Frugal Still Life Week 3

Struggles this week with the assignment for Frugal Still Life...disappointment with purchase of "tent" soft box for still life photography...limited time with natural light...and strange compositions of items.  No burlap here, but a crocheted doily with some artificial flowers, a vintage Ball jar,  and a little square box.  I edited with Picasa, RadLab, Nelly Nero actions, and Kim Klassen's "xanthe" texture.

Finding a Surprise in a Familiar Town

Although I grew up on a farm, I identify with the small town 2 miles away.  On a drive around the town's streets today, decades after I considered it my hometown, I discovered two very old wooden buildings, just one block off  the main street. I don't remember ever being aware of them before.  Of course, I would love to see what's behind those locked doors.   I don't know their history, but I'm going to try to find out.    Linking up with Nancy's Tuesday Muse.

The Shaw Creek Chevy....again

I photographed this old truck more than a year ago and included some images in an earlier post of "rusty and crusty" vehicles.  Earlier this year, I took another photo and edited it with Topaz Adjust; it has been enlarged to 20x30 and is just waiting for the right color of mat for a 24x36 frame.  It will hang in the cabin of friends who live in the country not far from where the old Chevy sits alongside the road.  This particular image is my choice for Kent Weakley's Project52 and Sweet Shot Tuesday this week.

Edited with Topaz Adjust and Nelly Nero actions, framed in Picasa3

Days Five and Six -- Christmas Textures

Between Day Four of Kim's 12 Days of Textures and today's Day Six, my husband, sister and I drove across the state of Oregon to get some recall work done on our new car.  7 hours in the dealership (we did visit a mall for an hour) and we were finished.  (5 1/2 hrs of driving each way)  

Day Five  features the texture "Zuzu," so that's what I'm calling the female mallard duck who was looking for handouts at our rest stop along the Columbia River.  There was a  flock of mallards, male and female, at the little park, and one pair was working the sidewalk at the parking lot.  

Day Six features Kim's "More Magic"---I chose the version without scratches.    The image is an ornament on the tree in the Subaru dealership where I spent essentially all day on Friday.   (I'll try brushes later, when I've "brushed up" on Kim's tutorial again!)

Zuzu the Duck 

More Magic Ornament

Day Two -- Christmas Textures

This is a challenge that I'm going to love!  Kim Klassen has gifted her second of twelve textures with beautiful "Annabelle."    I've used it on an image of a vintage glass bottle I bought on Etsy from my online friend, Lynn Stevens, and I've added a Nelly Nero action.

Holiday Photo Art

Photo Art Friday's  theme is to process a photo of "holiday preparations"  to look like a piece of art.  For this handmade ornament from my friend Denise, I've applied two RadLab actions, a PSE artistic filter, color burn blending mode, Nelly Nero Chocolate Fade, and PDPA Wicked.

Photo Art with Something New

For Photo Art Friday, Bonnie's challenge is for us to use "a tool, method or style we've been wanting to try."  Actually, as far as my programs go, I've tried each of them several times.  I still haven't worked much on combining images with textures.....Bonnie inspired me to try that a few weeks ago.     I fell back on an application I purchased a while ago, used like crazy until I purchased RadLab and learned more about adding textures.  This is called Lo-Fi, which does adjusts three things on each image:  film, mood, frame.

This particular image of a frosty branch in my backyard was first converted to black and white with Nelly Nero's Grunge Me Up, RadLab's Superfun Happy and the Lo-Fi's  Velvet, Crunchy, Viewfinder application.  That's a lot!

Texture Tuesday Free and Easy eDition

Kim's Texture Tuesday this week is a giveaway edition.....beautiful handmade jewelry from Noisy Cricket.

My frost-covered branch was first edited with Nelly Nero's Milk action (beautiful green result),  Picnik's Matte, and Kim's Lightpaper Texture 3 with Linear Light blending mode at 77%.  

August Break 29

August Break 13 Red Fuchsia

Nelly Nero PSE Actions

Nelly Nero "Grunge Me Up"

Nelly Nero "Hint of Vintage"

Nelly Nero "Blush"

Nelly Nero "Shabby Suitcase"

Nelly Nero "A Little Lomo"

August Break 8 (Nelly Nero Actions)

Velvia

A Little Lomo

Copperfield

Dandelion

Mandolin

Milk

Orange in the morning

Summer is cool this year, and the mornings are especially pleasant.  I have 3 lilies blooming...colors that I wouldn't particularly choose because I like pinks, whites and reds.  This orange one was processed with Bonnie's PDPA Pow! (2 layers on soft light at 100% opacity), and a layer of It's Raining (soft) from Nelly Nero actions.