Texture Tuesday – Also late!
Taken this morning……it’s Autumn here now and weather is getting colder. Still some roses about, but this gorgeous one was the only one on that bush. Sorry – can’t recall it’s name.
Processed with KK’s textures Isobel (86%) and Blue Bayou (50%), both at Soft Light with textures removed from the rose.
Texture Tuesday – Wise Words
For this week, the brief was to use at least one of Kim Klassen’s textures and include some wise words, so this is another quotation from the ancient Chinese philosopher Lau Tzu.
This is an image taken recently, a big fat caterpillar on the dried seed pod of an Oriental Poppy, into which it later disappeared. I presume to eat the seeds inside. Textured with two of KK’s textures, Aurora and Fall In, both at soft light mode but reduced opacity.
Texture Tuesday – Free and Easy Edition…..a bit late
A bit late this week, things have been hectic and even this was done in a hurry! Textured with one of KK’s Magic textures at reduced opacity and Edith from the Downton Collection. Hope you like it.
My apologies to those whose comments have recently gone unacknowledged…..they are very much appreciated and I am sorry for so doing, but there has not been much computer time in the last week or so. I shall endeavour to be better in future.
Texture Tuesday – the Downton Edition
It has been so long since I did anything for Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesdays that I had forgotten all the basic techniques! Anyway, here is one for this week, even though it is Wednesday evening in Oz. It uses one of her most recent textures, called Daisy and named after one of the characters in the Downton Abbey series .
Texture Tuesday
Kim’s prompt for Texture Tuesday this week was ‘Natural”…..seeing most of my photography is taken from nature, this was not difficult. This photo was taken about a year ago, but still is contemporary as these birds are common in some areas near here, though I rarely have them in the garden.
I should probably paraphrase this, but seems fine as it is and is far quicker to use the original, so this long quote is from the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the ANEU in Canberra:-
“The word galah is a borrowing into Australian English from the Aboriginal Yuwaalaraay language of northern New South Wales. In early records it is variously spelt as galar, gillar, gulah, etc. It is first recorded in 1862 in J. McKinlay’s Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia: `A vast number of gulahs, curellas, macaws… here’. The bird referred to is the grey-backed, pink-breasted cockatoo Eolophus roseicapillus, occurring in all parts of Australia except the extreme north-east and south-west. It is also known as the red-breasted cockatoo and rose-breasted cockatoo.
Some early settlers use the galah as food. In 1902 the Truth newspaper reports: ‘The sunburnt residents of at that God-forsaken outpost of civilisation were subsisting on stewed galah and curried crow’. Some writers report that galah pie was a popular outback dish.
The galah, which usually appears in a large flock, has a raucous call, and it was perhaps this trait which produced the term galah session for a period allocated for private conversation, especially between women on isolated stations, over an outback radio network. F. Flynn in Northern Gateway (1963) writes: ‘The women’s radio hour, held regularly night and morning and referred to everywhere as the ‘Galah Session’. It is a special time set aside for lonely station women to chat on whatever subject they like’. More generally, a galah session is ‘a long chat’ – A. Garve, Boomerang (1969): ‘For hours the three men chatted… It was Dawes who said at last, “I reckon this galah session’s gone on long enough”.’
Very commonly in Australian English galah is used to refer to a fool or idiot. A.R. Marshall and R. Drysdale in Journey among Men (1962), suggest that this sense of galah may have a non-Australian origin: ‘A clue to the possible origin of the slang usage of ‘galah’. In Malaya gila (pronounced gee-lah) means mad; hence orang gila, a madman’. But this explanation has not been accepted, and the Australian meaning must be a transfer from the bird, no doubt incorporating a judgment about the relative intelligence of the bird. The following citations give an indication of how the term is used:
1951 E. Lambert, Twenty Thousand Thieves: ‘Yair, and I got better ideas than some of the galahs that give us our orders’.
1960 R.S. Porteous, Cattleman: ‘The bloke on the other end of the line is only some useless galah tryin’ to sell a new brand of dip’.
1971 J. O’Grady, Aussie Etiket: ‘You would be the greatest bloody galah this side of the rabbit-proof fence’.
From this sense arise a number of colloquial idioms. To be mad as a gum-tree full of galahs is to be completely crazy. To make a proper galah of oneself is to make a complete fool of oneself. A pack of galahs is a group of contemptibly idiotic people.”
More Textures..
The first was done for Texture Tuesday earlier in the week. These were the only flowers I was able to find in this winter garden – so the quotation seems particularly apt.
There is a longstanding joke between a good friend and myself……he once made mention of an event that occurred before WWII and indicated that I would remember it. Not so – I’m definitely a post war baby boomer, none the less this off-hand comment has not been forgotten. This was made for a birthday card for him – something old for a fellow of his vintage.
Texture Tuesday – a break in the Tassie photos
Something a bit different from the Tasmanian photos taken on my recent trip…only a few more to go and then it will be back to more varied images.
For Texture Tuesday this week the word to prompt us was warmth – most appropriate where as we are about to enter Winter, though it feels as if winter has been here for some time already – it is very cold today! This was taken a week or so ago as Bella was sunbathing at the open front door in the warming sunshine.
This has Kim Klassen’s texture “Happy Heart” at blending mode Multiply and 100 % opacity.
Texture Tuesday – the Little Things Edition
Yes, I know it’s Wednesday ………but as I type it is still Tuesday in the US!
We were asked to use one of Kim’s textures……..Little Things. Today I have used this one, several others, and one of Kim’s brushes for the first time. Also a couple of quotations which seemed appropriate.
Macro photos from the archives.
Texture Tuesday and Green Things
The first photo in black and white, with added textures is for Texture Tuesday – four of Kim Klassen’s textures in different modes and opacities were used to create this image. Given the amount of time I spent fiddling with this, the quotation is most apt.
This week at Beyond Layers is going to be full of colour…..so the next ones feature the colour GREEN. It is a bit late for St Patrick’s Day, but there was no difficulty finding the appropriate colour in the garden and my stitching gear!
It seems this blog has received an award from my friend Carol of Li Bode, which is a bit of a surprise! Thank you Carol, I shall address this compliment tomorrow when I can do it justice.
More Words and Textures…..
Posting these today for the Creative Exchange, and for Texture Tuesday 21st February. Shot with my Canon 550D, using a 100mm Macro lens for the first image, and a 50mm 1.4 lens for the others. All are created with Kim Klassen’s Textures, and have been processed using Light Room and PSE9. Textures used were:-
Bee and Lavender – Shine @ Soft Light
Rose #1 & #2 – Felicity @ Soft Light
Texture Tuesday – the Happiness edition….
In recent times both in Beyond Layers, and for Texture Tuesday this week, the topic has been Happiness… It was suggested we list the things which make us happy to remember when we might need a boost. I have not done that though I have thought about it in detail, and one of my items on such a list would be my Girls. They say Dog’s are man’s best friend, and I totally agree……….unconditional love, but more so when food is in the offing…..the most enthusiastic welcome when you have been gone for 5 minutes or more…….total devotion, unless the neighbour’s cat is in sight…..their desire to keep you warm at night, by sleeping on the bed…….I’m sure the dog lovers out there could add many more of their special characteristics and agree that life would be very different without them. So, I give you my tribute to The Girls…
Also posting today for the Creative Exchange……I hope you enjoy them..
The Story Edition – Texture Tuesday
Over at Beyond Layers we have been focusing on stories – our own, and photos that tell a story……
Kim asked us to use just six words to express our own story……an idea originally started here at Smith Magazine, where folk were asked to create a six word memoir some years ago for a short period, but it is still going strong. There are some amazing memoirs – funny, sad, deeply personal, confronting and just plain clever. Initially I thought I might not be able to do this, but it is truly addictive, I keep counting words, and I have written heaps, some of which I shall share below.
Once youthfully beautiful, now older wiser
Photo obsessed, happy snapping Canon girl
Promise I’ll stop procrastinating on Monday
Beyond Layers, Challenging creations, like-minded players
etc etc………try it yourself, it is quite thought provoking and fun.
We also had to post a photography with a story – this is mine.
Posting this for Texture Tuesday, Beyond Layers and the Creative Exchange.
New Beginnings…
I have signed up for a couple of online classes – both of which sound like fun, and hopefully I shall learn a lot.
The first is with Steve Sonheim and is called Photo Silly Light – I actually follow Carla Sonheim’s blog as I like her wimsical drawing style. I’d love to be able to draw as she does, but I can’t, but when I saw her husband was a photographer and offered classes, I investigated further and signed up for one over the next week. He writes, “This class is about looking at the world a little differently through your digital camera, and bringing more photography into your art, and more art into your photography.” Sounds like a challenge.
The second is with Kim Klassen, and is called Beyond Layers which will continue for a whole year………it will involve layers, textures, brushes, how to get a bit more from PSE techniques and weekly projects. I have done a couple of classes with Kim before, and use a lot of her free textures for her Texture Tuesdays, but this will be in addition to that. I hope I have not bitten off too much, and can stick with it. I’m not so much into cutesy images with motivational messages, but I’m sure I will find my own style. I shall be sharing my results for both classes here.
In the meantime, here are two images using her latest free texture called Embrace, posted for Texture Tuesday on 10th of January. Sorry, but I did not keep note of the blending mode or opacity.
Texture Tuesday – Celebrate
The Christmas season is almost upon us, and I am sure that most folk will do a Christmas themed image for this week’s topic…….I’m not much enthused about Christmas for a variety of reasons, so my image this week was made as a Birthday Card for a friend who celebrated his 77th birthday recently. I wanted a masculine looking card, and my gift to him was the bottle of Glenfiddich in the picture – not very original, but really what do you give a gentleman of this age, who already has just about everything he might need!
This photograph has several of Kim Klassen’s textures added to it, but unfortunately I did not make a note of which were used. Silly me!
I have spent yesterday and most of today in the garden – taking macro shots of any insect I could find. This little caterpillar was one – it was about 3/4 of an inch long, and very active! This one has been layered with Kim’s texture Dusty Rose, blended using Multiply at 75% in PSE9.
Remember the song? Originally sung by Danny Kaye in the story of Hans Christian Andersen, and then, of course by the characters on Sesame Street.
I shall post some of the most recent macros tomorrow – more caterpillars, some very very tiny, and some insects I photographed.
Texture Tuesday – the Gratitude Edition
Thanksgiving Day is past and gone, and rarely celebrated here in Australia, but on the Web it is still being used as a theme for numerous things. Kim Klassen has suggested Gratitude to being the theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday, so here goes.
I posted this one earlier on Shutter Sisters Flickr group for their One Word project, but it fits the bill with a change of wording. This image was processed using one of Kim’s Textures and a preset from Radlab while I had a month’s trial. It was to express my thanks to my family who gave me this camera 12 months or so ago, which has opened my eyes and led to a whole new world of challenges, friendships and fun.
The following are my two faithful canine companions, both are rescue dogs for whom I am eternally grateful. They will never know, but I would like to express my gratitude to their previous owners who, for whatever, reason no longer wanted them. Also of course, to the dogs themselves – they are the best, loyal and devoted of friends and I’m lucky to have them.
Maggie has been processed using Kim’s textures: Phoebe, Blue Bayou and Canvas Back in different blending modes and opacity.
Bella’s photo also uses the texture called Phoebe, plus two from Shadowhouse Creations: Raggedy Paper and Grab Bag.
Texture Tuesday
Like many other folk of my vintage, my very first car in the early 70′s was a 1966 VW beetle. Mine was white with a grey interior and I loved it dearly. It was only sold after my first child was born because it was too difficult to put the baby basket on the back seat.
This was take a couple of months ago, a vintage VW, obviously not used much now, hedged in my grass and covered with dust and cobwebs. It made me a bit sad – particularly as I have a friend who is still driving her original red one from way back then. I’m using this for Texture Tuesday this week, it has two of Kim Klassen’s textures – Phoebe and Warm Sun at different opacities and blending modes. If you want to know more about Texture Tuesdays then click here.
