Cooling Off is an additional version of one of the photos I posted here yesterday. As I said then I was feeling an itch to mess with these pix using some of the functions I'm discovering in my new Photoshop Elements (PSE) program. OK, the itch is scratched and the results? Meh. Not bad. But not anything to write home about. The filter I used in PSE is a texture called plastic wrap. (One of my favorite effects so far, but there's so much I have yet to explore about PSE.) Then I did considerable fussing with the plastic wrap version -- and changing my mind over and over -- using MSPicture Manager. I find when experimenting with the PSE effects I may really like one and think I could just leave it like that, as is. Not do any further working on it. But somehow that feels like cheating. That if I haven't put some "sweat equity" into a photo version it's not really mine.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below Previous Posts) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

Yes, I am a bit obsessed with stairs these days. The good news is our elevator will (hopefully) be inspected and OK'd for service again in less than a week. And although I am still determined to work up to doing the stairs every day (not just three times a week as I have been during the outage), it's still a huge challenge for me to use them. So that's the theme here today, as you'll see below. (By the way, there aren't usually chairs on the stair landings. Management put them there for those of us having a time of it using the stairs again.)

Rest Stop Ahead:

The Conversation:

The Long Haul:

Warning: I'm just itching to try color inversion and re-coloring on these and some of the other pix I have of these staircases, and to apply some fancy filters. (Especially on "The Long Haul.") Only reason I haven't is I just don't have the time right now, but it'll happen.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below Previous Posts) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

Lion in Waiting, above, is about two months old. I've had it on the back burner, so to speak, because I had to do considerable "painting out" of a distracting area in the background and just didn't feel like doing it. Once I did that grunt work, the picture then just needed a slight re-cropping to be post-ready.

Curvaceous, below, is from around the same time as "Lion in Waiting" and taken in the same stand of nasturtiums. Though this is clearly of a little rose and even smaller bud unfolding among the nasturtium leaves.

And since I can never leave anything well enough alone (especially when it comes to photo editing) here's a brand new version of the center of "Lion in Waiting," titled Rebirth. I used one of those fancy Photoshop filters, as well as other functions in MSPictureManager. And I think I still need to re-crop to get it better centered but I'm too bleary eyed right now as I'd have to start from scratch. Will put this chore on that back burner...

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below Previous Posts) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

OK, the three versions of the same photo below show another effect from my learning process on Photoshop Elements (can't remember now which filter it is). So far I don't really like Photoshop for anything other than these special "filters." I do sharpening in another program, and color adjusting and cropping in MSPicture Manager. (In fact on all three of these pictures there was much more done than just apply a filter, including color inverting.) There's a fourth program that came with my old printer that I haven't yet loaded to this new computer that has better color options than MSPicture Manager or Photoshop (IMHO). Once I load that program and get a better camera than either of my two old "premium compacts" (as I've read they're called), I'll be in hog heaven.

This first below is called Night of the Flower Child:

This next below is titled Phoenix Rising:

And this last below is Moon Bird:

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below Previous Posts) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

Be Careful What You Wish is over three years old and I have several versions of it, this one just settled on this morning. I'm still not certain about the color, though. So here's another version, Geodesics, in one of my more usual color choices:

And for anyone visiting both this blog and my dreams & poetry blog, yes, I am quite fascinated by this particular dandelion shot. (I posted an entirely different version of this same photo to my other blog this morning.) I keep thinking there's an image within it I haven't quite gotten to yet.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below Previous Posts) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

The texture of Silk Rose was clearly made using Photoshop Elements. I spent some time yesterday tooling around it and found tons of interesting effects. For "Silk Rose" I used MSPictureManager to change the color (I haven't yet figured how best to use Photoshop for color changes). Then I went to Photoshop and applied one of the textures that looked best with this color. I'm now feeling ready and able to continue to learn Photoshop Elements' ways. And hoping to come up with more fully satisfying results than "Silk Rose."

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below Previous Posts) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

Come Fly With Me is two years old, but I just this morning settled on a version of it that I can live with. When I took the picture and first worked on it, I hadn't yet discovered the rotating function in MS Picture Manager. Today, all it took to make this photo one I'd be OK sharing was rotating it so it's pot was trim, along with some cropping and a wee bit of sharpening. (Though I'm still not happy with its focus.) I'd been through gazillions of pix this morning trying to find something I liked as is, or that wouldn't take too much work. I.e., too much switching back and forth between editing programs. But by the time I arrived at this pic I probably could have done a lot of flitting from program to program with the first photo I'd landed on. Intriguing how trying to save time often wastes it.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below Previous Posts) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****