HAPPY 2019!!!

Here's my quote for the day by that magnificent philosopher, author and genius, Robert Heinlein, since I was not up at my usual 5:30 a.m.-ish:

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."  

I only woke up at 8:38 a.m. because Bingo was squeaking for breakfast:

Bingo's "FEED ME" Look.

And by "squeaking,"  I mean whining.  On the other hand, I was awakened at midnight by the neighbors ALL AROUND me setting off fireworks!  Across the lake, next door, across the street.  Good times.  Then I was awake, so I reviewed my 2018 journal for a coupla hours and noticed how much I actually accomplished. So I wrote a "Yay, me" list.   

One of those things: I built a boom for my camera!  (And by "I" I mean that I got the materials and Brother Atlasta whipped it together for me, lickety split. I could have done it, but I would have been less lickety-splitty).  As I stood staring at my camera set up on the tri-pod trying to figure out how to film a new way, I thought, "Why am I trying to reinvent the wheel here?  Someone has already done this and has a tutorial on Youtube!"  And so THANKS to water colour artist Wonder Forest, I saved a LOT of time: 

And THANKS to my bro. Just waiting on clip thingie from Amazon to secure to the galvanized pipe and then I'm set for overhead, hands-free filming. Squeeee!   I did it.  2019, here I come!  Tutorials, journals, and courses, oh my!   :-)

Waterlogue

My sister saw a bird watching book that I got with puffins on the cover and she squealed. "Ooooh!  Puffins!"  So I decided I would make her a new planner with it. Everyone in my family has coasters featuring the artwork of Emma Ball, that have been gifted after trips to Orkney. I wanted to use her artwork in Ruth's planner, but I didn't feel right about about using it, even for personal use. But I wanted watercolour puffins.

So I went on Pixabay for free graphics, and found one non-photographic graphic, but the rest were all photographs. And then I started thinking that there had to be an app for turning photos into a watercolour painting. So I looked on the google, and found Waterlogue.

It's FANTASTIC!

Pros:

• Only $4.99
• Easy to use; point and click
• Has different variations and choices

Cons:

• No choice in where to save; it just saves automatically to your Photos folder. However, you can copy and save to a different folder, so that's what I do. It took me a while to figure that out, tho. So, you're welcome.  
• Not the best with people, unless it's a close-up. 

Here are a few I've done. First up!  Puffins!

 

This was the illustration on Pixabay:

But then I thought I'd see what would happen if I Waterlogued it:

COOL!

Bird illustration:

Aaaaand Waterlogued:

Of course I had to play with some dogs!  

Here's Bingo:

Bingo doing Sphinx Pose.

Baby & Bingo:

Here are a couple different treatments for the same photo:

Buddy on my lap:

Baby on my lap:

Baby & Buddy:

Buddy:

Bingo and Reggie, pre-beagles; taken with iPad:

Hannah Banana:

This one is stunning!   Lulu:

Here's Tabby Bobcat:

There are several choices within the program with names like "Natural," "Bold," and "Illustration." 

Here's Reggie with 3 different options:

Bold.

Natural.

Illustration. It adds lines. 

Here's a random cow I took a pic of back in my River House days:

And some Nature pix of my old road:

And some city pix:

This is the altar at my church:

Here's a photo I took when I first started going to St. Luke's. This couple walked in and went to a front pew and knelt down together. I just thought it was so sweet and happened to have my camera, so I snapped a quick pic. 

As it turns out, I became friends with them. This is Mary and Larry; Mary is in the Knitting Guild and a dear friend. Larry was a state trooper for many years and, sadly,  just recently passed away.

Here are 3 treatments of the same photo. I've forgotten the names, but here you go!

These are from the Juniper tree and Autumn pix I just posted:

Tulip polar tree with 2 different variations:

"Vibrant."

"Natural."

People

The program does better with close-ups. Here's my nephew:

Vibrant.

"Natural."

"Luminous."  (I  think)!

Here's where it doesn't do such a great job. Here's Mum watching an episode of Hoarders:

Here's how it turns out:

This is the "Illustrator" variation:

Color Bloom:

After all this, I decided to take a photo thru all the variations!  So here you go:

Original:

(Apologies for smaller size, this is as large I can get it).

Here they are without labels. Feel free to use for personal or commercial:

And I'll leave you with a sunset, Cape Charles beach pic: