Fragile

Fun for Friday evening: tackled Beyond Layers challenge for day 59. Kim shared a recipe and three textures for us to try out. The problem (for me, at least) with these challenges is the huge amount of time it takes to decide which photo to process. Ordinarily, you'd start building with a picture. Now I'm always looking at the kind of processing done and trying to find a photo I imagine could benefit from it. I never find anything similar to Kim's examples, but somehow I always have to try to match it at least on some level.

This is the third picture I tried this particular recipe on. In the end, I of course tweaked the recipe, but at least I started with it and used the texture, called Paper-Stained Music.

Fragile, c'est son nom

Resources:
- texture Paper-Stained Music by Kim Klassen

I took the photo in May in my little makeshift "studio". I have no idea what these flowers are called, but they opened beautifully from a bell-shape to this translucent disc, after standing for about two weeks in a vase. They were the last of the bouquet to survive.

The text on the picture just plopped from somewhere, when I was staring at the beautiful fragility of the flower on my screen. "Fragile, c'est son nom" I thought, and remembered things I did'nt know I remembered - it's a song by Patrick Juvet, which I suddenly remembered, too. Must be from somewhere early 1980s - the album was called Reves Immoraux, if I remember correctly. I think we had it on a C-cassette. I love how these things pop up, although I've been listening to Baroque Arias sung Andreas Scholl and Patricia Petibon the whole evening.

Sharing at Texture Tuesday.

Painting With Light

On day 58 at Beyond Layers Kim challenged us to watch another video lesson and either try the technique on a photo by her or on our own image, and of course I went for a photo of my own. The topic of the video was how to use light to draw focus on a subject.

With the dogs snoring around me this Saturday morning, I picked up a photo and started to process, following Kim's suggestions. This time I took a photo of Da Man about a month ago. He was sitting and watching by the back porch, with a dried yarrow funnily framing his face. Again, Kim's picture and mine were so different that I didn't create the effect she did for hers, but I do like what I got out of this picture with the recipe.

Dog and Yarrow

Photo taken on 7 September, 2013.

Resources:
- texture Heartfelt by Kim Klassen

Sharing at Texture Tuesday.

Texture Tuesday - Something Orange

Autumn's in full swing, I'm busy working and have had little time to spare for the last-in-line hobby of playing with photos. Popped in at Kim's blog on Tuesday for the Texture Tuesday challenge to see if there was anything in there for me, and I had to laugh out loud. Something orange should definitely be easy enough for me, as orange is my favourite colour.

Since most everyone else seemed to tackle the challenge by displaying beautiful flowers and autumnal trees, I decided to take a different approach and have a look at my wardrobe, or actually some accessories. Here's my take on "something orange": my wellies, designed by Ristomatti Ratia, my bright orange raincoat and the shoulder bag I bought in Lübeck last spring. All wonderful to wear on rainy days, by the colour alone they make me feel warm and they also make the day look brighter. What's not to love?

At the Door

What I used here:
- texture Dream It by Kim Klassen
- texture Paper and Paste by Kim Klassen
- mask by Krizomel
- background paper Cold Spell 5 by myself

Autumn Gear

Resources:
- texture To Be by Kim Klassen
- gradient Autumn 12 by ElvenSword
- font Luismi Murder by Juan Casco

And here's my recipe for Autumn Gear:
- cropped image
- duplicated background, applied Gaussian Blur at 11,5 px, created layer mask, brushed out the blur from the gear, changed layer opacity to 35%
- created Hue/Saturation adjustment layer: greens saturation -35, lightness +48
- added Kim Klassen's texture To Be at blending mode soft light 100%
- duplicated texture, turned layer -90°, adjusted blending mode to colour burn 63%, then added black & white adjustment layer (preset neutral density)
- added gradient map adjustment layer Autumn 12 by Elven Sword at blending mode soft light 100%
- brushed in watermark
- wrote text, font Luismi Murder

I fully intend to go on with Beyond Layers, too, as soon as possible. Here's to hoping it'll actually be soon.

Pastel Processing & Texture Tuesday

We were challenged to do some pastel processing on day 24 of Beyond Layers. I knew this was going to be difficult, as pastels are so not my style. I love colours, bright and clear, strong contrasts - it's not that I wouldn't admire softness and delicacy in the work of others, I just don't feel quite at home with pastels. I guess it's because in my own colours, I'm an Autumn: orange is my favourite colour, I love warm browns and yellows and reds, soooo not pastel.

So, the first problem was to find a shot I could even imagine turning pastel. I don't have a white room, all the rooms in our house are colourful, and I simply didn't feel like going into setting up the studio to photograph with the phone. I started processing several photos, ditched them, and finally ended up with these two, both of which are photos I've taken in spring 2010.

White Carnation

Resources:
- texture Paper and Paste by Kim Klassen
- texture Now by Kim Klassen
- font Lastwaerk Bold by Johan Aakerlund
- font Gondola SD - Swash by Steve Deffeyes

Merezeon Blossoming

Resources used:
- texture 61v1 by Sirius-sdz
- texture Sepia Canvas by SolStock
- font Lithos Pro by Adobe
- font Chopin Script by ClaudeP

Now both of these were a challenge, and I'm posting them now just to get rid of the endless tweaking. I've practised the techniques Kim showed us, and although the images don't show here as they do when I view them in Photoshop, I rather think that I did manage to create the soft vintage feel that was the aim of this assignment.

Oh, and although prompted, I didn't try out Radlab. Frankly, I can't see the point in getting a Photoshop plug-in toy that costs $150, which is a lot of money for me, and lets you click click click to make your photos fancy  - I'm doing photo processing for fun, not for a living. If I want something like that, there are countless very cool Photoshop actions available quite free, thanks to lovely people like The Pioneer Woman, Rita at the Coffee Shop blog, The Black Cat Photography, NighFate, Jae and Sarah Lynn Cornish, just to name my favourites. I'm sure this plug-in has its uses for someone actually working with photos for a living and wanting to save time, but I for one am taking this course to learn to use the tools that I already have.

Since the theme for Texture Tuesday this week was free & easy, meaning anything goes as long as there's one texture by Kim, I'm also sharing this post there. Who knows when I'll be able to participate again, for now I'll have to start learning a completely new rhythm of life again.

Texture Tuesday & Musings

Haven't had time to take part in any of the Texture Tuesday challenges for quite a while. Suddenly yesterday, when I had finished the Colour Week, I remembered it was Tuesday and that there'd be another challenge up at Kim's Café. This time we were simply asked to use a certain texture, Dream It.

I ended up using three textures by Kim here. The picture was taken on 9 May this year, somewhere between Glasgow and Inverness, on a lay-by where we stopped for a photographing break.

Spring in Scotland

Resources used:
- textures Dream It, Oh My & Grey Day by Kim Klassen

Then to Beyond Layers. On Day 21, the challenge Kim gave us was to reflect on how we feel about our own art. There was talk about our expectations, of wanting to create a great piece and, when we achieve one such, of being afraid we'll never achieve something like that again. It so easily stops us from even trying. Kim encouraged us to get past this, reminded we're not supposed to make perfect art but simply make art for the fun of it.

What is preventing me from creating is not blocks like this but mostly just lack of time. Well, practically always exactly that. Soon my time to do this will be very limited, so at the moment I'm just gorging on this, creating, and thoroughly enjoying the process of doing so.

As for the love of comments, who wouldn't love words of encouragement? Receiving none can certainly make one feel a failure - I've been there with my poems, years ago, although it wasn't that I needed so much to hear what people thought, I simply needed to know that somebody had at least read what I had written.

I think it still is important, and definitely why I choose to share what I do online. If I know somebody has seen my work, if I somehow get to share it, it really is a reward in itself. Isn't attention what we're all after? Because all art is communication…

I aim to record things I see and experience, to teach my eye and to please it. I'm overjoyed if someone else understands, enjoys and appreciates what I create, but that's not my primary reason for doing it. Yes, I do jump up and down and shout Hooray! whenever I get a comment, and I see nothing wrong with it, but really, encouragement from Better Half is what I need and value most, because who'd know better where I stand and what I might be trying to convey?

More Whispering

It's another Beyond Layers post again. Continued from day 15, the following day was still more whispers. Or rather, Kim offered us some photoshop techniques the word Whisper made her think of.   The challenge for day 16 was to use these techniques as well as two textures she presented us with.

Kim's example was so white with such a uniform background that I almost despaired before I even started. Have to shoot something in my make-shift "studio" (see the Start to Finish post) again, I thought.

There was this flower that I picked a while ago when we were walking with the doggies and Better Half suddenly pointed and asked if I knew which flower THAT was. I didn't, so to find out we took it along. It was quite withered when we got home but recovered quickly in a glass of water. It stood there together with a Red Campion I had taken as sort of reference, and I started shooting. The flower turned out to be Ragged Robin (the first part of the name is very understandable). In Finnish, it's called Käenkukka, which means Cuckoo's Flower.

Ragged Robin

Processing resources:
- texture Flourish by Kim Klassen
- font Le Grand Saut by Jellyka Nerevan
- framing action Glass 50 px by Chain

As the result of this processing was quite passable, I decided to have another go. As Better Half was working on another computer last night, I turned to this picture I had taken of a piece of chocolate to work with. It was something we bought in Vienna, called Studentenfutter (student fodder in English). You can see the ingredients in the picture. *grin* Is this what the Austrian students live on?

Studentenfutter

Resources used:
- texture The Veil by Kim Klassen
- brush Curly 8 by Green-Eyed Butterfly
- font Learning Curve Pro by Blue Vinyl Fonts
- framing action Glass 50 px by Chain

This morning after working a while it occurred to me to try if the same techniques could be applied to a photo with a noisier background. It took some trying, but here's a flower from our garden, a Snow-in-Summer in English. I'm rather happy with it, and as Texture Tuesday this time was 'Anything Goes' I'm sharing this in Texture Tuesday as well.

Snow-in-Summer

Resources used:
- texture Plaster Squared by Kim Klassen
- fonts Windsong by Bright Ideas & Copperplate Light
- framing action Motion 50 px by Chain

The recipes I've made of each picture I've processed are sooo useful, my memory being what it is. I'll start following them, take some steps I've tried and tested and then deviate again... Fun! Here are recipes for the above pictures.

Ornamental Onion

Hooray, it’s Thursday and I finally managed to take part in the Texture Tuesday challenge again. It’s been a while, so happy to participate! The challenge this time was to use a flower photo with any of Kim’s textures.

I chose an ornamental onion, a tall and handsome Allium plant I photographed on 12 May this year in a garden in Dunfermline, Scotland. In processing, I used two of Kim’s textures as well as techniques we’ve practised on Kim’s Beyond Layers II eCourse. I’m so much behind on the course, but I’m catching up little by little, and I want to do each challenge, because I enjoy them a lot and don’t want to miss anything.

Ornamental Onion

Processing resources:
- textures Faved & Grey Day Slate by Kim Klassen
- a pink gradient from The Super Dooper Gradient Pack by Digital Phenom

Just for the fun of it, I thought I would create a recipe for this one. Or actually, not only for fun -- already now I notice that in some of the course challenges I have forgotten the steps I’ve taken. I’m sure this will help me review later on what’s good and what’s less good in the process or work flow, and perhaps that way I can also see what I have learned.

Making the recipe card was fun!  Resources used for the card:
- background paper Subtle White 7 by Jerry Jones
- gradient Rivendell 09 by ElvenSword
- fonts Snell Roundhand & Big Caslon

As a matter of fact, processing is never this simple... It’s not as if I’d just snap my fingers and say ok, this is what I’ll do. There’s a lot of trying out involved, browsing through numerous textures, then choosing one and, after a while of dabbling, deleting it when it doesn’t do something I’d like it to do, or does something I definitely don’t want it to do... But I’m making progress, it’s not all the time purely hit-and-miss anymore. I’m beginning to see what I’d like to end up with. Yay!

Texture Tuesday - The Quote eDition

Haven't  been around for a long time to participate in Kim Klassen's challenges, so now that I had a little time in my hands, I decided I'd do something about it. The Texture Tuesday challenge this week was a quote and a texture by Kim Klassen - this time I chose to be minimal and included only one texture. (!)

Seagulls on a rooftop in Inverness, Scotland.

Thank you for the texture:
- "Happy Heart" by Kim Klassen

The photo was taken on the morning of 11 May this year, from my hotel room window in Inverness, Scotland. I followed the two seagulls there for a goodish while. They seemed to enjoy the place, pattering around there and occasionally finding a tidbit as well.

Texture Tuesday - Oh so SOFT eDition

This week the theme in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday challenge was soft. I knew immediately what I was going to do with the theme, and here's the result. 

I took this photo on 10 November, 2011, when our Dandie Dinmont Terrier puppies were 18 days old, and spent most of their time feeding and sleeping next to their mother. Their eyes had opened a few days earlier, and they were beginning to take their first steps, but it was all so very exhausting...

Watching puppies grow up is wonderful, but with them time really really flies. Especially at this point, each single day brings about so many changes... if you want to take a photo of them the way they are today, you absolutely have to do it today, because by tomorrow they will have grown up so much more again.

Dreamin'

Thank you for the beautiful tools:
- texture "Embrace" by Kim Klassen
- texture "Sleepy Bokeh" from "Assorted Bokeh Set" by Shadowhouse Creations
- texture "Grunge 6" by Mysteria-DL
- action "Lovely & Ethereal" from The Pioneer Woman's Action Set 1

Texture Tuesday - The Pink eDition

This week at Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday the theme was pink. Funnily enough, pink so isn't my colour. I'm an Autumn in colours and I could never ever wear it. I have, sometimes as a teenager, and it looked awful, I still shudder to think about it. But as long as I don't have to wear it, pink can be pretty. In fact, where pink is definitely beautiful are flowers.

So the picture I chose is obviously a flower. And so that I don't have to resort to pictures from last summer, I worked on this recent shot of a Women's Day rose, which I textured with Kim Klassen's "Music Lovin'" and FrostBo's "Texture 54".

In other news, it might be officially Summer Time, but last night we had quite some snowfall and this morning when we first looked out of the windows we thought it looked more Christmasy than anything else. The branches were covered with fluffy snow, which they haven't been for a long time, and everything was fresh and white. Come to think of it, I wonder why one would associate white snow to Christmas at all. Is it all because we have all been well indoctrinated into dreaming of a white Christmas? For one thing, over here we have snow for at least five if not six months a year, and at Xmas time, there is always far less snow, days are short and dark and you rarely see even the faintest shimmer of sunshine. It is only when the days turn longer in spring that the sun makes all the snow glisten and glow.

Below a quick layout I made of a few photos I took this morning, from my windows.

template by Margote - Template 64; paper from "Playing for Keeps" by Designs by Angel; snowflake brushes by env1ro

Texture Tuesday - The Black & White eDition

As my life has returned to more or less normal, albeit far busier than average this week, I was absolutely certain I wouldn't make it to this week's Texture Tuesday. Luckily it seems I was wrong, although last minute really doesn't begin to describe this.

Anyway, the challenge this week at Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday was black & white. Here's my take. The picture shows a rather beautifully rusted metal crane standing in the snow in our garden. I used Kim's "Happy Heart" texture as well as a lovely painterly texture called "The Wave" by Emeraldsugar-stock.

Crane in Snow

Tonight it'll turn to summer time -- we'll be having Daylight Saving Time from tomorrow on. And yes, the Great Tits and Yellowhammers are twittering out of their heart's content. In spite of all the snow, spring is definitely here.

Texture Tuesday - Your Fav eDition

Out of the Shadows

This week in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday challenge we were asked to share our latest textured fav.

The picture I chose is of our 4-month-old Dandie Dinmont Terrier puppy Justiina. I took the photo on Saturday in our garden, where there's still plenty enough of snow...

I'll try and give the recipe here, too, just in case somebody might be interested. The original image was rather dark, so I duplicated the image at 64% screen. For editing, I used the following: the new weekend texture "Paper Love" by Kim Klassen at 55% soft light and 28% linear burn, both layers first turned black and white with the Neutral Density filter in PS CS4, as I didn't want to change the original colours. Then I felt I needed a light beam to focus attention on the puppy, so I added a beautiful light beam and cloud texture called "I Tell The Stories" by Smoko-Stock at 96% soft light. Loving both of the textures.

  

I was also working on another doggie picture, so here's that as well. It's a photo of Justiina's mom Misa, her sister Marleena and her dad Renny, again taken on Saturday in our snowy garden.

And the recipe for that one: first I took Kim's texture "Evolve", changed it into black & white with Blue Filter, then used at 65% soft light. Next I took the same texture, again turning it black & white but this time with Neutral Density filter, used in blending mode colour burn at 44%.

Then I felt I needed just a touch of lightness and a touch of blue, so I used a blue texture from LiZn's texture pack "Eirene" at 15% colour dogde.  I still thought the picture could use a tad more depth and added one more texture, Fabric dye 10 from Dierat's Paper Pack 3. The blending mode here was 30% colour burn.

Out with the Family

As I don't ski, I'm not the most enthusiastic winter person, but here I find myself wishing there'll still be a couple of beautiful sunny days like this before it's time for the snow to melt away.

Texture Tuesday - The Happy Heart eDition

Barcelona, October morning

My second Texture Tuesday challenge entry. This time I ended up with an older photo I  found in my archives this week - this one I took actually in 2006 in Barcelona.

It was a rather early morning in October, we were walking along the sea shore, and because of both the time and the season the 4.5 kilometres of beach were mostly deserted. Looking at the picture, I can still almost hear and smell the sea and feel the sunshine in the gradually warming morning.

Textures used: texture "Happy Heart" by Kim Klassen (twice), additionally a texture from Jerry Jones's "Art Grunge Texture Set".

Texture Tuesday - the white eDition

Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport

This is my very first entry to the Kim Klassen Café Texture Tuesday challenge. Just found her blog yesterday, so inspiring! Luckily I had the possibility to work on this challenge today.

The photo was taken last year, as we were travelling to Birmingham. We had to change planes in Paris, and unfortunately that also meant we had to change terminals. The layout of the Aéroport Charles de Gaulle is not the simplest and navigating from one terminal to another is not exactly straightforward. Our whole experience of the airport was that it was pretty complicated. Navigating to the new terminal seemed to take forever as you had to walk and walk and turn this way and that and then walk some more.

While trotting along the corridors, we ran into this sight, which I thought well deserved to be photographed.

For this image, I used two of Kim's textures, 'simplicity' and 'happy heart'.