Tree-Hugging

I've been enjoying some beautiful evening walks in the sunshine recently, listening to the rustling of the leaves in the trees in the cool summer breeze, and I've had ample opportunity to appreciate the lush greenery. I love the way the trees change with the seasons, and they completely shape the mood of my walks.

Warsaw, Poland

Cambridge, England

Cambridge, England

Cambridge, England

Cambridge, England

This one looked to me like some kind of strange serpentine creature

Silver Falls, Oregon, US

Thunderbird Falls, AK, US

 

 

 

Malham, England

Volta Region, Ghana

This is the view from inside a tree--this kind of tree surrounds and draws nutrients from another tree, eventually killing the tree and resulting in this hollowed-out interior.

Cambridge, England

Cambridge, England

Utrecht, Netherlands

McHugh Creek Overlooking the Inlet, AK, US

So, what do you think? In the mood to go out and hug a tree yet?

Creating a Collage

As you know if you read my previous post, I've been invited to contribute a photo collage to a 2013 calendar focused on the subject of peace. Obviously this will be occupying most of my creative time for the next few weeks, especially since I've never used GIMP to create a photo collage. So, if you're wondering how it's done, here goes:

1. In GIMP, select File-->New to create a new file

2. Select Image-->Scale Image and set the dimensions for your collage. You can set the dimensions in pixels, inches, etc in the first drop down menu on the right (next to the boxes where you can enter the width/height. Note: the aspect ratio is locked by default. To change this so that it doesn't automatically adjust the width when you set the height (or vice versa), click on the box that looks like chain next to the boxes for entering the value for width and height. Click the "scale" button at the bottom when you are satisfied with the dimensions.

3. You're ready to add photos now! I'd recommend using photos that have already been adjusted for contrast, tone, etc as a starting point. So, how do you add photos? Well, you'll need to select File-->Open As Layers for each image you want to add.

4. If your photo isn't the size you want it to be (and most likely it's not), you'll need to adjust the size of the layer (NOT scale image, but scale layer). How? In the layers dockable dialog box. This is a little moveable toolbox that says "layers" at the top, and it should have one entry for each pictures you import, plus an entry for your background. The layers dialog box should open as a default in GIMP, but if it doesn't you can go to Windows-->Dockable Dialogs-->Layers.

5. In the layers dialog box, right click on the image you want to resize. From the menu that appears, select "scale layer". Now you can resize the image just as you normally would. You will need to do this for each photo that is not the right size.

6. Lastly, move everything around and fiddle with the background colors until you are happy with the appearance. That's it!


My photo collage is very much still a work in progress, but I figured I'd go ahead and share what I have so far. I'm still working on shooting/editing photos to add, and obviously I still have some work to do arranging the photos. I am the only photographer in the calendar, and since everyone else is painting or drawing, I've been using artistic filters to edit my photos to fit with the stylistic theme. I'd love some feedback if you have any initial reactions/suggestions :)

Flickring

Well, it's finally happened. I gave in and joined Flickr. It's not as though I was opposed to Flickr before--I was just thoroughly disinterested. My understanding of Flickr was that it was simply a place to upload your favorite vacation pictures and share them with your friends. And, hey, I already have Facebook for that, right? Turns out, though, I underestimated Flickr. I'll try my best not to be too cheesy here, but now that I've entered the wonderful world of Flickr, it strikes as more of a community of people who are passionate about photography. Sure, there are people who just use it to upload pictures of their babies for their families. Don't get me wrong--that's great. But it's also full of people who take beautiful photos, who appreciate beautiful photos, and who are looking for opportunities for artistic growth.

Now, I'll admit, getting started on Flickr was a frustrating process. For one thing, the terminology is a little different from what I'm accustomed to. A gallery, for instance, is not a collection of your own work. An album of your own work is referred to as a set. After a little fiddling around and holding my head in confusion, I managed to figure these things out. I also discovered the joy of groups. There are groups for just about every photograph interest under the sun on Flickr, and they seem to be a good way to find an audience of people who are interested in your subject. Some of these groups allow you to display your work, no strings attached; others are centered on an award process, where you upload your photo, and then vote for other photos in the group that you feel deserve some recognition. Awarding other photos involves copying and pasting html code, however, and some groups are a little better at explaining this than others, so this was another point of confusion at first. Luckily, it seems that all groups follow the same format, with the award code pasted at the bottom of the group homepage, so it's just a matter of copying this code and pasting it into the comments section on the photograph.


Thankfully, I've made it through the frustration of learning a new site, and I think I've got the hang of it now. So far I've received a lot of positive feedback on my photos, been discovered by some new followers, and seen a lot of beautiful photography. I'm enjoying seeing everyone's work--it's a great exercise in thinking about what makes a photograph compelling, and what makes for an unremarkable photo. All in all, I'd call operation Flickr a success. If you're on Flickr, I'd love to have you as a contact. Please consider adding me!

And, for good measure, a few of the photos that I've happily received some feedback on:

A Little Fun Before the Work Begins...

Alright, so one of my professed reasons for starting a blog was to push myself to learn more about digital editing.  A lot of the image editing I've done to date has been simple touch-ups in Picassa--I've picked my best photos and fiddled around a bit, but didn't really have the skills to take it any further.  I've picked up a few books on the subject, and I'm ready to take my digital editing to the next level, but I decided to fiddle around in Gimp a bit and just familiarize myself with some of the menus before picking up my books and getting serious.  I've had a bit of fun messing around with some of the functions in Gimp, and I've shared the before and after images below.  Just above the after images, I've provided the menu commands I used to produce the effect you see.  I'm not sure how many of these I would actually use regularly, but it's fun to see what the program is capable of.    

Before:

Filters-->Edge-Detect-->Neon

Before:

Filters-->Artistic-->Cubism

Before:

Filters-->Distorts-->Mosaic