Sunday, May 27, 2012

#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!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

#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 - :(  )

Saturday, May 12, 2012

#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.


Sunday, May 6, 2012

#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!