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Okay, I admit--you're gonna be seeing a lot of leaves. After all, leaves in the Fall are what New England has. People come by the thousands and jam our roads to see them. Once they fall, we've got from November until well into April with cold and damp and grey. So we need to celebrate them big time while they're here. So, please bear with me. I don't know what species these are, but they grow in abundance on the fence between the parking lot of my office building and the railroad tracks. They are the most intense scarlet I've ever seen in a leaf, even here. It's the color and the veins that draw the eye; Poster Edges works well to elicit that.
The apples at the orchard are now ripe and ready for picking. The red and the green present such a contrast that I thought I'd try a duotone effect.
Yesterday was raw and rainy, a perfect afternoon for having a roast chicken in the oven. That mean left over chicken for dinner tonight. I made corn tortillas; simmered the bits of chicken with tomato, chopped chili pepper and herbs; and sauteed peppers and onions as a topper. The Cut Out filter creates a poster effect.
Next weekend is the Berlin Fair, which includes a photography contest. Yesterday, I was so busy choosing and printing my photos that, while I took the picture of the day, I forgot to post it. Here it is--a leaf trapped in a spider web underneath one of our big blue spruces and dotted with the rain that fell all day. Poster Edges helped to emphasize the details in the rain drops.
This is Crescent Lake, located in a town next to ours. John and I were there today, hiking and geocaching. It was a spectacular day to be out in the woods. The trees are just beginning to turn. Give it a few weeks, and they'll look like they're on fire. Dry Brush gave the scene a soft painterly look.
New England is famous for its fall colors--and they are compensation in advance for long, grim, dreary winters. The most brilliant of them all is the sumac. Combining Flourescent Chalk with Palette Knife intensified the glow.
This is probably the last rose of summer. It's a bit shaggy and not very pretty, but it still smells lovely. Colorful Center puts the emphasis on the pale colors of the rose.
All of a sudden, it's getting dark early! By the time we'd finished dinner and gone on our walk, it was far too dark to take pictures. The only thing that had anywhere near enough light was our front door--with the skewed mailbox, the dead plant and, yes, that is a wok on a plastic lawn chair. Don't ask. Combining Chalk and Charcoal with Pencil Sketch creates an effect that allows me the delusion that all this is charmingly quirky and not just weird.
Given the cursory summer we had here in New England, I am not ready to surrender to autumn. Our maple trees, however, are apparently of a different mindset. Using Flourescent Chalk with Posterize enhances the exuberant contrast between the early turners and the leaves that still retain their summer green.
My daughter, Sierra Rose, at age 17.
Our campground was right on the Cape Cod Canal. A hiking/biking trail runs along the canal. This morning, I biked a portion of the trail. These cormorants were sunning on a rock just off shore. I liked the soft effect given by using Dry Brush with Poster Edges.
September 19: We spent the weekend camping at Cape Cod, where we visited the National Seashore. On Saturday, I biked out to Coast Guard Beach. It was a brilliant day, and the colors in the water were staggeringly gorgeous. I've rarely seen such jewel tones in the ocean here in the Northeast. This really is waht it looked like. Accented Edges maintained the color, but gave a bit more definition to the details.
I was stocking our camper for a weekend trip to Cape Cod when I caught a furtive movement out of the corner of my eye--Mr. Toad! He was remarkably fearless. He maintained a stoic expression while this huge ungainly creature crawled around pointing a black object at his face. It was hard to find a filter that worked with this photo. In the end, I settled on Watercolor; but I like the original much, much better.
As I was driving into work this morning, the railroad crossing lights came on, and the train pulled across the road. Actually, it oushed across the road--the locomotive was at the back. The people behind me were pretty anxious to get going, so I couldn't get out of the car; but I managed to lean out of the window to snag this shot. Combining Dark Strokes with Craquelure creates the effect of the train being painted on concrete.
I'll be honest--it was a long, weary day, and there just weren't any photo ops, so I made one; and it really isn't that great. But it's the not-so-good photos that can benefit most from filters, and this one took wel to lots of different filters and combinations of filters. I could have sat here all night experimenting with them--but I was reminded by my daughter that her homework trumps my playing with photos. So I settled (prematurely to my mind, but I was the one who made the homework rule...) on a combination of Fresco and Poster Edges, which gives it a sort of pen and ink/water color look.
When I ride my bike to the gym, I pass this very small, ancient cemetary. Here are the graves of a couple who lived in my town adn walked some of the same streets over 200 years ago. Using Pencil Sketch and Conte Crayon gives the photo an Edward Gorey effect.
My trusty Nikon point and shoot needed to be replaced, so I went to Best Buy. When I bought the dearly departed, I was looking for small, the tinier the better. I wanted something that I could carry with me all the time. There was plenty of small there; but then I saw this Kodak Z915. Not tiny, but not bulky either, on sale and in the price range (i.e. had to be significantly under $200)--and it did a lot more than the Nikon equivalent of the damaged camera. So I went for it. This was all after work, and by the time I got home, made dinner, ate dinner and got back out, it was getting pretty dark. It wasn't the best time to try out a new camera, but it did a decent job of Paper Goods Pond at late evening. The Water Paper filter gives it an Impressionistic effect.
Gillette Castle was built by the stage actor, William Gillette. Back at the turn of the last century, he became famous portraying Sherlock Holmes on Broadway. He built a home overlooking the Connecticut River, designing it to look like a ruined castle. He had no heirs. In his will, he left the Castle to the State of Connecticut because he didn't want it to fall into the hands of a "blithering saphead." I will refrain from political commentary. This is the Castle as seen from the ferry slip on the other side of the river. I wanted to find an effect that made the Castle stand out; using Dark Strokes and Torn Edges together seemed to do it.
I had hoped to be posting some lovely shots taken during a camping trip ti Cape Cod--but the Weather Gods hate us. It's jst no fun camping in cold rain, so we stayed home. We took our daughter on a college tour. While we were waiting, I saw this stack of water bottles. My eye was drawn to the colors and the patterns. Combining Chalk and Charcoal with Charcoal and then reducing the opacity put the emphasis on the bottles themselves rather than their surroundings.
This is the inside of the office building where I work. Unfortunately, I don't have one of these lovely window spots...I used to, and work was much better then. I miss light. Using Conte Crayon and Pencil Sketch together gives the photo more of the drab beaurocrativ feel that it has in real life.
These are the hot peppers I've got growing in pots flanking the front walkway. A combination of Colored Pencil and Watercolor allows the peppers and the leaves to stand out.
The appearance of pears at the orchard means that fall is on the way. Pencil Sketch at a partial opacity highlights the textures of the pears and the table while maintaining the delicate color of the fruit.
On Tuesday evenings, John and I go to the meditative Taize service at the tiny Methodist church around the corner from us. We're not members of the church--we're not even Protestant--but we are welcome nonetheless. this shot of the front door of the church is emblematic of the sense of openness and invitation. Selective coloring doesn't change much, but it does focus one's attention on the open door.
July 5, 2009: I'm still catching up on the images from our vacation in July. We'd stopped for gas at a truck stop and these colorful vehicles caught my eye. Fresco intensifies the color while also making them seem more ponderous.
Today, John and I hiked to the left knee of the Sleeping Giant in Hamden CT. We got a bit lost in the woods on the way back, ended up hiking for four hours over steep rocky ground AND, when we got home, being accused by our teenager of being reckless and irresponsible. Is life good or what? The sun was setting as we limped back to our truck. A few stalwart picnickers were still enjoying the late summer evening. Dry Brush put just the right soft touch on the scene.
Okay, I admit--you're gonna be seeing a lot of leaves. After all, leaves in the Fall are what New England has. People come by the thousands and jam our roads to see them. Once they fall, we've got from November until well into April with cold and damp and grey. So we need to celebrate them big time while they're here. So, please bear with me. I don't know what species these are, but they grow in abundance on the fence between the parking lot of my office building and the railroad tracks. They are the most intense scarlet I've ever seen in a leaf, even here. It's the color and the veins that draw the eye; Poster Edges works well to elicit that.
