Bad Bad Air

I'm getting tired of orange/brown skies. 

Sunrises like this one from yesterday are not beautiful or enchanting any more.

The meadow to the east shows a grey nasty sky of smoke and haze.

The girls were totally unenthused about returning to our meadow.

They can head to the woods and find grasses and browsing, but would rather that I bring them some hay. Which I did.

The grey mule has breathing issues and I cannot imagine that this smokey haze is any better for her lungs than it would be for my hubby.

By noon, it was just this... this shot taken from our porch. I could smell wood smoke from the Canadian Wildfires. My thoughts were this: If it is so dry here in the Midwest, how long before our states experience wildfires too? 

I can't even imagine.

With all the chores done early, I just popped out later to add water to the feed pan that the birds were using as a birdbath and source of water.

My Lego friends and Squatch were on the porch. Apparently they were better prepared than I was for the smoke.

I decided to stay in and run the air purifier and the dehumidifier on the Mini Split. 

That led to doing things indoors that I'd put off. It felt odd to be stuck indoors. Even Charlie decided that being on the porch wasn't something he wanted to do. He did his business and never went to his spot and laid down like he normally does. 

Maybe the dog is smarter than I am. [Hey, no comments!]

This was supposed to be the sunrise today 15 seconds:

At noon today I drove out to get the mail and drop off some egg cartons at Olive's house. This was the ridge views.

I stuck close to the house again and for a little while messed around taking photos in my wildflower gardens.

I think I may have caught two insects mating? 

Well. Even if the smoke is heavy? Love is in the air?

--I skipped the workout at the gym for the past two days. The air is nasty and I'm not thrilled about breathing it in when I can smell wood and chemicals.

We are still at 'unhealthy' status of the 150 - 200 index. Hopefully by noon tomorrow it will fall back into just a 'yuck' status.

ON1 and Legos Imagination

Photography can be

the art of

what you 

envision...

ON1 is a photo editing program that I started to use a few years ago. I ended my relationship with Photoshop once they requested a monthly ransom for the use of their product. I purchased Corel PaintShopPro which allowed me to do some of the fun things I could do in PS.

ON1 kept developing their software. And truthfully the cost was much easier to take than the PS costs. The program has great tutorials on line and it is always adding new features.

One of the best things is not having to learn all about layers. ON1 makes layers for adjustments for you. You can use layers too.

The program seems geared towards Landscape and Portrait photography. They have cool things like textures presets, color presets, and something newer called Sky Swap. Oh the horror of Sky Swap! If you don't like your scene as you took it, add an aurora borealis or perhaps a magnificent sunset?  Okay. I am not into that at all.

However, I do like mixing things up and see exactly what I can MAKE the program do that it wasn't developed for. Pushing the edit envelope is a fun brain exercise for me.

Here is a shot of some of my Lego people. I set the figures on a black plastic board used generally for photographing items like jewelry. I set the works on my laptop and used the flat black of the laptop screen as a back drop.

Not very impressive, but with a bit of a touch up of the blacks and the highlights along with a crop and straighten, it is better. I totally love the reflections in the black plastic. Wicked...cool.

This was rather boring. White plastic for the back and black plastic for the figures to stand on.

But wait. 
What if?

I could change all of that?

How about cutting the backround out and replacing it with something else? With the old photoshop program this was doable but it took a lot of time.

I chose to color the figures green for keeping and the other areas red to get rid of them. This is done in a simple masking mode.

Once I had the figures isolated, I added a layer of clouds and then used a fun little thing called Sky Swap and added an Aurora Borealis to the clouds. I mixed up the opacity and went from there.

There was a bit of brightening to do and then I was done.

Why not make things easier on myself and set the figures up with an image in back on the computer screen?
Oh duh, who forgot to move their cursor???

Easily fixed!

ON1 edits of cropping, resizing, and some adjustments to bring out the figurines. Add in some cracked brushes to the edges to cover up mistakes and....

Note:

Experimenting with photography and graphic programs is my hobby. Think of it as a huge empty canvas that I can paint on or make my own strange art.

PS~ Did you know that there are actually Adult Lego Groups out there? 

LUGNET ~ Lego Users Group Network

AFOL ~ Adult Fan of Lego

I had Legos as a kid but they were the hard stiff bricks that only came in red I think. We made buildings for our toy soldiers out of them. And the Kitty Hotel, a home for eraser animals. 

I doubt I will become a Lego collector, but it is fun combining them with photography while stuck inside!

My Life in Legos

 Muck the pony stall...

Pick up manure!

Drive Safely!

Check fences...[I don't have a Lego 4 wheeler, this will have to do!]

Ride... [We do have a grey mule, so is this close???]

Explore... [There will be more of this going on as the Forest floor awakens with Spring Beauties and other wild flowers!!]

With the rains and warmer temperatures coming, I am looking forward to hunting wildflowers and morels!

Squatch and Hobby

"Blessed are the weird people: poets, misfits, writers, mystics, painters, troubadours, for they teach us to see a world through different eyes."
~~~Jacob Nordby

Squatch was hanging out with his Gnome buddy, they were discussing spring weather when the Gnome did his usual thing. 
Fell asleep.

Squatch decided to leave Dog in charge of Gnome's Chicken and he took a walk to enjoy the morning air.

He had no idea that the woods could be so full of life! To his surprise he met....

he met...um. What was her name? She presented him with a bouquet of maple tree buds. So charming!

She told Squatch that she was a hobby photographer and she'd love to have company on her forest walks.

Squatch told Hobby that he could show her around the forest. He took her to some plants he'd been eating. 

She told him it was Garlic Mustard and he said it was yummy. She asked if she could take his photo because none of her friends would ever believe she actually met with a Squatch.

He reminded her that all photos of Squatches always turn out blurry. 

She said fine and photographed the Garlic Mustard and some bugs instead.

Hobby and Squatch did some more exploring. Squatch wanted to show her that spring was not far off and that wild flowers would be appearing all over in the woods.

Sometimes it is just enough to spend time quietly with a friend and not have to say anything. Just to enjoy the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Toys

When I am at loss as to what to photograph next, I often try to do some Still Life. I even once signed up for a class and did some really amazing stuff. I mean neato stuff that looked like it came from a magazine kind of stuff.

But I lost interest in positioning coffee cups, spoons, and fruit. It was just stuff. The learning part was interesting. I learned how to 'set' things up for a backround. I learned to do it with a cheap paper - the kind used for making scrap books. I used old felt to make black back drops and a white sheet for white ones. I used poster board to reflect light and a window for natural lighting.

I lusted after things like a 'soft box' and neat lighting. I built my own 'soft box' out of cardboard. I discovered that a light tea towel would diffuse enough light from a desk lamp to act like an expensive studio light.

Toys.

Over the years kids have donated toys to me to take out into the woods and have adventures with. 

The set up above is one of those easy peasy set ups. I grabbed some of the discarded toys and lined them up. I taped some paper together for the backround.

The photo below turned out as expected. However, it was bland and uninteresting. That creepy doll was not connecting with me.

The shot I'd done before however...did impact me when I looked at it much closer.

She just is creepy!

Those freaky eyes!

Exactly what I wanted.

I swept the toys to the side and piled them on a sheet of scrap book paper.

Ewwww.

Those eyes!

While doing that, I opened up my husband's big old trunk and took out his childhood teddy bears. 

I stuck the large one in the old busted up Christmas chair and put it in the bright afternoon sunlight.

Rich was delighted to see his big brown bear and extolled its virtues. 

Um.

Yucky looking bear. 

And then he reminded me that this bear was probably 60 years old.

I'm going with a certain 'Creepitude' with this Bear. 

I pulled out his other bear and an old book.

More fond memories and discussion ensued.

I put my Bear with his bear and they seemed to get along okay.

However the old bear didn't seem to have much to say.

It seemed he was rather wide eyed and startled at being out of the trunk after so 

many years of being stored.

End note.

Most of these toys have a story behind them. The Barbie doll head was given to me by my youngest grand daughter when she was about 3 yrs old. She kept the headless body I think.

Other parts and pieces were given to me by the neighbor kids. They all have a back story of some sort.

That creepy baby with the bottle. The one single Barbie shoe. The Zombie doll.

Lego people in various stages of disarray. 

An interview I read with Dan Leonard really hit home.

#WithToysInMind is a project he created with his own personal mental health in mind. It is a creative escape to deal with emotions.

I didn't even realize that I was doing this.

Bear and I is how I deal with loneliness.

Rabbit and Bear is how I used photography to deal my husband's desperate and deep bouts of depression.

So.

Playing with toys is a good thing.

Creativity in any form is good for the mind.

Goodbye April

The end of April is here and the weather is cold and rainy with gray skies. All the makings of a dull day.
I took one of my Grandmother's spring colored handkerchiefs, a daffodil, and tea cup and put them on an old wooden box.

I thought I'd entertain myself while waiting for FedEx. There was a package I was going to have to sign for and I didn't want to miss it. I'd had issues with the postal person deciding not to deliver to my house for one reason or another.

Anyway. I thought I'd entertain myself by doing some indoor Still Life with some fresh daffodils.

I'd heard that black felt was good to carry in the field to isolate flowers from anything else in the back round. So I draped some felt from my fold up clothes hanger in the living room and set flowers in a tiny vase in front of it.

It worked nicely.

And because I was in the mood for something fun...I thought...

Morel Hunting season is just around the corner.

Goodbye April you were an interesting month.