alternative images

This is a quick post to try and explain extraction and layers to alter an original photo, which can be seen on this lens on Squidoo.

The original photo spoilt for me by the leaves on the left

A very rough and ready extraction to clear the background

The original is blurred and the extracted image is overlaid to create a new image.

The photomanipulation was done in Photoplus, free version. It was a very rough and ready extraction to show the idea behind the final image, it is not a problem with the software.

A pot-pourri of images

I seem to still be having problems with getting posts up, but I do have an excuse, I have just had a knee replcement op so have not been taking pictures - except of my scars and I don't think that would interest you. Anyway, do you love tombstone statuary. Here is an angel I shot recently but can't remember where. In fact I am wondering wether it is my shot at all or wether I found it and have saved it for  my art work. But I do love it, so I am including it as an example of this gendre:

The next is a flower photo, a day lily  -sorry I don't know the latin name without looking it up. We visited a number of gardens in Birmingham, Selly Park and they alll had wonderful day lilies out in glorious colours. This is one of them.

the last is on the same trip, in this garden the owner had made a point of installing as points of interest groups of items and hanging things ( paste jewellry and similar glittery stuff) from the trees My wife really loved the idea and I can see next year ...........................well, if it works I will be back with more photos

Don't foget my Squidoo Lens, Is all photography art. I would love to see some more comments which add value to the discussion in the guest book Thanks for getting this far, and hopefully appreciating my photos.

Is all photography art?

A question that I tried to answer recently in a Squidoo lens that I wote. As I have intimated previously I take lots of photos but would not call them art by any stretch of the imagination. I think my conclusion was that it does not depend on the equipment or upon any post processing trickery but rather on being able to give the viewer an emotional response to the photograph.

For example, I love this little photo of a dandelion seed-head, it is cropped rather drastically,

I think it is a great picture but art? I played with some manipulation software and managed to come up with a couple of abstract images which I liked:

But although this seems somehow satisfying, I am not sure that I would call it art. I paint abstracts and am happy to consider them as art without any problem, however this seems to be a different issue. perhaps no skill required? But then again I make collages which could be said to be the same. Of course it is in the use of artistic principles that the collage becomes art, so why cannot an image abstracted from a photo be considered art. Not a question that I have resolved to my satisfaction.

To see my arguments and several responses read, Is All Photography Art?

Fire and Ice

Gosh, it seems so long since my last post here. I mentioned an arthritic knee in a recent post, I have finally had the operation. A complete knee replacement. I have not been up to using the PC recently; after coming out of hospital I was too poorly ( aaahhh!) and then whilst I couldn't bend the knee properly I was unable to sit at my computer desk for any length of time as I had to sit sideways and rotate from th waist to use the keyboard. Still, well on the road to recovery now and raring to get back to my old habits.

I have picked a couple of fairly photos to illustrate this, my first post of 2011. I called the post "Fire and Ice" and it will soon become apparent why.

The first photo is of a brazier and a roaring fire from an evening back in July. A bit of a barbecue and get together. I just snapped the fire to see how it would come out. I think I like the resulting image although I am sure that with a proper camera it could have been a much better photograph. I don't know if I have mentioned it before but the camera I use is a Samsung Digimax A503. I make no apologies as it does everything that I want it to. I usually use it on automatic even though like most digital cameras it has many user controlled modes and settings.

The second photo is of icicles which formed on our guttering during the very recent cold weather spell, in which we saw some of the worst snow in the UK since 1963. There was a thick covering of snow on the roof, and during the day as and when the temperature rose above zero, the slight thawing gave rise to some spectacular formations.

And from the front of the house

My son broke off one of these icicles from outside his bedroom window to show his gran. She could hardly believe it and at 99 years and several months she hardly had the strength to hold it upright. It was cold for her though, even though we wrapped some tissue around it, so I had to take the shot very quickly.

Well having broken the ice - so to speak - I am hoping that I will be posting regularly again from now on. More of my photographs for fun soon then.

Real statues in Ronda

As a comparison to the photos in the last post I have included here some photos of statues that we saw in Ronda, a town in the mountains above the Costa del Sol. Two of them were outside the bull ring and the third was in a nearby park, I will leave it to your imagination to decide which one was in the park. I did not make a note of the names of the people concerned but will be trying to find them via the web - I will add them here if I am successful.

matador with cape

 lady

 matador addressing bull

Are these photos art? The subject is art? I was intrigued seeing a question on the web recently aboout this very subject and am currently writing an answer to the question in a Squidoo Lens. I will give the link as soon as it is complete and published.

Living Statues in Fengirola

Just back from a holiday on the Costa Del Sol, Spain. The street entertainment over there includes people drssing up as statues and collecting small change for performing  ( or not as the case may be). these are three we saw at a market in Fengirola, not far from Malaga.

the invisble man

 space pirate

 mother Teresa (as a young nun?)

they will stand ( or sit) still to give the impression that it is a statue But will move every once in a while to delight ( frighten) the kids. Especially if someone makes a donation. For instance we dropped a couple of euros in the pirates box and he proceeded very mechanically and stiffly to produce a bent coin ( piece of eight?) from his belt in exchange.


Have seen them in the UK but they seem to be very prelavent in Europe.

More piccies of the hol to come

The summer is passing so fast...........

and the weather forecast is so dreadful here in the UK. Looks like we had our few days of sun back in June! Anyway, it has been so long since posting on here that I just gotta get something down.

I have been away for a weekend with my wife, we have been busy booking holidays ( now that I have a date for my knee replacement operation ), our 41st wedding anniversary has come and gone and of course there is so much time spent looking after MIL. It seems that since she went into a residential home, we have even less time to spare as her own home has not been sold yet and we are still looking after that as well.

But here are a couple of photos for your perusal:-

Another sunset from outside my back door

I can never remember ( must look it up) what the name of this butterfly is; is it red admiral or painted lady. (Edit: Well it looks like a painted lady then.) Seen on lavender in a garden we visited on the NGS scheme

Here's me complaining about the weather ( such a british thing!) and we had a lovely couple of days at Cleeve Hill near Winchcombe in the Cotswolds. This shows St Peter's church at Winchcombe from near Sudely Castle. Note the sky!

St Peter's is known for the gargoyles which it has on the roof, I didn't count them but took several photos, this is quite heavilly cropped in Photoplus, my software of choice ( free) for editing my images.

 Here I am failing to take a decent timed shot of the both of us in the garden referred to above. My excuse was that it was so sunny and bright that I could not see the flashing led on the front of the camera. I must have counted the seconds too fast!

OK laugh if you want but it all adds to the fun of taking photographs, and we did atake it again quite successfully but that is another story, as they say.