#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!