Mt. Garfield Very Filtered

This is a crazy, surreal combination of Topaz Lab’s Adjust 4, Dark–Ghostly filter and Tiffen Dfx Suite Version 2 (Trial) Light/Rainbow filter. Nothing here you’d ever see in real life, but I enjoy this combination of contrast, color, shadows, and softness. Nothing but FUN. Topaz Lab’s website sports a gallery to show you what can be done with their various filters. There is some very interesting work there.

I was a little disappointed not to be able to move that rainbow so that only one part of the arc is visible in front of Mt. Garfield, meeting the interstate. I can enlarge it, but I can’t move it so it makes more sense than a simple arc over the mountain as you see it now.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in this software, you can download fully functional trial versions of the software they offer. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) offers a 25% discount to its members. Stuckincustoms.com has a coupon code for 10% off your purchase at Topaz Labs. You can also find reviews of lots of photo-editing software at this site. All the links are on the right side, and you’ll need to scroll down just a bit to get to them. While you’re there, you should also check out Trey Ratcliff’s incredible photography!

I’ve seen no such discount offers for Tiffen Dfx, but I suppose that doesn’t mean such a critter does not exist. If any of you DO know of discounts offered for this software, please leave a comment to that effect. Thank you!

Mt. Garfield Original

Back to the photo: I took the original photograph on November 23, 2003, with an Olympus 3040Z. This 3 megapixel, 3x zoom camera was my first foray into the digital photo world, and I had a blast. In retrospect, it was the camera I had the least challenge with, and it produced the nicest pictures. But maybe it’s because my expectations weren’t very high at the time.

I believe at the time I took this picture, I realized how difficult it is to get a clean shot of Mt. Garfield. It had just snowed and I went looking for a perfect photo for my Christmas card that year. I got pretty close, but realized there were road signs I couldn’t avoid, vehicles whizzing past, telephone poles and lines, barbed wire fences, and of course that blacktop ribbon of the interstate. Another location was busy with closer-in telephone poles, stop signs, rooftops, and lots of old and winter-bare cottonwoods. But, oh well. There’s always the magic of Photoshop to crop and remove “extraneous” information for a Christmas card. Clicking on the photograph will open a cropped and framed version of this photo.

It’s snowing today on the Grand Mesa, and it’s chilly outside. It’s a good day to stay warm inside, and play with photographs. The next thing I want to do is “paint” one of the pictures. I’ve bought a couple books that outline how to make brushes and textures in Photoshop to accomplish various effects. What I haven’t yet determined is whether or not I have to be able to actually “paint,” or if that is accomplished with layer masks and such. At least it should be fun to learn!

Have a happy Saturday!

The other day I downloaded and installed a trial version of a fairly expensive photo filter software. I believe there are two versions. One is a Photoshop plug-in and the other is a stand-alone application that costs less. I’ll have to look into that one. There are some things the stand-alone version doesn’t do, but it sounds like it’s essentially the same except for that. And maybe I don’t need those features.

Guess I’d better check that out. 🙂

Tiffen Dfx v2 Filters Applied

The name of the software is Tiffen Dfx Suite Version 2. For good information, I found a review by Ben Long, at CreativePro.com. It explains and shows with screen shots what the software does. I started with the same photograph. I used only one filter and changed the color copy of the photograph.

Here is a screen shot of settings I used:

Special Effects --> Black/White Looks

I can’t wait to play more. Days pass and I don’t know where they went. This is so much fun.

Okay, this one’s not for everyone, but this cracked me up. My girl dog talks to me. She’s the reason I don’t sleep well. She sits at the end of my bed and shifts her weight from one front leg to another, moves her ears, wags her tail, looks at me — and does this talking thing.

Any of you who have dogs might appreciate the humor in this. I think it’s probably best heard with headphones. I’m sorry, but I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t keep the iPhone cam steady. I do manage to hold it together most of the time—but toward the end, I just lose it.

Enjoy.

I’ve just posted some new photographs on Flickr.com. These are a little different; they’re pictures I took with my iPhone. There are two new sets.

iPhone Pics Originals is a set of original pictures  from the phone. iPhone Pics with Effects is a set containing many of the same pictures, but I’ve run them through various photo processing softwares designed for the iPhone and available at Apple’s App Store.

I love laying in bed before going to sleep, selecting a picture from my phone, and running these filters. It doesn’t take a special skill to use them, you just open the software, select a photo (or take a new one), then flip through the options. You’ll see your photo change with each swipe of your finger. Below, I’ve listed the apps I use and enjoy. None of them are perfect, and resolution is an issue (so is it for the iPhone!), but for just lots of creative fun, they’re great!

Photo Transfer App is an app I just found and I love it. It doesn’t edit your photos, but it makes working with photos so much easier. It’s a utility for transferring your iPhone photos to your computer and moving photos from your computer to your iPhone. In my opinion, this is something the iPhone should have always been able to do, particularly as it’s equipped with bluetooth. (I could transfer files back and forth wirelessly on my lowly PocketPC years ago.) This app makes up for the iPhone’s deficiency in a straightforward and simple way. Your computer and phone both need be on the same WiFi network. From there, it’s easy-peasy.

100 Cameras in 1 is nothing more than overlays that do different things to your pictures. I used different effects from this app to change the appearance of the original sunrise Jesus rays picture. I’ve included the three versions I created.

iPhone Pics Originals

iPhone Pics with Effects

FX Photo Studio does essentially the same thing that 100 Cameras in 1 does, but uses different effects. I like them both. They’re not enough alike for me to be disappointed with either purchase. I’m happy to have both of them as part of my “fun” arsenal.  This photo is of a sock from the pattern on my pajamas. I used several effects to create this piece that’s pretty colorful.

imikimi frames & fx is a cool framing and effects software for the iPhone. I need to do more research to find out exactly how one uses all the frames that are available. I will add more information when I have it. All I know is that I’ve had a lot of fun playing with this, too. You can see videos of how this app can be used at imikimi‘s website.  This picture is one of me that I ran through 100 Cameras in 1 and then placed in a frame using the imikimi frames & fx software.

Perfect Photo is a pretty cool piece of programming for the pictures on the iPhone. Among other things, you can use it to crop; straighten; adjust levels, brightness and contrast, shadows, highlights, etc.; rotate; sharpen; and reduce red eye. I haven’t used all the features, but what I have used, I find really handy for a photo from the phone.

Adobe Photoshop Express is a free app that you can use to crop, straighten, and rotate, do some color editing, run filters and effects, and add borders. I wish it had more, but I think what it has is pretty nice, as you’d expect an Adobe product to be.  This picture of the Craig power plant in early morning January 2010, is tinted in Photoshop Express.

PhotoForge is another app like Photoshop Express, Perfect Photo, and FX Photo Studio. It has the usual tools, filters, adjustments to color, exposure, sharpness, etc. It also allows for painting from a blank canvas.

Many of the apps I cart around and use are very similar, but each one does something different, and that is the spice of my photo app collection—variety.

Four Inches of Snow?

This is the reason I had to go to the chiropractor today. What you see done here, is not half of the driveway, and I cleared it all. Part of it I did twice. What I cleared here, already had more accumulation in this picture.

I love the snow, especially since I don’t really have to go anywhere in it. The effort required to clear this today was more than I’m used to. Ibuprofen, heat, and cold are on tap for me for a few days, I think.

I think this little girl is the funniest animal I’ve ever known. She lumbers along like a lazy little lion. She makes me laugh. She talks!

Patrón, One of My Dogs

Patrón is part of the reason I don’t sleep very well. In the middle of the night she will sit, just out of sight, at the end of my bed, and talk to me until I get up and let her out. She sort of shifts her front feet; first stepping on one and then the other, and utters these throaty noises. If I seem to be paying no attention, they get a little more insistent. I can’t take much of that before I head up and to the door to let the cold air in while she takes a long, luxurious stretch before she exits.

Patrón & Brutis

Brutis, the graying fellow on the right, is my lovely, bright boy. He knows when to go to his “house” based only on the sound of a specific a ringtone. He used to head for his house when he sensed I was going to golf. I was never sure how he knew since all the equipment was in the garage. The reason for the house is Brutis used to chew things, so I HAD to get a kennel for him so he could keep himself out of trouble. They don’t want to get into trouble, but I think they can’t help themselves. Anyway, Brutis is the only one of the two that minds at all. I hate to see it—he’s getting so grey. He’s been my friend for a long time. He’s a good boy.

Like children though, when the phone rings, they’re right under my nose wagging and wiggling and waiting impatiently and noisily for me to open the door.

One of these days I’ll get a picture of it, but I have watched Patrón saunter over to where Brutis is resting easily—and she stops, backs up, and SITS ON HIS HEAD. Just sits. You can see how she might be prone to doing things like that, can’t you?! And you can see how she might enjoy the process?

Last summer I took a iPhone vid of Patrón in “tuck-and-run” mode. She gets a burst of energy and runs maniacally around the house and I get to laughing so hard I can’t breathe. Usually though, I can’t get a camera on her before the burst of energy is gone and she’s a relatively normal doggee again. Here is a link to that video:

Happy Monday!

Sunrise Colors

Love these colors. My feet about froze, though. Forgot the slippers add-0n.

Over the Gunnison

Took another walk today right about 4:00. I had been lazy all day, except to write in my blog this morning. When I realized the temperature was 49 degrees, I had to get outside.

I thought maybe I’d get some long light and see some wildlife moving around. I got long light, but I think any wildlife was probably scared off by the intermittent loud popping and banging of gunshots below. I watched for a bit, afraid I’d see something fall. Every time a shot rang out, an animal moved toward the river and then moved back and disappeared into the shrubs. It took me the longest time to figure out it was a dog. He seemed perfectly happy, so that eased my fear a bit.

I have no idea what they were shooting at, and I don’t have any problem with people shooting. Gun control for me, is using both hands. That aside, I was deeply annoyed by the noise that encroached on “my” quiet. And I wasn’t just a little uncomfortable sitting above them. I don’t much trust people with their guns in any case. I know they get careless; I read about it all the time in news stories. It wasn’t as fun as I thought it might be to sit above the river today and wait for something grey with big ears and curious eyes appear below me. But, I got some fresh air,  exercise, and I listened the water. Between shots, it was kind of soothing.

Geese flew overhead once and I got a shot of them. That was fun, even though the were a fair distance away, I caught some good color on them.

On my way out, the Mesa was pink with the sunset and I tried to capture that, as well. I’ll post that later in the week.

I processed this one a bit. I have a feeling what I saw was a more muted, but I swear, I SEE the color you see here. Never does the camera seem to capture all the wonderful color I find in the winter desert.

Happy Saturday night.

Rather than try to gather all the photos I’ve taken over the years and put them all in one place, I’m adding links in the blog to get you from here to those other places. I may eventually be able to get everything in one place, but there are reasons why those images are where they are, and I couldn’t see making the change just yet.

Flickr.com is probably where I will want to centrally locate everything—unless of course another, better photo storage/viewing option presents itself. For now, I like how this is set up. Because for a week or two I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, and because I was learning and wanted to experiment, many of the recent images are in my Flickr PhotoStream. If you click on this photo on the right side of the screen, it will take you to Flickr.

TwitPic is sometimes how I post images from my iPhone because it’s so easy. I especially use this service if I want that photo to show up in my Twitter feed for others to see. If you click on this image on the right side of the screen, it will take you to my TwitPic photos.

Some stuff will repeat across the three websites, but there’s different images in each place if you’re interested in taking a look.

I have also added links to blogs I follow. They also appear on the right-hand side of this page. It’s a lot of fun to hear what others have to say (Shameless Moxie), to hear the thoughts about, and look at the pictures they take of their world (Sure…. Let’s Go!); and for me, it’s especially fun to drool over a gorgeous picture of some culinary delight, and then look to see if I might have the ingredients to put it together myself (Making Life Delicious). Check them out. You might also enjoy!

I have fiddled around quite a bit today and it’s past time to get outside. It’s beautifully sunny, and my weather bug says it’s to be 43 degrees. That’s a little off earlier predictions, but I’ve learned the only consistency in weather prognostication is its inaccuracy. I get it; it changes. But, I sure was looking forward to that 55-degree walk on the desert today!

Looks like snow for Monday. (Maybe THAT’ll be the 55-degree day!)

Get outside and enjoy.

Photo by Donna J Morton

Not much to say here; just playing with focus and boots.

Photo by Donna J Morton

What a gorgeous day this was! It was warm too, for Western Colorado at the end of January.

I packed a sandwich and my camera and headed to my high spot and sat on the ground (or laid on my tummy) to take a few pictures using slightly different settings. I’ve still got a lot to learn, but this is so much FUN!

In the spring, a bush like this will be a gorgeous and soft desert green. I like this golden brown, too.

Think I’ll try again tomorrow.