Shades of Red
Shades of Red
Nestled in their russet leaves, shiny dogwood berries glow in late afternoon sun, apparently a temptation for all birds that visit my yard, but are they treats or toys? I’m not sure because I’ve found them all over the place.
. . . . . . .
For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Starfire
Leeks.
What leeks normally look like.
Nothing fancy, just a little work in PhotoShop on a very common vegetable. These are the flowers for leeks, a member of the onion family. They are biennial as onions are, growing greens and growing their bulbs the first year, which is when we usually pull and use them. If left to overwinter in the ground the second year the bloom in June with big spheres of flowers at the ends of long rays; these spheres can vary between 2″ and 5″ in diameter. The flowers are pale yellow with a pinkish tinge, but the rays vary from pale pink to bright magenta.
Seeing them in the garden they made me think of balloons on long strings, and abstract patterns. I photographed them from all angles trying for total darkness in the background, and then found I had to adjust some levels because of the contrasts of dark and light I had included in the photos, discovering how cool it looked with just the pink. So I desaturated the green and yellow and left the red, magenta and blue channels alone. Below is a closeup of them.
Leeks are also highly attractive to bees, which is one of the reasons I let them bloom in my garden. All kinds of bees large and small and all colors and shapes come to visit the leeks, bees I’ve never seen before. Here’s a photo of a leek flower with a few bees hanging onto it in Daytime Fireworks.
Leeks again.
Crayons: Theme and Variations, 2011
Crayons
I enjoy photographing batches of objects that become patterns in their collective, or textures that become a background when taken out of context. Since the advent of computers and computer screens, we’ve been calling these “wallpapers”, and I guess that’s appropriate too since these patterns could easily repeat and cover a wall.
As excited as I was to photograph this basket of crayons on one of the children’s tables in Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, I knew my little hand-held digital wasn’t going to win the award; it hasn’t been the same since I dunked it in Robinson Run. So the photo is a little soft, but that’s an invitation to have some of my own fun in PhotoShop, like crayons for adults on computer.
First, I wanted something to simplify the light and shadow and color to a uniformity similar to that of the shapes of the crayons themselves. This filter is “cutout”, meant to resemble cut paper laid out and overlapped, with just six levels of value and the simplest edge setting (if you use PhotoShop, this will make sense).
Crayons, cut out.
You can purchase a variety of styles and sizes of prints of this photo on my Fine Art America profile, Crayola.
Then, I played around and discovered I really liked the “glowing edges” effect and the effect of a pile of neon lights.
Crayons, glowing.
You can purchase a variety of styles and sizes of prints of this photo on my Fine Art America profile, Neon Crayons.
Starfire
Leeks.
What leeks normally look like.
Nothing fancy, just a little work in PhotoShop on a very common vegetable. These are the flowers for leeks, a member of the onion family. They are biennial as onions are, growing greens and growing their bulbs the first year, which is when we usually pull and use them. If left to overwinter in the ground the second year the bloom in June with big spheres of flowers at the ends of long rays; these spheres can vary between 2″ and 5″ in diameter. The flowers are pale yellow with a pinkish tinge, but the rays vary from pale pink to bright magenta.
Seeing them in the garden they made me think of balloons on long strings, and abstract patterns. I photographed them from all angles trying for total darkness in the background, and then found I had to adjust some levels because of the contrasts of dark and light I had included in the photos, discovering how cool it looked with just the pink. So I desaturated the green and yellow and left the red, magenta and blue channels alone. Below is a closeup of them.
Leeks are also highly attractive to bees, which is one of the reasons I let them bloom in my garden. All kinds of bees large and small and all colors and shapes come to visit the leeks, bees I’ve never seen before. Here’s a photo of a leek flower with a few bees hanging onto it in Daytime Fireworks.
Leeks again.
Crayons: Theme and Variations
Crayons
I enjoy photographing batches of objects that become patterns in their collective, or textures that become a background when taken out of context. Since the advent of computers and computer screens, we’ve been calling these “wallpapers”, and I guess that’s appropriate too since these patterns could easily repeat and cover a wall.
As excited as I was to photograph this basket of crayons on one of the children’s tables in Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, I knew my little hand-held digital wasn’t going to win the award; it hasn’t been the same since I dunked it in Robinson Run. So the photo is a little soft, but that’s an invitation to have some of my own fun in PhotoShop, like crayons for adults on computer.
First, I wanted something to simplify the light and shadow and color to a uniformity similar to that of the shapes of the crayons themselves. This filter is “cutout”, meant to resemble cut paper laid out and overlapped, with just six levels of value and the simplest edge setting (if you use PhotoShop, this will make sense).
Crayons, cut out.
Then, I played around and discovered I really liked the “glowing edges” effect and the effect of a pile of neon lights.
Crayons, glowing.
Today 