50 Shades of...you know what

 

I wanted to title this post '50 Shades of Gray' - but since I'm the opposite of a fan of 50SoG I couldn't bring myself to finish the line.

 

I thought a black and white photo of colorful M&Ms made a statement. I'm not sure what the statement is, but I like the photo.

Wish I was here

 

Though we're enjoying unseasonably warmish weather this month, I'd still rather it was an idyllic spring day like this one.

Merry Christmas!

 

This is a prior year's tree, but it's festive and cozy - and contains a hidden cat.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Playing with color

 

Kale from the garden looks even better in blue.

Consequences

This is what happens when you drop a singularity into a large body of water. Let this be a cautionary tale.

Light and shadow

I don't do a lot of black and white photos - but I thought the light and shadow here was pretty cool.

A little sunshine

After a week of nice weather, we had torrential rain today. So here's a riot of sunshine to cheer me up.

I'm goin' nuts!

Okay, I'm not going nuts. But maybe this little guy is. He was just sitting in a tree looking like a nature photo, so I had to take his picture.

'Tis the season

 

These lights hang on a neighbor's fence. In the right sunlight they glow on their own. Simple but festive.

No touch ups

On rare occasions you get a photo that just stands by itself. Here's one of my favorites from a trip to Ellis Island a few years ago.

Creating new worlds

A view of strange plants on a distant ice planet.

 

Pictures of heaven

I'm a spiritual person and I have a strong belief in the other side. This photo of the shore makes me feel like heaven bleeds over onto Earth sometimes. [That's not me in the photo, obviously.]

More magical coffee

 

Nothing like a rainbow in your cup to start the day.

For the love of coffee

I've discovered bullet-proof coffee, and it's not bad. For someone who did not drink coffee for 45 years, I've become a bit of coffee-believer.

Here's a photo of an acrylic urn given to me by a friend. There are coffee beans immortalized in the lid of the urn. Up close, they become something otherworldly.

 

 

Dark brew fills my cup

Steam rises aromatic

Sweet, creamy power

 

 

An ode to coffee

A cat's life

 

 

Eyes like amber jewels

whiskers brush gently along

soft paws hide secrets

 

 

A haiku for Socks the stray cat

Get in close

One of the tips I've learned recently about taking photos is to get in close to your subject. Too close doesn't work that well with a phone - but photo manipulation allows a long shot to become a compelling a close-up.

 

 

 

And a little playing around makes a nice abstract too...

 

 

 

Story seed

I love sunsets [mostly because I'm not a morning person so I rarely see sunRISES].

 

Here's one from the other night that I turned into a sci-story.

 

First I tried a watercolor painting.

 

 

 

Then I decided on a sky filled with UFOs.

 

 

 

Evolution of a painting

This is a photo from the summer, probably taken with my old phone. With a little help it evolves into art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some things just are

I looked through some of the old photos on my drive and found this photo of a bouquet I'd received. I couldn't figure out how to enhance the photo and I realized, I don't think it needs any help to be amazing.

 

 

Mad science

What happens when you cook eggs too long?

They melt. LOL!

 

I got carried away with some special effects here. But I liked the effect and ended up with a neat abstract out of it.

 

 

 

Simple imagery

While it's fun to play around with an image, I love the idea of just taking a great, simple picture. Here's one that's good on it's own and pretty cool with a little tweaking too.

Paperclips spilled onto a clean sheet of paper on my desk need only a little enhancing.

 

 

 

 

With a lot of work they become something neon.

 

 

 

 

Posting out of order

Until the new year, I'll probably be posting pictures out of order. I have quite a few collected already and my theme is just ' Things I love '. I don't want to follow the Photo-A-Day themes because I think that will undermine my plan to use this as a form of meditation and a means to relieve stress. If I'm too worried about following someone else's list of approved photos I'm defeating my own purpose.

So here's a picture of one of my plants and what happens to it when I GIMP around with it.

 

The close up by itself is pretty striking but with a little help...

 

 

It's a tropical oasis.

 

Painting with my phone

Let me start by saying I'm still working on the look of this blog. I'm not entirely happy with font sizes and color intensity, so I apologize if any of it seems jarring.

I love to paint, but I'm not very good at it. What I've discovered is that I can create paintings out of photographs with the right filters and I'm having a ball.

Here's an original photo I took today and the two 'paintings' I created from it.

 

 

 

 

 

I could do this all day. I may even try to recreate the photo 'paintings' as actual paintings.

 

 

Here I am

This is going to be another one of my grand experiments. My plan is to post a photo every day [or at least a photo FOR every day]. I'm going to start now, but it's technically a Photo-A-Day blog for 2016 to improve my both my skills at photography and photo manipulation.

Most of my photos will be shot using my smartphone - a Motorola Moto G - because it actually takes better pictures than my regular camera.

I'm going to work on most of the photos using GIMP.

My first photo is the one I'm using in the header - but that may change. It's a photo of a tumble of rocks at the corner of the street where these gorgeous little purple flowers grow.

 

 

With some manipulation it became this:

 

 

All photos on the blog are original and are copyrighted by me. My name or initials will appear on them somewhere. Please ask permission if you would like to repost or borrow them.