MONO MONDAY PLUS #23 and MM #37

These were taken last month, We had driven down to Big Sur, and had a picnic, on the way back we pulled off on the Old Coast Road and drove in several hundred yards to get a good view of Bixby Creek Bridge.  The road was not open all the way through, due to fire damage and road repair.  While taking pictures I began taking ones of Linda, a most excellent subject.  Linda is back home now, but thankfully we all have our memories, our sweet memories.

On one shot I noticed a relflection, so took several more, only one came out clear, and that is the one that is used here.  The Old Coast Road, dirt, ruts and all is in the background in the glasses, heading back to Highway One. 

 First the Original

Then the final:

 

I cropped both, then use the touch up paint brush to Black and White the main part of the picture,  Enlarged photo and again used paint brush tool to B&W closer to the glass frames.  And of course had to use the Cloning tool (My favorite tool!! LOL) to fix a few mistakes I missed.

A new artist, at least new to me, Melody Gardot.  Only 22 but sounds like an old soul who sang with the best of them, Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald. . .

 

 

The PLUS #23 is nothing I did or created, just something I found that cracked me up.  Also might be the reason we have not heard from The Duck lately.  Gator, SPIT THE DUCK OUT!!! This explains how come we always see Gators looking well fed and healthy, they are patient AND smart!! 

 

MONOCHROMATIC MONDAY #26

A while back I was playing with the Macro setting on the camera.  Most came out blurry, but a couple surprised me.  This is the finished photo, originally I wanted to have the flower and the butterfly in color, but the flower is, was, and still giving me fits, so decided on just the butterfly:

 

Below is the original photo.  It was pretty straight forward, I used the B&W tool, and then unmasked the butterfly.

You can find more out and join in with Monocromatic Monday at:

http://jgaryhillstudio.multiply.com/journal/item/235/Mono_Monday

MONOCHROMATIC MONDAY PLUS #4 (mm18) THE PATH

Haven't been here in a while and have been missing the group.  I tried to get a fog effect in some ocean shots, but nothing really looked right, what ever that is.  So there is one picture that I have played with off and on and decided to try for it' This is the hiking path at The Frog Pond in Del Rey Oaks, CA.  The camera is a Kodak Easy Share Z612, and used the Roxio PhotoSuite 7 editing program.

The original

I then used the B&W feature in the Paint Brush Tool, and changed all but the green in the distance.

Then I played with my warping tool, and presets, and slightly with the Exposure tool to darken it just a bit;  this one is with the Funhouse 5 setting.

I went back to the B&W version and played with the Tint Tool, as it still did not look as dreary and perhaps haunted as I wanted.  I did not save the Tint version before warping sorry, the picture is at Wave 1 setting.

 

 This is The Path we probably all feel we have been on at one time or another, and just in the distance, sometimes feeling so out of reach, is  light, living growth, life itself is there, waiting.

Thanks Gary for taking your time and your effort to have this for all of us to learn and enjoy.

LIONS, and  GATORS, and BEARS  OH MY!!!! (The original title of the song according to Gator Folklore)