eat write create

Love Live Laugh

2011-05-28T21:28:00.069-04:00

Back in February, the captain and I had an eventful afternoon in Orlando when we drove from our winter getaway into the city to visit the Central Florida Fair. We discovered upon our arrival at the front gates that the fair was closed, but since we try to treat our outings as adventures, we didn't let it spoil the day. Instead, I wandered around outside the fence, taking photographs of what I could -- thankful, for example, that the ferris wheel was located near the entrance.

I've shared some of those photos here on my blog, and here's another. You might think that this image took a lot of time to prepare, but it didn't. It took only a few clicks. Oops......not clicks. Taps. Yup, this is another iPhone creation.

WordFoto is the newest addition to my iPhone; the latest find in my never-ending quest to discover cool and fun iPhone apps. All I had to do to create this was open up the app and bring in the photo, then choose the words I wanted to use (more than 20 phrases are included in the app), then choose from among eight different styles (you can create custom styles as well). Done. There is an option to do a little fine-tuning, if I'd wanted.

It's that easy. Even better, WordFoto allows you to use whatever words you want, so I gave "eat write create" a try and came up with what you see below. Some images work better than others, depending on the styles you prefer, so a little experimentation should be expected. But it's fun and it creates something pretty nifty in just seconds. Give it a try!

The ducks are back

2011-05-21T19:23:00.000-04:00

We've lived in our current home for many, many years. I can't remember when the ducks first started to visit, but it was a long time ago. Every spring, they grace us with their presence. Sometimes, we see them only once during the season, other years -- like this year -- they visit a little more frequently.

They're out there right now. It's the third time we've seen them in the past few weeks. There's always the male and the female; we've never seen them solo, and we've also never spied any babies. Can they possibly be the same pair? I have no idea how long ducks live, if they mate for life, or really anything much about them. I do know they're beautiful. They love our pool, and why wouldn't they? It has yet to be cleaned and chlorinated for the year, so it's perfect for them. They're also not fearful of us. The captain was out mowing the back yard this afternoon and they basically ignored him.

They may be out there right now, but I can't show you. My camera batteries are all dead, so the artwork features a photo I took two years ago. It contains a lot of textures and brush work, use of layer masks, and more. My muse was making a lot of noise today so I finally gave in to her and had a go at some duck art.

On a journey

2011-05-19T17:20:00.037-04:00

I've been neglecting this poor little blog of mine. Sometimes, life just gets in the way.

I'm on a journey right now and, unfortunately, it's not one where all of you can come along for the ride. Not this time. Some amazing things have been happening of late. Good things. Good, but very personal. Someday, I know, I'll share them here. But now is not the time.

More artwork is on the way. My muse, who's been pretty quiet lately, is starting to rumble and get pretty noisy. I'm going to try to listen to her.

Black-and-white?

2011-05-07T17:31:00.059-04:00

I am a huge fan of colour, but lately I find myself attracted to black-and-white photography -- not just when viewing the work of others, but in my own creations as well. When I'm working on an image in Photoshop's Camera Raw interface, I often select the Convert to Grayscale option to see if the conversion appeals to me. More and more frequently, it does. I'm now taking a critical eye to my photos, trying to determine if the colour enhances the image or distracts from it.

Take the photograph above. Roll your cursor over it (in other words, slide your mouse pointer onto the image) to form your own opinion -- when you do the rollover, you'll see the colour version, which is the image I chose to post in my Flickr photostream. But I was so undecided about that decision that I almost put both versions up. I really like this image in black-and-white, but yet I think the colour version highlights the grunge. In the end, I decided to go with the colour because of the photograph's delicious decay.

As a side note, this amazing architectural element was found right here in Toronto. Walking south on Yonge Street early one summer evening a few years ago, south of Bloor Street, camera in hand, I happened to glance up and was so surprised to see this beauty. Who knows how long she's been there? I stopped to take photographs (of course!) and the captain and our son and his girlfriend kept walking, only to realize I was no longer with them -- not the first time this has happened -- so they backtracked to where I was standing. We'd all walked up and down Yonge Street many times, yet had never noticed.

Makes you wonder what else we miss. We see but we don't always observe.

It's an addiction

2011-05-05T18:59:00.048-04:00

When I was in grade five, my father bought me Scrabble Junior for Christmas. I quickly moved up to the grown-up game -- the one with the wonderful wooden tiles -- and have had a passion for this board game ever since. I have so many different versions, even the fancy one with the rotating board. But perhaps the best yet is the newest one in my collection -- the Scrabble app for my iPhone. It's also available for the iPad, should you have one of those.

If I could describe this app with one word, I don't know if I would choose "addictive" or "excellent". How about addictively excellent? Leslie and I had been playing Words with Friends (another great app and one we're still playing) and now we typically have a Scrabble game constantly on-the-go as well.

You do have to like words to like Scrabble; if spelling and wordplay are not your thing, then you likely wouldn't enjoy Scrabble at all. I'm a word junkie, so Scrabble is most definitely my thing.

Election Day 2011

2011-05-02T16:16:00.009-04:00

Don't forget to vote today!

The newly-minted Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

2011-04-29T16:02:00.001-04:00

I did it -- woke up at 4 a.m. to watch the Royal Wedding. It was spectacular and worth every minute of lost sleep. It was a true fairy-tale experience, complete with a beautiful bride and her handsome prince and all the pageantry one could want. Imagine .... Catherine Middleton woke up this morning as a commoner and a few hours later, became royalty by marrying the love of her life, Prince William. I find it all so terribly romantic.

I loved Kate's gown, the brilliant scarlet of William's tunic, the music, even the trees in the Abbey. All in all, a truly joyous event -- with not one but two balcony kisses!

Here's to the happy newlyweds!

(Photo © The British Monarchy, found on Flickr.)

Fred Astaire, Smooth Criminal

2011-04-26T16:04:00.001-04:00

Fred Astaire - Smooth Criminal by djsammyjunior

Back in February, I was intrigued by a book Leslie was reading. Lunch in Paris: a love story with recipes, written by Elizabeth Bard, is a classic fish-out-of-water tale -- an American who finds herself living in Paris. The library had quite a long waiting list but my turn finally arrived earlier this month. I finished reading it last week and definitely recommend it. It's a charming tale with passages that made me laugh out loud as well as ones that brought tears to my eyes. Bard makes a life-altering choice to leave behind her familiar North American lifestyle and move to Europe, where life is indeed quite different in so many ways. I particularly appreciated her honesty about this transition.

I'm sure you'll love the story as well and will, of course, be tempted by all the recipes included. Trust me, you'll be hungry. In the book, I found a link to the author's blog, Lunch in Paris, a delightful offering where Bard essentially continues chronicling her adventures in France. The blog is a must for fans of the book. While reading the blog's older posts, I came across a fascinating snippet of information that has nothing to do with food whatsoever. Instead, it's about one of my favourite entertainers, Fred Astaire.

Bard writes:
Instead of doing our budget last night, G. and I spent the evening comparing Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal to “The Bandwagon” with Fred Astaire, the 1950s musical comedy that inspired MJ's choreography. Leave it to my French, tap dancing, cinema buff of a husband to know such a thing.

Bard's husband found this video online and she shares the link in her post; I just had to share it as well. MJ and Astaire? You bet. Amazing. It's a long clip, but do watch all the way to the very end. It just gets better and better and better.

And do try to get your hands on a copy of Lunch in Paris. I had to return the book before I got a chance to copy out the recipes I want to try, so I think a trip to the bookstore is in my immediate future; this book is a keeper.

Easter memories

2011-04-24T12:33:00.001-04:00

they were an easter gift, two cute little ducks

i named them donald and daisy

but they grew fast

and they were messy...

they drove my grandmother crazy

i came home from school one afternoon

and donald and daisy were gone

they were too big to keep, my grandmother said

they've gone to live on a farm

i was only seven, an innocent child

happy my ducks had their freedom

until i overheard the adults that night...

the farmer was going to eat them

i rushed out of bed and confronted the room

outraged at their deception

but they weren't really sorry

and sent me to sleep...

the ducks never again to be mentioned

(true story -- this, and devouring a huge chocolate bunny at one go,
are my two earliest easter memories)

HAPPY EASTER!

Freshly baked delights

2011-04-21T17:55:00.005-04:00

Fancy some Hot Cross Buns for Easter?

How about some Roasted Onion and Walnut bread?

(Apologies to those who are either dieting or avoiding carbs.....)

No, I have not been baking. I photographed these yummy delights with my iPhone at a new bakery that's opened up mere steps from our favourite diner. What serendipity!

Cliffside Hearth Baking Company is the bakery's name and, after what I've tasted, I highly recommend them. I know I don't normally blog about where I shop, but I'm impressed with what I've tasted so far and wanted to share.

So far the captain and I have bought and enjoyed both their baguette and shortbread cookies and today we brought home the roasted onion and walnut bread you see above (I bought the one at the front of the basket). It was still hot from the oven and I could hardly stand the drive home, I wanted to tear into it so badly. It was worth the wait; it's absolutely delicious. Hot cross buns were also purchased today, but those have yet to be tasted. I have no doubt they too will be wonderful.

We were in on the weekend for their Grand Opening, but today when we stopped by it was much quieter. I chatted briefly with Camelia Proulx, one of the owners, who advised the best way to store these freshly baked delights is to put what you don't eat on the first day inside a freezer bag and freeze until you want more, then defrost on the counter and -- the secret to perfection -- reheat in a very hot oven for only a minute or so. The bread will taste freshly baked, she told me. Fresh bread without preservatives goes stale so fast, so this is a wonderful thing to know.

The interior of the bakery is small and charming, with warm brick walls and numerous wicker baskets of bread as well as loaves artfully displayed on wooden shelves. Camilia and her partner, David Aplin, do all the baking on the premises. They have sweet offerings, such as the hot cross buns and cookies, but the focus is definitely on bread. Do pop in for a look if you're in the neighbourhood. (I'd say to tell them Lennie sent you, but since they don't have a clue who I am, that would be pretty useless!)

Cliffside Hearth Bread Company

(in Cliffcrest Plaza)

3047 Kingston Road

Toronto (Scarborough), ON

Experimenting with Orton

2011-04-10T22:32:00.023-04:00

Have you ever read a Photoshop technique in a magazine or online and been absolutely itching to give it a try? That's how I felt after reading about the Orton Effect over at the More Musing blog. Oh, I'd heard about it before, but never sat down at the computer to give it a serious workout. Until now.

And now I'm getting addicted. I've tried this effect on images of old cars, flowers, stone angels, photographs I've taken of other people, even self-portraits I snapped with my iPhone with the help of a bathroom mirror. The softening effect, almost mystical with some images, is very attractive. Have a look at the orange VW van I photographed in Cocoa Beach back in February. Below, you see this photograph with the Orton Effect applied. Roll your mouse over the image to see the "before" photo. No need to click, just slide your cursor over the photo below:

(Just in case that rollover trick doesn't work for you, you can see the before image HERE and the after image HERE. I do apologize if the rollover isn't happening for you -- this is a new trick for me and I'm not sure if it works on every browser.)

Best of all, the Orton Effect is easy-peasy. The full instructions for this nifty technique can be found at Muse University - Orton Effect. There are two methods presented; after my experimentation, I prefer Method One -- on the van above, I applied the Orton Effect using Method One, reducing the opacity of the top (blur) layer just a smidge. I also added a slight edge burn as well. I first tackled this effect on a photograph of an old red Chevy, then tried it on an iPhone photograph of yet another VW van. Click here and here to see those images.

So, why don't you give this a go yourself? If you do try it, please leave me a comment with a link to your blog or Flickr account so we can all see your creations. Happy Photoshopping!

Shopping remorse

2011-04-07T23:30:00.004-04:00

We all know about buyer's remorse -- you lug a purchase home only to stare at it and wonder what on earth possessed you to buy it. But then there's the opposite, which I suspect we all know about too. That's where you don't buy something and very soon after, regret the decision.

Sometimes you can dash back to the store and breathe a sign of relief when you find the item of your desire is still on the shelf. But that's not an option when the item you wish you'd bought is now hundreds or even thousands of miles away because you were on vacation when you saw it. And it's not an option when the very store where you saw your goodies has gone out of business. Worse, you knew they were going out of business when you were there and you still weren't savvy enough to snap up the items on the spot.

Yes, I'm talking about myself here. There was this wonderful store called "inventory" in Titusville, Florida. It specialized in vintage items like kitchen collectibles and it was going out of business. This was a couple of years ago and while I did buy some neat things there, to this day it still irks me that I let some goodies just slip through my fingers. Like all the stuff you see here. Oh, I took pictures. But the blue daisy plates? Left them behind. The red Pyrex that I constantly covet? Amazingly, I left it on the shelf. The Pop Kola bottle (only a dollar!) that would have looked wonderful with a single flower in it? Left it behind. The milkglass mugs with the avocado-green harlequin pattern? Even though I collect vintage housewares in that 70s classic colour, I didn't buy those either.

It's not the first time I've saved my money and then regretted it, and I know I'll certainly do it again. Pop on over to my Stuff I Did Not Buy collection and have a peek -- although I confess that not every photo represents something I seriously thought about buying.

How about you? What do you wish you'd bought?

Mortal Muses and me

2011-04-02T02:18:00.001-04:00

Big news, everyone ... I'm absolutely delighted to announce that I'm the guest muse over at Mortal Muses today! Please, pop on over and have a look around.

The theme for the next several days is "transportation" and I'm kicking it off with "on the road", where you'll see this image as well as a wonderful photograph from Hannah Bryant. I'm musing about road trips, a subject near and dear to my heart.

As you all know, this theme couldn't have been more perfect for me. I'm always up for a drive -- across the city, across the province, even across the country, which I've done once. Two hours, two days, two weeks .... it doesn't matter to me. I'm an excellent co-pilot and will even spell the driver should he (or she!) be in need of a nap; all I ask is time to gaze out the window, camera at the ready, just in case something interesting comes into view.

Do you remember that old Pathfinder commercial, promoting the idea that it was the perfect vehicle to drive to South America? I wanted to do that too. Still do.

Many thanks to Tammy Lee and all the muses for offering me this wonderful opportunity. I ♥ you guys!

Strolling along St. Clair

2011-03-27T21:42:00.003-04:00

Looks like some sort of digital collage, doesn't it? It isn't. It's an iPhone shot I took today (edited with the Lo-Mob app to give it the grungy edge), shooting from the sidewalk into a beauty salon. It was a very pleasant sight -- there were spring flowers planted in window boxes outside the shop's window, along with other plantings, a very cool aqua bicycle just inside the shop, and the sun shining in caused the french text lettered on the salon's window to reflect on the apple-green sofa in front of the bike.

More iPhone shots from today's stroll on St. Clair Avenue West:

An APPetite

2011-03-23T17:02:00.002-04:00

No surfboards for us today. It is snowing in Toronto. Heavily. The weather report a couple of days ago claimed we would get light snow today, that wouldn't stick. Hah! It looks like Christmas outside......which is why I'm staying inside.

Since returning from our winter getaway, I've been checking out new apps for my iPhone. And, surprise surprise, they are not all photographic ones -- although my favourite new app is Instagram. And it's free! One of Instagram's features is the ability to share photos, but that's not why I like it; I love the filters it lets you apply to your shots. The above image was created using Instagram, as was the one below. If you love your iPhone's camera, this is a must-have app.

By the way, that's a Frownie. It's green in honour of St. Patrick's Day, and was mint-flavoured, but normally a Frownie features chocolate icing. King's Family Restaurants is, I believe, a small chain of restaurants in Pennsylvania and that's where we stopped for lunch early this month, just south of Pittsburgh, when we were on our journey home from Florida; Frownies are their specialty. It was delicious.

Back to the apps. MapQuest 4 Mobile is another new favourite of mine, similar to the MapQuest web site I'm sure you've used many times. This app lets you find gas stations, restaurants, lodging etc., but I downloaded it for its ability to provide both driving and walking directions for any routes you want; it will even tell you where to go, just like the GPS you use in your car. Pretty valuable for a free app, wouldn't you say?

Speaking of free apps, and I do mean speaking, don't miss Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This freebie features a dictionary that not only gives you definitions but also provides synonyms, just like a thesaurus. And my favourite feature? You can speak your word rather than type it, which is perfect when you're not sure of a word's spelling. It also has a voice feature giving you a word's proper pronunciation. Neat.

Instant Heart Rate is another free app I've been using. For me, it's ideal, as I have a terrible time finding my own pulse. With this app, you cover the iPhone's camera lens with the tip of your finger and it picks up your pulse from that. There is a paid version with more features, but the freebie suits me just fine.

Finally, an app that's not thrilling me. Sleep Pillow Ambiance is a free app that claims to be a white noise machine. This interested me as I've determined that one of the reasons I sleep so well when we're in Florida is the constant sound of the ocean waves hitting the shore. White noise machines are expensive so I downloaded this app to try and, well, it's a good thing it's free. To me, the app's ocean waves sound doesn't remind me of the ocean at all; it sounds just like water in a bathtub. It certainly doesn't make me sleepy!

Any new iPhone apps that are your favourites? I'd love to hear about them.

And then there was spring

2011-03-20T14:15:00.001-04:00

It's chilly here in Toronto, but it's the day that spring arrives so it's definitely a happy-dance day. To usher in the new season, I wanted to share a photoshop experiment with you.

Please have a look at the crocuses above, and then swing on over to Elemenopea and have a look at the image there ... then please come back. I'll wait.

..........

Ah, you're back. The two images appear to be the same, yet they're also obviously different. Both pieces of artwork were created using the exact same photograph and the exact same textures. The image you see above was cropped before the textures were added and did have a Dry Brush filter applied as the very last step, after all the layers were flattened.

The crop is obvious and the Dry Brush filter is not. But here's the thing. The same textures were used, in the same order and with the same layer blending modes. So why the difference? Two things. I altered the opacity of the different texture layers plus I played with the lightness, hue and saturation of each texture. And with three textures in this piece of art, this leads to a dizzying array of possibilities.

So when you're experimenting with your digital artwork creations, please don't take textures just at face value. Vary the blending modes when you apply a texture, play with the opacity, and check out the other settings too. I hope you'll come to see that textures offer you a world of creativity.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to briefly brave the chilliness to see if this year's crocuses are popping up yet.

The end of an era

2011-03-18T17:36:00.004-04:00

We always said we would drive it until it died. Well, we did. Because it did.

The captain was downtown on Tuesday afternoon and, about two blocks from his destination, our Big Blue Beast (also known as our Astro van) ground to a halt. Literally. First there was a grinding noise, I was told, and then the car just lost all power. It was towed to our mechanic and then we awaited the news.

It wasn't good. Our Big Blue Beast's heart had finally ceased to beat. Or, in less romantic terms, the engine died.

We've experienced a lot with our BBBeast. It was absolute perfection for a road trip, with lots of room inside. It's taken us all over Ontario, down to Buffalo more times than I could ever possibly count, down to Indiana to visit family many times, and safely transported us to Florida and back five times. It's helped our son move out, then back in, then back out again. Terra loved riding in it; Tippi would always eagerly jump in too. It's enabled me to go to everything from yard sales to Ikea without worrying about how I would schlep something home. It sat high and proud on the road and, for a drive-by shooter like myself, enabled wonderful views of all the passing scenery.

This was an aging beauty; it had begun to rust, quite badly in spots, and the upholstery was really showing its age. We bought it, used, back in June, 2000. It's a '93 and I really was hoping it would make 20 years on the road, but that was not to be. Its final mileage: 322,147.3 kilometres. That's something!

Parts of our BBBeast will live on, as an organ donor if you will. Our mechanic also drives an Astro and so has bought ours, to salvage what parts he can, for use with his own vehicle. The captain pried the logo (what you see, above) out of the dash before turning the keys over to the mechanic, to bring home to me. He knew I wanted it.

So now we are back to being a one-car family. Sure, this will save us money on gas and insurance, but I really wish my BBBeast was still in the driveway. Rest In Peace; you were a great vehicle.

A way to help, if you're able

2011-03-14T23:43:00.001-04:00

My good friend Marie Otero has an amazing offer on her blog today, which will interest any of you who would like to contribute to the relief efforts for Japan but don't know how. She is selling prints of this beautiful image, The Lost Geisha, with all profits going to the Red Cross to aid the victims of the horrendous earthquake that occured a few days ago.

Please ... fly on over to her blog and order one. Click HERE to go directly to her blog post with this offer. Not only will you receive a stunning Lost Aussie print, but you'll also be helping those in need.

Marie: thank you and bravo!

News from Japan

2011-03-12T22:00:00.003-05:00

In 1969, I met Donna Reddick in Ottawa, in Geography class. I was new to the school and mistakenly took her seat on my first day. We've been friends ever since. Oh, we can go for a long time without contacting each other, but that doesn't negate the friendship whatsoever. In the 1970s, her father was transferred to Japan and so her family moved there, where she fell in love with the country. After a short time, her father was transferred back to North America, but she never lost her love of Japan. Many years ago, she moved back there, for good.

We haven't corresponded for a while, but when the news started coming out of Japan yesterday about the horrific 8.9 earthquake, my thoughts went to her. I was filled with dread. I emailed her, hoping against hope that she would receive my message.

She did. And she is fine. She writes, "Believe what you're seeing on TV. It is horrendous. I'm fortunate enough to live in Yokohama away from the massive destruction...it could have been here though. It can happen anywhere in this country."

I am so glad my friend is well but so many others are not so fortunate. I must say, at times like these the problems of everyday life seem so petty.

Home

2011-03-11T17:07:00.000-05:00

HOME.
We are home.
I am adjusting to the return to normalcy, but it hasn't been easy. We have been back for several days but I have yet to unpack every suitcase, empty every bag. I have downloaded the photographs from only one of my three cameras. Familiar routines are returning, albeit slowly. As always, the small things delight...my own pillow, my own kitchen, my own easy chair. Such are the comforts of home.

We are no longer "homeward bound" but yet, this song always pops into my mind when I think of "home". Turn up your speakers and play this loud; it's a wonderful live performance by one of the best duos ever, singing one of their best songs ever.
Enjoy.

Signs along the way

2011-03-06T00:40:00.001-05:00

Soon, soon. Soon we'll be home. This is just a wee peek at what we've seen on the homeward journey.

A Walley World Day

2011-02-28T22:51:00.002-05:00

Let me clarify. When I refer to "a Walley World day", I am not referring to Walt Disney World. Nope. I'm referring to the Chevy Chase film, Vacation. Remember that movie? Of course you do. Who can forget the Griswold family's trip to Walley World? Today, the captain and I took a little trip of our own.

Last week, there was a piece on the local news about the Central Florida Fair in Orlando. It opened last Thursday and runs right through to March 6th. The captain and I decided it would be a fun daytrip and so today, off we went. We certainly picked a hot day to venture out!

Have I mentioned that the air conditioning no longer works in our car? We go all retro and roll down the windows.

Anyway. We drive into Orlando, turn here, turn there, stop to take pictures of old motel signs and, finally, at 1:30 in the afternoon, end up at the fair. As you can see by the sign above, it's "The Greatest Carnival on Earth!!!". Three exclamation marks! Yay! Let's go in!

But hold on just a moment. The huge parking lot is very, um, empty. Are we first? That could be good. We'll get a great spot.

And then the realization sets in.

Stop! Stop? Stop indeed. Why?

Stop because the #$@!*&! place isn't open! Locked up. Barricaded. Padlocked even. And not a sign in sight to list the hours. The place was just ... closed.

Yup, we had our very own Walley World trip.

But you can't make lemonade without lemons, so I took the opportunity to wander around outside the fence and captured several photographs with both my camera and my iPhone. I wasn't able to get into the fair, but I'm quite pleased with today's shots. Here's one of them.

So while it was disappointing to miss the fair -- we checked online when we got home and after much searching, discovered it doesn't open on weekdays until 4 pm -- we still had a fun day. A very amusing adventure!

Making time for art

2011-02-26T23:14:00.001-05:00

While I have been primarily enjoying the warmth of the beautiful Florida sunshine -- we've been experiencing temperatures around 27C, not too hard to take, eh? -- I have snuck in some "me time" on the computer and managed to create a bit of photoshop art.

If you like that first one, the blue '55 Bel Air, you can find it on Redbubble too. It was a wonderful discovery, parked in the lot of a local mall.

The pelican portrait was taken at the local port, while the mysterious madonna was photographed at a small cemetery the captain and I recently found just by driving down a different street. The moral: always have a camera handy!

I ♥ Mortal Muses

2011-02-21T10:37:00.001-05:00

What a wonderful way to start my day! One of my Chicago photographs (see above) has been selected as the photo-of-the-day over at Mortal Muses; isn't that great? I'm tickled pink -- a big THANK YOU to Maureen and all the Muses.

There is something about those Chicago photographs, you know. They have brought me very good luck.

Pop over to the "night time in the city" posting and give Maureen some blog-love; I think her sign photograph of the Fox Theatre is wonderful. As you all know, I have such a soft spot for photos of signs. I've put St. Louis on my to-visit list!

Alley-oop!

2011-02-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

The Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, known locally as just the Viera Wetlands, proved to be the highlight of our day on Thursday. We saw plenty of birds, yes, but the abundance of alligators provided a huge WOW factor. Not only did we see several, but some of them were sunning themselves at the edge of the roadway, seemingly not caring one bit that we humans were walking close by. Have a look at the three of us and our new friend:

Yes, we really were close......and no, we did not approach the wee beastie!

Hats Off to Larry

2011-02-17T22:09:00.000-05:00

Larry, this is for you.

Happy Heart Day!

2011-02-14T11:18:00.000-05:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAYto all my friends,
all my family,
and of course,
to my love, the captain (I spied this cute little keychain in a bookstore yesterday and just had to pull out my iPhone to grab some photos. The post-processing was done in photoshop.)

Name That Flower

2011-02-11T22:42:00.000-05:00

We headed up to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge today, to meander along the Black Point Wildlife Drive. This is a free seven-mile one-way gravel road that weaves its way through a marshy wilderness. Unfortunately, it was a mostly disappointing journey. The captain and I have done this drive before and found it teeming with a huge variety of birds, along with several alligators. Today, the wildlife consisted primarily of mosquitoes. Birds were few and far between and we saw one gator.

But then there were these flowers. Please, see above. I don't know what they are and am hoping someone can shed some light here. They're a beautiful deep red and yellow and about the size of a small daisy or a marigold. These wildflowers were along the side of the road for most of the drive. I'd love to know what these beauties are!

It's good to relax

2011-02-09T22:03:00.000-05:00

My goodness -- it's been a week since I've posted! My girlfriend Lori is visiting the captain and I and, well, we've been enjoying ourselves. Less time on the computer and more time out and about with friends, having fun.

Tonight we tried a local Mexican restaurant, located on U.S.1 in Cocoa, Florida. Chaparrel features delicious homecooked meals ... and who can resist 2-for-1 margaritas? Not Lori, not me. Well, the captain can. He was driving.

If you're ever in the area, make sure you have a meal at Chaparrel. And maybe a margarita or two as well!

(The "relax" clipping mask is from Elemenopea's "Words To Live By: Set 2". I added both a drop shadow and a bevel-and-emboss to the mask.)

Can you dig it?

2011-02-02T21:25:00.000-05:00

What is it with me and orange vehicles? They're all around me. First the amazing wienermobile, next an old Ford pickup that I unfortunately did not photograph, and now ... a super-cool 1971 VW camper van! I. Want. It. NOW.

But alas, it's stick-shift and that is a skill I definitely do not possess. It's for sale but there was no price listed, so I suspect it's one of those if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it situations. At least I implored the captain to drive around the block to go back after we drove by it and I have my photographs to keep me happy.

You know, though, the captain drives stick..............

Anyway.

Happy and groovy -- that's the theme for February's calendar page. An orange VW van with a pink home behind it. This pleases me no end.

As always, just click on the image above to head for its home on Flickr, where you can download it. It's a high-res full-page image, perfect for printing.

Keep on truckin'.

Dreaming

2011-01-31T20:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, as the captain and I stood on the balcony of our winter retreat, we watched the Disney Dream sail by us. The Dream is Disney's newest cruise ship and she's a beauty.

I captured this photograph from our balcony, then gave it a subtle texture treatment using two textures (Pool Party and Sandstorm) from Elemenopea's Texture and Background Collection: Set 4. I used the Soft Light layer blending mode with both textures, and played with the opacity of each layer until I was happy with the look.

Yesterday afternoon we drove up to the port to get an up-close peek at the Dream. Come this fall, we'll be getting an even closer look as we have a cruise booked on her and we're very excited about that. But, for now, we'll be delighted to watch her sail in and out of Port Canaveral all month long.

I apologize for what you are about to read

2011-01-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

To all my northern friends and family .... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm sharing the current weather conditions and I'm sorry I couldn't fit all of you into our car. Trust me, we would have brought all of you with us if we could have made room.

We are in Florida now; the captain and I crossed the state line around noon yesterday and after hunting down a Jacksonville seafood restaurant we had seen on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Singleton's Seafood Shack -- amazing!) and meandering down State Road A1A after lunch instead of directly returning to the interstate, we finally checked into our hotel late yesterday afternoon. And we awoke today to a simply glorious day.

People often ask the captain why he takes such a big chunk of vacation time so we can do our winter escape. In the summer, people think it's odd. They forget about winter. But not now. No. One look at the weather forecast and it's understandable.

Wienermobile

2011-01-26T22:33:00.001-05:00

So.........the captain and I headed out this morning, turned around the corner, and what did we see?This! It's the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!

C'mon now .... you know you want to sing!

The road not travelled

2011-01-25T21:52:00.001-05:00

When driving around, local or not, I am always up for the idea of taking a different route, of driving down an unfamiliar street. So when we stopped for lunch on Sunday in Cleveland, Tennessee (I know ...... who knew there was more than one Cleveland?), we took a different route back to the Interstate than the way we drove in.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, looming on the horizon on our left, there appeared to be a water tower featuring a blue M&M. This warranted a quick turnaround to investigate further. It was none other than a Mars location and, when I put my window down to take photographs of the aforementioned tower, the air was redolent with chocolate. How it could be possible to live directly across from the plant -- the other side of the street was strictly residential -- is something I don't understand. That aroma would drive me crazy.

If we had not driven off the main route, we never would have seen this. I'm glad we took a chance on an alternate road!

We had a similar experience today. The skies opened up here in Savannah and the rain pelted down, but the morning and early-afternoon were relatively rain-free, so the captain and I were out driving around today, trying to find a particular old gas station that I remembered from last year and never photographed. I remembered the station, not the location. Anyway, we came to a street that we might or might not have driven down before, we weren't sure, so we hung a left and gave it a try. It was quickly apparent to both of us that we'd never been in this particular section of Savannah before.

So what did we find? Not the old gas station I was searching for, but instead we found ourselves driving right beside the Wilmington River. On the left, we saw a row of shrimp boats docked at a small pier; on the right, a seafood restaurant that looked inviting. If you are ever in Savannah, by the way, eat as much local shrimp as you can; they're amazing. And also on the left, an old shack selling fresh local shrimp.

So we ate shrimp for lunch (should I mention that we also had shrimp for dinner last night?) and I took photographs of the boats as well as the shack. A great lunch and a great photo shoot -- all because we took a chance on an unfamiliar road.

The Peach State

2011-01-24T21:47:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Savannah, Georgia! Yes, the captain and I are once again on our winter getaway. We left a FREEZING cold Toronto early Saturday morning, spending our first night in Corbin, Kentucky. It was chilly there, but nothing like we'd left behind. Macon, Georgia was where we called it a day on Sunday, and this morning we left Macon and headed for Savannah.

Before we pulled away from the hotel in Macon this morning, I snapped the photo you see above. It was so wonderful to see all the pansies planted around the hotel. Pansies = spring! And it's only January! Ah, I love coming south.

(The clipping mask I used to create the rough edge and the word "beautiful" is one of the offerings at Elemenopea; please pop by to have a look! And thank you for the kind comments and emails about the new venture!)

BIG News!

2011-01-21T15:12:00.002-05:00

After all the waiting, all the "coming soon" and "stay tuned" hints, it's finally time. Time for what? Time to announce the launch of ELEMENOPEA!

I'm so excited to tell you about ELEMENOPEA. ELEMENOPEA DESIGNS is an online resource for all manner of digital goodies for use in all your creative projects. ELEMENOPEA is a collaborative artistic venture -- our name, ELEMENOPEA, is actually a wee mysterious hint at who we are. Can you figure it out?

All the digital delights available at ELEMENOPEA are unique, created just by us, and are elements we use in our own creative pursuits.

You'll find high-resolution textures and backgrounds, clipping masks and brushes, even royalty-free stock photography. And I'm sure you'll all appreciate that ELEMENOPEA's Terms Of Use clearly states that our digital elements may be used in artwork you plan to sell! I know for me, there are now many items from other artists that I just won't use in my own artwork because the artists don't allow commercial use of those items. I'd much rather have the peace-of-mind that should I decide to make greeting cards, for example, using another artist's textures, I'm not violating anyone's policies by trying to sell them.

Oh ..... everything at ELEMENOPEA is reasonably priced too; no wallet-busters here!

Below is just a little sample of something I created using ELEMENOPEA's digital elements.

The background is from Texture & Background Collection, Set 3 on the New Stuff page; the angel is from Angels, Set 1, found on the Stock Images page (the image is not square; I cropped it for the project); finally, two textures were used (Burnt Paper, from Texture Collection, Set 2, and Soft Summer, from Texture Collection, Set 1) that can be found on the Textures page.

I hope you'll take a moment to go have a peek at all that ELEMENOPEA offers and have a look around. Much more is planned for the site, including video tutorials! I'm so, so pleased ELEMENOPEA is finally up and running. I hope you like what you see there!

Gizmo and Terra

2011-01-19T15:26:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone ... I'm featured over at Mortal Muses today! Please check out their Double Trouble posting!

I'm so pleased to have the above image, one of my favourites, honoured this way. Big thanks to the Muses!

The wonder of it all

2011-01-18T01:14:00.003-05:00

(UPDATE: THESE TWO CLIPPING MASK COLLECTIONS HAVE NOW BEEN RETIRED. PLEASE VISIT ELEMENOPEA TO SEE WHAT'S NEW!)

Did you ever have such a full brain that you made yourself a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and forgot to include the ham? This happened to me, just days ago. I actually ate the whole sandwich before I realized what I had done, I was so distracted.

This distraction is the result of exciting things that have been occupying my time. Sorry to be a tease, but that's all I'm saying for now. All will be revealed in the next few days. Promise.

But in the meantime, I wanted to give you one last opportunity to grab my two sets of clipping masks before I retire them (see below). Soon they will make way for some new clipping masks -- of the 16 masks you see below, only a couple of them will continue on into new sets. All part of that distraction I mentioned, you see.....

The above image was created using the "wonder" mask in Sampler #2; this particular clipping mask will not be in the new sets. Besides the mask, I used one of my angel photographs as well as one of my new textures to create the piece. And yes, both the angel and the texture are part of the recent distraction too!

When I first blogged about these clipping masks HERE, I gave detailed instructions on how to use them. If you're looking for an easier method, I suggest you give this trick a try. Just open up the clipping mask file, which is a PNG file, and with your foreground colour set to white, click in any of the transparent areas (where you see the checkerboard when you open the file in Photoshop) with your Paint Bucket tool to fill those areas with white. As long as "Contiguous" is not checked off up in your menu bar after you select the Paint Bucket, all the transparent areas will be filled with white, all at once. If "Contiguous" is checked, you would need to click in each transparent area, filling them in one at a time. Too much work!

Save the PNG as a JPG; after you do this, Photoshop will ask if you want to save the changes to the PNG file when you try to close it; just click "no". And now you're set -- no worrying about where to place the mask or how to apply it. Use the JPG just like you would a texture -- on the layer above your photograph -- and then with that mask layer selected, choose either Screen or Lighten as your layer blending mode. Done!

Why don't you give it a try? These two sets will only be available for the next couple of days.

$6.00

SAVE! CLICK BELOW TO BUY BOTH FOR ONLY $10.00!

Thanks for having a look ... and stay tuned!

Do you remember Bi-Way?

2011-01-13T23:01:00.004-05:00

Browsing through some photographs I captured last year, I came across this shot. Last June, on my birthday, the captain and I went on a mini-roadtrip, meandering east and then north, ending up in Orillia, Ontario. We walked around and I was quite surprised to see this empty store, windows papered over, with what is obviously an old Bi-Way sign with paint slapped over it.

I remember Bi-Way. I bought a grey flannel robe with a teddy bear on the front at our local Bi-Way many, many years ago; I still have that robe. For some reason I also recall that Bi-Way was a good source for wrapping paper, especially at Christmas. It's odd to remember that, but I do.

I also remember Woolworth's; do you? And Woolco? Simpson's? My first-ever credit card was from Simpson's. Or was it Simpson-Sears first?

I also remember shopping at Miracle Mart for groceries, where they'd put your bags in a plastic tub and whisk it down a conveyor belt that went outside. You got your car and drove up to the curb to retrieve your purchase. I don't think any supermarkets do that anymore.

Today in the news, it was announced that Target is coming to Canada. I love shopping at Target when in the U.S., so this is good news, but it looks like we Canadians are losing Zellers in the process. As the stores gradually become Target outlets, I'm guessing that Zellers will soon be just a memory. Like Bi-Way.

We all have memories of certain stores, of particular shopping experiences. What are yours?

Digital MAGIC

2011-01-05T19:15:00.002-05:00

How would you like to win a wonderful online class? Even better, how would you like to win a wonderful online class -- Digital Journal Magic -- taught by the exceptional Marie Otero?

Class starts January 15th, but you have until January 8th to WIN yourself a spot. Just head on over to the Collage Cat Studio blog, where you can enter to win one of two spots in Marie's exciting new digital class for Photoshop and Elements users. Marie is an excellent teacher and I just know you'll learn so much in this new class, and you'll enjoy the whole process too.

Good luck!

Sweet Eleven

2011-01-01T16:40:00.001-05:00

It's 2011. Let's start it off the right way, with something sweet -- sweet potato pie!

I devoured this yummy piece of pie at Matthews Cafeteria in Tucker, Georgia; that was the very first restaurant the captain and I ticked off our Diners, Drive-ins and Dives must-try list, almost two years ago now. I'll never forget that visit as it was early March and the entire town had just had a major snowstorm. (I blogged about it HERE.) Tucker is just outside of Atlanta and I never thought I'd see such a wintry scene there. I actually went looking through the Tucker photographs for some lovely icicle shots I knew I took then, thinking those appropriate for January's calendar page, but I stopped when I saw the pie photographs and instantly knew I'd much rather start the year with something soft and sweet than something sharp and cold.

As always, just click on the image above to be whisked away to its home on Flickr, where you can download the size of your choice. The "original" size is a high-resolution full-page (8-1/2x11) image, perfect for printing. I hope you enjoy it and I apologize in advance if I've spoiled anyone's dieting resolution!

Happy New Year!

Vivian Maier

2010-12-28T23:33:00.005-05:00

I will make this short and sweet -- if you do nothing else today, please go to the Shutter Sisters blog and read "a legacy". You will discover an incredible photographer, Vivian Maier. Her story -- and how she was recently discovered -- is astounding. Make sure you follow the link to the video!

I am totally in awe of the talent of this secretive woman, who was not a formal photographer but rather, a Chicago nanny. Her hobby, her passion, was her photography, but she never shared her works with anyone. Amazingly, she has come to light only because tubs of her negatives -- tens of thousands of images, representing decades of her work -- were bought at an auction by John Maloof, who had no idea that those negatives would reveal this unknown talent. What a discovery!

But enough from me. Go! Read "a legacy" and follow all the links there too!

It's Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T13:44:00.000-05:00

It seems I left everything to the last minute this holiday season. Putting up the tree, decorating the house, shopping, wrapping -- all accomplished, but later in the month than I intended.

But it's Christmas Eve and everything has finally been crossed off my to-do list with one sole exception: baking shortbread cookies. That'll happen later today and it's a process I always enjoy.

So, tonight I'll be able to munch on freshly baked cookies and sip something delicious -- and take the time to sit back and relax. I wish the same for all of you ... that you'll be able to take the time to sit back and enjoy the holiday!

Although it's been said

Many times, many ways

Merry Christmas to you

Michael and Sam

2010-12-09T00:10:00.001-05:00

So Nancy and I are in Best Buy this afternoon. We stop to admire a gorgeous monitor and Nancy notices it's a touch-screen. Cool. I start tapping on the screen and, sure enough, the touch-screen works like a charm.

Now, Nancy and I both like Michael Buble -- so I tap on a Buble Youtube offering I see on the screen. Next thing we both know, we're watching what you see above -- an eager mother, a British teenage boy, and ... well ... just watch it.

The waiting game

2010-12-06T15:12:00.002-05:00

Did you ever shoot with film? I’m betting you did. Whether your purpose was capturing vacation memories, family snapshots, or even if you had artistic intentions, I’m sure you remember the process. First step, buy the film, followed of course by shooting your photographs. Then you had to find the time to drop the film off at your choice of developer -- maybe a camera lab, maybe the local drugstore -- then you had to WAIT for your photos to be developed. No instant images spitting out of a machine, no one-hour guarantees. Certainly no computer screen to view then on! You had to wait for several days to get your pictures back, when you could finally see your images, oftentimes weeks after you’d actually taken the photographs.

I was watching a photography show on Bravo a short time ago and the photographer who was being interviewed said something that made me sit up and take notice. He commented that, when he travelled, before he switched to digital, he shot many, many rolls of film, but of course they wouldn’t be developed until he was home and, in the meantime, he had no idea how his photos turned out. And he loved that! He told the interviewer that the immediacy of digital photography actually took away a lot of his pleasure and appreciation of his images. His point seemed to be that he needed to put the experience well behind him before viewing the photographs he took. And so he started to forego the routine of rushing back to his hotel each evening, to download and view his shots. He takes all his photos, same as always, and I believe he said he downloads them onto his laptop as a backup, but now he never looks at his photographs until well after he returns home.

I gave this a lot of thought. My process, since going digital, has been exactly as he described: reviewing all my photos very soon after they were taken. But I remembered having to wait, back in the film days, and how wonderful it was to finally see what I had shot. I got to relive the experience all over again, whether it was a family party or a trip or even just a photographic walkabout, instead of seeing the photos while I was still immersed in the experience. Patience really has a big payback.

So lately, I’ve made a deliberate effort to go back through photographs I’ve shot not recently, but at least several months back, if not years. I had a look through the photographs I shot in Chicago in April, for example, pleasantly surprised by many photos I had forgotten I had taken. I saw them with fresh eyes. And then there’s the snowman, above. I shot that image when I was just fooling around with some macro photography; I took the picture about two years ago and found it recently only because I was looking through old folders of images. I sat here, looking at the snowman, and ideas just started flowing.

I urge you…….go back through your old shots. I guarantee you’ll have forgotten many of them and viewing them will be a real pleasure. I’m also betting that you have likely learned digital techniques that you didn’t know when you took the pictures, techniques you can now apply to those shots. Have fun exploring and I hope you find some gems hidden away on your hard drive.

The Vintage Scene app

2010-12-03T14:22:00.000-05:00

Here we go again...time to let my fellow iPhone users know about a new app I've discovered.

Vintage Scene has quickly become a favourite of mine. It includes many different options to apply age and/or grunge to a photograph. You get to monkey around with a lot of the settings and when you come across a particular combination you really like, you get to save it as a new preset with a name of your choosing. For example, the photo above, of the angelic wall decoration inside Buffalo's fantastic Parkside candy store (a must-visit, if you've never been there -- don't forget your camera and don't forget to buy some sponge candy), uses the same combination of effects as this photo below, of the store's exterior:

My only quibble with this app is that it seems to take a very long time to save the edited photos. But the time spent waiting is well worth it, in my opinion. I just love the end results.

As always, click on each photo for a larger view.

The Lake Effect Diner

2010-11-30T20:14:00.002-05:00

This blog is named eat write create, but you'd be correct in assuming the focus on "eat" has been somewhat missing. Let's correct that now. The captain and I ate at a wonderful diner yesterday, one definitely worth a shout-out.

Do you ever watch Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network? The captain and I are regular viewers and have been to a few of the places featured in the show. And now we can add another one to the list.

When I saw the episode featuring The Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo, NY, I recognized it immediately -- we had driven by it before and I'd always wanted to give it a try. Yesterday morning, while we were driving down the highway headed for a day trip in Buffalo, we discussed where we would go for a late breakfast and the Lake Effect came up in the conversation. So, after crossing over into the U.S., we headed straight there.

Unfortunately, I took no pictures of the food, but I did capture some iPhone photos both inside and outside. It's a very cool old diner car that is extremely photogenic.

As for the food, it was wonderful. The captain ordered a seemingly standard breakfast item, bacon and eggs. But -- oh! -- that bacon. The captain generously shared some with me and I can report it was thick and meaty, with a slight hint of maple. Delicious. As for me, I ordered the eggs benedict. Homemade hollandaise, perfect peameal. Yum!

The menu covers breakfast, lunch and dinner and the desserts sound wickedly good. Apparently, they make a banana split with deep-fried bananas. We will have to return soon to try that!

December, early

2010-11-24T22:01:00.001-05:00

December's calendar page comes to you a bit early. And no, it's not festive or jolly or even red and green. Instead, I offer you a page created with an exquisite photograph of wild mustangs, courtesy of Ree Drummond. Yes, The Pioneer Woman. She is running an "Edit This!" contest over on her blog -- she provided the photograph of the wild mustangs and wants her blog readers to edit it in any way, shape or form, then post to her Flickr group. She chooses her faves and features them on her site.

I had already created three different edits -- it's a very inspiring photograph! -- when it dawned on me that this would make a wonderful calendar page. PW is sharing the photograph and I like to share my calendar page creations. What a match!

So, as always, you can click on the above image to be taken to its page on Flickr, where you can click on the Actions tab above the image and download the size of your choice. And if you are feeling creative, why don't you have a go at the original photograph yourself? The details are HERE. I hope you decide to participate and best of luck to everyone who does!

And...HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my American friends. I hope that tomorrow you enjoy the football games, the pleasure of having friends and family near and, of course, the food!

(Photograph © Ree Drummond; editing and sharing done with her permission)

For the Christmas she will remember

2010-11-20T12:23:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, I find something online that just stops me in my tracks.

I set aside some time this morning to look through the photographs and images recently uploaded to Flickr by my "contacts" -- friends, family, and others whose images I always admire. One of my contacts is What Makes the Pie Shops Tick? who always has wonderful vintage finds.

I was delighted to discover that he was sharing pages from a 1964 Frederick's of Hollywood holiday catalogue, the image above being one of them. How cool is that? You can see these pages, including the cover, in his Frederick's set and I urge you to have a peek; I just know it'll make you smile. And perhaps be a little envious of the waistlines. Did women really look like this in the 1960s?

The captain's big day

2010-11-18T17:49:00.000-05:00

It's the captain's birthday! So here's a sweet little blast from the past, the captain as a wee lad.

Isn't he a cutie?

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!

Photo ops

2010-11-14T23:09:00.001-05:00

My neighbour has bought himself a wonderful old Mercury truck.Costco has the most gorgeous roses.What could I do but capture it all with my iPhone?

(As always, click on each photo to see a larger version.)

Red Velvet

2010-11-11T18:25:00.000-05:00

How appropriate that this is my 400th blog post (!) as it's about something near and dear. Red Velvet! No, not the fabric....the cake. It's one of my most favourite things.

And it certainly seems to be red velvet time right now. Last week the captain and I had dinner at Massey's in Pickering, where we learned they have cupcakes for dessert, including red velvet. Of course that's what I ordered; I took an iPhone snap (above, using the Hipstamatic app) of the yummy treat before I devoured it. If you have a peek at Leslie's blog, she makes mention of Red Velvet cupcakes in today's post, Ina does it again. Finally, a wonderful discovery at Loblaws today: red velvet cheesecake. Guess what we had for dessert tonight?

Animated excellence

2010-11-05T21:31:00.005-04:00

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

I found this online as I was blog-surfing around and wanted to share.
WARNING: Have a box of tissue handy!

Sepia or black-and-white?

2010-11-02T22:13:00.001-04:00

Last week, I had the good fortune to attend a slideshow presentation and lecture from local photographer Pamela Williams. This talented woman specializes in cemetery sculpture, a favourite of mine. The evening was entertaining and informative and, for me, particularly inspiring. Viewing her photographs of stone angels and marble women from cemeteries across Europe (and even Cuba) left me eager to review my own photographs as well as hit the road in search of new cemeteries to explore.

The exploration will have to wait for now, but over the past few days I have been browsing through all the photographs I have taken in cemeteries over the past few years. As I watched Ms. Williams' slideshow and listened to her describe these images that she so obviously loves, two things caught my attention. Firstly, I was totally charmed as she explained that when she is shooting, she has no hesitation to crop away an angel's head if she is at all dissatisfied with the hair, the eyes or the face. When she said that, one angel I photographed earlier this year in Richmond, Virginia's Hollywood Cemetery immediately popped into my mind. I decided to try a similar approach and came up with this:

I am very pleased with the results. I find I focus now on her hands, instead of her eyes, which just didn't appeal to me at all. I also tried this approach on a shot I took in Toronto's Mount Hope Cemetery; you can see that image HERE.

Another area of inspiration for me was Ms. Williams' decision not to shoot in colour. The walls in the small, intimate room in which the lecture took place were completely filled with Ms. Williams' photographs, entirely in black-and-white. She still shoots with film and, she told us, always shoots black-and-white in cemeteries. Her slides for the presentation, however, are produced using colour film and therefore will have a colour tint to them, so rather than have an odd colour to the slides that would be offputting, she has them all processed in a sepia tone. At times she even apologized for the brown tones in some of the images that had a great deal of contrast. For me, the apology was not necessary since I quite enjoyed seeing the images in sepia. As I was viewing my own photographs over the past few days, I couldn't help but ponder the sepia vs. black-and-white idea. Photographs of stone and marble statuary lend themselves to a colourless application, but which works best? Sepia? Or the classic black-and-white?

I don't know the answer and perhaps it is very dependent on each particular image, but here is the above photograph presented in both formats. Any thoughts?

As always, click on the photos to see them in a slightly larger size.

I have been experimenting with both sepia and black-and-white with some of my other photographs of cemetery sculpture. Sepia HERE, black-and-white HERE. My thanks to Pamela Williams for both an enjoyable evening and a mountain of inspiration.

November already?

2010-11-01T15:14:00.000-04:00

I don't know what happened to October, but it went by with superhero speed. I've spent most of the month nursing a pulled muscle on my left side, something I didn't at first take too seriously. A mistake on my part, for sure. Days and days of ignoring it, I believe, only made it worse and significantly lengthened its time to heal. I hope this teaches me there isn't much virtue in the "grin and bear it" philosophy.

So now it is November and once more I offer you a downloadable calendar page. This industrious squirrel captured my attention as I walked down a picturesque country lane just outside of Ganonoque last autumn. My travelling companions all elected to enjoy a one-hour Thousand Islands boat tour but I chose instead to stroll around the boat-launch area, camera at the ready. I've done the boat tour before, more than once, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to absorb the beauty that was all around me.

As always, just click on the above image to be whisked away to its page on Flickr, where you can download your preferred size by clicking on Actions and then on View all sizes.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2010-10-31T11:18:00.002-04:00

Have a SPOOK-tacular day!

Number 32

2010-10-29T15:19:00.000-04:00

The captain and I shuffled off to Buffalo yesterday, a little daytripping on our anniversary. Thirty-two years! I haven't a clue where the times goes. So much has happened over that time period and yet it doesn't seem so long ago at all. How can that be? Mind and memory work in mysterious ways.

The joy of education

2010-10-23T17:47:00.000-04:00

Spending an entire day at a Photoshop seminar may not be your idea of a good time, but it sure is mine. Yesterday, Kelby Training rolled into town with their Photoshop CS5 for Photographers Tour and it was an event that I did not want to miss. Leslie and I both attended, even though neither of us own CS5. This was a terrific opportunity for us to see the program in action before making a purchasing decision. After spending the entire morning learning about the new features, I am now definitely jonesing for it. The new content aware fill is just as spectacular as it's made out to be, plus the updates to the Camera Raw interface offer even more control for image editing. There are other improvements but those two features make CS5 a must-have for me, although I have no idea when that purchase will actually happen.

The morning was spent learning many "how to" skills exclusively for CS5, but we then moved on to discover oodles of tricks and tips that will work on most versions of CS, covering topics as varied as creating actions, using the adjustment brush in Camera Raw, hiding little-used menu items, even several artistic ideas. Much more than all that, actually. Yes, it was definitely comprehensive.

Our instructor was Ben Willmore, an amazing photographer and a skilled Photoshop artist. Check out The Best of Ben and prepare to be impressed. In particular, I am in awe of his Route 66 series. Ben discussed some of his approaches when it comes to what he calls Photo Stylings and I so appreciated the advice and suggestions he shared. We learned an excellent black-and-white grainy technique, a faux HDR technique, a technique similar to selective colouring that keeps the dark areas of a photo in black-and-white while allowing some colour to appear, and much more.

I left the seminar feeling that I had definitely learned many things about Photoshop, but even more importantly, I left feeling inspired. The above image was one I worked on today in CS4, combining some of what I learned with some of my favourite tried-and-true techniques. I have many ideas swirling through my head and can't wait to tackle them all!

Smell Like a Monster

2010-10-16T15:00:00.000-04:00

You know those Old Spice commercials that have been airing for several months? Here's the Sesame Street version. I love it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-10-10T13:41:00.000-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Finding time for my iPhone

2010-10-08T23:01:00.003-04:00

It's been some time since I've shared a few iPhone photos. So, without further ado, here are some of my recent shots. In case you were wondering, Tippi discovered this piece of fence post (first picture, below) somewhere on our property and it is now her pride-and-joy. As you can see, she is slowly but surely demolishing it.

And thanks to Leslie for modelling her beautiful hand!

These are all straight out of my iPhone, first edited with some app or another (my usual suspects, like Toy Camera and Lo-Mob). I brought them into Photoshop only to apply the watermark. (If you click on each, they'll be a bit bigger.)

Oh, about that alien vegetable above ... I wish I had taken a photo of the sign but I think it was called a Peanut Pumpkin. Or a Peanut Squash. Very creepy.

On being a Canadian

2010-10-05T15:59:00.001-04:00

Like many of you, I was born in Canada, to two Canadian parents. I hold a Canadian passport. Ditto for the captain, ditto for our son. I guess we take our citizenship for granted; it has never occurred to me that there could ever be any threat to the citizenship of my family, including those yet to be born.

However, last year I learned of the dilemma facing my friend Leslie's family -- in particular, her daughter Jane, then pregnant with her first child, Zoë. The problem? Little Zoë has been denied Canadian citizenship. I shall not attempt to present the issue to you in my own words; rather, Leslie has given me permission to share the following with you, which she published early today on her blog. It bears repeating here. Everyone should read this.

Dear Members of Parliament and Other Interested Parties.

I have been following the recent debate on amending the Citizenship Act. The goal is to correct an unfortunate and unforeseen consequence of the revisions introduced in Bill C-37. Let me explain the situation whereby my granddaughter has been denied Canadian citizenship.

My daughter, Jane Moran, was born in 1977 while I was studying abroad at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. She became a Canadian citizen because my wife and I are Canadian citizens. She was issued a Canadian passport by the Consulate in Geneva. Jane could not have become a citizen of Switzerland or any other country.

My wife and I have never been citizens of any other country. We descend from a long line of Canadian citizens going back many generations. In my wife’s case, the majority of her Canadian ancestors settled in Lanark, Ontario in the 1820s. In my case, my earliest ancestors settled in Quebec in 1665. One of Jane’s grandfathers (my father) died in a tragic airplane crash while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1946. Jane’s maternal grandfather was Assistant Deputy Minister of the Department of Trade and Commerce. Every one of Jane’s eight great-grandparents were Canadians. I mention this only to show that Jane is a genuine Canadian citizen with strong ties to Canada. She is fiercely proud of her citizenship, and her Canadian heritage, as she should be.

Our family returned to Canada in 1978 when I took up a position as a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto. Jane was raised in Mississauga. She went to public school in Canada, she graduated from a Canadian high school. She graduated with an Honours Physics degree from McGill University.

After her undergraduate degree, Jane went to the University of North Carolina where she completed a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. She then took up a position in Brussels, Belgium. Her daughter (my granddaughter) , Zoë, was born on January 5, 2010. Zoë’s father is an American citizen.

According to the new Canadian law, Zoë cannot be a Canadian citizen unless she becomes one through naturalization when she returns to Canada. Fortunately, she will not be stateless because the United States of America was happy to grant her citizenship through her father. This seems unfair, especially since the family plans to live in Canada and not the United States of America.

My daughter, Jane, has never been a citizen of any other country but she cannot pass on Canadian citizenship to her daughter because she just happened to be born when my wife and I were temporarily living abroad while I completed my studies. If it were not for that inconvenient fact, my granddaughter would be Canadian. Ironically, a Canadian who was born in another country but became Canadian by naturalization, would not be in the same situation. Any child born abroad to a naturalized Canadian would also be Canadian. Any child born abroad to a Canadian born in Canada would also be able to pass on Canadian citizenship.

The effect of the law is to create several different classes of Canadian citizen based on criteria that do not make sense. I believe my daughter’s rights as a Canadian citizen are being infringed upon. Fortunately, the problem can be easily rectified by a simple revision of the Citizenship Act.

I appreciate the effort by Mr. Ujjal Dosanjh (Member, Vancouver South) to rectify the problem by introducing Bill C-467. But that bill will not help my daughter or many of the others who find themselves in a similar situation. You are undoubtedly aware of several stories that have appeared in the press. Bill C-467 will only help children born to employees of the Canadian government or members of the armed forces.

I think Bill C-397, tabled by Ms. Olivia Chow (Member Trinity-Spadina) will be more helpful since it appears to repeal the second generation restriction altogether. If so, that will allow my granddaughter to come and visit us under a Canadian passport rather than under a passport from a foreign nation.

There are some excellent provisions in the amendment passed under the previous government (Bill C-37), especially the provision concerning the "Lost Canadians." I applaud the government for taking steps to correct that particular injustice. Unfortunately, in attempting to correct another problem—that of children born abroad to Canadian citizens with no connections to Canada—Bill C-37 inadvertently deprived a number of babies of their right to become Canadian. If Parliament still wants to limit the passing on of Canadian citizenship by citizens born abroad then there are two ways to accomplish that goal without hurting Canadians such as my daughter (and others like her). Those ways are: (1) make an exception for those Canadian citizens who are not citizens of any other country, or (2) impose a residency requirement (seven years?). Canadian citizens who are born abroad but who have lived in Canada for some length of time should still be able to pass on Canadian citizenship to their children born abroad. That will make them equal to naturalized Canadians.

Please make every effort to ensure that an appropriate amendment to the Citizenship Act is passed as soon as possible. Make sure it covers Canadians such as my daughter and my granddaughter, and make sure it is retroactive. I look forward to the time when my granddaughter can become a Canadian citizen. Will it be in time for her to come home for Christmas?

Sincerely,
Professor Laurence A. Moran, B.Sc.(Hon), Ph.D.

I am Canadian. Speaking as a citizen, I have no qualms about Zoë and all the children like her being granted Canadian citizenship. Indeed, I am shocked that they would not. And speaking as both a citizen and a mother, Zoë should come home this Christmas as a Canadian citizen. How about it, Mr. Harper? You wanted to be the leader of our fine country and you obtained that. This is the time to show leadership and throw your support behind all these children who should be Canadian citizens (and therefore future taxpayers...and voters). Now is the time for common sense and goodwill. Even Ebenezer Scrooge and The Grinch came through when it counted. What about you?

A new month, a new calendar page

2010-10-01T21:36:00.000-04:00

It's finally October, one of my most favourite months. Heck, I think it is my favourite. I love Thanksgiving, I love Hallowe'en, I love that I can comfortably wear socks again, I love the harvest and I love the colours. I love October so much that the Captain and I married during this month; yup, we'll be celebrating anniversary #32 later this month.

Last October I was fortunate to take a short trip to Quebec, a particularly beautiful province in the autumn. I found the display you see in this month's calendar page outside a small cafe in Quebec City.

As always, just click on the image to go to its page on Flickr where you can download it, or click HERE. I hope you enjoy it!

It's all about the HAT

2010-09-30T17:36:00.002-04:00

Today's image is inspired by Leslie; check out this and you will understand.

It may not be Russia, but Quebec City gets darned cold.
If only I could look this stylish when I am chilled to the bone.

(Photographed last October in old Quebec City (Vieux-Québec); thanks to Marie Otero for the fabulous texture.)

The Sad Case of Alice Irons

2010-09-28T15:09:00.004-04:00

John Ogden to the left. Bertha Milnes to the right. For all eternity.

What do you think of family tree research? Have you been bitten by the genealogy bug? I have. It's fascinating, it's frustrating, it's ultimately satisfying. At times it's just a sea of facts -- names, dates, places. Other times you can't help but imagine the story behind the facts. Some make you smile, like the lifelong spinster who finally gets married when she's 74 years old; some make you go hmmmm, like my great great grandfather, John Windover, who outlived four wives. And then there's the sad. All the women who died in childbirth, all the stillborn babies, all the men who went to Europe to fight in WWI and never came home.

My family tree research had been frustrating due to the lack of information about my mother, Diane Chapell. Recently, however, I was finally able to confirm the actual names of my maternal grandparents. This has, of course, led to the discovery of oodles of relatives, most from the Sittingbourne area of England, as well as the area around Aberdeen in Scotland. My research has led to some surprising discoveries.

My great grandfather, George Edward Chapell, brought his wife and young children to Canada in 1912; his two younger brothers had come over the year prior, settling in Victoria, BC. George settled in BC as well and while his two younger brothers eventually returned to England, George stayed put. What absolutely surprised me, though, was the discovery that one month prior to George setting sail with his family, his older brother James also came to Canada. Not to BC though. James and his two sons (from his first marriage) settled right here in Toronto! A few months later, he was joined by his new wife and their two young children, as well as his teenage daughter.

That wife was Alice Irons. She married the widower James Chapell when she was 21 (he was 32) and immediately became the mother to his three children, then went on to bear him both a son and a daughter. Marrying James makes her my great great aunt, by marriage.

When James and his two oldest sons came to Canada in early 1912, Alice was obviously left behind to manage in his absence, with only the help of her teenage stepdaughter to handle the home, the finances, the children. A few months later, more stress. She packed them all up to make their voyage to Canada to join James in Toronto, arriving in mid-November in Quebec. What a chilly and dreary sight that must have been!

In 1928, Alice died. The cause of death was erysipelas (I had to google it), caused by diabetes. Very unpleasant. When I read the death registration earlier this month I was dumbfounded to learn that Alice was buried in St. John's Norway Cemetery. That cemetery is only minutes from where I now live, and the captain and I actually used to live kitty-corner from it back in the 1980s! It was quite remarkable to discover that these relatives, ones I never even knew existed before this year, had such a close geographical connection to me.

I couldn't resist. The captain and I hopped in the car that day and headed for the cemetery, stopping in the main office for directions to Alice's gravesite. Armed with a map, we finally found the right section and the right row, in an area without headstones, only in-ground plaques. I was warned by the man who helped me in the office that 1928 was a time of hardship and poverty and some graves therefore had no markers. Yes, I was forewarned, but I was still very saddened to discover that Alice Irons Chapell rests eternally in an unmarked grave.

John Ogden to the left, Bertha Milnes to the right. But Alice? You don't even know she's there.

I do understand that grave markers are not inexpensive, then or now, but I think it's terribly sad that generations have now passed and neither the children, nor the grandchildren that would have followed, have made the effort to mark the grave. I considered planting something there, in that barren patch of grass you see above, but I know it would just be mowed down.

Poor Alice. She was the mother and step-mother to five, brought her children across the ocean to settle in a new country, and died when she was only 47. She deserved better.

Seasons

2010-09-21T20:09:00.003-04:00

Summer lay sprawled on its deathbed,

defiantly ignoring the inevitable.

All the while, the labour pains of autumn have begun.

==ldl==

(iPhone photo taken today, edited with the LoMob app)

The beauty of summer's end

2010-09-15T22:03:00.004-04:00

It's been a satisfying day at the computer. I managed to complete a full backup, install the newest version of iTunes, do an Adobe update and still had time for some creativity. I took an older photograph of my garden plus a texture plus a clipping mask and turned it into what you see above. You can do it too. Here's how.

First, you'll need a photograph. Flowers are nice, if you have 'em. Next, you'll need one of Marie Otero's excellent textures. Finally, one of my clipping masks. Open up photoshop, edit your photo any way you want, apply the texture of your choice (I used "Grunge Paint", using the Overlay blending mode at 80% opacity on one layer then the same texture on a new layer, using the Color Burn blending mode at 60% opacity), then lastly, apply the clipping mask (I chose "beautiful" from my sampler #1). My last step was to add an inner shadow to the clipping mask layer, merely to make the word "beautiful" stand out. And that's it.

Like I said, you can do it too. I hope you try!

Creative clipping masks

2010-09-11T21:03:00.003-04:00

This has certainly been a roller coaster of a week here at the eatwritecreate household. Suffice it to say that we've weathered the bumps and are now enjoying some downtime.

The captain and I may be relaxing, but I haven't been able to stay away from the computer. I always find that when September rolls around, my creative juices really start to flow as the weather cools. And I have some exciting news on the creative front! Despite the downtime, I have still been quite busy behind-the-scenes on an upcoming collaborative artistic venture -- more on that soon! -- and I am so pleased to be able to give you a sneak peek. I have created two sets of clipping masks and have them here for sale! Each set features eight different clipping masks, all high resolution PNG files in various sizes. Buy both sets and save, too!

Clipping masks are very easy to use in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. The important thing to remember is the layer order needed in order for the mask to work. If you can think of the clipping mask as the filling in a sandwich, you're set. The bottom layer is what will show through on the transparent areas of the clipping mask, while the top layer is what will replace the black areas of the mask. Take the above photograph, for example. It contains three layers: the bottom layer was white, the middle layer was the mask, and the top layer was the photograph. That's it! Here's how I did it:

*First, I opened a photograph, used my rectangular marquee tool (set at a fixed ratio of 1:1) to square it off, then messed about with it until it looked like you see above.
*Next, I duplicated the layer and then filled the bottom layer with white. That gave me two layers -- the top (which is the photo) and bottom (which is the solid white layer) of my "sandwich".
*Now for the middle of the sandwich. With the top layer selected (the photo) I then opened up the "create" clippng mask (found in sample pack #1; the "dream" clipping mask I used in my last blog post can also be found in this set) and using my Move tool, dragged it into my project, sizing it to fit. Because I had the top layer selected in my project before I did that, when I moved the "create" clipping mask onto my project it went right to the top of the layers palette. (If you are more comfortable using the Place command to add the clipping mask to your project, by all means do that instead.)
*After I sized the clipping mask to fit, I dragged it below the photograph. My sandwich is now complete. The top layer is the photo, the middle layer is the mask, while the bottom layer is solid white. Therefore, the white will show through the transparent areas of the mask (in this case, the transparent parts of the mask are the edges and the letters) while the photograph will replace all the black areas of the mask.
*The last step is to use the Clipping Mask command to make this all happen. In most versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you simply select the top layer (the photograph) and then go up to your Layer menu and look for the "Create clipping mask" command, or, in older versions, the "Group" command. It's so important to remember that it is the top layer you select, not the mask! The clipping mask function "clips" the layer you have selected to the immediate layer below it, which is why the layer order is so important.

The final result is what you see above. I chose to have a white bottom layer so that when this appeared here, on a white space, you would only see the rough edges. If I had chosen a different colour for my bottom layer, perhaps brown, it would look like this:

I don't know about you, but I prefer the white!

So.......Intrigued? Why don't you give it a try?

$6.00

SAVE! CLICK BELOW TO BUY BOTH FOR ONLY $10.00!

In the near future there will be several more clipping masks available, along with lots of other digital goodies. Stay tuned!

Paris giveaway!

2010-09-04T20:28:00.001-04:00

While the idea of whistling off to Paris on the next flight is mighty appealling, for many of us it's just an impossibility right now. In the meantime, while we're dreaming about the City of Light, how about a chance to win some cool Parisian ephemera? Interested? Of course you are!

As many of you know, Carmi Cimicata is our local go-to gal for all the info about the artsy side of Paris. Her new blog, Art Girl's Guide to Paris, is just the spot to soak up some local Paris colour and order a copy of her new book, a guide to Paris for the artistically-inclined. And now she's having a giveaway! Alas, it is not a trip to Paris, but for those of us who ~~hoard~~ collect paper ephemera, this is the next best thing. Carmi is giving away 10 packages (10!) of vintage Parisian ephemera along with other goodies like beads and rhinestones. You can get the details here, but you'd best hurry on over as I think she's only keeping this open for a few more days. Good luck!

Having never been to France (heck, I've never been to Europe even), I obviously couldn't illustrate this post with one of my own photographs. But I could create a collage. It was concocted using an old hotel luggage tag and postcard, both found online, plus the birds are from a brush set from Shadowhouse Creations. The texture is my own, as is the Eiffel Towel brush (which I created using a photograph Leslie took in Paris, which she generously shared with me) as welll as the "dream" clipping mask. (There are lots more clipping masks like this one, which will soon be available for you to purchase. News to follow in the near future!)

12 months: complete

2010-09-01T01:21:00.002-04:00

Last year, in late September, I decided that I wanted the challenge of creating calendar pages. I started with October, doing a blog post featuring a lovely pumpkin image as a freebie calendar page. I wasn't sure this was something that anyone actually wanted, but since I personally like calendars, I went with the idea. They had a slow start, but these pages have proved to be quite popular with both my Flickr and blog friends and so, encouraged, I've kept at it. And now a full year has gone by! Twelve months, just like that. You can see all the calendar pages in my freebies set on Flickr; that's where my free textures live too.

This has been an ongoing adventure for me. Remember February? Somehow, I managed to completely eliminate Saturdays for the entire month. Martha was the first one to notice. Good eyes, Martha! Along the way I've experimented with size and layout style, with fonts and subject matter. It seems flowers and nature have been the dominant theme, which has been entirely unintentional. I've completely enjoyed challenging myself each month to create this freebie for you. And you. And you and you and you. And you, over there in the corner, the one who never, ever comments. You know who you are.

As always, just click on the image to be whisked away to its page on Flickr, where you can download the file size of your choice. Flickr has undergone a makeover so, if you haven't been there for a few weeks, you may find the new look a tad strange. Here's how to navigate your way around the new layout: after you click on the image above, click on the Actions link (which you'll see right above the image), then click on View all sizes. You can download any of the sizes shown but I recommend you choose Original; it has the highest quality. Enjoy!

Diptych for DeadBetty

2010-08-30T17:25:00.000-04:00

As I have shared with you, I've been on a scanning spree. One of my scanned photos -- the local Fox Theatre, circa April 1977 -- made its way into my Flickr galleries, where it was spied by one of my Flickr friends, the talented DeadBetty (or Lisa, if you prefer). She left an enthusiastic comment that I just couldn't resist.

What did she write? This:
oooh go take a picture of what it is now and diptych it!!! DO IT NOW DO IT DO IT DO IT

So..........................I DID IT.

Yes, while the captain and I were out and about earlier today, running errands and grabbing lunch, I informed him we needed to take a specific route home, so I could grab a photo of this local landmark. We still live in east-end Toronto so it wasn't much of a detour. I then discovered my purse camera was just about out of juice and fretted I wouldn't get the shot, but luckily I was able to grab a few pictures before the battery completely died. Once home, I did a little photoshopping and the diptych was done. (Just click on the image above to see it a bit bigger than you see here.) I had to rely on memory to try to stand in an appropriate spot to get a picture similar to the one I shot more than 33 years ago, and I'm pleased with the results.

What amazes me is that the passing of time has wrought such little change. Yes, the bank is now a health food store and the Fox has changed its sign, but the architecture is still very much the same. In a city where everything seems to be torn down rather than restored, it's refreshing to see that some things are the same.

Well.....almost the same.

Revisiting 1977

2010-08-25T22:16:00.000-04:00

My last post dealt with memories. Nothing's changed; I'm still wandering down memory lane. Yesterday, I scanned some family photographs from the '70s and today I just couldn't resist the siren call of the scanner, beckoning me towards it once again. Out came more photo albums and a scanning spree began.

As I perused old pictures, I had a big chuckle at a few of them. Witness these two gems, photographed inside a friend's car as we drove around Toronto in April, 1977. I don't even remember my camera from those days, but I think it was some cheap Kodak. It was junky, yes, but I used it a lot and was mostly pleased with my shots. It would be several months before I made the switch to a Minolta SLR, which would open a whole new world of photography to me.

This is what particularly amuses me: notice the subject matter and where I am obviously sitting. It seems my "drive-by shooting" project isn't so new after all.

The above image was captured as we drove north on Victoria Park Avenue, at the intersection of Kingston Road. That burger joint at the corner became a Pizza Pizza franchise ages ago, but I'm sure the locksmith is still there. And below, we were travelling eastbound on Lakeshore Blvd when I clicked the shutter. The CN Tower seems so dramatic.

Remembering

2010-08-20T16:13:00.003-04:00

A couple of days ago, a dear friend emailed me. "Where ARE you," she queried. It made me realize that as life has been rushing by me, pulling me along in the wake, time just disappears. Does this ever happen to you? You wake up one morning and realize that it's much later in the week/month/year than you thought? But I meant to do this before summer ended, I think; I meant to do that.

Days speed by and soon what seemed current is recent history. How does this happen? You merely blink and another day, another week is gone.

I have been dwelling on memory this week, wrapped up in remembrances. Joining Ancestry.com has contributed to that, but it's not the main reason. No, the explanation for this preoccupation was a small gift in the mail.

A few days ago, an unassuming package wrapped in brown paper slipped through the mail slot. It was from my uncle in Vancouver and contained a disc burned at his local photo developer. An absolute treasure. The disc contains family photographs taken during the summer of 1970. These digital images were originally slides taken by my uncle and then sent to relatives in Norway. They were unfortunately not returned, but when my uncle visited his Norwegian cousins this summer, amazingly the box of slides was returned to him. His son-in-law scanned the slides and did some photo restoration, with magical results. My uncle had not seen these pictures since 1970 and I did not even know they existed.

There are images of my great-uncle Earl and his wife, Aunt Ruth. Pictures of my great aunt May, my great aunt Hazel, even my great aunt Emma, who was visiting from Norway. But, oh. Oh. Photographs of my grandfather Ole and my grandmother Vivian. Lots of them. I cannot even put into words how special these pictures are, how much it means to me to have them. My grandparents raised me from the time I was very small until 1969, when my father unexpectedly came for me and moved us from BC to Ontario. These photographs are a sudden, shockingly sharp, reminder of my past.

What is especially poignant are the little things, images within a photograph of items that some might call mundane. I couldn't help but notice the teacups on a table set for a dinner party. I have those teacups now, I thought. They were given to me by my grandfather when the captain and I were married, the year after my grandmother died. I couldn't help but notice the small Norwegian flag on the dinner table, placed there in honour of Emma's visit. I have that flag now. And I couldn't help but notice the photograph of my grandmother sitting in their backyard at a family picnic, wearing her pink and white beads. I have those beads now.

I headed for my china cabinet. Out came one of the teacups, a gold one that is a particular favourite. I headed for my bedroom, to the tattered pink jewellery box that had been my grandmother's, and out came the pink and white beads. I reached for my camera, then let Photoshop help me show you the past and the present.

This all evokes so many memories....even melancholy, a sadness for what might have been, the family experiences I did not get to share. The life I unwillingly left behind. But if I had not come to Ontario I would not have met the captain, and that's a dealbreaker. Life plays itself out -- it's like riding the waves on a beach. If we want to survive we roll with the ups and the downs. Leaving BC was a down, but the captain? Oh, that's an up. A definite up. An up that trumps all others.

Drive

2010-08-08T19:06:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I would like to get in my car and just drive away

To drive to nowhere specific and with nowhere to stay

To drive and to drive just to know I am on my way

--T.M. Severud

The above poem was written by Theodore (Ted) Severud, while the photograph was taken by me in rural northern Tennessee on an (on purpose) off-interstate detour while travelling south last summer. Ted Severud may not be known to you (yet!), but he certainly is to me. As Uncle T. Yup, Ted Severud is my uncle! He's always been "Uncle T" to me and always will be.

I asked for his permission to put his poem together with this image and he quickly and happily agreed. We also agreed to put the image up in my online art shop.

I am so, so pleased to have done this collaboration with my uncle and look forward to lots more!

Dreamscapes

2010-08-06T19:26:00.002-04:00

As many of you know, I participate in the Photo Art Journals group. A recent theme was "Dreamscapes" and I was tickled pink to receive my copy in the mail this week. The format for this book deviated slightly from past books as the photos required were 5x7-inches, instead of the standard 4x6-inches. While admittedly more expensive with regards to photo developing, I love the bigger size and hope Catherine chooses this format again.

Our group leader, by the way, is the very talented Catherine Anderson. Her photographs always inspire me. Truth be told, this is a truly inspiring book. The artists all interpreted the theme in their own way, making this such a work of art. A real keeper!

Above is the image I selected to submit to the book; I photographed the angel in Richmond, Virginia, at the Hollywood Cemetery. Our books are typically straight-up photographs, with photoshopping done only for colour correction, contrast boost, etc.; however, this time around, we were encouraged to get as digitally creative as we wanted. Perfect!

Below, the back of the image, complete with its accompanying quotation -- the quotes and/or journalling are a vital part of each and every book. Thanks so much Catherine, for putting together a dreamy book!

August arrives

2010-08-01T16:40:00.005-04:00

How can it already be August? The summer is half over. I find it hard to believe but one look at the calendar and I see it's true.

Speaking of which, I'm happy to once again share a calendar page with you. Just click on the image above or click HERE to download the page (when you're on the appropriate page on Flickr, click on the Actions link above the calendar, then View All Sizes, to choose the size you want; the largest available ("original") will print off nicely on a full sheet of paper should you wish to stick this on your fridge).

My inspiration for August's images is the abundance found in our local farmers' markets. I shot these photographs a couple of years ago at one of my favourite markets, found just north of Whitby on the west side of Hwy 12. I adore a good market. I visited this very same market back in June this year, on my birthday, and bought absolutely amazing strawberries. Red all the way through, fragrant, and very sweet. I can't wait to visit there again. I must tell the captain that a road trip, albeit a short one, is in order!

Congratulations, Carmi!

2010-07-29T22:18:00.002-04:00

I have been sooo busy! I have oodles of projects on the go right now and that makes it hard for me to find any quiet time for myself. But I did sit down yesterday and spent an enjoyable time flipping through Art Girl's Guide to Paris, written by our very own local star, Carmi Cimicata. Bravo, Carmi!

She has a new blog too, to accompany the book. Do not miss Art Girl's Guide to Paris; it's a real treat. After you check out the blog, I'm sure you'll be eager to buy the book. You won't regret it.

I am very impressed with this book, which is chock-full of all the information any self-respecting artsy girl needs when travelling to the city of lights. The quality of Art Girl's Guide to Paris is exceptional, the photographs are lovely, and the info in the book is invaluable whether you're planning a trip to Paris or just dreaming about one. Since I've never been and have no immediate plans to hop on a plane, I'm in the dreamer category. One day! And when I go, I will travel with Carmi's book in my carry-on!

Birthday boy

2010-07-21T15:44:00.000-04:00

As mothers, there is something we never do. We never forget. And 27 years ago....I will never forget what I was doing right about now. Huffing and puffing and all manner of unmentionables. At 4:37 p.m., 27 years ago, a Thursday, I became a mother. Yup, today is Rob's birthday!

Enough embarrassment. No gory details, no baby pictures, no trips down memory lane. Not right now, anyway. I just wanted to wish him, loudly and in public, a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Love ya!

Giveaway!

2010-07-20T14:59:00.001-04:00

1. state and randolph, 2. the yellow wall, 3. by the tracks, 4. green lawn chair, 5. independence day, 6. red stripes, 7. mercury, 8. krispy kreme doughnuts, 9. kew beach gull, 10. motel 9

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. For me, one of my biggest weaknesses is a shyness about self-promotion. It's just not something that falls within my comfort zone. But I'm brushing aside that awkwardness because I'm really proud of some recent attention I've received and want to share it with all of you. Even better, freebies are involved!

Here's the scoop. Last month, a Canadian design blog I greatly admire, Poppytalk, held their annual Summer Colours Week. I submitted some photographs for consideration, without holding out much hope that any would be picked. So when one of my photos was picked for Yellow Day, I was absolutely tickled. I even blogged about it. But then, the next day, Green Day, saw another one of my photos picked! I was too embarrassed to blog about it again (despite the urging of some friends who told me to do so), so I didn't. The following day, Red and White Day, saw two of my photos chosen, then two were chosen for Blue Day, then finally, two were chosen for Red White and Blue Day. At this point I was totally overwhelmed. It was a Sally Field moment ("....I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me").

Meanwhile, it had also come to my attention that the United States Mission in Geneva was holding a photographic competition based on the theme, "American Streetscapes". If there's one thing I have photographed frequently, it's the streets of America! The winning photographs would be featured on the Mission's Independence Day poster. I submitted photographs late in the competition, with no illusions whatsoever that I would be chosen. And while none of my photos were chosen to be showcased on the poster, two of my photos were selected to be showcased at the Mission itself. Gobsmacked, I tell you ... I was gobsmacked. (Those two photos are "state and randolph" and "by the tracks"; if you look at those images on Flickr, you will see the comment left by the Mission.)

While the links to all these photographs on Flickr are above, these images are also available for purchase in my online store; have a peek HERE to see my Recently Added gallery where all 10 images can be found. The only one that's been altered is the photograph of the American flag; instead of turning it into a "Happy 4th of July" card, I have created it as a "Welcome Home" card especially suitable to give to returning military personnel. (I haven't forgotten my fellow Canadians; in my online shop you will find an identical card featuring the Maple Leaf instead of Old Glory!)

Now for the good part! Please leave me a comment here telling me which one of these 10 images is your favourite, and I will mail you that image on a greeting card! It's my little way of expressing my thanks to all of you for continuing to support my creative efforts. I need to be able to reach you to get your mailing address, so please leave your email information in your comment (if you don't want to put your contact email in your comment, you can email me privately at alphabetsoupstudioATyahooDOTca with your mailing address). I hope you find one you really like!

Keep cool

2010-07-17T15:51:00.000-04:00

It's a sticky day here in Toronto. So keep cool my friends, in whatever way you favour.

As for me, I think I'm going to head to the kitchen and scoop out some ice cream!

From this day forward

2010-07-11T22:19:00.002-04:00

The captain and I had the most marvellous experience just a couple of days ago.

We were fortunate enough to share in the joyous wedding celebration of the captain's friend and colleague, Rob, who married his true love, Robin. We've been to many weddings over the years but I don't honestly recall ever seeing two people who were so positively thrilled to be marrying each other.

No nerves, no jitters .... just broad, beaming smiles.

It was such a romantic afternoon and evening.

You couldn't help but come away with the feeling that all is right with the world.

It's Independence Day

2010-07-04T13:38:00.014-04:00

To my American friends and family .... have a great day!

July's calendar page for you

2010-07-02T14:41:00.001-04:00

The months go marching by, a fast-paced quickstep. Can it already be time to experience July? So it is.

Once again I offer you a calendar page for your use and, I hope, enjoyment. Just click on the image above or click HERE to download it from my freebies set at my Flickr site. The All Sizes link gives you the download options. This month I've chosen the Crab, the zodiac symbol for the water sign of Cancer.

I photographed this particular crab in Troup Square in Savannah, Georgia. The historical section of downtown Savannah is blessed with numerous squares, or parkettes. Most feature a monument, fountain, or some type of statuary.

The crab is featured on a zodiac sculpture in the middle of the square; it's absolutely stunning. All the zodiac signs are represented along with the roman numerical symbols as well. And the sphere rests on the backs of beautifully carved turtles.

To the left here, I've included a photograph of the entire work of art. I know I've said many times that you should get yourself to Savannah if you've never been, and I'll say it again. For an artist, Savannah is a must-visit city.

Dominion Day!

2010-07-01T10:31:00.002-04:00

Those of us who are a wee bit older will recall that today, July 1st, was always Dominion Day, a celebration of the day our country was formed back in 1867. I don't recall when exactly it became "Canada Day", but whatever we call it, it is Canada's 143rd birthday, something to celebrate!

We Canadians tend to be quietly patriotic but today, it's time to wave our flag and show the world we're proud to live in our great country! Here in Toronto the skies are blue, the sun is shining and the humidity has vanished. We're in for a great day! The captain and I are throwing steaks on the 'que for dinner and hope for a relaxing holiday.

(For those who want the image details, I photographed this flag at the Port Perry fair. I love that it's a wee bit worn but still flew proudly in the wind. It was cropped to a square image in Photoshop and then I had at it, using both the Notepaper and Sprayed Strokes filters. The final step was applying a clipping mask to roughen up the edges.)

A Poppytalk pick!

2010-06-29T23:34:00.001-04:00

Poppytalk is a blog I often visit; it's inspiring and oh-so-gorgeous. Their banner states "the beautiful, the decayed, the handmade". I just love that. And they're Canadian too!

So I am gobsmacked that they picked one of my photographs to highlight in their Summer Colours Week! The chosen image is the one you see above, a photograph I took in Quebec City last fall. You can see the Poppytalk post HERE. Please go have a look; I'm honoured to be included in the company of such a lovely group of photographs.

Poppytalk, thank you!

Must-Watch TV: Work of Art

2010-06-27T16:09:00.001-04:00

Back in early June, I was quite excited to learn of a new reality show on Bravo called Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. Fashioned after programs like Top Chef and Project Runway, Work of Art brings together 14 diverse artists who compete in a series of elimination challenges over many weeks. My excitement turned to disappointment when I checked Bravo Canada's listings and couldn't even find a mention of the program.

My excitement has returned. The show debuted last night. It airs Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. (at least, that's when it's on here in Toronto) but if you missed it, a repeat of the premiere episode is on again tonight (Sunday) at 6 p.m. on Bravo and also Wednesday evening at 10 p.m. As so often happens, we Canadians are now about three weeks behind in episodes, so for my American friends who are watching ....please.... no spoilers! Thanks!

The art world can be a very pretentious environment, as many of us know. Does this show dispel that? Nope. I did find myself rolling my eyes at some of the comments made, both from the judges and the artists involved.

Art is very personal and also very subjective. The judging of art in this manner leaves me a bit uneasy, but I will say that I was surprised that I mostly agreed with the judges' comments to the artists they deemed the most successful and unsuccessful in the show's first challenge. It will be fascinating to watch this all play out over the next several weeks.

And without giving away too much, I am very pleased to see a "photoshop artist" among the 14 artists and also happy he did well in the show's first episode. Did he win the challenge, though? I'm not telling. You'll just have to watch. Program your PVR!

A study in sepia

2010-06-25T15:33:00.003-04:00

It's been one of those lazy, crazy days of summer. I awoke early this morning (7 a.m. is early to me!) to a cat shrieking in my ear; why, I do not know. After he settled down, Tippi started to cry. I gave up and got up. This calmed the cat down and after Tippi dashed outside, she came back in and started to snore. Of course, I was wide awake.

What to do? Sitting outside right now activates the itchy eyes and stuffiness of my seasonal allergies, so I watched some television, blog-hopped and, of course, messed around in Photoshop. I am currently taking the Digital Magic course taught by Marie Otero and have learned so much in just two weeks. And there are still four weeks to go!

Two weeks ago, I could have showed you several methods to add a sepia look to your photographs. Thanks to Marie, I now know two more. And they're both wonderful! Above, the same photo with these two different sepia treatments.

At the top, what we learned in Week One. A gradient map is applied to a photograph and using blending modes, a sepia effect is achieved. Textures are then added, which contribute to the sepia tones of the image. Finally, a little color burn around the edges. I really like this look.

Next, on to Week Two and a totally different approach. Same original image (you can see this Chicago photo in colour, HERE, on my Flickr site). This time the sepia effect is added in the Camera Raw interface, using the split toning feature. This gives you so much control in changing a black and white image to your own preferred sepia tones. I really like this look too.

Which one do you prefer? I keep changing my mind.

News on the iPhone front

2010-06-22T20:29:00.000-04:00

If you've plugged your iPhone into your computer recently, you've likely been prompted to upgrade your software to version 4.0 (it's actually a software and firmware update, so it isn't a fast process). While I constantly take photos with my iPhone, I have unbelievably not downloaded any of them onto my hard drive in almost a month. Wanting to rectify that, I hooked up my iPhone (3GS) this afternoon and was met with the upgrade option. And so, I upgraded.

Yowzers! It's like a full makeover. I can now set one photo to be the wallpaper when I turn the phone on, and a different image can be the wallpaper behind all the app icons. You can now make folders too, keeping all your puzzle games together, for example. I imagine that feature will be quite a space-saver. And the coolest thing I've discovered? My camera now has a 5x digital zoom! I took the picture of Tippi using the zoom feature this afternoon, then opened up the image in Photoshop's Camera Raw interface (just following my Digital Magic class instructions!) to fix it up a touch.

One odd thing did happen to my computer during the upgrade, but for the life of me I cannot fathom why it happened. All my Favorites in Internet Explorer defaulted to alphabetical order. Drove me crazy, having to rearrange them to return to my preferred order. Why my iPhone software/firmware upgrade, done through iTunes, would affect Internet Explorer is a puzzle.

All the images below have been taken since I returned from Art and Soul and are untouched out of my iPhone, except for adding the watermark. Every image below was shot using the Hipstamatic app, with the exception of the crayons, which was shot with the ShakeItPhoto app.

If you upgrade to 4.0, please let me know what new features you find!

(Montana's Cookhouse restaurant; my garden; paint splatter on the sidewalk; Nancy's car)

It's Father's Day

2010-06-20T15:00:00.002-04:00

Here's a little blast from the past!

This is the captain and our son, taken, um, quite some time ago. Let's just leave it at that! Since our son will be 27 next month, you can do the math......

Don't you just love the chair, avocado green dishwasher, and that floor! I did play with the colour tones in the photo to make them look even more retro but I also played with the tones with the purpose of "softening" them too. That floor is wild!

So HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the captain, who is a fantastic father -- devoted to his son. He has been, constantly, since he became a father, the perfect role model. Day in and day out, he quietly showcases what it means to be husband and father. He's the best!

Art and soul wrap up (finally!)

2010-06-18T19:26:00.002-04:00

This falls into the “better late than never” category. Finally, I am getting around to concluding my Art and Soul experience; in other words, a wrap-up of the other three classes I took. You can find my “paste paper experience” HERE.

It’s good timing, really, since the bulk of this post will be on my classes with Marie Otero, who is currently running her first online Photoshop class, Digital Magic.

(Disclaimer: Marie and I are friends, so you might think I'm biased. I guess I am, but I promise you I have not exaggerated my reactions to her classes, etc. She truly is a gem.)

We have just concluded Week One in Digital Magic and it’s been a blast. More on that in another post.

So, back to Art and Soul. Before I get to my experiences in Marie’s “Surface Magic” and “Lovely Layers” classes, I do need to say that if you ever get a chance to take a class with Linda and Opie O’Brien, do so! They are a husband and wife team who are both talented and entertaining. Leslie and I both took their Alice Meets the Dali-Mama class and while it had its ups and downs for me, I am very glad I took it.

The “down” for me is very specific: I did not like the substrate we used. At first, I thought the funky black roofing material was very cool and looked forward to using it in the class project. But after several minutes of cutting it (with good, sharp scissors), my hand hurt and a blister started to form. Tough stuff! Admittedly, I don’t have strong hands, but still. I do like the look of this roofing material and I am a big fan of using non-traditional items in art. But I wouldn’t use this again. It was hard to cut, I found it hard to punch holes in it, and there were some problems getting papers to stick to it, making collage a bit frustrating. My glue stick wouldn’t work at all and I had to resort to using goopy ol’ white glue. That was successful but it’s a messy substance I typically try to avoid.

Having said that, I love the concept of the class and was amazed at some of the beautiful projects my fellow classmates produced. My “Alice” is certainly not the pick of the class by any stretch of the imagination, but Linda and Opie do have a photograph of it on their blog, which you can see HERE. Mine is the Alice doll in the third photograph down, on the right. HERE'S a close-up. Linda also showed us an excellent technique for hanging and knotting beads and charms on our doll using waxed linen thread, which would work in many different circumstances. For me, very useful information I will definitely use in the future.

And you should have seen the piece of tin that Opie cut for Leslie! He has tin snips that will make you drool. He cut the edges off a decorative burner cover and his cut edge was so, so smooth. No buckling or creasing whatsoever. If you cut metal, contact Linda and Opie about purchasing these; I believe they sell them.

I've gone backwards with my class wrap-ups, as my first two classes at Art and Soul were both with Marie. Her “Lovely Layers” Photoshop class was great fun -- above is a collage I created, based on one of our class projects but using my own photograph -- and I definitely picked up a few pointers. Many people asked me in advance why I was taking a Photoshop class, as they were puzzled why someone who is comfortable with the program would take “lessons”. I have tried very hard to explain that even when you feel quite competent in a software program like Photoshop, there is always a lot to still learn. Always.

Every Photoshop artist has their own style and it’s great to get an insight into someone else’s workflow and methods. Was I already familiar with what Marie taught? Yes. But did she show me something I didn’t already know? Again, yes! And that’s what’s wonderful about a class in something that’s familiar to you…when your eyes pop wide open and you realize you’ve just picked up a fantastic trick or tip. Heck, I'm taking Marie’s online class right now and while Week One is covering techniques I already use, she’s sharing some amazing approaches that never would have occurred to me. Her Photoshop knowledge is stellar and she's such a calm, patient teacher.

And now onto the Surface Magic class, a class that truly was “magic” to me. Maybe I’ve been living under a proverbial rock, but until recently I did not know that something called “digital grounds” even existed. But Marie taught us to use digital grounds to coat the surfaces of many oddball substrates so that we could then run these items through an inkjet printer and print our art and photographs on them.

Did you ever think you could run a piece of plastic through your printer and not have the ink smear everywhere? Can you even imagine running kitchen tinfoil through your printer and not creating an unsightly inky mess? Well, I did it – both, plastic and tinfoil (see below for my "foil art", one of my favourites) – and created beautiful art. No mess whatsoever. The trick is the digital grounds.

Once you’ve properly coated your substrate with the grounds and allowed the surface to dry, it can be run through your inkjet printer. It’s astounding. Magic. We printed on absorbent materials like mulberry paper (see image at the top of this post), we painted magazine pages with gesso and acrylic paint and then printed on them, we printed on many different asian papers, we even used brown paper grocery bags. I printed an angel image on heavily textured wallpaper and the result was, if I do say so, fantastic. See below.

Everything worked great once it had been treated with the digital grounds. As you can see in the photos here, the coated substrate is taped onto a carrier sheet (we used cardstock) and then that's just run through the printer. Easy-peasy. Just imagine all that you could stick to a piece of cardstock: the possibilities are endless. Before we left Virginia we had some shopping excursions, which included perusing store aisles looking for things to print on! I bought plastic-coated envelopes and thin plastic report covers; we even hit Trader Joe’s where Leslie convinced the cashier to give us extra brown paper bags!

Marie also taught us how to make “skins” using digital grounds and had one already prepared for each student. She has a great video on her blog about this technique; you can watch it HERE.

And I have to put in a good word about Marie’s husband, Rick. What a trooper! He manned a workstation during the entire Surface Magic class to help students get their artwork printed and was the go-to guy during the Lovely Layers class. Every teacher should have such a great assistant!

Marie is teaching these two classes at Art and Soul Portland this fall and I urge you to take both if you have the opportunity. They'll really expand your digital art horizons!

What's a birthday without cake?

2010-06-14T22:31:00.000-04:00

Yes, tomorrow (the 15th) is my birthday. And, yes, I've already had cupcakes. And I hope more are to come!

Those yummy treats you see in the photo are from my local cupcake bakery, Life is Sweet. The captain and I had our son and his girlfriend over for dinner yesterday and I wanted to use my new Martha Stewart cupcake stand. So I bought an excessive amount of cupcakes! My excuse? The stand holds 24 and I wanted it to be full....

My favourite Life is Sweet cupcake is their lemon version, with its secret lemon curd interior, but the mango tea cupcake with lime icing rocks too! As does their butterscotch cupcake. And there's there's good ol' chocolate. And vanilla.

What's your favourite cupcake?

Scenes from a garden

2010-06-09T16:39:00.002-04:00

These photographs were not taken today. Today, it's dull and damp here in Toronto. It's rained most of the day, with grey skies and a chill in the air. Sock weather.

But yesterday .... yesterday, when these photos were snapped in my backyard, was a glorious spring day. Brilliant blue sky, lots of sunshine, warm enough for short sleeves and no socks.

But that was then and this is now. As I hop around the blogosphere I've noticed numerous garden photographs and felt it was my turn to contribute to this wealth of colour. My peonies are lovely but on the wane, the wild white rose is looking good, and my two climbing roses are full of buds and blooms. You may notice grape leaves here; the grapevine has a mind of its own and I fear it is taking over. It wouldn't be the first time. And unseen are the Queen Anne's Lace that seems to be everywhere this spring, plus the $%!#@! goutweed that has been my enemy since moving here almost 18 years ago. I simply cannot get rid of the goutweed! If you've been successful in banishing it from your garden, please let me know the trick!

Remember

2010-06-07T16:51:00.002-04:00

Before I move on to discuss the other classes I took at Art & Soul last month, I want to backtrack to yesterday's post for a moment, the one where I showcased several detail photographs of the paste papers I created in Albie Smith's Paste Paper Extravaganza class. I was even inspired to use a paste paper photo as a digital texture in a photoshop creation, shown at the end of the post.

I haven't been able to put aside the idea of using these detailed paste paper shots in photoshop. I know they're a goldmine and I just want to stick with them. Late last night, when normal folks are trotting off to bed, I opened another paste paper image in photoshop and totally messed around with it, going at it with everything from curves and levels adjustments to hue changes and filters. The end result was an image that barely resembled the original, which was my intention. But then what? If I couldn't make it work as a texture or background, I'd consider it a waste of time. The next step was to create something.

So I did. See above, what I've been working on today. The texture I created from the paste paper photograph was used (as was a bird photograph I took in Florida this winter, along with a couple of other touches) but I altered the texture once more, making it square and totally changing the colours from warm and earthy to cool and blue. I'm quite pleased with the final results and now know that I will not only be taking more photographs of my paste papers to use in this fashion, but will also be spending an inordinate amount of time altering them!

Here's a copy of the texture, before I squished it into a square format and made it blue. Just click on the image or click HERE, then click on the All Sizes link, to download it. If you use it, I'd love to see your creation -- I hope you have fun with it!

Art & Soul class wrap-up, part one

2010-06-06T17:57:00.001-04:00

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last posted. A week in which we experienced major outdoor home repairs, a trip to the country to pick up Tippi (where she had been staying so she wouldn't be freaked out by said home repairs), and a sudden onset of some type of bug or virus that felled me for a few days. But, better late than never, I am finally going to share my Art & Soul class experiences. Approaching things in my typical oddball fashion, let's start at the end.

Irene, Leslie and I all took Paste Paper Extravaganza, taught by the wonderful Albie Smith, as our final class. I was SO psyched up to take this class as learning how to make paste paper has been on my to-do list for a few years now. Yes, I'd read how-to information on the web, but I wanted my learning experience to be hands-on with someone experienced. I sure got what I wanted! Albie's class was just what I had hoped it would be: patient instruction from an expert, with lots of technique demonstrations and the opportunity for a lot of personal creation. Lots of play!

I learned so much in this class. Most importantly, I learned how easy this art form is to create! Our class started with Albie explaining the various types of paste that can be used and why she prefers her method. A quick demo of creating the paste was given, then some of this paste was transferred to various containers so paint could be stirred in. It reminded me exactly of mixing highlights with Nancy!

Albie was also reassuring, telling us we could use any acrylic paints, even cheap craft paints, although we should expect some to give us better results than others. And then she created her first paste paper demo of the day, creating magic before our very eyes. That was it? Such beautiful papers could be created so easily? I was blown away; I couldn't wait try it myself. And remember, this was right at the beginning, using only one colour of paint and minimal tools for marking the surface. The image you see above is a one-colour piece of paste paper, as is the blue image above it. Your eyes aren't fooling you, you are seeing tonal changes; this happens as you use tools as simple as an old credit card to mark the paper. Pure magic.

The day progressed, with Albie introducing us to two-paint-colour methods and then multiple colours, plus she provided inspiration on a myriad of tools to mark our paper. I particularly enjoyed working with the Crafter's Workshop stencils I had purchased at the Art and Soul store (thanks, Maria!) like the flower stencil below, and look forward to buying more of these high-quality stencils; they're a joy to use when creating paste paper. As the hours passed, we filled up the sides of the classroom floor with our creations and even spilled out into the hallway. How I wish I had brought a camera to class to capture these colourful displays!

By the end of the day, I had created 19 large sheets of paste paper and all were dry enough to be packaged up for the trip home. Leslie and Irene also had a large quantity of lovely finished works. Again, I wish I had photographs of some of their special pieces. We had learned techniques we certainly won't forget, met some great people, and had a lot of fun working in a medium where I don't think you can make a mistake. If you don't like what you've done, you can always work on it later or cut it up and use the bits you do like!

Throughout the paragraphs here, I have included photographs showing some of the detail in a few of my paste paper creations. Please remember these were all my initial attempts at this art form. Even so, I am very pleased with my class efforts. And after taking the amazing Surface Magic class taught by Marie Otero (more on that gem in the days to come) and learning I can run just about any paper through my printer if it's properly prepared, I can't wait to begin printing some of my digital art on my paste paper. What fun that will be! And then there's the digital possibilities. These patterned papers make great backgrounds and textures for use in Photoshop, as witnessed below. I created this using one of the photographs I took of my paste papers as a texture, along with a photograph of a hanging basket of flowers I just took in Port Hope when we drove out to pick up Tippi. My mind is reeling with plans for future projects!

Finally, to Albie Smith: I will always remember this class and am sure I will be making paste paper for years to come. Thank you, thank you!

Your June calendar freebie

2010-05-31T13:59:00.001-04:00

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit The Textile Museum of Canada. I had only been there once before and that was ages ago. Photographs are permitted, with the only rule being "no flash", so I opted to experiment and use only my iPhone as I walked around, instead of the traditional camera buried in the bottom of my purse. It was truly an experiment as the lighting is quite subdued and I was unsure if I would get any quality shots. I am pleased to report that overall I was quite happy with my photos. So happy, in fact, that I decided to use one of those images to create June's calendar page. Here's the original photograph, before the playfulness began:

I brought this iPhone photo into Photoshop and then played around with it before adding the smudged orange edge and the calendar info. The image altering included a substantial curves adjustment as well as utilizing both the poster edges and cutout filters, at a very low opacity.

Did you know you could lower the opacity of a filter? This is one of those hidden gems in Photoshop. Unfortunately, I don't believe this works in Photoshop Elements and I'm not sure it even works in earlier versions of CS (I have CS4). I'd appreciate knowing if your version of PS supports this so, if you give this a try, please let me know the results. Here's the how-to: immediately after applying a filter, go straight to your Edit menu and you will see the Fade command near the top. This not only lets you reduce the opacity of the filter you just applied, but also lets you apply a blending mode to it as well. Neat, eh?

As always, please click on the calendar image at the top or click HERE to get your copy. Just click on the All Sizes link where you can choose your download size (I recommend Original).

Hollywood Cemetery

2010-05-27T18:08:00.000-04:00

For me, one of the great joys of a road trip is the anticipation of discovery. What's around the next bend? What detours or diversions await?

Leslie, Irene and I are now home from our wonderful journey to the Art & Soul art retreat in Virginia. As we drove down the interstate on Day Two of our road trip, Leslie suggested I pull out the CAA guide book for Virginia and have a peek at the attractions in Richmond. There were many listings, including Hollywood Cemetery. A few moments later the GPS -- a.k.a. Evil Lola -- was set and off we headed into Richmond.

Hollywood Cemetery, despite its name, is not where you'll find movie stars; it's named for the abundance of holly found there. Despite the lack of popular celebrities, it is the final resting place of many notables, including Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America (please read up on the Civil War if he is unfamiliar to you). It's a large cemetery and we never did spot Davis's gravesite but we did see many lovely stone angels. It's a beautiful, peaceful place.

We arrived back in town yesterday; today, I have no energy -- likely a combination of the heat and the return from vacation. I have been content to fiddle on the computer and it's been enjoyable playing around in photoshop. All three of these photos were taken in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery and altered by me today. Above, at the very top, is one of those wonderful angels. For this artwork, I owe thanks to Marie Otero for one of the textures I used, received in her excellent Lovely Layers class at Art & Soul. And if you're interested, I have added the second angel to my RedBubble account, where you can purchase it as a greeting card or print. Click HERE if you'd like to have a look.

I will be blogging about my classes soon, but if you have plans to attend Art & Soul in Portland in October, I strongly suggest you take Marie's Lovely Layers class, mentioned above. Her Surface Magic class is also amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed them both!

Five Guys and three women

2010-05-21T23:04:00.003-04:00

Tonight, we three women had dinner with five guys. As I like to say....HOOBOY.

Er, make that Five Guys, as in Five Guys Burgers and Fries. After a wonderful Photoshop class with Marie Otero today (thanks for the clipping masks, Marie ... used one here!), we treated ourselves to some shopping and dinner away from the hotel. Leslie ferried us expertly to JoAnn Fabrics, WalMart, and finally the plaza containing both Five Guys and good ol' Target.

If you have the opportunity to get yourself to a Five Guys, don't miss it. You'll be treated to delicious homemade burgers, topped with a variety of condiments including sauteed mushrooms and onions. No extra charge, either. Yum. Although I am not a fan of french fries, Irene and Leslie both gave them a try and I sampled a few. The servings were generous and tasty. I pulled out my iPhone after my dinner was demolished; my apologies for not capturing the burger in all its glory but instead offering only an empty wrapper.

Five Guys ... highly recommended by these three women!

The Art & Soul Road Trip: In the beginning...

2010-05-18T21:53:00.000-04:00

Today, THE GREAT ADVENTURE begun. Finally.

Leslie, Irene and I headed out this morning at a civilized hour, making our way to Virginia for Art & Soul. We had a wonderful day -- loud singing in the car, lunch at Cracker Barrel, what could be better? We even drove through a tunnel (above, the Allegheny Tunnel), something that would have been a huge highlight when the captain and I travelled with Rob many years ago. And the day was wonderfully capped off with a terrific dinner in a comfortable hotel suite.

We are in Maryland; our drive tomorrow should take us no more than four hours or so. Time for outlet mall shopping in the morning, perhaps?

BIG news!

2010-05-16T21:20:00.023-04:00

I am so delighted to finally be able to reveal a secret I've been keeping. I have been busy with many projects of late, but this has been a big one.

Announcing......the launch of my new online shop!

Yes, the site went live last night and I'm now offering a selection of my photographs and digital art for sale. No doubt, you noticed the new addition to the blog, the link just below my banner. That will whisk you away to the shop, but for a lovely viewing experience on black, please click HERE.

The fulfillment of your orders is handled by RedBubble and I'm very stoked about the service they offer. While I do have certain images available only as greeting cards, all the other artwork can be purchased in a wide array of styles, everything from inexpensive laminated prints right up to framed pieces.

I hope you'll have a look and, please, if there are any of my images you would like to see from my photo sets on Flickr offered in my online shop, please let me know. I would also be happy to customize any image into a greeting card, such as thank-you cards, sympathy cards, birthday cards and more.

It's iPhone time

2010-05-12T00:01:00.002-04:00

Yes, I've done it again: found a new app (or two) for my iPhone. They just keep coming, don't they? Just when I think I couldn't possibly find another image-editing app I could use, I come across one I absolutely, um, need. And you know I'll share the scoop.

First photo, above. I took this photo of Toronto's famous CN Tower while at the Blue Jays baseball game at the end of April (the dome was open at the time). As I often do, I used the Toy Camera app, set on random. Toy Camera and Hipstamatic seem to be my go-to apps.

I then brought the picture into the Lo-Mob app, an amazing tool everyone should have on their iPhone. It offers a huge selection of choices from grunge to vintage, such as ttv frames and instant camera styles.

Next, another picture I took while at the baseball game. Again, I used the Toy Camera app, set on random. I enjoy the surprise factor when using the random setting; for this photo, the app selected a black-and-white appearance. I then brought the photo into my newest app, FotoMuse. Using that app, I heightened the contrast and then applied the "textures" (the app calls them Layers and Borders). That's it; easy peasy.

I need to find some time to play with these apps extensively!