Be Still_52: Four Things--A Collective Prompt

A loaf of bread, linen, twine, and scissors...

(I would truly prefer to use Lightroom, but I still haven't dedicated the time to learn it.)

Edited with Topaz Clarity

 Edited with Topaz B&W Effects "White Chocolate"

Edited with Rad Lab

Edited with Topaz B&W Effects "Hand Tinted Chiffon"

Texture Tuesday {Spring Flowering Trees}

Magnolia?  I don't really know, but this beautiful tree grows in an intimate small memorial garden between two old buildings on the Eastern Oregon University campus.  It's a lovely place in late spring through fall, with various flowers, shrubs and trees, a small pool and several metal and stone art pieces.  This week, only one thing is blooming:  the magnolia tree.   Joining with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.     (Some research has shown me that this is a Star Magnolia, a hardy magnolia tree that grows in Minnesota...and it's growing and blooming in NE Oregon.)  

Edited with Rad Lab and kk_Mona

Texture Tuesday with Floral Ghost

Joining with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday 

Edited with RadLab, Topaz Detail, Kim's bent edges (2010), Steve Rich's mjblur frame

Windbreak Trees

In a windy valley, a common sight is a line of trees used as a windbreak.  They look pretty puny in winter, though--they aren't slowing the cold wind today.  But they are beautiful in their own way.

Icy Creek with Texture

It's a little creek that runs west to east at the south edge of our rural town; it fills the wide creek bed in the spring when the snow melts in the mountains; it completely dries up during the summer.  Late fall rain with some mountain snow has made the creek flow this winter, but below-freezing temperatures are producing thick ice.    For Texture Tuesday, I've added Kim's kk_deep sigh to an image edited first with Rad Lab.

Tracks West

Linking up with Kim's Texture Tuesday.

Edited with RadLab and Kim's ToBe and littlethings

A Free and Easy Creation

It's a Free and Easy eDition on Texture Tuesday.

RadLab's Faded Winter recipe, and kkCreate overlay

Vintage Photo Art

"Vintage" is the theme on Photo Art Friday this week.  (I never seem to know the starting time for the memes I visit weekly!)   For years, I've photographed this old Ford  truck when visiting an elk farm in the mountains.  Unfortunately, the elk farm is now out of business, so I won't be visiting Old  Red  very often...if at all.    I first applied three RadLab stylets to this image and then finished with two layers of PDPA Old Master Dust.
(My initial post said the truck was a Chevy...which it isn't!) 

Happy Heart eDition

Happy Texture Tuesday   and Sweet Shot Tuesday

Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday, kkHappyHeart, RadLab

Clematis in February

Winter has been strange...even bizarre...this year.  Snow in early November and then none until a storm in January that left more than a foot of the white stuff, which heavy rain soon melted.   We've had wind, more rain, fleeting snowflakes, but not what we would call winter weather.    At the end of my front porch, clematis vines and leaves still hang where they climbed last summer.    I'm linking up with Texture Tuesdays and Sweet Shot Tuesday.

RadLab, kk Felicity

A really grungy barn....

This pitiful barn is just outside of my hometown; I "grunged" it even more by adding a two RadLab actions and  Kim Klassen "Embrace" texture.  I'm linking up with Tricia's Barn Charm again.

How Fun is this???

I just had to post this image....simple barbed wire on a gate to farmland near my home.  I hadn't been out with a camera for two days, and there really wasn't much light left when Hubby and I finished taking down the Christmas decorations at church.  Where do I go?  Out to the cemetery road, a location out of town.  The image of the barbed wire is interesting to me in its SOOC state.  But play with the Topaz Simplify (after a couple of RadLab actions) ...and I LOVE it!  It becomes a painting!   (My new blog header is a view of my little town from that same cemetery road....also edited with Topaz, but this time with the Adjust program.)

Sweet Carnations for Sweet Shot Tuesday

Darcy's Sweet Shot Tuesday seemed the perfect spot for three sweet mini-carnations in a tiny vase.

A New Year and a new eDition at the Cafe'

The first Texture Tuesday of 2012 is a "free" one.....use at least one of Kim's many textures.    My glass bottle --an Etsy purchase from my amazingly talented friend Lynn Stevens -- has been photographed more than once since I purchased it more than a year ago.  It's such a beautiful altered piece.    Today's photo has been edited with RadLab's Sparta, Kim's Breakfree and Fab (2 layers), finished with RadLab's Old Glory.

Week 52 of P52 -- Looking Back or Ahead?

One photo a week, 52 weeks.....Darcy's P52 Challenge for 2011 is complete for me.  Kennedy, my now-three-year-old great-niece has been my subject more than once during this challenge.   I shot this image Christmas Day at her grandmother's house; there was the chaos of 26 people eating, watching NBA games, and generally making noise.   Kennedy, however, slipped away to the quiet living room to create a make-believe "conversation."

Darcy's P52 Flickr Photostream can  be found HERE.

I'm linking up with Darcy's last Sweet Shot Tuesday of the 2011, as well!

Day 10 -- Christmas Textures

"Providence" is the name of Kim Klassen's gift texture today.  It's a lovely soft green.   I've applied a few RadLab actions before and after adding Providence to my image.  (These poinsettias were in the waiting room of the repair shop where my husband and I spent a whole day last weekend.)

An experiment for Creative Exchange

I've often bemoaned the fact that my house has almost no natural light.  It is such a frustration for any kind of indoor photography --- and for growing plants!    Yesterday, I set up a strange little studio setting for a still life, knowing full well that I would be applying actions and textures to the image.  I've chosen the result for Creative Exchange this week.   (I tacked up sheer curtains on a wall and covered a tray table with more sheers. I used an Ott Lite, which wasn't adequate lighting, so I added my on-camera flash. The greenery is left from a Thanksgiving floral arrangement I received.)  The "before" photo is below the edited image.

RadLab "Lights On" and "Super Fun Happy" actions;  Flypaper "Ovid Banished" texture; Picnik vignette

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!

Labor Day ... and Creative Exchange

Lisa is back from Boston and she has a beautiful dreamy pink floral image for this week's Creative Exchange.
Before I began "rediscovering myself through photography" about two years ago, I probably wouldn't have thought much of choosing a dried-up flower as a subject.   But yesterday, I did.  It had been an unsuccessful drive to find beautiful waterfowl, so I zoomed in on some of my own flowers---those over-photographed blooms that are slipping into fall.    A dried-up African daisy looks pretty good through a telephoto lens!
(I edited the image with a new application called RadLab, and this is called "Rusty Cage.")

I'm choosing this image for my P52 Challenge, as well.  Week 36 of P52 in Darcy's Photo Challenge.