catching up

i've been so busy with

my encaustic and owoh

that i haven't had much time for playing in ps

i've finally cough up on weeks two and three

of susan's tuttle's on-line workshop

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above week two project one

dramatic still life

flooded with light

tinted grayscale


week three
light painting technique

pseudo-infrared technique

photographic painting

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now that i know how the techniques work

i will search my photo library

to find more of my photos to practice on

i can't wait to get to week four!

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above photos

mount royal, montreal

peony in my garden

me on my little woodland path

window shopping on queen st

salem graveyard

rockport, ma
see more on our flickr group

quite time

finally, some quite time

i started my second

on-line digital photomanipulation class with

susan tuttle

i find it very relaxing to just sit and play with

all the techniques i've learned so far in week one

susan's class is very user friendly,

with easy to follow videos and instructions

and we have a flickr group to post and see every ones work

(you may have to take the class in order to view this page?)

you can see what i've worked on here

retro technique one


the sweet spot and the blur


vintage retro technique two
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i can't wait to get started with week two
i'll keep you posted

road trip

first stop

lake placid

see you in a week!

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photo taken at

concours d'elegance

cleveland part3

i finally got some photos loaded into my flickr page

above, the door on the court house

new and old

federal reserve bank

carnegie ave. bridge

it's a new dawn, it's a new day

when i'm blocked or frustrated

i sit and look through my photos

with my itunes playing in the background

usually it's motown or r&r

this time it was my mellow playlist

maybe it was listening to michael buble's

"feeling good"

that inspired me

above is a photo taken of mirror lake

in lake placid, ny
last fall on a road trip

i got up with the rising up

wondered along the lake

me and the loones and a few joggers

the peaceful lake

it was so beautiful

today is my day off

so i will work on some art

more photoshop

it's amazing how three simple images can be

turned into something really cool

the first is a photo i took at my local park

the second is a ttv image i found on flickr

and the third is an antique postcard

i just layered and played with the

blending modes and filters

i used the color burn blending mode on the top layer

here i applied the "high pass" filter


and here the pin light blending mode

just by a click of a button
you can change the mood
and "undo" anytime you want
i came up with several variations
but like these 3 the best

california dreamin'

feeling a bit under the weather

don't know if it's the cold meds but

i 'm california dreamin'

encaustic class

i've been so busy , i forgot about posting

my latest

from my encaustic class

this week , i worked with some

coloured photocopies

adding them first and then working

with layering the wax

i also wanted to practice some texture techniques

i used painters tape to mask out the areas of the pictures

and tried to match up the coloured wax to go with the photo
it was fun and different from my previous work

i'm really enjoying this new medium and

with only 2 more classes left

i'm thinking i will take this class again

next semester

i have a lot more to learn !

the photos were taken in jerome, az

it's been a very creative and productive week

this past full moon really "kick started" me

i wish i could bottle it and keep it

for weeks when i can't seem to get started

i'm a really moody artist and thank the stars

that i am a "moonchild" and this one lasts some more

it's only 5 weeks 'til christmas(OMG)

and i need to make a ton of presents!

i've been playing with some of my owen sound

pictures in ps and really like the one above

it was taken on my nature walk

"alongside a field of birch trees ran a stream"

so reflective!

crashing waves

this past weekend was my

first visit to georgian bay

i really enjoyed the sound of

the waves crashing against the rocks

it soothed my soul

and amoungst the million rocks

i found this one

my favorite shot

back home

what an amazing view

just outside our window where

my friend dede and i sat and created art

all day long for 4 straight days!

dede was a card making machine

171 unique christmas card

while i worked on my jewelry,

got 2/3 through my afghan

and read 350 pages of my vampire book

we laugh and cried

told stories and teased

ate and drank

went for a great nature walk

i managed to take over 600 photos

where you can find just a few on my flickr page

all in all it was a great long weekend

thanks dede for inviting me!

i hope we can do it again soon!

encaustic class

this weeks class was a huge success

i really enjoyed learning textures last week and

couldn't wait to do it again

i had this idea in my head all week

it took me awhile to figure out which three photos to use

this series was taken this summer on my montreal trip
i completely covered the background with some

pages from an old french book

added some coloured wax then the transfers

and then worked on the textured squares

i'm happy with it so far

not sure if it is finished ?

exposed

i finally got my film developed

i almost forgot what was on the 4 rolls i brought in

i posted some on my toy camera flickr page

i just love the unexpected and can't remember how many times

i exposed the same photo

i must keep better notes or get my film developed faster

vacation part 3

i really wasn't sure what to expect when arriving in philly

i didn't realize how much history was made here

i was pleasantly surprised by all the wonderful architecture

we spent most of our time in the old city near our hotel,

society hill just south and center city

it was an easy town to walk around and everything was relativity close

i would like to visit again

there is alot so see close by

dutch county, gettysburg and the barnes foundation

i have seen part of the exhibit when it came to the ago

we stayed for 2 day and then headed to hershey

where we bought too much chocolate

and visited the aaca museum

we drove for 5 hours straight to buffalo where we found

a great hotel and restaurant

garden place hotel and salvatore's restaurant

we stayed in the honeymoon suite

with a jacuzzi, fireplace and king size bed!

the meal was fabulous and was included in the room package

the next day we did some shopping at the local outlet mall and headed

back to canada to see the falls and niagara-on-the-lake

all in all it was a wonderful vacation!

vacation part2

we arrived at the otero b&b after lunch

and where happy to see our host marie

we are so lucky to have such gracious people in our lives

marie and her husband rick are the best! thanks so much!!!

on the suggestion from marie we headed out the 'lie'

to a little town called sag harbor

it was just what we needed, to sit by the water,

watching the boats and eating seafood

the town was filled with great restaurants and unique shops

i met some wonderful girls, toni and ava,

working on their echo-o-sketches

i still have mine tucked away, it was nice to see them

enjoying their art over a cup of coffee

the next day we took the train into manhattan

we walked around for 6 hours

first stop, the top of the empire state building,

this time i was prepared

i have a 15x zoom on my camera! i could have stayed all day

we zigzag our way throught midtown, found a great spot

recommended by marie,called metalliferous,

back to the garment district, through the theater district and

times square, over to rockefeller centre and central park!

we managed to see alot and only touch

a small corner of the island!

the next day we cover more ground in the lower part of town

all the way down broadway to little italy where they we having a 10 day festival

the streets were lined with vendors, mostly food,

the smell was amazing,

i wish we hadn't had breakfast and it wasn't time for lunch

we traveled through china town to the brooklyn bridge, all through the financial district

and 8 hours later we are back at penn station

to catch our train to long island!

i love ny

we decided to head to philly next

to be continued............

vacation part 1

home at last

after

2397 km

1964 photos

4 hotels

1 excellent b&b

6 tanks of gas

some really nice people

too much junk food

lots of beer

and a good time had by all!

for a last minute vacation we ended up having a great time. i usually plan for months and know exactly what we are doing every day. this time due to some work related problems and wanting to see how my husband would fare planing a trip ( he was complaining that i always get to pick the destinations) we decided to drive around the u.s. . first stop the 1000 islands or as my granny would say "the one thousand islands" . what a beautiful spot, it's been several years since we visited and forgot how peaceful and relaxing it was. next stop lake placid, never been, and found that mirror lake was the view from our room. we sat and watched the moon come up over the mountains. our hotel was hosting a convention and we met some really nice people who worked for the village of freeport, vilma and denise, really lovely women who gave us some traveling info , which really helped with our trip. thanks ladies!! we also crashed their party and had a fun time. the next morning i got up with the birds and watched the sun come up and wondered along the lake taking some eerie shots of the mist, lake and wildlife. the town was small and quaint, i can't imagine how they would host thousands of people for the olympics. on our way out of town i found a few interesting trails in my national geographic scenic highways book, which took us through a small portion of vermont, massachusetts on the mohawk trail, and into connecticut, where we ended up in hartford for dinner and spent the night.

i was surprised how small hartford was and only spent the morning touring around the town , and managed to take a lot of pictures of the state capital building, which was completed in 1878 and located in bushnell park. great architecture.

our next part of the trip was driving to long island to visit my friend marie and her husband rick.

they were gracious enough to invite us to stay with them after a mishap booking on priceline.com . Thanks to our wonderful hosts our vacation was a memorable one!

i have tons of more photos to go through

i will continue an account of our adventures tommorrow!

upside down

i don't know if it's the having

too much on my plate

right now or the change in weather

but i'm feeling a bit off balance

i love the fall, the change of season,

cool mornings,crisp air and wearing a sweater

i just don't like what it brings

it's sad to see my garden die

so much work and so little time to enjoy it

i do like to hibernate in the winter

i will spend days making art and reading

making garden plans for next spring

wheels

thursdays challenge: wheels

i don't know what it is about old cars that i like so much

the curves,the colours, all that chrome?
i've always been interested

maybe because my dad worked in a car factory for 32 years

once a year

meadow brook

hosts the

concours d'elegance

it's held on the old dodge estate north of detroit

it's a great show

there are a lot of rare and unusual cars

my favorite the 1936 stout scarab

festival

this weeks theme for thursdays challenge is "festival"

i've been talking about the cne for weeks and

dreaming of tiny tom's

this past weekend i spent the day enjoying all the sights,

sounds and a dozen mini donuts (which i paid for later)

and of course took 450 photos

if you like to see more , check out my flickr page