Tree Trunk, Photoshopped

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Photos du Jour - Model Gull

I was walking at the beach one day and saw this laughing gull.  (That's the gull's name - he wasn't actually laughing!  They do make a really loud cawing noise.)

He walked towards me as I took pictures.

Maybe he was hoping I had bread with me!

Unfortunately, I didn't have anything to feed him to pay for his modeling services.

A smallish gull with a black head, the Laughing Gull is abundant along the southern Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Infrequently found away from the ocean, it takes advantage of human habitat modifications, foraging in parking lots and dumps, and breeding on dredge spoil islands.  (Info from the internet.)

Sunday's Seagull

Original photo.

Photoshop:  auto levels

Photoshop:  equalize

Dichotomy

Dichotomy - isn't that a great word??  I think of that word when I think about blogging.  On the one hand, in theory, I want to be adding posts to my blog.  On the other hand, I rarely actually do it.  Hmm.  So I have lots of digital images I've developed from my photos, and I can, at least, post them.  Can't I?  Like one a day?  How hard can that be? 

Morning Light

Windows shine brightly,
sunbeams lightly touch the day.
Art and grace abound.

Color is the muse
that dances in my mind's eye
when I yearn to paint.

Photo Challenge

(Tree Stump)
Spring is dazzingly beautiful in this part of the world. Flowering trees and shrubs add such vibrant color to the area that it's hard to know where to look first. I've taken lots of photos of flowers this spring. I even went to the garden center at Lowe's Home Improvement and took pictures of their flowers. And I decided that I've (temporarily) reached "flower overload."

(Pond)
So when I went for an early morning walk on the neighboring golf course, I set myself the challenge of taking pictures of things that weren't flowers.

(Weed)
Even though I was walking on a golf course, I like taking photos that have nothing to do with golf. I don't golf.

(Green Pond Scum)
There was no shortage of photo opportunities.

(Dead Pine Needles)
Back home, when I was processing my photos in Photoshop, I decided to give my buddy, The Sponge Filter, a go at the images. I liked the results better than the straight photos, so that's what you're seeing here.

(Bird in a Tree)
This bird posed for me, and after I got a couple shots, it flew away.

(Blue Netting)
No idea what they were using the netting for - it was in a heaping big pile.

(Cloudy Sky)
Happy Days!

Spring Color Wheel

I used some of my photos of flowers to put this wheel together.

Saturday's Source - Window

The source of one of my digital images:

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Window (the top image) is available as a notecard from Paper Press.

Sunday's Shot - Bike Route

A digital image from one of my photographs.

Saturday's Sequence - Emeralds

My digital art, and from whence it came....

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The back of a park bench. The grass shows through the holes.

Friday's Fotos - An Assortment

Geese Swimming

Pelican

Pampas Grass

Bogue Sound

Pond Reflection

Some photos from recent walks. Which one is your favorite?

Room With a View

When I was taking pictures of the snow Saturday morning, I took some of the photos from inside the house, through the windows.

In Photoshop shop, I altered the photos using the Poster Edges filter.

I love the effect this produced.

This photo caught the glass door and a window. The building in back is the garage.

This was my favorite. Our desk and some plants show inside the house. I left some color in this picture, while the others were "desaturated" to make them black and white.
Today the temperature is in the mid-50's so much of the snow will be disappearing. I don't mind seeing it go because I can always look at my photos and remember the beauty of the day.

Snow Day

We live on the eastern coast of North Carolina and it never snows here. Well, almost never. The weather channel was predicting snow for last night, and some people were contemptuous of the very idea. Our waitress at the restaurant where we ate last night said she'd "believe it when she sees it." It started snowing a couple hours after that, and this morning we woke to a beautiful winter wonderland. Reports say 4-8 inches. The trees were stunning with their heavily-laden branches.

Of course, this amount of snow is nothing compared to what Virginia and Maryland have been getting. It seems to be snowing everywhere except Vancouver....

I wanted to take some pictures. We lived for many years in Michigan and used to have all the appropriate gear. Now I don't even own a pair of boots.

I put on a coat, opened the door to the deck, let a lot of heat out of the house, and took several shots. I went out the front door because there's an overhang and the walk right in front of the door was clear. I also took pictures through some of the windows and glass door, which worked surprisingly well.

I managed to leave the neighbors and the vehicles out of most of the shots. It looks like we live in a wilderness, which isn't the case, but that's the impression I wanted to create.

It warmed up a bit today, and most of the snow fell out of the trees. Even that was neat to watch!

Next time - I'll show the results of my playing with my snow pictures in Photoshop.

The Letter C - Illustrated

Clouds

Cobblestones

Colorful

Crossing

Chocolate

Caution

Casey Cockatiel (like I'd leave him out....)

Calm (Captured on Campus at Carteret Community College - a virtual flood of C's)