autofantasia's photos with the keyword: rabbit

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which the topic was symbols of Easter . I took this shot on Good Friday whilst visiting RHS Garden Harlow Carr in Harrogate on what proved to be the first day of the Lindt Gold Bunny Hunt . The classic Lindt Gold Bunny is, according to the official Lindt website at least, one of the most iconic symbols of Easter and he first opened his eyes to the world of chocolate in 1952. The story goes that on a bright Spring morning in March that year, when the ground was still covered with a blanket of crisp white snow, one of the Lindt Maîtres Chocolatiers saw a little bunny in his garden. His young daughter was completely mesmerised when she herself saw the little bunny, but began to cry as soon as it disappeared into the bushes. Deeply touched by how upset his daughter was, the father suddenly had a great idea ... he would make a bunny like the one they saw together, but out of chocolate. So he did exactly that using the finest Lindt milk chocolate, then he wrapped it in golden foil and put a red ribbon with a bell around its neck, so it would not get lost. And so, the very first Gold Bunny was born. Nowadays the Lindt Gold Bunny is supposedly adored by people of all ages and all over the world and every year when the it appears again, they know that Easter is not far away. However, as nice as the Lindt Gold Bunny is many would argue that it's just another example of how over recent years traditional festivals like Easter have been exploited for commercial gain. Gone are the days it seems when all a child needed to enjoy their Easter was to hand paint a boiled egg and then roll it down the nearest hill. Oh, and in case you're wondering the Lindt Gold Bunny Hunt is an event aimed mainly at children. Each is given a leaflet with a map inside so that they can follow the Lindt Bunny's trail, answer a set of questions, hand in their answers at the Gift Shop and then take collection of their very own "delicious Lindt chocolate treat". Please view on black for best effect.

Another in my series of abstracts. I was hoping to produce a 'big cat', but seem to have ended up with a rabbit! As usual, you can see the original shot upon which this abstract is based in the Notes.

So folks, my late entry for this week's Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of texture, features Howard the Hare . I’ve been looking to photograph Howard, perhaps for the purpose of a Sunday Challenge , ever since he was given to me by my wife as a gift. This cold cast resin sculpture is one of a series produced by celebrated artist Paul Jenkins. Many of his pieces are inspired from direct observations of wild animals in their natural habitat and I’ve been an admirer of his work, especially the hares, for quite a while so was delighted to be given this as a gift. As soon as I saw this week’s challenge was texture, I immediately thought of using Howard as he himself has a lovely handcrafted texture. Howard normally lives indoors, but for this challenge I took him out into the garden as I wanted to try and produce a photograph of him that would eventually look like a painting of a hare in the wild. I sat him atop a large boulder and carefully positioned some potted plants around him to give what I hoped would be a naturalistic backdrop. Once I had a shot I was happy with the next challenge was how best to process the shot and what textures to use to give the desired effect. I opened the photo in PaintShopPro X2, which is my weapon of choice in such matters, and used the posterize effect to make the image slightly less realistic looking. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to lose the definition on the plant leaves and so the overall effect was still to realistic. Howard was looking good, but the leaves were still proving problematic. So I created a duplicate layer of the overall photo and treated the top layer to some PSP brush strokes, which really started to make the leaves look like they were painted. Next, I deleted Howard from the top layer to allow the less processed hare to show through from the lower layer. All that remained was to try and do something with textures, an area of processing I have little experience. PSP does have a canvas effect, but I didn’t feel it looked quite right so I got an old bit of carpet down from the loft and photographed the backing. I then copied the image into PSP and used it as a texture on the shot of Howard. It took a bit of fiddling around to get the opacity levels right, but I think in the end I got what I’d set out to achieve … something that looked like a painting of a hare in the wild. Looks better I think when viewed large. Oh, and if you want to know more about Paul Jenkins, follow the link below to his official website where you will find examples of his latest ceramic and resin bronze sculptures: www.pauljenkinsgallery.co.uk