Flickr: mimbrava's Photostream

Zoe Bear at 13

Zoe Bear is 13 years old today. I had to doctor this photo a bit to remove the red around especially her left eye because my little budget buster now has conjunctivitis and an inflamed tear duct (being treated with an antihistamine and with eye ointment) and possibly cataracts (but hopefully only lenticular sclerosis), and we've got an appointment March 1st at the veterinary ophthalmologist. Meanwhile, her arthritis and tummy gas are well under control, and she's so far reacting very well to the medications and supplements she's getting. She has slowed down some and, except for momentary spurts, can't really be called Little Miss Energy any more, but she's still happy, spunky and sweet, and she loves that you all care about her.

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Zoe Bear's set on Flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/mimbrava/sets/425614/

Zoe Bear milestones set:
www.flickr.com/photos/mimbrava/sets/72157629335428235/det...

Uploaded on Feb 16, 2012

22 comments

iris study

Instead of following Kim Klassen's Day 8 idea (to play with a home mini-studio and experiment with adjustment layers, layer opacities and blend modes), I simply took her Day 7 idea, Choosing Happy, and happily played with an iris.

The back story: In my garden from 2005 to 2008 I had a lovely iris 'van gogh'. Here's my set from those years: www.flickr.com/photos/mimbrava/sets/72157604657295803/det... (Flickr is not accepting the hotlink code). Since then, I have looked without success to find new bulbs. Two days ago on Google+, someone posted a photo that looked very similar to my old flower, so I asked her where she got it, and she kindly told me that she found them at her local Whole Foods market. So yesterday morning I ran over to my Whole Foods store (actually, Harry's) and bought a bunch of 10 iris buds. These are on very tall stalks, whereas my variety were not, and these are more purple than mine. However, they opened exactly like my old 'van gogh' irises.

In fact, it was like a time exposure in front of my eyes. Literally as soon as I got the buds into the house, they started opening, and this mosaic presents all the stages that took place within just a few hours. I wish I could keep my house as chilly as the store, but I can't, so I don't know how long these beautiful blooms will last, but it was sure fun to watch and shoot and create the mosaic.

I want to give a shout-out to Lissa Forbes (www.flickr.com/photos/9970754@N02/) for modifying one of Kim's templates to make the boxes square. Lissa is an old friend--make that a friend of long standing--who has recently become active here on Flickr, sharing her beautiful creations. She is a great inspiration, and I have been delighted to watch her blossom as a proficient post-processor.

At any rate, it made me very happy to watch the iris buds open and bloom in front of my eyes and through my lens yesterday. The only piece of the Day 9 challenge was that my "mini-studio" was a big black poster board that I used as background.

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Uploaded on Feb 12, 2012

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rose 'rio samba' life-cycle mosaic

I posted a different mosaic of this rose some time back, but this one today has the full life cycle.

Friends of the late Jim Dubois (Garnite) will be happy to read this lovely news about the Bald Eagle Festival's new Beethoven Award, created in his memory. The prize was named by Linda, Jim's widow. Beethoven is the bald eagle Jim loved to observe and photograph.

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Uploaded on Feb 6, 2012

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cherish

Best viewed large, or press L.

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 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 (!), 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 let me include one of my life-cycle mosaics.

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Uploaded on Feb 3, 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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See my photos on 500px.

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Uploaded on Feb 2, 2012

38 comments