A Quote Challenge

[Day Eighty Two]

WHAT! Where has the time gone...just checked last time I felt inspired to post anything was [Day Twenty Nine]...that's...more than fifty days in between...has time just disappeared in a flash or was I just so preoccupied with the other useless clutter in my life that I haven't been back here for so long...I don't know...we are now staring down the barrell of another Christmas holidays in about six weeks time...how did I not see that coming.

Oh wells, I'm back, inspired by the amazing and generous Kim...here is the my version of her challenge with her image...

Just a little insight as to how I got to my version of Kim's challenge...

Looking at Kim's beautiful image the first words to pop into my mind was "far away", so that's what I googled in search of the perfect (only my opinion) quote...I chose this quote as I think it is so true and we would not think that every present moment in our lives is the very beginning of the future, so I felt the quote is very fitting.

As for my processing I added coloured pencil filter on the image set to softlight and also added Kim's "Laura" texture from her oasis trio pack at softlight...and that's it...VOILA!

Hope you all like it.  Looks like I have a whole lotta catching up to do.

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Animation and Triptych Fun

[Day Twenty Nine]

A couple of new and very fun PS tricks from Kim today ... simple entertainment for all ... hope you enjoy it ...

My kids enjoying some Summer fun at the beach ...

A triptych collection of my favourite type of photography — shooting at low apertures hence 

creating my much loved bokehs ...

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To Me From ME!

[Day Twenty Six]

Thinking about ME first this week ... saw some awesomely beautiful pink tulips while passing by the florist on Thursday and got busy all weekend getting them to pose for me, posting a few here in the blog and some HERE on my Flickr stream and still have a whole lot unprocessed on my hard drive ... never realised that a small bunch of flowers could be so much fun ...

Mouse over to see textured image.
[see below for recipe]

Shot with a bit of fun ...

Recipe for Texture processing [top image]:

Layer 1: Background layer

Layer 2: Duplicate background layer at softlight

Layer 3: Kim's "littlethings" texture at 40% multiply

Layer 4: Kim's "now" texture at 100% screen [I reversed the texture so that it was a b&w negative image]

Layer 5: My water mark stamp

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I am already Amazing?

[Day Twenty Five]

Am I? Not so sure, but thanks Kim for planting that thought in our heads, it is a start.

As you can see I have missed a few days, oh wells, guess that's how it works...get on with the days I can cope with ... today's challenge is simply simple from Kim ... Just a simple image using Kim's 'I am' texture and one of Kim's 'beyond affirmation brushes'... thank you Kim, you are really 'AMAZING'.

Mouse over to view original image.

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Finishing Touches

[Day Twenty One]

Today's challenge is to "Frame It", add the finishing touch to give your image just a little more edge, so to speak.  Here is one of my images with two different framing.

 

   

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Colour My Week Red

[Day Nineteen Red]

Colour My Week Blue

[Day Nineteen - Blue]

Finally picking up my camera again two days in a row ... showing progress, I think.

Just a whisper

[day fifteen + day sixteen]

I am so behind it's not funny, and all my days in the blog are starting to get all mixed up ... but guess that's the way it has to be when you take a week off from any sort of creativity ... playing catch up now, hopefully I'll get there.

Think Kim's day fifteen post and prompt came on a day that predicted my week ahead, "resistance", something we need to fight off because it is so so true, sometimes that niggling voice in our heads that can stop us in our tracks before anything even has any hope of forming into something amazing. If only there was a volume control that could lower the impact of these negatives.

Well in the last couple of days I have fought hard to pick up the camera again and slowly the feeling is back and processing this image tonight has certainly reminded me of why I love photography so much, it's not so much the capturing part but the processing part, the process of turning that image into something so much more than just an image, gives me the feeling of peace ... the word I think that fits for me is "therapeutic" ... don't know if anyone else can relate to this but that's how I see and feel it ... hope everyone else can feel it too, because it's an amazing feeling.

Mouse over to see the original image.

Sometimes a whisper may not seem much but when it's heard only by you and nobody else then it becomes something special.

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Colour My Week Pink

Oh my gosh it's [Day Nineteen ~ Pink] already

I totally skipped over [day fifteen to eighteen] the b&w edition and dived head first into the colour week ... I'll be back track one day and make up those lost four days ... oh and I also skipped green and yellow days (not my favourite colours so it's ok) and jumped right into pink day ... here they are ...

Just a Spot

[Day Fourteen]

Sometimes less is more ... that can apply to colour as well ... just a spot here or there will be just as effective if not more than if it was a full colour image ... a little highlight to offset the black and white.  Today's prompt from Kim was to do a selective colour photo, mine today is a dragonfly that got itself trapped in my landing that leads down to my back garden on a sunny Sunday morning ... needless to say I helped it find it's way out but not before I had captured it {of course not literally only figuratively}.  I focussed on it's more beautiful assets rather than the hairs, beady eyes and spiny legs that I really couldn't get my sight to close to ...

Outtakes ~

The big guy himsef.

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the Truth the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

[Day Thirteen]

Kim shared her ten truths with us but was so carried away that she ended up sharing twelve of her truths ... then prompted us to do the same, so here's mine shared over a cup of coffee ~

Mouse over to see the original image.

My Ten Truths ~

1. I have a great fear of heights and anything that has more than four legs.
2. I am married with a two children.
3. I'm a full time carer [of my family], part time worker and photographer [creator].
4. I feel I have almost discovered myself at the age of 40.
5. I am an Apple girl, can never figure out how PC's work.
6. I would love to have my very own little space that I can call my studio.
7. I can't read without my glasses anymore :(
8. I can't do without my coffee on a working day.
9. I am addicted to my laptop.
10. I am the youngest from a family of nine children.

Well, here they are my ten truths ... though they may be altered, tweaked or twisted at any time without further notice.

What's some truths over coffee without a little sweet something to go with it ...

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Images that Speak with Words...

[Day Twelve]

Kim blessed us with a brush set with quotes for inspiration day twelve, so I though I would just try my best to interpret each quote with an image from my archives. I HEART brushes too ... thank you Kim.

follow your bliss ~ my love of baking and food photography gives me the perfect mixture to give me the bliss I feel when I see my final results ...

hold a true friend in both your hands ~ you don't need many friends just a few that matter ... when you do find them hold them with all your might ...

we need never be afraid of our tears ~ crying tears of joy or sorrow is a way for us to release that joy or sorrow, if it is left brew inside us we will never feel joy to it's extent and never put that sorrow to rest...

wherever you go ... go with all your heart ~ if you never do, you will never know how far you can go.

there is no remedy for love, but to love more ~ what can I say, love is a complicated emotion, don't think many people have or ever will know how to grasp it properly ... for the ones that have, consider yourself lucky ...

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Painted Tall Grass

[Day Ten]

Our lesson and task today is to create an image with textures to create a painting effect.  Some tall grass by a pond I took during my short stroll in the park last weekend.

Mouse over to see original image.

The boring bits ~

Layer 1 ~ "extremegrunge" @ 40% multiply mode ~ masked out top edge with 50% opacity brush.
Layer 2 ~ "autumnburst" @ 50% overlay mode - also masked out top edge with 50% opacity brush.
Layer 3 ~ "canvasmagic" @ 60% screen mode.
Layer 4 ~ black & white gradient map @ 50% soft light mode.
Layer 5 ~ white colour fill @ 35% softlight mode [to lighten up the image a little].
Layer 6 ~ my watermark.

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The Fallen

[Day Eight]

Today's inspiration is about light, how we setup our shots and kim's vintage red gradient.  I haven't taken any photos for a few days and mention this to my husband, since today's weather was glorious [but ended in a storm], we went to our local park [my usual photography haunt] for a stroll, while I get down low and up close to al the gorgeous flowers, my husband and daughter found shady spots to wait patiently for me [note to self: do your photo walks solo next time].  Anyway back to what's at hand, on the way back to the car I collected a pine cone, which are always so photogenic, here is the result ~

Mouse over to see original image.

The boring bits ~

Layer 1 ~ "kimklassenlove" @ 50% softlight mode.
Layer 2 ~ "kk_scriptededges" @ 100% screen mode.
Layer 3 ~ "kk vintagered gradient" @50% normal mode.
Layer 4 ~ "the fallen" using "Remington Noiseless"in white & "Little Bliss Bold" for "ll" in black then used softlight mode.
Layer 5 ~ my watermark in black @30% normal mode.

This is my usual setup when I want a white finish with loads of awesome back light ~

This is my back door leading down to my garden, the wood panels you see outside used
to be just varnished so was quite dark.  After years of neglect it needed a coat of new
 paint so my husband gave it some tlc and a coat of white paint, to my delight.

Today's outtake ~ I tried a bit of macro, as the textures and different angles should make an interesting shot, so here it is ~

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My {creative} Story ~ Part 1

[Day One]

Our first assignment from Kim was to write our own story creatively, well I've been sitting on this for almost a month now and I think I know where to start.  This is my story of how my creative journey started and the three women who played and still plays a very important part in my journey so far. 

This story begins with the letter 'K"...

I have used Flickr to share my photos publicly for a few years now, on and off.  About 19 months ago I came across Kathy's flickr stream, she was in the middle of her Project 365. Her images appealed to me in that they were soft and full of light.  I spent 2010 following her project, through her ups and downs, typical of someone going through the stress of having to get that shot in by the end of each and every 365 days.  She inspired me with her beautiful images, occasionally portraits and of course her amazing food photography shots.  I was so inspired by her that I decided to embark on my own journey through Project 365 in 2011, a decision that totally changed me, my view of photography and the direction I would take.  Thank you Kathy Marciante.

At around the same time I became Kathy's contact, I stumbled across Kim's website, where my journey into photo editing and texturising began.  I'm forever grateful to Kim for being such a generous person in giving and also in sharing her amazing amazing talent to allow me and I'm sure a lot of you to see our photos in a totally different light, to be able to see something amazing out of something quite simple or ordinary in things like wildflowers or what some people might call "weeds" by the roadside or even a simple cup of tea. My eyes have been opened like they have never been before.  Thank you Kim Klassen.

Lastly but not least, the third woman, she has played an integral part in my journey... her name is Karyn, she became my contact and dear friend 9 months ago.  She is such an amazing person, everytime she visits my photos her comments are not just comments, they are personal messages, the incredible thing is that's how she conveys her thoughts to every one of her contacts.  Her talent in conveying her beautiful images is enviable, her collages are something to be admired and she inspires me everytime I pop over to visit her stream.  Through the nine months we've known each other our photography has grown together.  We have a strange connection in that a couple of times we have uploaded the same subject in the image on the same day unknowingly, the last just yesterday.  Thank you Karyn Mitchell.

And my creative journey continues and so does this story...where it will lead to, I don't know yet, when will it end, I don't know yet...guess all I can say for now is stayed tuned, maybe at the end of these 52 weeks of Beyond Layers you will be able to read Part 2 of my story with an ending I am happy to write about.

Postscript ~ I have to mention there are many inspirational people whom I can call a contact and a friend that I have met during this journey, I will leave them unnamed in fear I will leave somebody out... if you would like to meet some of them just simply pop into my flickr stream and you will no doubt see them leaving awesome messages for me.

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things that make me happy ...

day seven

Today Kim asked me "What makes you happy?", thought for a while and came up with this list and of course my list is never complete without a few pictures, so here goes :

Days in the sun on the beach with my children, writing on the sand ...

Simple daisies on a wooden bench ...

Baking and food ...

Autumn and it's leaves ...

Love of books and sweethearts ...

and of course photography but as yet have not created an image I think that represents it well so taking a raincheck on this one.

... so these are just some of my favourite things!

Postscript: these images were shot and created in the past 18 months.

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My Ordinary Day

[Day Six]

... as inspired by Xanthe Berkeley, yesterday I shot my first time capsule, six images that represent a typical day in my life during 2012 and today I have easily arranged it as a story board collage [thank you Kim Klassen] ... the images and resulting collage is not spectacular or beautiful but I think it captures the current essence of my daily life, simple and ordinary ...

A rundown of my day, starting with top left ~

• Top Left - first things first, my dreaded chore of a school morning - the lunchbox - two to be done...it is dreaded not because of the actual act but the mindboggling choice of what to put in it.
• Top Centre - then off to work for my mandatory flat white in my snoopy cup from the cafe.
• Top Right - work day over, drove home in the pouring rain ... just some weather news for you, this Summer has been the coolest and wettest in a lot of years.
• Bottom Left - some fresh corn to be used for my work day quickie meal "Curry Corn Beef with peas and corn".
• Bottom Centre - *sigh* Jodi Picoult my trusted and favourite author, I have tried to read other books but she is an author I know who will make me turn every page and not want to put it down ... I would like to read every night but it is not always the case as I now have my photography to occupy my time.
• Bottom Right - finally down to the very last chore of the day ... think the image is pretty much self explanatory [don't really want to get into the gory bits of life]

Guess that about sums it up ... if you're still reading, thank you, for sharing in my simple and ordinary day.

Oh and maybe just share the technical bits to the collage ~ not much was done to each image except applied a vintage action to them all then placed them where they needed to go and that's about it.

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one word image

week two - day four

Today's challenge to think of a word and create an image for it, I may have cheated a little as this image was taken before the challenge and never knew what to do with it but I always went back to it to see what  it will inspire but nothing ever came up. Today I went through a lot of images nothing popped but when I reached this one again...it just popped...

my word "BEAUTY"...

• Added 2 layers of plastersquared - 1 layer 70% overlay and 1 layer 100% softlight (masked over the wildflower) to enhance it
• Added a layer of levels - adjusted the output levels left slider to 83 to create dreaminess
• Added brightness and contrast layer - adjusted brightness to -47 and contrast to +20