Love Makes The World Go Round

SmugMug Daily Link

I am enjoying making Valentine's Day cards and hope you are enjoying the series.  While Donnie was playing with the kids this morning, I designed and created this one using 3 layers (shots) on top of the heart gel cling original shot. All the images were taken this week although not at the same time or even on the same day.  One of the top layers is rust, and the other two top layers are just abstract bokeh color shots.  I find that these window gel cling shots need texture like rust to get rid of the glass water marks otherwise I  might not add so much texture.  After I got the image like I wanted it in 8X10 I created a blank white 4X6 (really 12X8) image and then resized my image onto it without maintaining the abstract ratio.  The abstract ratio just doesn't matter here.   4X6 is a better card size to print.  I try to produce all my cards in 8X10 and 4X6 just in case.

Anyway, here's a screen shot showing the layers:

SmugMug Link

On another subject, the boys received 2 awards each at an awards ceremony at their school yesterday.  I am very proud of them!

SmugMug Link

If you ever meet Johnny in person, and just ask Ms. Lavanya or Ms. Chika, he will give you a hug and start talking up a storm with you.  We call him the goodwill ambassador.  His award for Kindness is meant to convey that.

Working on very important Donnie birthday preparations today.  More on that tomorrow!  Someone just happens to have their birthday on the Superbowl this year:-)

Godiva

SmugMug Daily Link

This image is NOT mine ~ *the original image above is copyrighted by Google Maps from Street View and is being used for the sole purpose of artistic merit and will not be sold or profited from by the posted individual.

Today's POTD was suggested by fellow Daily Photo Community member Kim.  The challenge was to do a screen capture of any place in NYC on Google maps street view, post process it any way you want, and then post it today with the disclaimer as noted above.

Since it's February, I couldn't resist posting this Godiva chocolate ad on 646 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016. I have romance and chocolate on the brain these days. Donnie is always surprising me with a tiny Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or a butterscotch:-)

I intentionally tinted the image to Valentine's Day colors in Color Efex Pro.  Here are the filters:

SmugMug Link

Here's the original:

SmugMug Link

The light was very pretty in my yard yesterday morning, and the flowers are popping out.  I just wish this bloom didn't have the brown spots.

SmugMug Link

I was able to create some cool new textures/backgrounds too.  This is the sky filtered through some tree branches:

SmugMug Link

This one is light on brown oak leaves:

SmugMug Link

Look at this spring beauty!

SmugMug Link

A Stroll in the Park

SmugMug Daily Link

I'm feeling much better today...thanks.  The antibiotic seems to be doing what it was supposed to.

I know we hit at least 71 here yesterday.  Wow, right?!?  Shoot, the low at 6AM this morning was only 55.  This is definitely the winter that wasn't.  February is usually our most miserable month of the year with lots of clouds, wind, and precipitation mixed in with chilly for us temps.  So far...not!

Donnie helped me get my Mill as Muse photo submissions in over at Yates Mill yesterday, and we had another of our wonderful picnic lunches and did the 1 mile mill pond loop walk.  I did take it easy...promise.  Sun and warm temps mixed with Donnie is great medicine.  I took some shots, but we ran out of time to take more.   Although it was such a cheery day and the light on the path so pretty, somehow I thought my daily shot looked better moody, so I Tinted it in Picasa and applied a Vignette using a CoffeeShop action.  I also cropped to 8X10.

Here's the original:

SmugMug Link

I really liked this stump which looked like a heart:

SmugMug Link

Here's a collage showing more shots from our day:

SmugMug Link

The folks out on the canoe are most likely NC State University students.   If you visit this link, you'll read that NC State University actually owns the land and that Wake County and Yates Mill Associates work with NCSU to keep the mill in good condition and allow the public to enjoy the park.  Two of  the miller's were actually on the water flume yesterday doing some repair work.  See the photo on the second row far right of the collage.  They do a great job of keeping the mill repaired and in running operation.

Here are the shots I submitted for the Mill as Muse photo contest:

SmugMug Link - Mill Category - Titled Yates Mill Christmas Card

SmugMug Link - Park Nature Category - Titled Future Photographer

I entered this shot for Madi:

SmugMug Link - Park Nature Category - Titled Pink Beauty

Donnie and I will attend the reception on February 11th to see how we did.

Look what I saw this AM when I did a Google search on Yates Mill:

SmugMug Link

Notice the photos with the gray bar that say 'You'.  Yes, those are mine.  Best as I could tell, those images are uploaded to Picasa in one of my Public galleries and have YatesMill in the .jpg name somewhere.  There was one image that seemed to show up just because it was in a gallery with YatesMill in the album title.  None of these images was tagged.  I might try to get a few more images that would be ones I'd really want to see to show up...in my free time:-)

Mirror, Mirror on the Tree

SmugMug Daily Link

Donnie said you all had him blushing with the comments on his portrait yesterday.  Thank you.

Unfortunately I came down with a fever high enough yesterday to give us both a scare.  Fever when you're having chemo is not a good thing.  Thank goodness for 24-hour pharmacies.  They put me on an antibiotic and told me I could take Tylenol and I'm doing better this morning.

I didn't get to take any new pics yesterday:-(  I did rework this tree picture while Donnie was going to the pharmacy.  I needed something to soothe how I was feeling.  I took this shot of the tree at the Eno River on Monday and had in mind Mirror Mirror on the Tree or something like that.  I wanted to put a picture in the hole were the branch had been but wasn't sure what picture.  Me?  An oasis?  What?  Last night I quickly picked the West Point Mill shot.

I used John Bennett's pp technique on the tree shot to give it a pseudo hdr look.  I wanted to emphasize the lines in the tree.  The highlights, contrast, and shadow sliders are all pushed all the way to the right.  I simply did a select and cut of the hole and then slid in the layer of the mill shot which I then reduced in size and converted to a sepia sortof color.

I don't really think what I did has the pizzazz I was hoping for, but it's what you get for today considering how yesterday went.  Here's a reverse version where the tree is B&W and the mill shot is in full hdr color.

SmugMug Link

Here's the original tree shot:

SmugMug Link

Donnie at West Point Mill

SmugMug Daily Link

Between two doctor's appointments yesterday, Donnie and I had a picnic lunch and a short walk at West Point Mill on the Eno River. It was a glorious January day...57 degrees, calm winds, and bright and sunny.

Although there were pretty landscapes, mill shots, daffodils, and textures everywhere, Donnie looked too handsome in this portrait not to use this picture as my POTD.

Our view during the picnic was the mill itself:

SmugMug Link

And our view on our walk was the river:

SmugMug Link

I studied some of the gears and other mill equipment laying outside the mill:

SmugMug Link

And we enjoyed comparing the bridge in this park to the ones we had seen in Smithfield on Saturday.  We expected this bridge to be made by the same compaby, Contech, but it was made by Excel.

SmugMug Link

Donnie pondered what life would have been like as a civil engineer.  We studied the bridge enough to determine that is was 4 larges pieces obviously moved into place by a crane and then bolted together.

I am really enjoying collecting texture and background shots right now.  I realize there is a fine line between having a good assortment to choose from and having so many you can't find the one you want or make up your mind, yet I'm generating quite the gallery now.

Papamugger will enjoy this water spider and his shadow:

SmugMug Link

We enjoyed a very nice dinner after Donnie spent some time bike riding with Joey, Johnny, and Madi.  How did we survive out on our own as kids with no adults anywhere in sight and with no helmets I don't know.  The kids had fun.  We're working on safety skills:-)

Love Is Always Give and Take

SmugMug Daily Link

I didn't have a chance to take many new pics yesterday, so I decided to process another of the heart gel cling shots from my window.

Here's the original:

SmugMug Link

Here's the texture which I took in Smithfield on Saturday:

SmugMug Link

I didn't have to desaturate it; it didn't have much color to begin with.

Here are the filters I used in Color Efex Pro:

SmugMug Link

I tried the text along the bottom as a straight line again, but BORING.  I experimented and came up with the arches.  It's different:-)  The text is two layers...one for each arch.  I rotated the arches to fit the curve as well as fidgeting with the bend of the arch.  I didn't get too many new gray hairs, but I did have to finesse them for a while to get them right or at least as good as they are.  I had issues with the text being readable, so I also had to try several fonts to get one that showed up the way I wanted it to.  This is Melanie BT.  Loriah BT didn't work very well.

When I saw the big heart and the little heart, it reminded me of how love is never quite fifty-fifty.  How sometimes one person carries more of the load than the other but that hopefully it's a back and forth give and take where each can carry the relationship when needed.

There's one more card I created last night which I'll share:

SmugMug Link

Maybe I like it better than the one I've posted.  Oh well.

I created this texture overlay from a bokeh shot and a rust shot both taken in Smithfield on Saturday:

SmugMug Link

I thought it looked like a mossy tree.  Textures are addicting!

Original:

SmugMug Link

I had to work to get rid of the whitish spot in the lower right corner on the original as well as repair the top of the larger heart.  Color Efex Pro Polarization and one other filter were also applied.

Hopefully you're getting in the romantic Valentine's Day spirit now:-)

Two Hearts Beat as One

SmugMug Daily Post

I'm never one to leave my holiday posts until the last minute:-)  We have our Valentine's Day decorations up, not that there are that many, and Johnny and I have been enjoying these gel clings on our family room window.

SmugMug Link

I used those clings in combination with this rusty texture to create today's card.  The window was dirty and had water spots on the original, so really, I just about had to add a texture.

SmugMug Link

With Donnie in my life, it's easy to be motivated to create images like this...

Original:

SmugMug Link

Donnie and I went to Smithfield yesterday and walked about 3 miles along where the Neuse River flows through town on the Buffalo Creek Greenway.

SmugMug Link

We saw some very interesting things on the walk including a historic bridge crossing.  The Neuse River is a major waterway in North Carolina, and getting across 100 or more years ago would not have been trivial.  Donnie enjoyed wondering about the engineering of a crossing that large over the years and how it went from a covered bridge to the modern day bridge that now stands just a few yards away.  I liked the waterfall noise of the runoff coming down off the road and flowing into the river over the rocky terrain.

SmugMug Link

We also saw the Hastings House which was General Johnston's headquarters during the Civil War as well as the town's time capsule to be opened on the tricentennial in 2077.  Yep, this town, Smithfield, was founded in 1777.  Not obvious to those who don't live in central NC is that Smithfield is in Johnston  Country:-)  Everything has a history...  Now I know.  Of course Donnie already new that.

SmugMug Link

Donnie pointed out this vanishing point under the new bridge and we saw that when it floods water can get up to 30' under the bridge before hitting the new bridge trusses.

SmugMug Link

And views along the Neuse River...

SmugMug Link

Contech makes these really nice bridges that are installed throughout the greenway, and we enjoyed studying them too.

SmugMug Link

There was a cemetery, pigeons, and cool spider webs along the walk too.  A real treat to enjoy on a 60+ degree January day.  We heard frogs and crickets and saw many families out enjoying the day too.  Informative, calm, peaceful, and relaxing...

SmugMug Link