Photo Class - favorite Photo

This week's assignment was to post a favorite photo we had taken - from any - ALL YEAR!    Do you know how hard that is?   I finally just picked.   The first one is the one I submitted....taken of an old bridge near us one summer evening near sunset.  Some adjustments in Lightroom really perked up the color.   The second photo is the same bridge - different angle!..

Some other fun ones and favorites - too many to choose from!

Kitchen Challenge

Panorama Planet

Panorama Reverse Planet

Radial Symmetry

Radial Symmetry

Shutter Zoom in Bermuda

No specific challenge - U just like it!

Mirror Montage

I'm Back........

Wow, in looking at my blog, I have been rather negligent this year.    I will try to do better next year.    Most everything is the same.....I am still quilting, gardening (in the summer), playing with photography and being active with my music.

I have almost completed the Ricky Tims 1st year photography course.    I have learned a lot about my camera and about photoshop and composition and many other techniques.  In November we went to Williamsburg and 600 some photos later, I'm still sorting out and playing with some of them.  Here is one I just did this morning.  The original is a photo of a window in the Capitol building.   If you look closely you can see it either as a recessed window - or a window on top of a gold circle that protrudes from the wall.   An optical illusion......    The second photo is playing with some highlights, shadows and mirror montage!

I have also been quilting up a storm, but can't show all of them here as they are either for challenges yet to happen, or going to some shows and so am not showing yet, until accepted.

The first one here was for a RAFA (Rochester Area Fiber Artists).  Last year we exchanged bags of goodies at Christmas and we had a year to complete something using all or most of the things in the bag.   My bag contained several purple fabrics and a couple tubes of purple beads.   Between the quilt top and the backing,  I used everything.  This is also a statement on the denial of climate change by too many people!

I have also started a series on "Doors and Windows".    Here are the first works completed earlier this year.....much more on tap.

Too many business have closed.   This building has been taken over by artists!

 Photographed at a church nearby in my photography assignment for "Abandoned".   I printed the photo (center part) onto fabric and added other fabric to continue the idea of the wooden door.

Another abandoned building - cheesecloth curtain in the window and lower corner, and greenery growing out of a pile of rocks.

One month and counting......

Our Museum Quilt Guild Show is rapidly approaching!   We are down to the final month.....please mark your calendars. Approximately 200 quilts, raffle baskets, silent auction, vendors, silent auction, boutique......and much, much more.

Old Paint.....

Sounds like a song I know.....

Anyway that is the title of the photography lesson for this week!   Take a photo of "old or peeling" paint and use any technique we have learned to enhance or create something totally different!    I did both and had a hard time picking a favorite.

In the end, this is the one I chose to enter.    It is the peak of an old church that caught the evening sun.   I then duplicated the layer, flipped it horizontally and vertically and merged them.   Some exposure and saturation adjustments and VOILA!    Something Abstract!

The following ones are my "also ran"......it was hard to pick a favorite this week!

From the same church....manipulated color and merged with a face painted on an old bridge nearby.    Rather a "ghostly" effect!

I'm not sure what this piping was, but to me it looked like a rusty trombone!

Weathered and peeling boards - from the above mentioned bridge.   Duplicated and mirror-montaged!

From the culvert near that bridge - there was much spray paint graffiti.    I found this color painting and the word cupcake spray painted down the way.   Two photos merged together as I thought the colored one looked like a yummy cupcake!

Radial Symmetry in Photography Lesson

This week's Ricky Tim's photography class was on Radial Symmetry.   I found several I could use - these were the front runners!

This is the one I ultimately chose.   No real center, but certainly implied...plus I just liked it!

This was the other one I was thinking about.   It never fails, once I upload one, I wish I had chosen the other!

Hydrangea from top of bloom

Hydrangea bloom

Tires on my husband's Prius.   Did some vignetting in the corners. 

Triptych-the Leaves of Florida is AQS winner

WOW!!!!  I am so honored and so humbled to learn that my quilt won first place in the wall quilt-fiber art category!    If you scroll down a couple of posts you can read more about it!   This AQS show is being held in Syracuse, NY this week.     Congratulations to all the winners!!!!      

http://www.quiltweek.com/portfolio_category/syracuse/

  

Another photo to fabric...waterlily quilt.

I love Waterlilies, I love photographing Waterlilies, and I love having my photos printed on fabric for me to quilt.

This is my latest waterlily quilt....from a photo taken by me at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square near Philadelphia, PA.   If you've never been there.....you simply must go.    I took this photo last year, and as I usually do, I sent it to Julie Brandon of Red-Dog Enterprises,  to print onto fabric.  I added a couple of fabrics, but mostly it is quilted as is...to add dimension and color!

Quilt traveling again.....

My quilt "Triptych....the Leaves of Florida" has been juried into the next AQS show to be held in Syracuse, NY.   The quilt is a closeup of 3 different leaves in Silver Springs and Crystal River in Florida.   I had them printed onto fabric by Julie Brandon of Red-Dog Enterprises.   I then quilted with variegated threads matching the grain and veinage of the leaves.  Most recently this quilt was juried into the Digital Alchemy exhibit hosted by Jane Dunnewold in Houston last fall.

Mirror Montage

'Some day I may even get back to quilting.....but I am having too much fun with the Ricky Tims Photography Class and this week was the best yet.    The assignment was "Mirror Montage".    I practiced on a couple of older photos which I loved, but we are not supposed to use old photos. 

 This was the original photo of a birch tree in the neighborhood.

Mirror Montage turned it into a voodoo type mask.  

Then I did this lotus flower from Longwood Gardens that I took last summer.

I like how this looks like a flower in a glass bowl.

Then I went to town around the yard and house....and some along a nearby canal. 

 This was a single lilac blossom - now a butterfly or ninja warrior.   This is the one I submitted.

This next one was my second favorite....actually my favorite but some blurriness in the blossoms means either I moved, or the tree did.  

Budding Redbud Tree at the "Golden Hour"

 The base trunk of a Dogwood Tree

 My dried Sunflower and Bamboo Sticks

 A Windchime on the front porch.

Solomon's Seal plant next to the fence. 

 This is the same birch tree - a few months later - no voodoo mask

 The Bridge over the canal.

Some rust under the bridge.

Grandchildren Week!!!!!

My granddaughter and her Mommy were here for a week from Kansas.   Our house has not had this much energy and chatter......ever!    She is a very happy 19 month old and she endured lots of running and showing off and visiting.    My favorite thing was when she would look at me and if I wasn't looking she would get my attention, give me a kiss and then put her arms right around my neck real tight.    I could take that ALL day long.   I probably have 300 pictures, if I have one.    (well, close anyway).   I could post here and it would take you hours to get through.

For now, our photography assignment this week is "Dreamscape".    Melding 2 pictures together to get a dreamy effect - one image sharp and one image blurred.    Right now, I'm choosing between 3 of them - all of my granddaughter of course.

 This is the original photo - taken on my iPhone actually.    Ricky Tims says the best camera is the one you have with you - and that was it that day.    She picked the dandelion for her mother!

 This is dreamy #1, two color photos blended together - one sharp, one blury!

 This one I did something different and made one photo black and white and then blurred the color photo and melded together.   I like the "sort of sepia" look to this -yet a hint of color!

This one was taken when she was on our bed - on my quilt.   Two color photos, one sharp, one blurry!    I picture that this is how her dreamland looks as she is nodding off!

And, one just for fun!    She loved to pretend she was singing and she knew we laughed so she did it everytime the music was on.   Here she was holding my phone which was playing "Sofia" (her favorite) and she laid it on the piano keys, banging away and sitting there with her mouth wide open!!!!

6x6 Fundraiser Projects

One of our local galleries, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, has a fundraiser every year known as the 6x6 project.    You may submit any form of art as long as it measures 6 inches by 6 inches,   Thousands of works from all over the world are hung for viewing in the gallery and online purchase.   The purchase price for any work is $20 and as I said, this is a fundraiser.

I have been supporting this project for at least 5 years.   Usually, I make a couple entries, this year I did 3.

The top two pieces are actually from a guild challenge quilt which I cut up to make several smaller things. I almost like it better this way,   The embellishments on those are crystals....signifying rain drops or dew drops.

The bottom piece is a tree made of yarn which is hand sewn,   The flowers are all little French knots,   The birds's nest is made of yarn and threads and the robin's egg is a bead.  It is all done on white pintuck cotton for the background,   I don't do much handwork, but found this quite satisfying to complete.  I'm actually working on a larger one now.

Here is the link to view all the information and later you can view the thousands of artworks.   My fiber arts group is a big contributor to this.  http://www.roco6x6.org/6x6x2016_intro.php