Mobile Art Monday No. 49

A Digital Mixed Media Piece

Today's purpose: Mostly to inspire with a tidbit of instruction here and there.

This piece was created using three photos(sunflower, bird and an oil can label for texture) and two vintage papers(the butterflies and text.)

My original photo was shot with the Hipstamatic app using two of my favorites, Tejas lens and Ina's 1982 film. (I cropped off the border.)

In Leonardo I layered the other images on top and began changing blend modes and masking away areas.

I inverted the text paper and set it to screen so the text would be white. I duplicated most of the layers and used two different blending modes to achieve desired results.

When happy, I saved to camera roll and opened it in Picfx.

Under the PFX Film Set I chose PFX10 and reduced the opacity. (Touch on the right side to pull up the opacity slider. You can also rotate the filters on the left.) Be sure to touch the 'layer+' icon to add additional layers.

Under the Scratches Set I added Scratches One at a very low opacity and Olden Texture also at a low opacity. 

At this point I opened it in Procreate to outline the bird slightly and add a few sublte touches to the butterflies.

For an experiment I thought I'd run it through Brushstroke and saved three of the edits. 

Another play with the three in Leonardo using different blend modes for a unique painterly effect.

I hope this inspires you to try some layering in your edits.

A Freedom We'll All Know

Death. It's a freedom we'll all know.

My friend died today. As I sit here I feel quite numb. She's battled cancer for four years and the last month was just the last straw her body could take.

She was one of the happiest people I've ever met. I wonder what her secret was?

Thirty six years ago my very best friend died of cancer. I had made a conscious choice to stick it out with her to the bitter end. I had made that choice when I met her. You see, she was in remission at the time and it was the type that carried an inevitable death sentence. I'll never forget that moment sitting across the table from her. It was a milestone marker moment in my life.

I had intended to do the same this past month but one thing or another got in my way. Mostly I believe it was fear. Fear of my own raw emotions that would surface. I should have told myself, "This is NOT about you. It's about her."

I saw her two weeks ago and she was doing remarkable well so today's news came as a shock. I thought I had more time. But it's not about me.

She is free now. Free as the birds.

Mobile Art Monday No. 37

The struggle continues among some as to whether to post images taken with dslrs to Instagram. Yes, it started out as a mobile platform but has morphed into 'big business'. If you teach classes and sell products, you can grab a lot of customers there. As a result more people are posting high quality photos. Sometimes it's hard to compete with such. Especially since I have one foot in the 'regular mobile' world and another in the 'still life' world (although that one has been on hold for several weeks as I've focused on my art for the November show).

One thing I like to do however, is a bit of a compromise. I'll load a few raw files from my camera to my iPad then edit them in favorites such as Mextures or Stackables. You can also transfer photos from your computer via Dropbox to get them onto your iPad. I have to admit, this is more fun than Photoshop (I hate to say). Here are a few from last week. 

The monarchs were migrating through town.

Edited in Mextures. (Canon7D)

The Mextures edit with Stackables. (Canon7D)

I took a detour out through the Slaton Canyon on the way to pick up hubby and found this Woodpecker munching away. I was very glad I had my camera with the 70-300 on it.

Edited in Snapseed and Mextures. (Canon7D)

Edited in Snapseed and Mextures. (Canon7D)

As I write this, I realize I haven't transferred these from my camera to my computer. In fact I'm at an all time low on the number of photos I've taken for October. Fall never arrives before November so I'm sure I'll make up for it this month.

Have a great week and if you haven't backed up your images from your phone or iPad lately.... go do it NOW!

Officially Winter in Texas

Winter arrived in Lubbock Texas as we arrived home from a last minute Christmas trip to the Dakotas. It was a winter wonderland ready for the capture.

I noticed a few things I wouldn't have a year or two ago.

The poor pecan trees in the neighbor's yard with pecans still heavy and getting heavier with the ice. Hundreds of dollars worth of pecans, probably not worth 2 cents now. I would have shaken his trees and picked them up myself. It would have been a bumper crop. But I reaped the benefit of photos.

Our gas is probably the lowest in the country. I guess we saved around $200 this trip compared with last year's prices.

This shot was right by the gas price sign. If you noticed the previous photo, I can't imagine why a handicapped person would ever want to park there.

We had freezing rain today, then fluffy snow flakes, then more rain. I pulled out my 100 Macro lens for this. What I love about it, is the background.

We stopped at work to check on things last night and I was glad I had more than my iPhone with me. It was a challenge to hand hold this also. It's not the sharpest, but compared to the rest…. ISO 3200 18mm f/4 1/8 sec. I'm grateful for this shot because after all the ice today, half of the branches broke off. Very sad. It's a Desert Willow, too fragile for ice storms.

My favorite shot of all. Dove in Pecan Tree. Textured with kk_postale and a texture from 2 Lil Owls.

The skies were so white with low clouds that the geese flew low today and came in swarm after swarm. The near by golf course and lakes were just covered in geese.

Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.

Friday Finds July 25

Come on over to Kim's blog today and see what kind of great goodies everyone has found/discovered this week.
Just a few things found in the garden this week.

Have a great weekend!

It Is Good

And He looked at all He had created and said, "It is good."

Kim's darkmood preset, kk_pieces texture, 2 layers, Multiply 100% and Softlight 54%.

It's sunflower season again. The volunteers are fabulous this year, providing pollen dripping bouquets for me and lots of seeds to make the birds happy. Hoping the cardinals will show up, but for now I will enjoy the red house finches. They are the friendliest or should I say least scared? They will chat at me from 6 feet away while I capture them.

Linking up with Texture Tuesdays

Santa Fe Road Trip- First Stop

A road trip was planned.  Two girls from Texas would meet up with one girl from Kansas in the beautiful city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Cameras and food in laps, they headed out.

While approaching the city limit sign of Melrose NM, the passenger squeals! The Big Year! The movie! The Big Year!

She's a bird maniac. The driver blames her for the new infatuation.

After a google search and pretty good directions, they drive past and promptly turn around. A very unsuspecting small (appearances are deceiving) grove of trees just off the side of the road. This is the Melrose Trap? 

You can see why they drove right past. But it's a migratory stop off to hundreds of different species of birds. A birder's delight.

As they got closer the car was dwarfed by the huge cottonwoods. Yes, so very big. 

One lone pickup truck was there, a man and his quiet dog. Who takes their dog to look for birds?

A lot of the large trees were dead, which gave them great character. The girls walked out toward the east, cautious for snakes, and had a great view of the large cottonwoods. 

The young trees were bent from years of wind. No, this is not a hill.

The driver photographed the trees. The passenger looked for birds.

There were quite a few rock structures which led them to believe a house once stood there.

The driver also photographed some wildflowers and dead stuff.

 And other things.

 This was the view from the other side looking to the northeast.

By this time the bird man and dog had left so the girls ventured back into the trees. They found the bird watching chair and what little water was available. 

Perhaps that was why only three species of birds were spotted that day. The Eastern Kingbird with it's yellow breast and playful manner. (The driver is not very good at getting sharp bird photos, sorry)

The American Kestral was beautiful when it flew.

And possibly a bushtit.

It was a good first stop for this photo trip.

Linking up with Helen for Weekend Walks.