Tinting Black and White Photos

Hello People!

I had originally planned on getting this post completed before we left on vacation last week.  Well, it would seem that getting all those little "before you leave on vacation" chores done and trying to get last minute laundry done without a working dryer took up all my time!

Do you have any idea how long it takes to dry a full load of laundry with only air and no heat?!!  I was wishing for a laundry line in the backyard so I could hang up all the clothes!  I'm sure it would have sped that chore up considerably!!!

As I'm sure you didn't drop by to hear my laundry woes, I thought I'd finally share the attempt at tinting the black and white photos I took a couple of weeks ago with acrylic paint.

I'm taking Claudine Hellmuth's Technique Toolbox online class from Big Picture Classes. This particular class may be closed to registration now.  One of the techniques that was taught is to tint black and white photos using acrylic paints and Claudine's Extra Time, slow dry medium.   I don't have this particular medium and as I am really trying to use all the goodies I have accumulated over the years so I tried this technique first with some glaze used for faux painting techniques and with a floating medium from Plaid/FolkArt.

Don't try the glaze. Just sayin'.  The glaze pulled up the ink from my photos rendering a blackish puddle of ick.

The floating medium was more successful as long as I had a light hand applying the paint.  It also pulled up some of the ink from the photos, but I rather liked the effect it created.  I found that the thinner consistency I mixed the paint and floating medium, the better.  If I worked the area too much, I started pulling the ink off the photo.

If you look closely, you can see the petals where the floating medium pulled off some of the ink off the petals.  They would be the ones that have a more blueish tint.  While the faux painting glaze just made a bluish octopus ink smear, I thought the floating medium pulling the ink slightly gave the petals a bit more dimension and shaded look.

This flower I added a bit of a brown tint near the bottom of the petals and along the center. Very faint, but again, adds a bit more dimension and shading.

Oh my!  This is not a success in my book, LOL!!  The streaks that you see on the petals is where the paint and medium just pulled up the print.  I also managed to get a nice black ink smear on one of the petals. By letting the paint dry some, I was able to carefully work out the smudge, but at the expense of pulling up more of the photo base.  This one is NOT a favorite of mine!  Not sure if it is the color, the lack of skill in application or a combination of both!! LOL!

 I am thinking about trying to seal the photos prior to applying the paint and see if I can keep the ink from bleeding. 

Or, I could just take a deep breath and order some of Claudine's Extra Time and see if it makes a difference with my ink jet printer!! HA!

Now to figure out how to use these photos in a project. Or maybe, they will just go in my "possibility" file for a while!

********

Vacation was spent at Flagstaff, AZ and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I will save all those details for another post! I have decreased the 400+ pictures I took down to 300+, but need to weed out more before posting.  You're welcome! LOL!

'Till next time..............

Experimenting in Black and White

Hello People!  Can you believe that we are already nearing the end of July?!! Summer is just flying by and before I know it, the Kiddos will be back in school!

This summer has not lent itself to a lot of creative time.  In addition to summer league basketball and cross country for the Kiddos, I joined in on a challenge that one of my cousins dangled in front of the rest of us: a goal for exercise miles for the year.  It started out with the goal of 1500 bicycling miles then morphed into a 2000 (or 2013) mile challenge that could be met by biking, walking/hiking, running, tennis (30 min= 1 mile), kayaking or what ever other activity we could convert to miles.

Did I happen to mention that the challenge was given at the END of May?!! And that while I had been walking/running some, I had not been keeping track of any miles prior to that time?!!  So, not only did I accept this challenge in the negative, I started with not having ridden my bike seriously for a couple of years and a nagging chronic plantar fasciitis foot pain.

But, I'm chipping away at it!! The foot pain is now tolerating up to 7 miles of walking with some very short distance jogging started this past week.  I'm slowly getting back my biking legs. Basically, I have to average a minimum of 60 miles a week to reach my goal of 2000 miles by December 31. As of this writing, I have knocked out 673.02 miles, only 1,326.98 to go!!

But, those miles also mean that 2-3 hours a day is spent away from the possibility of any creativity.  And right now, that's okay.  I miss the creating, but I'm starting to feel better physically, which is a plus.

It's a give and take.

On the creativity bright side, I "won" a spot from Linda's (Studio L3)  blog for Claudine Hellmuth's Technique Toolbox Class!  (There is still time to sign up for the class if you are interested!! While the class has officially started, registration does not close until July 24th!!  QUICK!  Go sign up!!).  I was so excited to have the chance to give my creative mojo a swift kick in the rear to get back into gear!! This week one of the techniques is tinting photos with acrylic paint.  While out on one of my walks, I came across some wild sunflowers (weeds) that I immediately thought would be the perfect subject for this technique.  So this morning I dragged the Toad out for a little walk so that I could take some black and white photos of the sunflowers.

Go figure that this morning the wind was blowing in a summer storm!  Despite the flowers literally blowing every which way, I managed to get a few photos (with the Toad literally having to try and hold some of the flower stems still!). This is the first time I actually have set up my camera to take black and white photos.  I'm hoping that this storm system will pass this weekend so that I can experiment some more with this setting.  In the mean time, I had a bit of fun attempting some photo editing (which I have very limited skills in!).

I have to tell you that I was amazed that any of these photos came out somewhat in focus as I was having a hard time just trying to focus on a spot where I hoped the flowers would "blow" into!! LOL!!  Now to get these printed up and photo tinted!!

Stayed tuned!  

Busy as a Bee

Hey there Peoples!!  It would appear that the three digit summer temperatures have finally hit our neck of the woods.  While taking the pooch out for a quick morning game of catch, I happened to notice that the bees were busy gathering pollen before the temperatures rose above tolerable levels.  I grabbed my camera and snapped off a few photos before retreating back inside.

  Notice the pollen sack on this photo! 

Let me just say that taking such close up pictures of bees is a bit unnerving, LOL!  I only let loose a couple of panicked squeals in the process of taking these photos!I found it very fascinating to watch them work.  They move around in a complete circle, clockwise then counterclockwise, to gather the pollen.  I love the photo I caught of the pollen sack and the detail on the wings.  

Baby steps in figuring out this photography genre!!  

I'm thinking that I need to change the format of my blog to better showcase photos.  Any suggestions as to what format are welcome!!

That's about it for me today.  I have a house full of neglected chores from a week of working the paying job last week!! Need to get busy like my little bee friends!

'Till next time............

The Road of Photography

This past week another one of my favorite bloggers, Gail of Louisiana Bella announced that she will be taking an extended, possibly permanent hiatus from blogging.

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!

First it was Joan B.  Now Gail.  A gal can only take so much internet heart ache!!

I love Gail's blog.  Her photos are incredible.  I always come away from my visits with a sense of peace and calm after gazing at the nature she has captured with her lens.

I also have this secret wish that I'll be able to take photographs like her when I become a grown up photographer.

Sigh.

While I could babble on and on regarding my waging inner war of understanding  and accepting as to the reasons why two of my favorite bloggers left blogland and feeling abruptly deserted at the same time, I will spare you.

Instead, I will share a few more of the photos I took while capturing the roadrunner nabbing hummingbirds at the neighbors feeder.  All the photos of the birds were all HORRIBLY over exposed, but thanks to the wonders of very basic  digital editing skills, they are somewhat presentable.

Lesson number one in basic photography: Check your settings once in a while, preferably at the beginning of your photography session.  It will save innocent children's ears of words they should never hear from their mother's saintly mouth!! 

I'm still learning.  But the sometimes the journey is more treasured than the destination!

Nature is always Beautiful....

....But it's not always pretty!!

The Toad was outside doing some yard work this morning and I caught him staring intently at the neighbors house.  It would seem that a roadrunner had found a favorite restaurant at the hummingbird feeder! The cagey fellow perched himself on the decorative house trim and patiently waited for his prey to come to the feeder.  I missed the actual "nabbing" of the poor little guy who became lunch, but managed to catch a couple of photos of the "before" and "after".

Remember, you can click on any of the photos for a larger view.

Waiting....waiting.....

ewwww....got 'im!!

"Excuse me....I'm trying to enjoy my lunch here"

"Fine.  I'll just take it to go"

I actually took over 150 pictures of about 4 different species of hummingbirds at the feeder.  It would seem that my nature photography needs a bit of work!! Over exposed all of the pictures!  That will teach me not to check to see if my settings are right!!  I think I can salvage some of them with the wonders of photo editing. What in the world did one do before Photoshop?!!  I'll be back later with more photos!!

'Till next time....remember, to enjoy the moment!!

Spring Again

It would appear that the plants in my yard think the temperatures are more in line with Spring rather than Fall.  My day lilies, verbena and roses are blooming again.  Since Mojo continues to elude me for any paper crafting, I took advantage of the mid afternoon light to play around with my camera.

Click on photos to enlarge.  One of these days I'll change the format of my blog so that photos can be larger!! 

One of these days I will have to pull out my paints and repair the look of this statue's halo.  But then again, it does add a bit of worn charm

I think this may be my favorite photo of the day

\

This guy decided to photo bomb my picture!

'Till next time.............remember, creativity can be found in so many different mediums!!

 

 

P.S.  I forgot to say which version of the Trio of Thanks that was deemed the favorite by the Toad:

 

(drum roll.....) Version 3!

 

 

 





In the Garden

I'm finding myself needing to do something creative, yet due to circumstances that life has decided to throw at my family, creativity from paper and ink is no where to be found.

So today, I put on the new 50mm lens on my camera and did some practice shots in the garden.

And because my brain does not want to think at all, all the shots are SOC (straight out of camera) with only some cropping.

First three photos done on with the aperture priority setting

 This next one bothers me that the main flower is blurry, but I like the bokah effect!!

These next ones were done on the  automatic depth of field setting.  I think I might like the aperture setting better for flower shots.  

That's about it for me today.  Remember to take time to stop and smell the roses....the flowers fade all too soon!

'Till next time..............