#52 - Xmas Christmas

The very observant among you will notice that I've skipped a few themes and a few weeks.  I got down to the most difficult (for me) themes and just ran out of steam.

For my last post of the year, I give you a version of our house in Ontario rendered snow-covered through the miracles of Photoshop Elements and a tutorial by Matt Kokloowski (sp?) - I think. 

Christmas is over, the New Year is almost upon us and so I would like to thank my faithful followers here on blogspot over the past year and to wish you all the best in the coming year.

I am moving to Wordpress for 2013 and you can find my blog on www.theyearthroughmylens.wordpress.com

At least I hope you will be able to...  I fought with Wordpress before giving up and going with blogspot this year but am determined to master it this time.

#47 Treasure

Unashamedly, I'll admit that this week's post has come from my archives. 

My parents and I had two shared memorable occasions - their anniversary and my birthday.  So every year, there was a double celebration on the day, or near to it.  Being born on their 5th wedding anniversary, as a little girl I had been known to tell people that "I was born on my Mummy's wedding day!", which didn't sit too well with little old ladies who I told... 

Each year, from 2004 until 2011, a family picnic was held, the 2004 one being the occasion of Mum & Dad's 65th anniversary.  Sometimes, someone would even remember to wish me a Happy Birthday but I didn't mind. 

In July 2007, Dad died at the good age of almost 90 but leaving my nearly blind Mum alone in the assisted residence where they had moved just 2 years before.  Although she was devastated at his loss (they had been sweethearts since she was 14!), she carried on, with the help of my sister, myself and full-time care workers who we hired, but eventually passed away in August 2009, also nearly 90.  She was lost without her beloved Doug and I like to think of them as being reunited now.  When Dad died, they had been married for 66 years, 10 months and 20 days - quite an accomplishment!

This photo was taken at the family picnic in 2006, the last time we had our pictures taken together on our big day - and there were many of them, I can assure you.  So for me, it's one that I treasure - and that, for me, fits this week's theme. 

I used an OnOne Photo Essentials 3 acid burn frame.

#46 Justice

After much thought, I decided that "justice" can be construed in many different ways.  I suppose that means that I'm starting to think more outside the box than I did before I started this venture.

There is an historic landmark in Lake Wales, Florida where you will find a beautiful carillon tower surrounded by lovely gardens and an equally historic house that is open to the public.

To "do justice" to the tower is just not possible in camera format; you have to see it to appreciate its beauty and the work that went into its creation.  Not extremely large or pretentious, nevertheless its amazing colouration and decorative detail lends itself nicely to a plethora of scope for photographic views.  (Am I waxing too poetical here...?!)

Hence I decided the best way to fulfil this week's challenge was to present you with a variety of shots - just a few of many, I can assure you - of this beautiful tower in a "storybook" form.

To appreciate the tower to its fullest, visit its website at http://boktowergardens.org/

Thank you to Kim Klassen http://www.kimklassencafe.com for supplying the storybook framework that I used here.

#45 Yummy

The year is getting older and I'm having to dig into the archives to fill up its last weeks...

There's nothing very "yummy" out there right now but back in the summer, we enjoyed an inordinate number of desserts just like this:  fresh strawberries and raspberries on a sponge cake cup.   I can taste them now, just looking at them.  With just the finest dash of sugar and a topping of vanilla yogurt - mm, mm good!

#44 Love

It's time I got back to some people pictures so here's my 'Love' theme one.

My youngest nephew and his girlfriend are deeply in love and I think this photo of them shows that.  They're all dressed up for a Hawaiian-themed family picnic.  Don't they look great?!

#43 Warning

In keeping with the season, I offer this image for the "Warning" theme.

After having taken part in the Tillsonburg edition of Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk last Saturday - was that just a week ago?! - I was on the lookout for photo opportunities around town when I walked in to a dentist appointment during the past week.  Since we're nearing Hallowe'en, these decorations (I added the pumpkin from the photo walk and created its 'carving' in PSE 10 ) seemed to fit the bill very nicely.

I applied a Topaz Adjust 5 'Glow in the Dark' filter to it and let some light show through the windows to increase the spooky feel.

A week or two to go yet, but Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

#42 - Zany

Still on a nature theme this week, people.

I took part in Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk on Saturday - a great morning out with just nine of us, lead by pro photographer Danny Bailey around the hidden treasures of Tillsonburg, Ontario.  (Check out my Flickr blog with more photos here )

Danny took us through some rough terrain alongside a river and he must have really done his homework because he took us straight to this find.  I'm using it for my "Zany" theme because it's crazy how the tree has grown around the chassis of whatever this vehicle once was.  What was also crazy is that, surrounding the wreck, were numerous discarded children's sneakers - kind of creepy!

I'm sure there are lots more of you who took part in the Photo Walk on the week-end and I'd love to see your shots from it!

#41 Maturity

Well, if "Youth" doesn't have to be human, I'm sure I can get away with "Maturity" not being too.

My post this week is of a weathered old tree we saw on a walk along the River Thames near London, Ontario on Friday.  We went with some lawn bowling friends whose favourite place to walk this is. 

How this poor thing stays standing I'm sure I don't know but if, as I was reminded, a tree has as widespread roots as its branches, then this one certainly has lots of support apart from these exposed roots.

Not a super mature subject for an image, but probably getting up there in years.

See you next week!

#40 Vacation

Yikes!  Only 12 weeks left in 2012...  Tempus fugit, as they say - especially when you're having fun!

Since hubby and I spend our winters in Florida (No! We are not on vacation there; we live there!), the last real vacation we had was in 2009 when we visited the Maritime provinces of Canada - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia (and Cape Breton Island), and Prince Edward Island (PEI).  We were very fortunate with the weather, only a couple of days of rain, and I was able to get some lovely pictures of what are fantastically scenic places.

Our daughter, who lives in Florida now, has always wanted to visit PEI and so for Christmas that year I made her a collage of a variety of aspects of that province, which I'm sharing with you here for the theme "Vacation".

Really getting down to the hard stuff now...  I may even have to get the camera out and take some photos just to fit the remaining themes!!!  What a novel idea...

#39 Youth

Okay folks - here's the question for the week:  Is there anything in the rules that say "Youth" has to be represented in human form?  No?  Great - then here's my post for this theme.

(You'll notice that I'm back on schedule - for the time being, at least!)

Here in this neck of southwestern Ontario, there are a lot of Amish and Mennonite families who grow vegetables that they sell at the end of their farm lanes.  We discovered one particular farm that we keep revisiting each summer because the folks there are so very friendly and remember us each time we go - besides the fact that their veggies are delicious and so reasonable!  Maybe we stand out because when we first went and asked for carrots (everything is freshly dug just for you when you go), the lady of the house set off into the fields, barefoot, with her pitchfork to dig them.  We were aghast and Tony (my hubby) offered to dig them for her, which he did.   Ever since, when we see them they remind us of that episode.

This year, they had this little calf tied to one of their barns - a "youthful" bovine (not sure which gender).  I hesitate to think what their plans for him were and didn`t like to ask but felt he filled the bill for this week.

The halcyon days of summer are gone but shots like this bring them back, in all their warmth and glory.

Happy Autumn to you all.

#38 Vistas

My excuse for lateness this week is house guests following a very busy week-end.  Pretty lame I know but that's all I can come up with.

So here's my submission for "Vistas" - a photo I took on Saturday on a photographic outing with my local camera club to the 40th anniversary of the Nanticoke Generating Station in Ontario.  It was quite an interesting day but unfortunately no indoor photography (turbines, machines of all sorts, grunge and interesting "things") was allowed.  The day was cool and sunny for the most part, except when we were taken by bus to the wetlands that have been created for the site to be environmentally friendly.  Then, of course, the sun went in when we were finally allowed to leave the bus for a bit.  The farm in the distance is what caught my eye but the whole image was dull and lacked any sparkle so I put my own punch into it.

There was an online tutorial this week on how to simulate long exposure skies and so I used that first and applied a Dramatic Topaz Adjust filter to it.  That farm in the distance faded into the trees so I added a ray of light coming out of the clouds onto it.  Finally, I recomposed the foreground to get rid of some of the middle ground that lacked the interest of the rest and applied a Dramatic Topaz Adjust filter to it too.

I like the result and hope you find it a pleasing vista as well...

#37 Health

Another one of those difficult themes I've been putting off.  Thankfully, another blogger gave me the inspiration for this one. 

Nature is full of wonderful things, not the least of which is good food - that is, food that is good for you.  None of that processed, de-nutritionalized stuff; this is the stuff that we can grow in our own gardens, large or small.

Cucumbers and tomatoes are low in saturated fat, and very low in cholesterol and sodium. Both have lots of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Potassium and are also full of the essentials that keep us healthy.

So before I sat down to a plateful of them, I decided to shoot them and share here.  Bon appetit and good health to you all!

Confusion reigns...

Sorry about the post that just showed up - #30 Summer.  When I was posting "Duty", I noticed that there was a #30 Summer post saved as a Draft so assumed I had forgotten to post, and did it again.  Now I see that Summer was #29 and I did post it, so there was some duplication.  Wondered why I was getting comments on something I had posted awhile ago. 

For Ron, who asked to see more photos of the house in question, here are some...

Oh and by the way, I'll be back there at the end of September so will post the lady's take on Autumn later.

 

PS - I deleted #30 Summer since it's already here as #29.  Confused?  Stick around, you soon will be!

#36 Duty

I think I'm getting this "thinking outside of the box" thing now...  Having taken photos of firemen and ambulance men on duty at the air show recently, I felt that those images would be too ordinary.  Worked on this one yesterday and suddenly thought - "Here's a vehicle that's seen a lot of duty!"  So there you have the thinking behind this post.

There were only a couple of vintage cars at the air show and unfortunately I never saw anyone near this one to ask about its provenance so you'll have to take my word for it that it's pretty old.  Can see now that it's a Ford but that's about all I can tell you about it.

I used Topaz Adjust 5 HDR effect and added a new sky instead of the blank white one that was there in the original.  Also added some sparkle on the chrome just because I could!

#35 Agriculture

With rural countryside all around us here in Tillsonburg, I wonder why it's taken me so long to post a photo on this theme?!  I guess as with all things, the more you see them, the more common they seem and you soon lose interest in what you'll actually viewing.

I got down low for this shot as the crop is not a tall one.  Don't ask me what it is but as you can see there are a few wayward corn stalks sticking up here and there, so perhaps a former cornfield.  The crop itself has fuzzy pods with 'peas' inside.  I know because I was curious what it was so picked one, opened the pod and proceeded to eat the 'peas'.  They were delicious but am still uncertain what it is I ate!

There are quite a few weeds in the foreground, I now see, but the crop is there...!

#34 Humour

Well, it must be Sunday somewhere - right, Ron?  I'm early again but busy tomorrow so here goes with this week's theme.

For a girl who used to dress up her dog in baby clothes, put her in a pram and tell her to "Act like a baby!", seeing dogs pampered this way still makes me chuckle and wonder just what their owners are thinking...   Hope it brings a smile to your faces too.

I knew it was time I got out more so convinced my husband to attend our town's first air show in Tillsonburg, Ontario, and it was a rewarding experience, enabling me to fulfil more than a couple of the themes I've got left on the list.  So watch this space for more from that outing!  Unfortunately, I've used the "Excitement" theme because some of the acrobatic flying we saw today certainly was full of just that.

#33 Money

For my American or overseas followers, this is some of our funny, coloured Canadian money - my lawn bowling tournament entry fee cache.  This was shot on my dresser top, with the reflection from my mirror, so my question to everyone is:  "If money is reflected in a mirror, does it increase in value?!"   Wishful thinking on my part...

As you can tell, my lateral thinking machine is not working too well as this is the best I could come up with for this theme.  Getting down to the harder themes now, so we'll see what I can think up in the coming weeks.

#32 Urban

Here I am, back home again, and running late with this week's posting.  I had hoped, at the beginning of this exercise, to keep my content current and try to use photos at least in the current year.  Of course, that has not always been possible and this week is no exception.

Our son visited Toronto from Bermuda, where he was then working, last year for his birthday and we met him for lunch.   We wandered around the downtown area a bit and I was able to get a few urban shots, of which these are a selection. 

Now if we can get to Hong Kong where he is now, that will certainly enable me to have a much greater and varied group of shots from which to choose subject matter in the future!

#31 Activities

I'm early this week as my sister needs me in the city.  Her husband is extremely ill and I don't know how long I'll be away with her so this may be my last post for a while.

Earlier this month, our crescent held its first street party and I took photos of the activities (mostly sitting, chatting and eating) that went on and put together this collage for our monthly community newspaper.    The close up in the middle is my hubby, btw.

Oh yes - the original image for last week's "Characters" theme was the one of the bunny shown here.  I didn't change any of the colours so it's pretty amazing how many different ones came through when I 'abstracted' it.

#30 - Characters

My PET friends will recognize this image as one I posted in the Retouching Gallery this week.  Excuse my redundancy but I'm going to repeat what I said about it there and add a few extra comments.

I joined the Photographic Society of America earlier this year and have been entering images in their Salons, both Colour and Creative.  When I see what wins or gets accepted in the Creative section, I realize that mine pale by comparison, sooooo...

Decided to go a bit crazy creative this week.  The original image was of a baby rabbit that came to our street party a few weeks ago and the eyes are one of his, duplicated many times.  The idea for the distorting of it came from a PET Be Creative tutorial on making abstract art from photos.

Once I had done the eyes, it all seemed to come together and the theme "Characters" came to mind as I couldn't decide what to give the eyes for bodies.  "How about Chinese characters?" I thought - and voila!  Played around some more and added the stars for interest, highlight stars in their eyes and finally to fill the bare right-hand corner, a burn effect with a paper damage brush.

I'll be really interested to hear what everyone thinks of this one...  Be truthful!

#29 Summer

At the height of a heat wave, I thought it appropriate to use this image for the theme "Summer".  While having lunch in a nearby town with a friend, we noticed a beautiful white two-storey house next to the restaurant.  Its garden was decked out with scads of pink petunias, there was a pink garland and flowers on the archway over the driveway leading to a carriage house, also bedecked with pink flowers.  This bike and its pink-flowered basket was in the front yard.  When we asked at the restaurant what the house was - a B&B, guest house, recent wedding? - we were told that the lady owner decorates her house and gardens to reflect each season and that was her summer display.  After we trespassed onto her drive to take photos, the owner came out to say that she thought we were going to water her flowers for her!  We apologised for having taken the liberty of being on her property but she seemed unfazed by our interest.  As the restaurant we ate at is attached to a Best Western (motel), I'm sure she's used to the attention her decorations get.  I must remember to go back in the fall to see what she's done!

Behind the bike was a white bench which took a bit of getting rid of but I'm pleased with the finished image.

Just playing around...

Followed a tutorial from the Photoshop Elements Techniques site for making a background "stamp" using brushes.  The tut had lots of different brushes so I just used what I have and came up with this...

#28 Colours

...or for my American friends "Colors"...!

Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class this week featured a colour storyboard which gave me the inspiration for this image.  It was taken in our backyard - don't know the name of the flower but it was a Spring bloomer.  I adjusted the Hue/Saturation, added one of Kim's textures - Simple Things - and masked out some of the flowers to show where the colour swatches at the bottom had come from.

Earlier in the year, we had the assignment of posting an image featuring one particular colour each day - blue, green, pink, red and yellow - then on Saturday we were to post a "rainbow" one.  This is what I came up with for that - full of colour too so thought I would share it with you folks, if you haven't already seen it on my Beyond Layers page.

#27 Remember

This was a hard one for me.  Continuing last week's story, I thought I would post a photo of my sister's hula troupe from last week's recital.  They called me into the dressing room to take their picture before they went onstage - lots of jitters going on, I can tell you.  This is the best shot I got (with a little group shot photomerging...) and I put them all onto a beach on the island of Oahu that Diane (my sister - that's her, second from left with her son's girlfriend behind her) and I visited on our sentimental journey last year.

It was a difficult one because there were so many categories this shot would have fit:  Activities, Colours, Duty, Love, Maturity, Treasure, Vacation - but decided the one that fit the best was Remember as our dancing the hula again has brought back so many happy memories of our younger years in Hawaii.

#26 Eating

Oh my goodness!  Here we are at week 26 - half way through 2012...  Where is the time going?

Sorry I'm late this week but have had a nice break in Toronto with my big sister, to watch her in a hula recital.  Yes, she's taking hula lessons, well actually re-taking them.  She and I, along with the rest of our family, lived in Hawaii from 1951 to 1957 and took hula lessons practically from the day we arrived until we left.  Our grand finale was performing at Kapiolani Park and we loved it. 

Last year, as a birthday present to her, I took us back - she for the first time in 54 years - for a sentimental journey to our past.  We did everything in as big a way as we could afford and the biggest splurge was getting Super Ambassador tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We were given our own personal guide for the whole day, front row seats at all performances as well as at the luau and the spectacular "Ha - Breath of Life" evening show.  A real treat and well worth paying extra.

At the luau, we tasted our first taro bread rolls.  Poi (pronounced as "boy") is made from the taro root and was a staple of the Hawaiian people for centuries - a starchy root that looks like a sweet potato but is slightly purple in colour.  You can see what happens when taro is baked into something like a roll.

Sitting immediately alongside the stage for the hula show that accompanied the luau, here I am about to sample my first (and last of the trip) taro roll - very much like a regular bread roll.  (Not my best side, I'll be the first to admit!!)

Oh, and BTW, the "tattoo" is a henna one (temporary) that we had done in the Fijian village.

#25 Inviting

This picture was taken some years ago, when we were living in England, in a park near where we lived.  The couple in it seem to be having the most restful afternoon and it just made me think how "inviting" a mood it invoked. 

I've just found several CDs of slides from our time in England so thought I could put one or two of them to good use here.  The only thing I did to it was to crop a tiny bit.

#24 - Outdoors

While in the Maritime provinces of Canada on holiday, a year or so ago, we decided that our favourite province was Prince Edward Island.  An island of contrasts, with beaches and lovely towns, farmland and wonderful provincial parks.  This shot was taken at Greenwich, Prince Edward Island Provincial Park, a finger of land between the Gulf of St Lawrence and St Peter's Bay, on the north coast of the island.  It was a drizzly day with very few other visitors and I liked this view of the beach as we crested dunes running the length of the shoreline.  In PSE 10, I added an Orton effect after using a Detail filter in Topaz Adjust 5.

How much more outdoors than this can you get?!

23 Excitement

Would you look at me - my last four posts have had people in them!  I'm very hesitant to shoot people (with a camera!) and especially when they see me aiming at them, then stop and pose...  In 99% of cases, that's not what I wanted.

Anyway, this week I was in town and lo and behold our main street was closed off with fire trucks, ambulances and all the peripheral vehicles that accompany them.  The firemen were gearing up in their smoke-prevention suits and then entered an apartment over one of the stores.  (There was never any smoke in evidence so I'm hoping it was just a false alarm.)  However, it did cause a bit of excitement in our sleepy little town and I think the collage of shots I got convey that feeling.  I added a "fiery" background just for added punch but as I say there was no fire, nor smoke, anywhere - thankfully!

#22 Work

Certainly no work for me but a week ago, our neighbours had this big maple cut down as it was rotten at the base and giving them too much afternoon shade.  The two fellows who turned up to do the job were burly, to say the least, and this one was covered in tattoos.  The weather wasn't as warm as his bare arms would suggest but he didn't seem to feel the chill.  What a thump when the thing went down, after its top branches had been removed.  The tree iteself is in a ravine that backs onto our property and is now a natural bridge to the river, the neighbour tells us... 

I used a Medium Sketch on a new layer in Topaz Adjust 5 then on a layer mask revealed the colour in the worker's body.  After all, he's the one doing the Work!

#21 Fun

Back at Port Burwell, on the shores of Lake Erie, yesterday for a beachside stroll and picnic.  It's a rather understated form of "fun" but this little fellow (in the foreground) and his grandad were having lots of it, paddling along at water's edge, showing his bucket off to anyone who would stop long enough.  Then the bigger boy stepped in between them and kind of upset the connection between little guy and grandad.  Don't think they were too upset but it changed the feel of the photo I was trying for, with the the two people in it.  (Having great difficulty seeing images on the LCD screen in sunlight nowadays - cataracts, soon to be corrected I hope!  Even trying to see through the viewfinder is a challenge these days - :(  )

#20 Showbiz

I'm not a personal fan of clowns but these two were among a group who attended the Florida Camera Club Convention a couple of years ago.  For my money, you can't get much more "showbiz" than that!  (Or at least that's my excuse for using them here...)

The processing was fairly simple and it included using the Poster Edges Filter in PSE - one of my favourites.

#19 Travel

A single stationary train car in front of the old station building that now serves as a gallery, in the middle of town, was the basis of this image.  I found an old photo of a country scene that works well as a perfect foil for the 'train' rushing through at twilight - four layers in dimishing sizes, treated with motion blur and slightly reduced in opacity to further give a sense of speed.  The sky looked a bit bland when I finished so I added a few early evening stars - that's the North Star on the left, the brightest one, in case you didn't guess...

This exercise is proving to be a lot more fun that I thought it would be, not a chore at all and is stretching my photographic range to enable me to fulfil the various themes.  Never go anywhere without my little point-and-shoot Panasonic these days!

#18 Bounds

Well here I am, and this is me trying to think "outside of the box".  The Theme is "Bounds" and in my opinion, this photo fits the category.  Once more, we find ourselves on the Port Burwell beach where there are designated Areas (apparently there's one for nudists but we didn't come across that one...).  This one was Area 5.

The sign was actually on the right-hand side of the shot but I moved it to the left (more pleasing to the eye, I've been told by judges, because we read from left to right), added a Flood effect from Flaming Pear and the sign's reflection.  (I wasn't actually standing in the lake to take the picture!)  In Topaz Adjust, I used a Sketch filter to get this result which I found very pleasing. 

Enjoy!

#17 - Rural

Sorry, I'm a day late but had week-end guests.

On our trip back from Florida earlier this month, we traveled through a part of Ontario that is particularly rural in its look and feel.  From the car window, I managed to shoot this typical farm scene that I thought would suit the theme just fine.  (Yes, I take my Theme list with me wherever I go - just in case - and also carry my little Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1 with me at all times too!)  It didn't turn out to be too bad a shot, considering it was taken through the window of a moving car.  I did something to it in Topaz Adjust - think it was Sketch - Medium - to give it a bit of 'punch', and cropped it.

The sketch effect reminds me of a child's drawing and I love the way the bare trees - still early April - have been softened using it.

#16 - Beginnings

Need I say that "Spring has sprung..."?  After having hardly any winter, the poor plants don't know what season it is and even those that aren't due to start sprouting have done it anway. 

The new shoots on our climbing rose looked so appropriate for the theme that I just had to post one of them as this week's image.  So many to choose from but I think these are my favourite - as are the flowers that will grow on the plant - you know, the peach ones!

#15 X Factor

Well, this theme has had me stumped since I got the list but as luck would have it, a tutorial was just posted on a website that I follow showing how to make a photo with text.  Rather than inserting part of a story or other text, though, I simply used a screen full of xes (x's - ???) with a photo of our granddaughter, Gabrielle, when she was little.  I added the gradient to give it a more girly feel rather than leave it as a B&W but then found it was a bit washed out so drew the soft line around her for more definition.  Great fun!

#14 Groups

Groups come in all shapes and sizes, all species and classifications.  For my "Groups" submission, I chose another favourite subject - flowers.  These were photographed in Port Burwell Provincial Park last June - just before I broke my right wrist! - and where the "Isolation" photo was taken too.  The park features not only a wonderful stretch of unspoilt beach but some beautiful woodland trails that unfortunately - that day, anyway - were home to hoardes of mosquitoes.  We didn't get too far into the woods before we had to turn back, but not before I stopped to snap these prolific wild roses.

I like the diagonal lines that had grown naturally.  Some work was done on the image with Topaz Adjust 5 and blending modes, plus I extracted one single bloom and inserted it bottom left - just because!

#13 Design

There are designs and then there are designs...  I find that the shapes and forms that are found in this image can be defined as designs and certainly whoever created this building, designed  it to look as it does.  Did I mention that I am a sucker for architectural detail?  Stay tuned as there may be even more designs - of this same building, The National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada - that I want to include in this category...

Just couldn't resist.  Here's another one - or two, or three..



#12 Isolation

On the shore of Lake Erie, south of where we live, Port Burwell is a tiny village which features a languid stretch of exquisite beach in a provincial park.  While walking about half of its length, I spotted this obviously elderly piece of driftwood which is slowly but inexorably being washed smooth by incoming waves.  It seemed to me on revisiting the photo that a sense of isolation is certainly part of the mood of the shot, especially with the tiny lighthouse out on the end of the point giving a sense of proportion to the location of this woody relic.

I used a Topaz Adjust 5 Vibrant filter - Bold - on this photo, to bring out details in the waves and it also added a cooler tone to it, which I think adds to the lonely feeling I was looking for.

B&W

If you're viewing this on my Home page, I apologize.  It was meant to be posted on the "Beyond Layers" page (which is where it appears as well) but am afraid to take it off here and lose it there...  Still learning!

I used the B&W converter in Elements for this image, let some of the pink in the roses show through.  Added KK's Cherish texture on a separate layer on Soft Light with lowered opacity.  Applied a Topaz Adjust 5 French Countryside filter to the original as well.

#11 Flowers

Having moved last summer into a house with a phenomenal garden, I was spoilt for choice with photo ops.  These are just some of the gorgeous flowers we're looking forward to seeing again this summer and perhaps we'll add more, who knows!

The only one of these that I've worked on for this image is the clematis (the largest one).  In Topaz Adjust 5, I applied French Countryside and then Spicify effects.  Back in Elements, on a separate Overlay 50% gray layer, I added a 150mm lens flare to the top left corner.  After selecting the top part of the background and blurring it (Gaussian - is there any other kind?!), I tweaked it a bit with Levels.  Oh yes, the collage was from the PET site and I added a reduced opacity shot of hosta to the background.

BTW, if anyone can identify the yellow flowers, top right, we'd love to know what they are.

Best viewed by clicking on it to see it with a black background - much nicer!

#10 Nature

Here in Florida, we're blessed to see an abundance of wildlife, right on our doorstep, so to speak.  Our house backs onto a conservation area and there is far more hiding in there than we can ever imagine, I'm sure.  Last year, at the height of our cold spell (yes, it was in the 30s F in the mornings for quite a while!), a Florida bobcat came to our backyard to warm himself in the sun.  Unfortunately, I thought he was a pile of leaves for the longest time - until I got my camera out, at which time, of course, he turned and sauntered away...  No such luck this winter but this beautiful white heron perched himself at the top of a 60-foot tree last week and stayed just long enough for me to get his picture.

The only editing I did to this one was quite a sizeable crop and the addition of a soft vignette to highlight the heron.

#9 Playground

Still at our daughter's last month, we walked to a nearby playground where kids and adults alike took to the activities.  Tried some action shots, hence the blurred images - yes, they were on purpose.

I used Kim Klassen's 7-photo template and the Place function to create this collage of some of the images.  There are bevels on all the images but some don't show up as much as the others because of their placement in the collage.  Also added a Kim Klassen love texture to the whole thing, on Overlay blending mode and reduced in opacity to give an overall sandy feel to the entire collage.

#8 Objects

The topic "Objects" is a pretty open one and so I'm using this photo I took in our daughter's backyard in January.  It looks to be a piece of board on which breeze blocks have been laid and then spray painted, next to a stack of patio slabs (they just had a swimming pool put in last autumn).  I was attracted to the warm tones in the ground, contrasted with the white board with its patterns.

The only enhancing I did to the photo was to open it in its native RAW format and use the Recovery and Fill Light sliders to even out the highlights and shadows.  Love this ability in RAW as compared to trying to get the correct tones in a photo using the Enhance tool in PSE alone - not always too successful.  I'll continue to shoot in RAW if only for this facility!

#7 - Utilities

Yes, believe it or not, this - in Florida - is a Utility.  It's something that I'm sure the Floridians rely on in the summer months, especially if - like this one - it's particularly close to water.  What is it?  It's a rainfall measurement system; sorry but I don't have the technical term for it.

I processed the image in Topaz Adjust 5 (Medium Sketch) , used the Kim Klassen texture "revolution" as a separate layer, with a lowered layer opacity and blending mode set to Soft Light, and finally added an onOne Photo Essentials frame.