Flickr: mimbrava's Photostream

cherish

The challenge/assignment in this week's Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class is to create a storyboard (or mosaic) featuring images that mean something special, something to remember and treasure.

I chose, from top left:
• Zoe Bear, my dear little Pomeranian (who is feeling MUCH better, I'm happy to report).
• The late-blooming Thanksgiving cactus, one of whose photos I shared yesterday. Now, for this mosaic, I treated a different photo of it with Kim Klassen's musiclovin texture. The image combines two things I cherish: flowers and music.
• A photo of me as a baby, being held in the loving arms of my parents, a picture that symbolizes to me the treasures I have in my friends and family.
• A close-up of an early-blooming Lenten rose, shot on January 30th (!) and stylized with a Topaz plug-in. This image represents the joy that flowers and nature bring me and typifies my growing ability to use Photoshop Elements to enhance my original images. (I still have a loooong way to go! For this assignment, I learned how to use the Place feature. >grin<)
• A shot of a teeny tiny fraction of my library, signifying my lifelong love of books.
• Two cedar waxwings, an image that reveals another love of mine: birdwatching and bird photography, though I am limited now in how far I can go to find birds and by my not having a huge zoom lens. In fact, most of my bird pictures are shot through my home-office window with my PowerShot S5 IS.

As you know, I enjoy creating mosaics, especially life-cycle mosaics. I started doing them just months after I began doing digital photography back in the spring of 2005. I've used Picasa, Big Huge Labs and, most recently, Picnik. However, Picnik is not going to be around after April 19, so I thought I would have to resume doing them mostly in Picasa or Big Huge Labs. Now, with Kim's templates, I have yet another option for some types of mosaics. Perhaps one day in the distant future I'll be able to create them, myself, in Photoshop Elements.

Tomorrow I'll share the mosaic I created in Picnik for this week's theme. The square tiles in its template let me include one of my life-cycle mosaics.

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Uploaded on Feb 2, 2012

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a late bloomer

My Thanksgiving cactus plant bloomed on time last November, but a week or so ago, I noticed a new bud, and soon it decided that it wanted to bloom in January. I took it outside to be able to shoot in natural light, and I was lucky there was no breeze at all at the moment I pressed the shutter. (I usually don't do well with the XSi, but I'm very pleased with this shot. In fact, it's my favorite shot of this flower that I've taken so far.)

Best seen large.

Photo of the Day in FlickRPS, 02/02/12. Thanks, Mark.
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Uploaded on Feb 2, 2012

29 comments

lost her head

This female house finch was grooming in the Atlantic red cedar tree opposite my kitchen window. The camera captured this moment, when she appeared headless.
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Uploaded on Jan 31, 2012

16 comments

another foggy morning

This week's challenge by Kim Klassen for Beyond Layers is to create a photo around a single word, mood or thought. Since I was conveniently greeted by another foggy morning, I selected FOG, shot the photo just steps off my front porch, denoised it with a Topaz plug-in, composed and inserted the haiku, and added Kim's PlasterSquared texture to the image, then added the frame in (soon-to-be-gone) Picnik.

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See my photos on 500px.

Or on fluidr.

I invite you to stroll through My Galleries.

Uploaded on Jan 26, 2012

42 comments

great blue heron on deck railing

I met Flickr friend Gene (Geno k) at the Alpharetta pond where I saw the Common loon on January 12, but the bird wasn't there anymore. But I noticed this Great blue heron hanging out on somebody's deck railing and took a few shots. Upon viewing the bird on my camera's LCD screen, Gene said he'd be amazed if I could make anything out of it. It was a challenge, and this is not a great shot by any stretch of the imagination, but I did make something out of it!

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See my photos on 500px.

Or on fluidr.

I invite you to stroll through My Galleries.

Uploaded on Jan 25, 2012

27 comments