autofantasia's photos with the keyword: grass

A late entry due to the Bank Holiday for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was inversion . This is a shot I took of some golden Japanese forest grass we have growing in our back garden. I then created an inverted layer from it, which I set to Hue (Legacy) before merging the two together. Next I copied this new layer and set the top copy to Multiply with the opacity on the lower one set to 40%. Once again I merged the two before oil painting this new final version to smooth it out and give it a more artistic feel. Normally I'd have added a copy of the original image into the Notes, but I can't currently do this as my Club membership has expired. However, for those that don't know the plant it's an elegant deciduous grass with arching stems, bearing narrow variegated leaves that have creamy-white, green and yellow stripes. I also wanted to add this to Sight and Sound , but was struggling to come up with anything until I came across a bluegrass barn dance cover of a song called "Blurred Lines" performed by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. It seems the original song and video by Robin Thicke proved to be quite controversial depending on how you interpreted his lyrics, but hopefully this bluegrass cover version will prove less so: youtu.be/Nz-OMn1o22Y youtu.be/aJnUP8uguh8 Incidentally, if you've not come across Postmodern Jukebox before it's well worth checking them out on YouTube or by following the link below to their website. They claim to provide "gramophone music in a smartphone world" by reworking popular modern music into different vintage genres, especially early 20th century forms such as swing and jazz: postmodernjukebox.com

Contrary to what people often say and what this lamb obviously believes the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. For HFF - Happy Fence Friday . Wishing everyone a good weekend and hoping that next week brings further news of the IMA takeover of ipernity. Oh, and in case you're wondering this shot was taken at the same time as I took the one of The Three Lambs as used for last week's Sunday Challenge .

Running late again, but for what it's worth here is my entry for this week's, or should that be last week's, Sunday Challenge . In keeping with recent challenges there were a few options around a central theme and I elected to go with a combination of Spring and New Growth . I had been hoping to use one of the shots I took whilst doing the Farndale Daffodil Walk , but in the end I wasn't all that happy with the shots I got on the day and so decided to look for inspiration elsewhere. As it happens, that was to be found much closer to home, in a small field on the outskirts of Northallerton that contained a few sheep along with their fairly young looking lambs. Initially, when I came upon them and moved in to try and get a close up shot there were only two lambs in my sights - the two in the foreground. However, once I'd started snapping away a third lamb came across and nuzzled in behind them. I guess he just didn't want to miss the opportunity of having his photo taken! Please view on black for best effect.

A somewhat later than intended entry for this week's Sunday Challenge . For this we were actually given several subjects to choose from, but in the end I opted to shoot anything to do with pets . This was given as an option because apparently April is National Pet month, or at least it is here in the UK. So, why the tennis ball? Well, our youngest dog Sandy is barking mad when it comes to balls and loves nothing more than going over the nearby fields with me, the plastic launcher and a ball. The trouble is that until recently his eagerness to play ball was costing us a small fortune as none of the ones that you get in the pet shops, which are supposedly intended for such purposes last for any length of time before falling apart. Not sure if it's just him that's too hard on them or if they're simply not fit for purpose, but I've actually seen him destroy one of those balls on a single walk. Anyway, I got to wondering if 'proper' tennis balls would be any good and so a few weeks back we went online and ordered up a set of 6 for £4.99, as opposed to the £2.99 for 3 usually charged for the others. And it has turned out to be a very wise move indeed as nearly a month later and he is still using the first ball. So, if your dog goes through those pet shop balls as quickly as our Sandy then my advice is to try ordering some 'proper' tennis balls like the one pictured. Please view on black for best effect.

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which the subject was rubbish . Spotted this coffee cup for a well known outlet lying discarded by the side of the A19 in North Yorkshire. Didn't have to look all that hard though as you see them lying all over the countryside.

Thought I'd share this shot with you of Bella. She was adopted by us from the Dogs Trust at Adel on the outskirts of Leeds when she was only about 6 months old, but she's now approaching 14 years of age. When she first came to stay with us we had an older dog called Glen who she used to torment something rotten. Sadly Glen passed away a few years ago and although we got another young dog called Sandy no matter how hard he tries he rarely succeeds in getting her to play with him. You see, these days Bella's main interests don't extend much beyond eating treats, going for short walks, getting 'puppy cuddles' on the sofa late at night, and lying in the garden on sunny days. Still, she seems happy with her lot as I hope this photo conveys.

Taken at Beningbrough Hall, a large Georgian mansion which is near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire. The building, now owned by the National Trust, is around 300 years old and overlooks the River Ouse. This rusted artwork was spotted on an old lawn roller leaning up against the outer wall of the main gardens. It was located within the centre of the handle no doubt to add strength as well as beauty. Sadly, time has taken its toll on the metalwork.

For this week's Sunday Challenge , which has the theme of visual puns . Essentially a visual pun is an image that depicts objects, or the arrangement of objects, in such a way that the names of the objects, or their arrangement suggests a play on words. So a shot of flies on top of a block of butter might be used to convey the phrase butterflies , which is often used to describe that queasy feeling you get in your stomach when you're very nervous about something. Or another example might be a worm crawling out of or across an old book to represent the phrase bookworm used to describe an avid reader. So, for English speakers at least, an easy topic and one that saw loads of ideas come into my head, but not so easy to capture if you can't find suitable props and that was certainly the problem for me. In the end, I came up with this image to represent the phrase screwball ,which is often used to describe someone or something that is crazy or wacky. Can't let this one go without also taking the opportunity to add it into the Sight & Sound group ... along with Bobby Vee's "Rubber Ball" of course: youtu.be/6GRuzaMwvrA youtu.be/qu1Vjf9hTvY youtu.be/z5jrqe8ryJ8?list=RDz5jrqe8ryJ8

Whilst we were out looking for a suitable subject for a recent Sunday Challenge I spotted this old donkey out grazing in a field by the side of the road on the outskirts of Topcliffe. It looked so sad and lonely that I thought I'd stop and offer it some company. Sadly it wouldn't come to me, but I did manage to get a few distant shots of it and this is a reworking of one of the better ones. I was happy enough with the original shot, which you can find in the Notes, but I thought he/she deserved some TLC so I've tried to do provide that with some 'painterly' editing. Probably best viewed large on black ... here's hoping you guys like the end result?