Mosaic Gazing Ball - Penn House, Reidsville, NC 12/05/2015

Thiese images should have been posted on Tues., Dec. 8th, 2015.. 
On Saturday I saw this mosaic gazing ball at the Penn House in Reidsville, NC.  I really liked the bright colors and thought it had great potential for texture.   iPhone 6, Camera +, edited with PSE 11.  Image on left cropped slightly, increased highlights, sharpened. Image on right was a section of the same ball to take CU of mosaic patterns.and color variation.  Increased contrast and sharpened to the max which gave it more shading of the glass pieces.  

Pink Poinsettia CU - Posterize Edges Filter

This image should have been posted Saturday, Nov. 5th.  Went to A & A Nursery, Brown Summit, NC,  yesterday and tried to take some pictures of a pink varigated poinsettia. This plant is native to Mexico.  Sometimes difficult to get macro mode sharp with Camera Plus.  This is a difficult subject to hand hold because of the shallow depth of field. The center was not sharp.  So, decided to go for abstract look. Camera Plus app - square mode. Edited in PSE - posterize edges with slight sharpening for more texture. Going to Mitchell's Nursery Sun. Nov. 6th.  Open House for a large display of poinsettia cultivars.  Have been there before and lighting not the best.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poinsettia

Inside of Milkweed Pod - Neighborhood & Posterize Effect

OK if this image did not have a title I bet you could not guess what it was? I am always looking for texture images and what kind of filters might change the look. I was trying to release milkweed propellors from a pod but they were not really dry yet. Then I noticed that the inside was moist with an abstract pattern. This
texture prompted me to take a closeup/macro image.  Taken with Camera+.  Cropped and edited in PSE 11. Probably could have tried higher level of sharpening and lightness/darkness sliders on the original image.  I decided to go with a posterize filter in the right image.  

Cedar Limbs without Leaves - Texture & Glow Effects

This image should have been posted for 8/12/15.   I was walking in the neighborhood last night and came across this twisted piece of cedar limbs without any leaves.   You could call this "Patterns of Nature".  I did not like the oiriginal because I took it late evening in color HDR and it had blue cast in the highlights.  Native camera.           The image on L I played with sharpness, conversion to black and white and increasing contrast/darkness.to make the texture of the limbs show up better.using PSE 11. I also played with glow color filter in PSE 11 to get the effect in the right image. It gives an eerie effect.  Played with the sliders to get the effect I liked.

Rain Drops Falling on MyFront Car Window - Abstract Trees

Last week we had  a lot of rain.  I admit this abstract photo was not my original idea.  A friend of mine had taken a similar image and posted on FB.  She shot in shade and lighting was actually about this color. I used the front car window of my Prius to capture this image of the tall trees in my backyard with the raindrops out of focus. This image was originally shot in color but I decided to use color variations in PSE 11 to give it a different more painterly appearance.  The leaves were just starting to come out . If I ever get into using my phots for digital art, I am sure this would be one I might start with as a background, change the opacity. and try other filters. I did end up sharing the image on the FB page for the iPhone Photo Academy yesterday.  

Solar Light Ollieclip 21x Macro Lens

This photo was taken during a neighborhood walk this summer.  This was a round fancy solar light  taken during the day.with native 5s camera. I used my Ollieclip 21x Macro lens.  I am hoping to capture more texture and abstract images this year.  No tripod was used.  Editing done in PSE 11  to increase saturation. There was minimal cropping to get the composition I liked.