Is it done yet?

Is the Christmas music off the radios and commercials yet? I don't really want to peek out and check. But that is futile.

Next is all of the New Year's stuff. What's your word for the new Year? Out with the old year. Get ready for weight loss ads, exercise ads, ads that make you think that by changing a date will make this suddenly all better and move forward?

I'm not ready for a change into 2026. I'm not letting go of 2025 yet. There are my reasons. I'm just not ready to say goodbye to 2025. There is so much of this year I still want to hold close.

The Flu A robbed me. I'll never forgive it for wasting so many days for me. I did spend some time watching photography 'how to's' out of sheer boredom. 

I turned off social media because. Well, that is a no brainer.

All those wonderful gatherings of happy families around huge trees with multiples of family gathering all looking happy.

I put on my Grinch heart and shut off my phone. I watched Die Hard.

I put on my favorite music.

I decided to experiment and make experiments in between naps and uncontrolled hacking.

I found beauty in a missed focus
and decided I did an intentional

abstract.

I studied pretty dried flowers
under different colors

and light.

I dumped out my lake glass jar
and found fossils I'd forgotten

I had.

The smallness of the shell intrigued me. So tiny, so exquisite. 

I'd found these so many years ago 

when I lived near Lake Michigan.

How have I kept these all these years?

 

Such beautiful little mysteries at my finger tips 

waiting to be seen.

No 2025, I am not done with you yet. We haven't settled our differences. I still need to talk to you 
about it 

and ask if you could give me just one more moment from earlier this summer.

I know you can't, no one can. 
Silly me.

Instead, I will keep learning and discovering little things for right now.

And still be surprised by the beautify of things on foggy dull days.

Carry on.

So I tried painting....

This is where things started...

This is where things got messy. Too much 'stuff' to try and do and not enough time to just relax.  Husband kept interrupting and telling me I had a mess.

So I splattered paint on it .. dripped paint on it, then took some black and took a few swipes.

And then decided that my Picasso days were never going to happen....

I turned to digital.

I took this....

And did this.....

Then tried this...ewwwww....

And ...

Then went to a digital program that allowed me to pick some effects and combined that with Painter Essentials that auto painted. I blended the effects and got this.

Yup. I can live with this.

I have no talent with abstract painting or real painting, but sure can have fun with DeepDream, Digital Paint Essentials, and Topaz Impressions!

I like this. I'd even put it on my wall. So cheery and much nicer than the mess I created.

But I am willing to try it again.

I also doodled in fractals and made a Christmas Fractal:

Okay, I made two versions. Mandebulb 3D mixed with Incendia.

I think I'll stick to painting fun and funky chairs instead of canvases!

Happy almost Winter Solstice!

Dull Days of November

Welcome to that time of year that things to photograph are utterly ...

un

inspiring.

I call it November Yuck. When things are sort of brownish icky-ish, the weather is cold and windy, or cold and rainy. Or

just

dreary.

The fun of hiking seems to be on hold. Well, that is, unless I can convince some other soul to join me in a walk/hike in the muddy dreary weather.

Charlie is always up for it as is Dixie.

See? Charlie is always happy now to lead the way...and come back when I call him!

Truthfully I do get bored of the sameness of the grey skies and the dull colors of November.

So I sometimes modify it.

Here is a photo of the forest run through an AI program called Deep Dream Generator.

Then there is the meadow photo run through DDG:

During the rain and windstorms on Monday, I went back into JWildfire and composed some fractal flames, then combined them just for fun.

I get tired of the lack of color before winter really sets in. November is a transition time for me. I am coming off the glorious short lived colors of fall and jumping into dark days of winter.
I seem to need a bit more rest these days and my urge to get out and hike is also dulled by the slate grey toned skies.

CrossFit is still going strong. Today I did something called muscle ups along with Calorie Rowing. I did a modified Muscle Up per the coach. I watched Josh do them and was amazed.
These Muscle Ups were things I did easily when I was in High School gymnastics.
So the coach modified my Muscle ups into two steps...

I did something called Ring Rows, they almost seemed too easy and the coach said I did I great job... [I was pretty tickled with that!] I did another thing that was pretty cool. Don't ask me what it was. It was similar to me placing my hands on a high log laying across a trail and sort of pushing myself up and over it.

When I finished those I told him that next time we'd have to make them a bit harder for me.
He smiled and said that he wanted to make sure that I didn't hurt myself doing a new WOD, however any time I felt I needed more of a challenge...just ask.
Oh... WOD. What the heck is that? I looked it up.
Simple.
Workout
of
the Day.


Thursday morning, I am meeting up with a camera club pal and we are going to venture out and take sunrise shots over the Wisconsin River. Well, that may be the plan. If it doesn't pan out, I'll be doing CrossFit.

I spent an hour the other morning in a bow hunting blind a friend of ours put up facing the meadow. I spent an hour this evening out there too.
Deer watching was pretty fun.

I got some really nice photos too.

So I guess my November is not as Dull as I thought it was.
More about the Deer Blind later...

Long Live Fractals

Well in between doing farm chores and some summer photography, I've been dabbling in Fractal programs again.

I like to mix my programs up and I think that some beautiful creations can be made.

One of the things I am not sure of is the perfect symmetrical flames that I've been seeing with certain programs.
Sure they are pretty but they are just that.  They don't make you go ... hmmm, or don't produce anything for the imagination.

Here is a sample of one of those fractal flames I've done.

Pretty colors but for me it is just that.  It doesn't draw the 'eye' or attention to anything but the middle of the piece.

I'd rather have something that makes you 'look' at it.  To try and figure out what is going on, if anything.

Like this:

This was created with JWildfire and Incendia.

Or this, created with Incendia, Mandelbulb 3D and photoshop...

I much prefer abstracts that 'do' something for the person looking at them.

I wonder if I am just alone in this thought or should I stick to just plain symmetrical prettiness?

My mind and heart say go the other way.  Create for fun, create for myself.

Just my thought for this evening while I render a project that I plan to mix up with some other items and make a composite image.

A bit of Abstract

With the weather being so difficult and awfully hot, this summer I've been playing around with abstract art that can be 'made' by computer graphic programs.

I keep going back and forth between 3 wonderful free programs.

Apophysis 7X

Mandelbulb 3D

Incendia EX

I've been experimenting with colors and black and white also.  Sometimes I go all out for the wild colors and sometimes I go for the subdued black and white.

Sometimes I mix Apophysis 7X and Incendia EX 

This colorful abstract was made with an image from Incendia EX and a flame rendered from Apophysis 7X.

I used a .png format for the flame and made more than one layer.  I used Flaming Pear's plug in called Flood to get a watery reflective look for both the flame and the Incendia figure.

The Incendia EX creations I also save in .png format.  That gives me a transparent area to work with.

For this image I used the 'Stars and Hedras' fractal and decided that I just wanted a 'simple' sphere.  I was able to match the colors to an Apophysis 7X flame.

Here is a closer view of the layers I used.

 I really loved how simple this graphic piece turned out.  I messed with it, adding more layers and trying out different twists and turns, but in the end, decided that simple was prettier.

Then in a black and white and something shiny mood, I created this in Mandelbulb 3d and added some simple spheres in layers.

I really enjoyed the metallic look I got from this.  

I think it is fun to just enjoy and create.

After all, if you don't get something you like, you can always delete it.