Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Oak

1 picture above in a note! Welcome to our second 10-Week Photo Project!! This Project is focused on TREES, with a different theme each week. This week is for a SINGLE TREE! I did take some pictures today with my camera phone but they just couldn't compare to this one, not even close. :) Here's the story: As Steve and I were driving home from Medford, we went past a beautiful, enormous Oak tree that I always admire every time we go by. Magnificent and huge, I couldn't resist pointing my camera and taking a picture or two as we flew by at 50mph. Looking at the pictures when we got home, I was surprised that one of them was nice enough that I could process it! I decided to give it a vintage look, using Topaz Lab's Black and White Effects "Sepia & Gold" filter and then adding a 60% opacity of Jerry Jone's texture, "Aborigine" as an overlay. I also added a Photoshop sandstone texture. I've included the unaltered version for you to see how it looked before I used the filter and texture overlay. Isn't it amazing how different it looks? And if you like this, it's really so easy to learn how to use these filters and texture techniques. It just takes some practice to get an understanding of what you can expect. If you would like to try out Topaz Lab's Black & White Effects, there is a trial version to try here: www.topazlabs.com/downloads

1 more picture + 2 text notes in notes above! :) Fall is arriving!! Day by day, I am beginning to see the trees slowly change color as the leaves die and drop from their lofty homes. It is an amazing time for me, as are all the 4 distinct seasons we have here in southern Oregon. I was born and raised in San Francisco and it is known for having a similar temperature range year-round. There are no distinct seasons, so one of the things I really wanted was to live in a place where I could experience all four seasons. Fall is incredible to me, and I always think of the quote by Albert Camus, "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." It is so absolutely true. I lose my mind with all of the beautiful leaves, they are incredible!! And so, today I am sharing another beautiful "autumn flower" from an Oak tree, complete with a Wasp Gall! :) John Burroughs (April 3, 1837 – March 29, 1921) was an American naturalist and essayist important in the evolution of the U.S. conservation movement. According to biographers at the American Memory project at the Library of Congress, John Burroughs was the most important practitioner after Henry David Thoreau of that especially American literary genre, the nature essay. By the turn of the 20th century he had become a virtual cultural institution in his own right: the Grand Old Man of Nature at a time when the American romance with the idea of nature, and the American conservation movement, had come fully into their own. His extraordinary popularity and popular visibility were sustained by a prolific stream of essay collections, beginning with Wake-Robin in 1871. Wikipedia: John Burroughs Explored on September 16, 2013. Highest placement, page 5.