Mandarin Orange Monday

 

Mandarin Orange #39

A swan swimming in front of a beautiful stand of reeds in the channel by our lake ... (original)

These are patterns in a thin layer of ice on a puddle ... I added  color to get the design.

I attended a funeral last week that was so spiritual and gratifying in the way it  addressed the beliefs of the widow (Christian) and of the deceased (Judaism).  It reminded me of the Baha'i beliefs that we all travel different roads to the one God which, in the end, brings us together as one.  If only we could live our lives with that oneness ... the acceptance and respect of each man for who he is and what he believes.  Instead I see so much division and bitterness.  I wish we could look inside of ourselves and find it in our hearts to love one another ... Peace, Love ... Respect.  God wants nothing less from us ...

Photo Art Friday

 

This was a good prompt for me.  I have been doing abstracts with my photo's for years, so I just headed back into my files and pulled up a few. 

Unfortunately, I did these so long ago that I can't be sure what I used to accomplish my effects.  I can tell you that it was in Photoshop Elements. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, I decided it would be more fun to make some current abstracts and it would maybe show how my technique has grown (or at least changed).

 

This started with a photo of a deer in the woods.  I tweaked the pictures with levels, brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. I then covered it with pdpa Dusty Rose Bokeh at 60%.  I erased out the deer and recovered it with pdpa Dusty Rose Bokeh at 40% and added a border.

 

 

I started this with a photo of an unusual cloud formation, tweaking it with levels, brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. I placed the picture of the Sand hill Crane's in flight over the clouds at 68% and blended it in using the eraser and clone stamp.  Added pdpa Vintage Craquelure texture at around 66% then used levels to accentuate it. 

 

This was fun, as always.  I am looking forward to everyone's version of abstractions in nature ...