ju-north

New palette

2012-01-31T11:54:00.009Z

Doesn't seem like a week since the last try at a palette! I'm joining in again with the
Color My Weekly challenge and learning a few new things on the way. This was taken in Scotland with an amazing variety of colours in the stone. Didn't look for spiders though!

Colour palette

2012-01-23T18:22:00.007Z

Made my first colour palette and linking in with leavesnbloom photography. The hydrangea is left over from summer and has a sprinkling of frost. Cold night tonight - hoping that there will be a repeat of the aurora borealis which I missed last night. Off to find somewhere without too much light pollution.

Shedding light ...

2012-01-20T14:05:00.004Z

One of the first frosts of the winter, no snow yet. Ye olde shed taking the limelight!

Sunrise

2012-01-11T16:10:00.006Z

Living on the NE coast of England we get some amazing sunrises. I caught the sun coming through the window blinds catching the faint outlines of the branches and reflecting in the TV screen whilst the sky was a pinky-red. Must get out early one morning to catch the sun rising over the sea! A sign of good things to come!

No words needed

2011-12-29T14:22:00.002Z

To my mum Muriel!

Jesus - the greatest gift!

2011-12-22T17:52:00.006Z

Many thanks for all the kind comments on my mum's death. They are all appreciated and it's great to know that people I've never met ( apart from Julie and her lovely hubby) took the time to leave a comment. Hope you all have a great Christmas!

My mum

2011-12-16T07:30:00.005Z

My mum died a couple of days ago. She was 96 and had lived in her care home for 5 years and in a residential home for 6 years before that. There is a big gap in my life now. I shall miss her.

Busy, busy

2011-12-07T16:50:00.002Z

Near the shed

2011-11-25T07:56:00.005Z

Near the shed, with two of Kim Klassen's textures

Fit to burst

2011-11-22T19:27:00.003Z

Found this one in the archives, taken at the beginning of autumn. To me it speaks of good things to come, beauty and colour just waiting to burst forth.

Hallway

2011-11-20T22:40:00.005Z

Bright sunshine and it's nearly the end of November! Played with this image in Photoshop and added one of my textures. At least it makes a change from the shed! (Can't believe I've actually got a folder called 'shed' - what's your strangest folder?)

Wor shed

2011-11-11T19:24:00.005Z

That is, our shed. We haven't a huge garden (you might have a yard!) but it has a shed in it. Just a plain old shed, but with lots of memories - rabbits have lived here, a swarm of bees made their home here, children and grandchildren have used it as a 'house'. I quite like it but it wouldn't appear in a 'Homes and garden' magazine!

Breaking the rules

2011-11-06T08:52:00.004Z

Sign of the times

2011-11-01T09:34:00.004Z

Resident snail

2011-10-23T13:34:00.008+01:00

Becoming a rare sight these days, these phone boxes often end up in somebody's garden as a large garden ornament. This one, still in use on the west coast of Scotland, had its own resident snail which moved around from pane to pane. It must have made little sorties to find food!

Agapanthus

2011-10-19T20:27:00.002+01:00

Before and after editing, using Painter with curves adjustment and yellow photo filter.

A short break ...

2011-10-11T20:27:00.004+01:00

..... on the west coast of Scotland - beautiful in all kinds of weather!

Reflections

2011-09-27T16:17:00.004+01:00

Reflections in the car and a starling ever hopeful of finding crumbs! Beautiful Indian summer here, an added bonus after the gales of the last month.

In my garden

2011-09-21T15:00:00.004+01:00

Trying out a new lens! Didn't see the cobweb until I saw it on the screen- the wind has made short work of it!

No longer in service

2011-09-17T23:22:00.003+01:00

Part of a rusty steam train - can't beat these colours (in my opinion!)

Book

2011-09-13T19:56:00.005+01:00

It was the dedication of our latest grandchildren on Sunday. This psalm is a lovely reminder of how precious we all are in God's sight - sometimes easy to forget in the varied circumstances we find ourselves in, no matter what age we are or how long our lives last.

Cambags

2011-09-03T18:50:00.016+01:00

Having accidentaly left my small camera bag at son-who-lives-a-long-way-away's house, there were times when I didn't want to carry my big (heavy) bag around. A quick look at commercially made handbag-type bags revealed that they cost about £100+, so I decided to make my own using a bought bag and fitting the 'innards'. The first bag cost about £10 -

- and the second (smaller) one was one I already had in the house. I used about a metre of fabric for each bag, one inch foam (bought at an upholsterers), plus sew-in velcro. The dividers can be repositoned to suit the size of lenses, filters and other bits and pieces. I love using them as they don't look like camera bags and they have room for purses, mobile phones and so on. I can also remove the whole unit and put it into another bag - and you can't have too many bags!

Clinging on

2011-08-31T17:17:00.003+01:00

Seems like the last days of summer at the moment, but not giving up hope!

Anglesey honeysuckle

2011-08-26T09:56:00.004+01:00

Anglesey

2011-08-24T14:41:00.010+01:00

We've just had a very enjoyable holiday on Anglesey, an island off the north coast of Wales - you could clearly see the mountain range, including Snowdon, in the distance. The last two pics were taken in the old copper mine near Amlwch with amazing orange-yellow colours. The mining goes back to Roman times and was once a thriving industry, today you can walk around the site and imagine all the activity that once took place here (and they were my favourite colours!)

Autumn?

2011-08-11T09:42:00.005+01:00

I was surprised to find some autumn leaves on the ground - it's still summer! - although it has been cold this week with almost continual rain.
We have all been dismayed and shocked at the violent scenes of disorder and looting we've seen on tv - a lot of prayer has gone up for calm and peace and will continue to do so.

Beautifully small

2011-08-06T15:51:00.006+01:00

Thank you for all your kind wishes since my adventure in a helicopter! Feeling almost back to normal now. Good job I didn't have my camera with me - it would have been smashed to pieces.

Ups and downs

2011-08-02T19:30:00.011+01:00

A lot has happened since I last blogged! A strenuous (for me!) 3-hour walk up Cheviot ended with a 15 minute ride down in an RAF air-sea rescue helicopter after I tripped and gashed my face on stone. No bones broken - just needed to be glued together. Could have been a lot worse. The crew was marvellous and I am extremely thankful to them and my friends who looked after me until the helicopter arrived.
This was followed by travelling down to Suffolk for my nephew's wedding where a good time was had by all! These shots were taken "down south"!

Still small

2011-07-21T16:22:00.007+01:00

I'm still fascinated by the beauty of small details which are easily overlooked. Might be here a while!

Real flowers!

2011-07-17T18:59:00.003+01:00

Flower power

2011-07-14T19:37:00.005+01:00

Playing with a flower and the magic wand - several layers and effects used. The pattern in the border was sampled from the image. The bugs will heave a sigh of relief ....

Where next?

2011-07-11T12:05:00.004+01:00

Enjoy the journey!

Summer

2011-07-09T17:11:00.008+01:00

You never know what's round the corner - we came upon this wildflower field as we were driving along. Not many of them about now. We think the farmer left the edge of this field so they could grow undisturbed. It was an unexpected surprise!

Going small

2011-07-07T10:31:00.001+01:00

Will you walk into my parlour .....

2011-07-05T08:13:00.007+01:00

The well-known words of this poem which was written for children (published 1829) ends with the words -
Unto an evil counsellor
Close heart and ear and eye
And take a lesson from this tale
Of the spider and the fly.

Good advice!

Surprise!

2011-07-02T19:09:00.007+01:00

I thought I would take a few pics with the macro lens and chose a small garden flower (no idea of name, but it was about 4 cm in diameter.) Suddenly through the lens I saw this creature! Almost too small to see with the naked eye. What a fantastic world we live in!

..... and some more

2011-06-27T11:23:00.006+01:00

This time we travelled 9 hours in the opposite direction for a holiday in NW highlands of Scotland to a small town called Lochinver. Spectacular scenery in all directions and some good places to climb!

Guest flowers

2011-06-14T11:37:00.005+01:00

We had to travel for 7 hours for these photos! Not especially, but a visit to one of our sons and family meant I got to see these flowers which will probably never be in my garden! The last one has two of Kim Klassen's textures added. Came home to find the sunflowers struggling in the wind - need to get some bigger canes for them.

Still on course

2011-06-12T08:02:00.005+01:00

Many of the houses in the Lake District are made of beautifully coloured slate or stone. As you may imagine, I couldn't resist taking a few (macro) pics of the 'bricks' which are layered horizontally. I'm afraid I got a bit distracted ....

Night life ....

2011-06-04T12:42:00.007+01:00

...... in Keswick. Finding out about night light shots on the photography course.

Just back .....

2011-06-01T19:24:00.005+01:00

..... from a four day photography course at the Blencathra field studies centre in the Lake District led by Rob Ward.
Learnt a lot of new things, met interesting people and enjoyed great food! Hope to show more images later!

Seeing from a new perspective

2011-05-23T09:33:00.007+01:00

Taking something, in this case flowers or weeds, which normally wouldn't be worthy of a second glance, and seeing it from a new perspective reveals details and textures which could be missed.
It opens up a whole new world of possibilities!

Old and new flowers

2011-05-17T19:16:00.010+01:00

Two different uses of flowers - the first a macro image of a clematis with one of my textures, the second a small textile piece using dried, pressed hydrangeas, together with embellished cocoon strippings, stitches and beads added. But where has all the warm weather gone! Even the newly-planted sunflowers have taken a battering in the wind - and they are all part of a competition!

Cornflower

2011-05-09T21:43:00.005+01:00

Trying out my macro lens!

Displaced!

2011-05-05T08:44:00.006+01:00

I created these three images using displacement maps in Paint Shop Pro. Took me ages to work out how to do it as the manual wasn't much help and too complicated but finally got there!

Bluebells

2011-04-30T18:44:00.003+01:00

A bank of bluebells at Allen Banks! Well worth a visit with some lovely walks in the area.

Playing with shadows

2011-04-27T22:04:00.011+01:00

I took this using my Canon camera and used psp to alter it slightly. I have been using both Paint Shop Pro and Elements 9 and find it useful to have both as each has advantages when it comes to digitally altering an image. I find Photoshop good for layers and layer masks as well as effects, but Paint Shop Pro is much better (in my opinion) for printing out images, accessing folders, photo layouts, frames and borders and using the displacement map effect with two images. It's handy having them (not on the same computer) so I'll continue using them both.
Hope you're all enjoying the great weather we're having here!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T08:33:00.006+01:00

Happy Easter everyone! Beautiful weather here and enjoying family visiting us!

Something borrowed, something blue

2011-04-16T17:13:00.003+01:00

Ok, so it's stretching it a bit! A borrowed hat and sunglasses and lots of fun! A photo of some seedheads altered in the Corel Painter programme. This programme has lots of possibilities but I'm just dipping my toe in at the moment, so to speak. Anyone else used it?

Something old, something new ...

2011-04-12T12:23:00.007+01:00

Something old - yew tree, at least 900 years old, planted in Beltingham graveyard, believed to ward off evil spirits. New growth seen on a walk at Allen Banks, which is said to be a good spot for seeing lots of bluebells. I'll put it in the diary!

Variations on a theme

2011-04-06T09:20:00.004+01:00

Two altered images from the rose petal photo - one of these two will be printed onto fabric and stitched (at least that's the intention!). Don't know which I prefer. Hmm ...

New rose

2011-04-03T13:20:00.004+01:00

Rose

2011-04-02T17:22:00.003+01:00

Seems to be a bit of a flower theme at the moment - here's one I took using my new tripod. I took the coward's way out and used it indoors first!

Lilies

2011-03-26T19:46:00.007Z

'Consider how the lilies grow ...'
Sometimes I miss the details - you don't have to go far to see things to enjoy! The first image is the original (sooc) the second has some textures added.
I bought a new tripod today, now I have to learn how to put it up!

Textures

2011-03-24T10:12:00.005Z

A couple of photos using my textures. A reminder of sunny days!

For Margaret R!

2011-03-20T17:00:00.003Z

Snap! Taken at Tynemouth pier. Coast to coast!

Textured image 1

2011-03-19T08:49:00.005Z

I always like to see the before and after images which folks put on their blogs and as I haven't mastered the mouseover , here is an image of tulips in the snow with two of my textures from the previous post. I should have given them names to make them easy to identify but they are easy to pick out I think.

The 'recipe' is -
Background image - tulips and snow
Copy of Background-Screen 90
Texture 1 - difference 69
Texture 2 - soft light 42
Soft light was applied then to the merged image.

Hope to show some more soon! Have a good weekend!

New textures

2011-03-17T10:10:00.006Z

Some of the textures I've made to use with photos. By changing blend modes, hue and sat etc there is an unlimited source of variations. Now to do something with them!

Paint box

2011-03-13T09:56:00.005Z

We've watched in horror as the disaster unfolded in Japan and are holding the nation in our prayers. It puts problems into perspective and makes us realise we have a lot to be thankful for.

I've had the paints out this week to make some textures to use with photos - the last image is one of a Christmas decoration with one of my textures added. I'm playing about with some more. Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Textures and shadows

2011-03-07T09:35:00.006Z

A bright sunny day here - I took this photo of our landing on another day, added a texture which I made and scanned, plus text using a drop shadow (outline). The original photo is below.

Hope it's sunny where you are!

Brushes

2011-02-28T16:37:00.004Z

Been doing some work with digital brushes this week and getting some of these brushes out to get hold of some real paint. Going to make some more of my own textures to use with photos, so hope to show some results in the near future!

Agapanthus

2011-02-22T09:18:00.010Z

I used one of my own photos and two of Kim Klassen's textures to create this agapanthus image and was interested to find out that the name comes from the Greek agape (love) and panthos (flower).
Enjoying the half term holiday here - we took two of the grandsons to the Discovery Museum yesterday and also got involved with lots of Ludo and Snakes and Ladders - only thing lacking is endless energy and stamina!

Still brown

2011-02-14T19:11:00.008Z

The gardener said that this maple keeps the same colour all year long, so we'll be back to have another look sometime. We managed to find some bark which had come off the tree, so by taping some pieces to a window I was able to get these pictures with the light shining through. Think there's a textile in here somewhere!

Shades of brown

2011-02-07T09:10:00.010Z

Three small Spanish bowls in the porch near the rusty objects - a reminder of hot summer days and eating outside.

... and a photo (sooc) of a wonderful tree seen in Wallington Hall's walled garden which a gardener told me was an acer ..... (I couldn't catch the Latin name) but which is a member of the maple family. The colours were amazing - oranges and browns. It cheered up a dull afternoon

Thinking of Australian friends having to deal with another disaster. Praying that there will be no loss of life.

In the porch

2011-02-01T19:35:00.004Z

Today the sun was nice and bright in the porch (English porch - not the nice big sort you can sit out in!) so I took this pic of a few rusty bits and pieces which I've picked up along the way, as lots of bloggy friends seem to do. It's the textures and colours that appeal. Not quite the usual porch decoration!

Swerving to orange and blue

2011-01-28T11:56:00.008Z

A little experimenting with a nappy liner and Markal sticks fused onto brown paper - I'll use this as a background for something.

The embellisher got an airing with this one with some fme on top - again this will be incorporated into something else - to be decided!
I've also had a playing session with friends Kath and Mary making some fabric paper. Another little pile on the table!

Frosty days

2011-01-21T16:02:00.009Z

Frosty days but sunny!
The other night we went to a talk by photographer Paul Kenny who lives in the NE and whose work is unique and inspirational. Have a look at his work here and here. One of the interesting things about his own life was that he returned to the same sheepfold in Scotland for one week for 20 years to take photographs of stones - food for thought!

Orchid

2011-01-18T17:00:00.003Z

Changing scenery

2011-01-16T13:09:00.005Z

A change of scenery is sometimes a good idea, if only to see things from a different perspective!
Here's a part of a forest in Scotland which was taken on holiday last year and this is what I did with it (Background layer at bottom of stack) -

Copy 2 lighten 28
Sunset sky difference 100
red circular gradient difference 34
Copy 1 screen 92
Background photo

Increased saturation after merging

Hope you are all having a good weekend!

A journey

2011-01-11T10:02:00.010Z

Feeling totally lacking in inspiration I decided the best thing to do would be to jump in and just start even if I didn't know where it would lead. So I started with strips of different fabrics with machine stitching on top, gold foil added, voile spirals, more stitching, embellished rectangles, more stitching and ended up with a fabic I liked which became a book cover. At last, something finished! even though I felt like giving up half way! (Random leaf - real! - added for photo!)

Change of colours

2011-01-08T10:24:00.003Z

Enough of the snowy colours! Something to brighten up the day! This is a poinsettia plant which I bought the previous Christmas with some bright red leaves but they didn't appear this time. Anybody know how to get the red leaves back? A gardener I am not!

Into the new

2011-01-04T20:26:00.008Z

Took a photo of the last lot of snow and combined it with part of a rusty pipe (had to get some rust in there!) and made a warmed up image of the snow - can pretend it's a bit warmer!

Here's the "recipe" -
background image
Rusty pipe darken 71
copy of background darken 100

Thanks to everyone for the new year's good wishes! Hope you all are feeling full of inspiration and anticipation of good things to come.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T19:39:00.003Z

A very Happy New Year to all family and friends everywhere! Hope you will have a healthy and happy 2011!

What's next?

2010-12-27T18:22:00.003Z

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holidays!

To family and friends!

2010-12-23T12:44:00.003Z

Let it snow!

2010-12-20T16:52:00.004Z

Hope you are all keeping well and warm while this cold weather lasts!

Back again!

2010-12-16T16:56:00.004Z

It's snowing again and the temperature has dropped! Here's a topical image and the original photo. Off to get warm!

Good news!

2010-12-13T22:49:00.004Z

Snail's pace

2010-12-08T12:17:00.005Z

I finally got round to finishing the squares panels which I started last summer - but at least the colours are seasonal! All I need to do now is to add the backing and the hanging sleeves. Hopefully it won't take till next summer to do so!

A new tool for the (digital) toolbox

2010-12-04T16:05:00.003Z

I've always found replacing a sky very difficult until we were shown a good "trick" at our camera club - have a try - if I can do it, anyone can!

http://www.pxleyes.com/tutorial/photoshop/1272/How-To-Mask-A-Tree-In-3-Minutes.html

More confusion ...

2010-12-02T09:13:00.001Z

.... but the birds like it!

Even the trees are confused

2010-11-30T10:26:00.004Z

It's no use being in denial any longer, it has snowed, it is snowing, it is going to snow .... It does look lovely but it is very inconvenient if you want to get around. Apparently we get a different sort of snow here in the UK which brings (nearly) everything to a standstill. Roll on summer!

Snowed in

2010-11-26T09:34:00.005Z

I should have been at the Harrogate K & S show today but the weather conspired against it (6 inches of snow and more to come). Instead I thought I'd show you a photo taken of an old railway carriage door and the two images which came from it. I used PSP here as I am still coming to grips with PSE. One of the biggest frustrations is that the files saved as psp images can't be opened in PSE. I haven't been able to find a solution so if you can help ...!

Crazy colour

2010-11-20T12:38:00.005Z

Now I don't do "Vintage" (although I love the work of bloggers who do) and I don't often do pale and atmospheric (ditto) but I do love vibrant colour and patterns (although I know it's not everyone's cup of tea so to speak). So to show you what I like I took a photo of old railway carrriage connecting doors and played about with it, using selection and move tools, with a bit of glowing edges. displacement and saturation thrown in. One of these days I may even get around to printing it onto fabric and adding stitch. But don't hold your breath ...

Framed!

2010-11-18T11:02:00.003Z

I'm having a go with Photoshop Elements for the first time - like it a lot but Paint Shop Pro is better for some things. Jury's still out!

Those trains again!

2010-11-15T13:02:00.003Z

I make no excuse for taking photos in railway museums or preserved railways because I love the sense of storytelling these old steam engines and carriages tell. I think of the pride of the craftsmen and engineers as they made the huge engines and painted them with such care. I imagine the excitement of passengers as they took a journey for the first time and I think of the scores of volunteers often fighting a losing battle to restore and reclaim the magnificent pieces of engineering. That's why I like taking the pics (and I like rust too!)

Autumnal animals

2010-11-06T20:00:00.006Z

I'm not in the habit of taking photos of animals but these rather splendidly coloured rams were too good to miss as we drove down a deserted track in the Northumberland countryside. They had a good stare before getting bored! I copied and pasted parts of the image, added one of my textures and a frame. Wonder what they were thinking. (Do animals think?)

Trees and a plastic bag

2010-11-02T19:16:00.010Z

This is the first time I've dyed a plastic bag! Didn't mean to but the fabric which was being dyed was inside it, and it was too good to throw away. Instead I used it as a texture to go with this tree -

- which became this image using this "recipe":
one of my brown textures - overlay 97
plastic bag texture colour 100
copy of tree normal 72

I opened a new page and copied and pasted selections of the image, duplicated the background and moved it, changed a few colours and added a frame, ending up with an abstract image.

This, and then that

2010-10-28T12:04:00.011+01:00

I find I am continually coming back to my original photo of the seedheads taken at Inverewe Gardens on the west coast of Scotland. and then playing with it in psp.
This is the recipe, this time using a couple of (free) textures from jerry.
I usually use my own textures but he produces such lovely ones which give a good effect:
From the top of the pile of layers downwards -
texture 1 burn 67
texture 2 difference 59
copy of original normal 71
original image
merge all and boost saturation and add a frame.
(Ps I'm still thinking of mouse-overs!)

Surreal sunset

2010-10-23T14:04:00.005+01:00

Two rather ordinary photos plus a script made with the text tool, some "jiggery-pokery" in psp and ...

Scottish rose

2010-10-20T20:25:00.003+01:00

More shapes

2010-10-18T19:13:00.003+01:00

Another image worked in psp from the photo of pottery waiting to be painted.

Playing with shapes

2010-10-17T19:12:00.004+01:00

A photo of pottery waiting to be painted at the Highland Stoneware factory in Lochinver ended up slightly differently after using selection and move tools in Paint Shop Pro!

Tanfield again

2010-10-15T16:33:00.003+01:00

All of these engines have a story to tell if we only knew. I like the way there are "pictures within pictures" where each has a separate part to play. ( "You're getting into the realms of fantasy there Jones") ...

Number 6

2010-10-11T20:48:00.006+01:00

An old engine at Tanfield Rail open day, slowly melting ...

Autumn roses

2010-10-09T23:14:00.004+01:00

Poles apart

2010-10-07T10:20:00.008+01:00

I caught sight of these three poles wrapped in disintegrating plastic and thought they had potential! Used layers and blends in Paint Shop Pro. (I've gone back to the old editor in Blogger - find it much easier for moving images and text)

A new slant

2010-10-03T13:20:00.003+01:00

Mixed bag!

2010-09-29T21:05:00.002+01:00

Playing with layers again

2010-09-26T12:33:00.000+01:00

The original photo and the layered image, using copy and paste and the eraser brush.