Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: filter

(+6 insets!) (Another picture that looks nice at full size!) (Please scroll down to "Today's Pictures" for details about the insets) Frosty Mornings are so COLD! Holy Frostbite, Batman, it's COLD OUT THERE!!! :D As I sit here at my computer, I have our the space heater in front of my seat, my sock-covered feeties tingling before it and trying to get warm again. It's not that horribly cold outside compared to many places but 28.5°F / -1.94°C is still WAY TOO COLD for my liking! You would think my tromping up and down my driveway would compensate, but it's just not enough. Even with the excellent, heat-generating slope all the way up from the main road to the base of our steep hillside. Add to that the fact that my washed hair makes my head and entire body struggle to get warm, even bundled up with a hat, scarf, gloves and heavy sweaters. But I'm slowly warming up and as always, the experience out there was easily worth what discomfort I might feel for a while after returning to the warmth of the house. Sharing a Breathtaking Sunrise with Pumpkin The beautiful day began the moment I got up. Together with Pumpkin, we peeked out the window after she climbed out of her fleecy-soft tent onto my finger and stretched her wingies, accenting each side with a satisfied "Urrrrrk." We admired the breathtaking pastel pinks, oranges and blues of the sunrise, contrails from the high-flying airplanes penciling soft white lines in the sky which slowly spread out into lovely, dissipating ripples. I couldn't help uttering my amazement of this view, complete with the beautiful Upper Table Rock stretching out in the distance before us. "Wowwwwwww, isn't that just gorgeous…" I considered running down to get my phone for a picture but decided against it. I didn't want to ruin this special moment with my little girl, nor did I want to wreck the serenity and peace that we were experiencing. Morning Routines and a Food-Flinging Parrot! Tiptoeing downstairs after a shower and getting dressed--I didn't want to disturb Steve, who was still sleeping at this early hour of just after 7am--Pumpkin and I shared the morning routine of preparing her food and getting my daily vitamins and pair of drinks together. Steve and I live a ketogenic lifestyle and part of this requires us to have extra potassium, salt and other electrolytes in our diet, which we get from an apple cider vinegar drink blend. It's so important, in fact, that if we don't have this drink every day, our bodies will respond eventually with fatigue and flu-like symptoms. The other drink was, of course, coffee, in the form of an Americano espresso (espresso and water). I save my cherished espresso and cream for a decadent afternoon treat. And yet, I totally enjoy my watered-down burst of caffeine I drink after downing my vitamins and cider brew. The crema and bouquet of espresso are so delicious! By the time I finish, Pumpkin's decided that violently flinging the contents of her food cup are the order of the day. I cannot help but smirk as I watch in amusement while chunks of bread and various seeds and pepper flakes are scattered over her perch and bounce into the sink. She is delighted at the mess she's made and I snicker at the maniacal, satisfied expression on her lovely face. Red eyes surrounding black pupils in her glowing yellow and orange face could look demonic if she were a nasty bird but she's an absolute doll and her mood right now is feisty and hungry. She was ready for a proper breakfast and I wasn't moving fast enough--this show was letting me know how she felt! "Well then!" Stepping boldly onto my offered finger, I continue, "Let's get you upstairs for your breakfast my dear!" Gripping my finger tightly with her large, scaly feet (we like to call them "her big, fat, chicken feet!"), we go upstairs together along with her prepared food bowl of veggies, fruit, and lots of other goodies. Pumpkin eagerly stepped onto her cage's upper perch while I put her breakfast in place. Before leaving, I turn on her music (80's and other fun songs that she loves) and tell her I love her with wishes for a happy breakfast before quietly closing the door. When I step inside after my frigid walk, Steve is bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and coming downstairs for his breakfast after having a wonderful shower with Pumpkin too! :) Our day has begun and it will be a beauty! :) Today's Pictures I'm sharing another selection from our evening walk along the water at Surfside RV Resort! My main picture today shows a perfectly synchronous pair of ladies enjoying their kayaks on the bay. I took some liberties with some creative filters and the result turned this otherwise "meh!" picture into an image I really like! Lots of insets today as well! There are three panoramas--a super wide one which made the view look like a bowl of land surrounded by water; a fading sunset view of a fingerling jetty which joined the place I stood at a 90 degree angle, and a wide view of the lovely, peaceful lagoon next to Surfside's resort. Also included is an image of interesting kelp that washed up on the shore. I have never seen anything like it and thought the resulting picture showed the fascinating shapes quite well. There are also two artistic renditions of an oystercatcher that I photographed. In the fading light, my camera's ISO shot up to a ridiculous number and the resulting grain rendered the pictures totally useless. Or so I thought. I'd never gotten a picture of this species before and I really wanted to do something with them if I could, grainy or not. Then I realized that I could break out my artistic filters and give that a try. How nice to have the excuse to play with my pictures in a purely artistic sense. I am delighted at the outcome, as these pictures were not savable otherwise. The results, in my opinion, are colorful and fun! :) I hope you like them too! (but I won't blame you if you hate them! :D) Pam, I looked to see if you have any pictures of shore birds, but I didn't see any. While I worked on my two Oystercatcher pictures, I couldn't help but think of you. I deeply admire your skill and dedication to the countless artistic images and collages that you've created over the years. I don't usually go that route but with my travel photography I am presented with the opportunity much more often. It's pretty common to find pictures that aren't up to par in one way or another, but when I switch on my creative eye, it's usually very easy to see the potential of an otherwise "garbage" shot. It's fun. I don't spend hours on them as you have with your gazillions of layers, filters, additional elements and so forth but I do allow myself the freedom to have a good time. It's really nice to do this and makes me feel as if I'm stretching other artistic muscles. Great stuff! Anyway, I hope this is a nice day for you!! *BIG HUGS* from southern Oregon! :) Explored on 2/13/20; highest placement #4.

(+10 insets!) The days are more and more lovely with blue skies dotted with clouds and warm sunshine that greets me every morning. The explosion of greenery is a wonder to behold and the flowers are popping up everywhere. The transformation is such a wonderful sight. As much as I love the glory of autumn's incredible show, there isn't any way to compete with spring. What a special time. With springtime comes more and more birdies! Our property is home to many species and they really get busy when breeding season arrives. We've recently filled our three bird feeders to give them an easy supply to care for their babies and every day they get more popular. About two weeks ago I made my own suet cakes using the bacon and sausage grease we'd been saving in containers and it's been such fun to see the birds gobbling them up. It is a favorite pastime now to look out the back window to see who's at the feeders. Such personalities they have! Acorn Woodpeckers zoom in singly but sometimes in twos and threes and assume a very defiant, "YOU TALKIN' TO ME?!" attitude. They squawk and posture, letting everyone know they are in charge! Oregon Juncos usually fly in as a small flock of 5-10 and we call them "The Crew". They are equally happy to eat from the feeders or bounce around on the ground picking up fallen goodies. Fairly shy, they will fly away if challenged any other birds. We adore these smartly-attired cutie pies and love to hear their darling twitters. The tiny "Skateboard Punks" are a favorite too, darling mouse-grey Pewees. With adorable triangular wedges of feathers which stick up on top of their heads, they are similar enough to tiny mohawks that we gave them a fitting nickname. Hopelessly cute, they fly in, grab a sunflower seed and disappear. A moment later, it will return for another one! Back and forth, what a fun sighting! If the coast is clear they will grab a sunflower seed, place it between their feet and stand on it. Then they'll hammer away at the seed, gobble the treat within and repeat the process until they're sufficiently full or scared off by another bird. There are many other visitors too--California and Spotted Towees, Scrub and Steller's Jays, Lark Sparrows and just yesterday we began seeing White-Breasted Nuthatches and a Starling too! There should be a number of others as time goes on. We are quite surprised that we haven't seen any finches yet because they were always a common sight at our feeders. Hopefully they will catch wind of the tasty goodies and come to visit! Since today is when I post my Happy Fence Friday picture I'm sharing an image that I photographed through fencing on our back deck and shows an adorable pewee (with its fancy hair lowered) enjoying some suet! You will find insets that show all the different birds that we've seen at our feeders so far this year. (Archive images :) Pam, it was great fun to look for just the right birdy picture to talk about! After much deliberation the prize today goes to your awesome Easter Phoebe Collage , which is just perfect for this wonderful springtime mood! What a grand collection of fantastic pictures that showcase the journey of egg to fledging of these cutie pies. What a show. I loved it!! I hope you are doing well today on this lovely SPRING day!! :) Explored on 3/22/19, highest placement, #4.

(+ 8 insets!) If you would like to see all of my Nice, France pictures, please visit my Provence, France 2018 album! :) Looking at some of the amazing photography here on ipernity, I am very often inspired this way or that. Sometimes I see pictures that make me want to run outside and go crazy with images of droplets, flowers, insects. Other times I want to work on my indoor shots. But I keep running into fabulous pictures of European settings of all sorts that have me jumping up and down (this makes sense, most of you live there! :D). So I think it's time for another presentation on our Provence, France trip! I sure have been learning a lot about pictures that seem like they are garbage but aren't. Like I said in my last France post, I got plenty of blurry pictures because of how I was doing most of my street photography. (Camera at my hip, tilted up to people coming my way, unobtrusively photographed) I cannot get over how the use of an appropriate filter can turn junk into an intriguing image! (Well, to me anyway!) For someone who values crisp focus on a subject, it's amazing how good an originally blurry picture can look given the right treatment. That's not to say that all of my pictures turned out blurry! But to me, saved garbage images which capture my attention and are worthy of sharing are totally fascinating to me. Today's main picture (without a blurry subject! :D) was a beautiful flower I found in a planter outside the produce market we visited. What a surprise to find that awesome bokeh when I took a look on the computer! The rest of the pictures are pictures of people…you will see a whole lot of filter work on these images which has turned most of them into artistic works but hopefully you'll find them fun and interesting to look at. I would be interested to know what you think! About these pictures: PiP #1: Steve and I couldn't believe how common "Segue"-style uni-wheel scooters are! They are everywhere! This picture is one I just love because it looks like something out of a graphic novel. PiP #2: I nearly deleted this pictures before I realized…wait!! He's a street drunk, this blurry picture will be perfect with the right treatment…well what do you know?! Did it work out for you? PiP #3: I loved this pair waiting for the bus…so different and so photogenic. I think the treatment makes this look like a cool stamp! PiP #4: Can you say "Jaundiced Stare"? LOL…I think she saw me taking her picture, what do you think? I couldn't help myself, isn't she amazing?! I'm just glad she didn't kill me! :D PiP #5: I call this one "Trekkin' Granny"! Isn't she fabulous?! I hope I look that good at her age, talk about AWESOME! PiP #6: This impressionist art filter turned this into something that I stared at and thought…that lady looks a bit like me! PiP #7: A typical street in Nice, I liked the angle and mood of this image…it was one of the first blurry pictures that I decide to try and save. PiP #8: This one is not a great success but I like it because it's a memory shot. Explanation: it's got Mr. Pizza AND one of the delivery scooter guys reflected in the glass! We encountered a very crabby rider the night we arrived in Nice on the narrow alley streets and were trying to find parking. We hadn't even gotten to our Air BnB apartment yet and we'd been flying for many hours. We were tired and anxious about finding our place to stay. This guy was annoyed that we were making it hard for him to get down the street and had a few things to say about it. Heh…but Steve's driving was totally AMAZING…negotiating between cars on these streets was a seemingly futile idea but Steve never touched a car, with mere inches on either side! At one point I had to get out to let him know if he would touch or not. He made it around a car with less than an inch at the mirror! INCREDIBLE! Funny thing is, the next day we saw that scooter rider and he remembered us. He was actually quite nice and helped us with directions! :) Pam, I'm going to take a wild guess that the flowers in my main picture are wild geraniums and once you let me know that I'd mistakenly labeled a wild geranium as a Redstem Storksbill. It was nice to have that pointed out to me! And so I took a look on your stream…I found one! This beautiful, artistic interpretation of a wild geranium is so classically Pam , since you have always loved to create these lovely spheres of your subjects. Wonderful! And I sure hope that your day is going ok! Big hugs from southern Oregon! :) Explored on 3/20/19, highest placement, #1.

(+7 insets!) SO SPARKLEY!! SUCH TWINKLING!! What a lovely, frosty morning it was on my walk today! Without a cloud in the sky, the sun rose to shine warm, slanting beams across our meadow, melting the frost as it touched each plant and blade of grass. Our front gates--which had a sheen of white and a million twinkles from frosty crystals--quickly melted with the sunlight's gaze, the wetness soon drying with the warmth. In the distance I could hear flocks of Canada Geese, no doubt causing a ruckus along the popular Rogue River. They are likely having territory issues about nesting spots but who knows…I am not very familiar with those lovely birds. Canada Geese have landed on our property a few times but our pond isn't big enough for serious interest and frankly, that's just fine with us. There are too many predators here and we would feel terrible knowing there is no way a gosling would survive to the point of fledging here. Still, it's fun to think about a line of goosy chicks swimming in our pond. The image brings a smile to my face as I witness the transformation of frosty crystals to shining droplets while I walk up and down the driveway. *YAWN* It's too early. Daylight savings time began yesterday, so even though the clock reads 9:30am, my body says it's 8:30am and I am very sleepy…another cup of coffee will be in order soon enough. That's not my usual routine however. I usually have a cup in the morning and one in the afternoon and that's about it. Today I am going to need more! I plan to work hard at pushing my internal clock back--I have come to love getting up with the sun and don't want to miss the special time when the world is waking up all around me. Nature's priceless moments. And by the way, welcome to a new week everyone! Today is Macro Monday!! The topic this week is "shoe soles" and yesterday I spent some time taking pictures of the bottoms of many different shoes in our house. That's a bottomless pit of interesting pictures, I must say. Every shoe sole is different and many of them are quite cool indeed, especially at a macro level. My main picture shows the metal cleat on one of Steve's shoes which he uses to clip into his bicycle pedals. If you're not familiar, these cleats create a solid connection to your bike and allow your pedaling to be seamless and energy efficient. And, until I took this picture, I didn't realize what happy faces these cleats have! I've included a host of other pictures as insets since I really enjoy the chance to explore each week's topic as much as I can. Truthfully I really had to stop myself from really overdoing it. My husband and I have so many pairs of shoes that I refused to go into our closets--I only picked from the pairs which were immediately available. Otherwise I'd still be taking pictures right now! :D Pam, I did a search for "shoe" and for "foot" but found nothing, so instead I decided to sort your pictures by date and looked for a picture for this day…March 11…and I found this gorgeous peach blossom! They are such lovely flowers and so different than other fruit trees. I love the size and shape of the petals and the deep, rich pink. So pretty!! It is shaping up to be a truly stunning spring day and I hope that the vibrant energy felt here today can be transferred to you along with a great big virtual *HUGGGGGGGGG*! :) Explored on 3/12/19, highest placement, #1.

{+6 insets!} Photography is a bottomless pit of learning opportunities. We are constantly reminded that it's easy to make mistakes but it's also easy to learn from them too. A few days ago I went out to take pictures of the snow that blanketed everything on our property. I brought my flash attachment and had a lovely time finding fun subjects with snowy hats or otherwise adorned with snowy fluff. I have lately been swapping between my macro flash settings and my aperture priority settings and if I'm not paying attention I will end up with dozens of garbage pictures. Like I did the other day. *groan* When I'm in my usual set-up, aperture priority, I use my index finger to raise or lower the F-stop. I take sets of pictures with a range of apertures so I automatically do this as I roam around. However, if I'm in manual mode, for flash images, that same index finger movement switches the speed, not the aperture. If I'm not paying attention, I'll take a set of pictures and what I end up getting are a bunch at the same F-stop but at different speeds, and therefore blown out or too dark. AKA: junk. The way to adjust the aperture in manual mode is with my thumb on a radial dial on the back. Once again, if I'm not paying attention, I'll use my thumb to adjust aperture when I'm in aperture priority and that adjusts light balance...to the tune of +4 exposure compensation...which, once again, equals junk pictures. Sometimes I can recover enough detail in one of those pictures that it's ok to use but there's no getting around the fact that the whites are blown out. I am especially annoyed with myself because I got lots of really neat pictures of wasp galls, acorns and oak leaves with snow balanced precariously on top. Almost all of these pictures are disasters. It's not like it snows on a regular basis around here so I'm pretty unhappy about this. Granted, the bites that really hurt remind me not to do that again but the pictures are still garbage. I am going to see if any of these pictures are savable. We'll see. I'll finish this post later and let you see what I come up with. Well, I managed to get some nice pictures from the pile of +4 exposure compensation monstrosities! Some turned out better than others but I'm pretty surprised that I was able to recover any of them at all. Most of these pictures were almost WHITE from careless overexposure. However, since I use RAW image format, I can recover a lot of detail. It's not a miracle worker--if something's totally blown out or too dark, there's no way to add detail if there isn't any at all--but It can be astonishing the power you get with more pixels to work with. I needed to work on the backgrounds and make sure the subjects were properly lit to the best of my ability. I know a couple are kind of "meh" but I am happy with what I came up with. :) (Of course, this means that we will get several days of lovely snow falling where I can retake all of these pictures properly…if I didn't try to fix these, it would never snow again until we moved! MURPHY'S LAW! HA!!) I am sharing six insets to go along with the main image--a pair of acorns that decided they didn't want to fall from the tree! In case you were wondering, the background has been replaced! Pam, as I've been wandering around in your archives, I find myself extremely attracted to your collages. From where I sit, it looks like you sometimes begin with an image that's too busy but it's got a lovely subject. So then you get to work with artistically messing with the surrounding area to soften the busy aspects, and then you add more pictures to create a truly beautiful display. I love that you aren't willing to abandon an image just because it has some challenges, and that's what I did with my pictures today too! :) I hope your day is going as well as can be! *BIG HUGGGGGS* Explored on 2/13/19, highest placement, #2.

(+2 insets!) Do you ever wake up feeling "off"? That's how I felt when I got up this morning. My mood was scattered and out of sorts. Nervous and uneasy. I really can't figure out why I wasn't my usual boisterous and happy self but can tell you one thing: I didn't like it. So, I decided that my exercise today would be a "walking meditation." I don't practice meditation on a regular basis though I am sure it would be beneficial to me. I just never make time for it--which is probably a good indicator for doing more meditation. Of course you're supposed to be sitting still and relaxed to meditate, but many of the practices should be doable while in motion if you're focused on it. So as I walked up and down our driveway I repeated to myself different phrases like "Peace and serenity..." while thinking about my complete breath cycle. Or, "Breath in positive energy from the trees and plants around you...and breath out the negative energy..." I spent time thinking about how my body felt as I walked along, the way my breath felt, my heart beat, and the contraction of my muscles while I moved. I made a point to think about nothing but my walking meditation. As I began my walk, a very light rain was falling and I didn't bring my umbrella. I imagined the rain taking away the feelings that had made me feel so off when I woke up today. To keep myself focused to only what I was doing and to immerse myself in the moment and where I was, I asked myself, "List the things you can hear which make you happy and peaceful..." I listened intently while I moved along. "Twittering junkos are there in that tree...a single frog is croaking in the pond...an acorn woodpecker is calling another one... and I can hear some Canada Geese in the distance..." And "The sound my feet make crunching on the gravel...the squelching sound when I walk in the muddy clay...the sound of a pebble skittering along when it's kicked...the rain dripping from the trees...the sound of my breath as I walk...and the cry of a hawk flying over the trees..." I repeated this for the things that I saw which made me feel happy and at peace. As the light rain slowly increased to a proper downfall, I got my umbrella and listened to the rhythmic sound of the droplets pattering over my head. I felt like I was in a bubble of safety here. I spent the rest of my hour and 15 minutes by concentrating on feeling relaxed and happy, feeling grateful to those in my life who have played a part in getting me where I stand today. Picturing wonderful memories, people I loved and those who have passed on but thinking only of the happy memories from them. I finished my "Walking Meditation" feeling completely returned to my normal self. What a nice way to reset myself! Since it's been raining all day, I thought I'd share a few rainy day pictures I took the other day. The main picture is an adorable, tiny acorn that I found nestled in some moss. I was surprised at its nearly black color and how it glistened so beautifully with its slick, wet coat. It measured about half an inch in size and was so cute that I couldn't resist a picture! I'm also sharing a picture of a large rose hip from our rose bush in the front yard that's covered with droplets. I had a lot of fun playing with textures to dress up the plain background. The other inset is some water-soaked wild grass, its head totally engulfed in water! Pam, I did a search for "acorn" and found this very pretty natural collage, entitled, "Heartsease & Acorns, tiny Blueits & Wood Sorrel leaves." I love that you enjoy learning about the things in your pictures. It's so fascinating and fun to know all about the gifts we find as we look around our property. Hope you are faring well today, it's starting to get cold over here…supposed to snow tomorrow but I won't believe it until I see it! *HUGGGGGGS*!!! Explored on 2/4/19, highest placement, #2.

This was a picture that I had trouble with, so I began playing with toned and b/w filters. I really liked the texture and light vignetting, which I felt worked nicely with the darker shape in the background.

Steve and I are very fortunate to live in a very beautiful area of southern Oregon, within just a few miles of the lovely Upper and Lower Table Rocks. I took this picture from the top of the Lower Table Rock, showing the Upper Tablerock and Mt. McCloughlin in the distance. As I was processing this image, I took a look at Topaz Lab's Black & White filter set, and found this sepia tone filter with vignette that give this image a cool vintage look! :)

I had fun playing with a colorizing filter when I was processing a few of my images. This image was taken during the MeetUp hike to Howard Prairie Lake on August 11, 2011

[best appreciated at full size against black] Our photograpy group has a new theme every month, and this month was "The Moon." Since I'm so focused and excited about spring and using my macro lens, I wasn't as inspired as I should be. I ended up taking this picture and putting a colorful filter on it to make it look different. I hope you like it! :) This image was taken in February, 2012.

Andrew Hale ( Dr. Ewan ) put up a picture yesterday that totally blew me away, a beautiful church image that he'd applied an oil painting filter to. To my eyes, it looked so much like a painting that I had to read through his comments before I was convinced it was a picture with a filter added! When I discovered that I have that filter available on my PS CS6, I grabbed a picture to play with and tried it out! :D Below is the original and also the lovely church picture that Andrew put up!