic stellar event.
Alas, today was one of those times when the photo I thought I took wasn't the one that came out of the camera. In Real Life, the nascent leaves glowed both above the water and reflected in it. The photo, though, is muddy and nothing is distinct. I'm not sure the effects really salvaged the shot, but they did separate the leaves from the water. I used Posterize and Color Fade Vertical (I flipped the photo first so it would fade where I wanted it to, then flipped it back.)
Tonight, we went to a production of Godspell at a local church. At one point, I reached for my camera to find that -GASP-I'd left my camera at home. Fortunately, I had my cell phone. I was able to snap this shot of the climax. Obviously, it's not a high quality photo; but the Watercolor filter smooths out some of the more glaring imperfections, such as the colored artifacts and the blurriness.
Woodstock, New York is one of my favorite places in the whole world. There's a spirit of spontaneity, freedom and acceptance there. These young muscians, playing on the sidewalk Saturday afternoon, are a good example of that feeling. In that same vein, I played randomly with filters to see how I could release their enthusiasm and elan. I ended up with a combination of Radial Blur, Diffuse Glow, and Flourescent Crayon. 
On Friday, we walked out to the Saugerties Lighthouse, a squat brick building that sits on a point jutting into the Hudson River. Apparently, the lighthouse is still active, and a keeper and his/her family lives there. They have a geranium in their window. The reds of the potted plant and the brick stood out in my eye, so I accentuated them by desaturating all the other colors. 
Well, one certainly doesn't have Internet access when one forgets to bring the computer! And, really, that's not such a bad thing: we spent four days unconnected--no Internet, no TV, no radio. During the day, we hiked and biked and poked around Woodstock. In the evening, we sat at the campfire and later did some reading in our little trailer. Saturday night, we had friends over for chili. All of life's stresses just unwound.
On a bike ride today, I passed some exuberant forsythia and stopped to take a picture with my little P&S. As I was clicking away, I heard a rustling sound. When I peered into the underbrush, I spied this funky-eared bunny. It froze as soon as it realized I was aware of its presence. Clearly, nature does a good job of camouflage: in the dappled light, the rabbit and the brush (as well as the garbage) blend in perfectly. 
Spring in New England can be discouraging in that it never seems to come. Winters in Connecticut are not severe; they're just looooooong. The weather's been raw and damp and grey. Outside the library, this magnolia seemed to sense it was time to bloom by the calendar, but didn't have the courage to open up all the way when the temps still dip below freezing at night. 
Daffodils are my favorite flower (well, them and Lily-of-the-valley); and we wait for them for SO long here in New England...so I couldn't resist one more photo. This was taken in our yard, where they have burst into exuberant bloom. I really didn't think that the original needed anything, but for the sake of the project, I played around with filters anyway. I like the Sumi-E played up the color and luminescence of the flower. 
I'm still getting used to my new camera. My old ones always went back to default settings when they were turned off; this one maintains the setting that was being used. I've been exploring and using all the settings more than I used to with the other camera--but I also always forget to set it back afterwards. That's a disadvantage when I just grab the camera for a shot. My grandson, Aidan, was over tonight, and he's a bit camera shy. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten I'd had the flash turned off. Only one or two of the photos I got were in focus, and none of them perfectly so. A combination of Dark Strokes and Palette Knife made the blurred areas blend into the whole and highlighted the glowing intensity of his concentration.
Here in Connecticut, there's a pretty even division between sports fans who support New York teams and those who favor Boston. When it comes to basketball, however, EVERYONE roots for the University of Connecticut. One of the reasons there were so few people at the town budget hearing last night was that it was scheduled at the same time that the women were playing in the final game of the NCAA championship. Some things are just sacred! We won, completing an undefeated season. 
Our town is still small enough that we have an annual budget meeting, where the citizens have the opportunity to ask questions and comment on proposed spending for the upcoming year. Here's a slice of small town life: the mayor seated at the table, the town manager and superintendent of schools chatting with townspeople, and a few folk reviewing the charts and tables before the meeting starts. Poster Edges made it into a sketch of local democracy. 
The weather is still raw and rainy; the daffodils outside haven't dared to bloom. I cut one to put in the little wall vase in the kitchen. With warmth, it promptly opened. Using a flash blew it out, but there's too much yellow in the original shot. The Colorful Center effect sowed up the flower's inner glow. 
This is an example of where what I saw and what the camera saw were two different things. There's a few days in early spring when the grass suddely turns a brilliant green, before anything else had budded. The green is so fresh and so bright amid all the grey and dull brown that it seems to glow. That's what I saw in the orchard today--swaths of luminescent grass running amid the rest of the dormant vegetation. The green caught and held my eye. But in the camera, the tangles of dead weeds and bare branches dominated. The Sponge filter simplifies all that unwanted detail so that the surprising green of the young grass stands out better. 
