Thursday, April 05, 2012

Up Close and Personal

Last June my husband completely redid our front yard......did away with the water guzzling grass and planted drought tolerant plants. It is an ongoing work in progress, but it is starting to come together   These "kangaroo paws" are just beginning to bloom. Today our Photo Art Friday challenge is to use a macro photo or a crop of a larger photo.  I don't have a macro lens so I experimented with my Canon "close-up" magnifying lens.  I read about it in Scott Kelby's "The Digital Photogaphy Book".  It is less than I had hoped for, but it is an inexpensive substitute.  The original which used the magnifyer is the
first image below.  I like the shallow depth of field it gives me without my having to fiddle with settings on the camera.
I then cropped to 12 x 12 square and edited in two different ways. The first edit is more realistic....
I used a texture that was a freebie from someone. Unfortunately I cannot remember who....the name of the texture is "it's all about color - verdigris".  If someone recognizes the name, please email me or leave a comment so I can credit that individual. The blend was "linear light" at 57%  I then used Bonnie's "fanciful" texture on hue at 96%.
I wanted to do something a bit more abstract below......
I used Bonnie's "abstract splotches" linear light 100%, removed most of the texture from the flower and then used the cut-out filter.
Have a great week everyone and stop for a visit at Photo Art Friday.  You can link over by selecting the badge below. 

Photo Art Friday

13 comments:

helena said...

great strong structural lines in teh plant and I love the abstract image

Sueann said...

I love all your images, but that third one really speaks to me. Fabulous
Hugs
SueAnn

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Marilyn! These are wonderful. I am especially enamoured with the last abstract one. Beautiful treatment and result! Thank you for sharing your art and process with PAF.

Terrie said...

I like the 2nd image....it's painterly and abstract yet still has the organic plant feel to it. I love that texture of Bonnie's! Great job - thanks for the visit.

Ida said...

What a pretty flower. I like both your edits but the last edit is my favorite. I like the abstract feel of it.

ceevee said...

Ooooo I love your experimentations with the plant. BTW It would be a DREAM of mine to get rid of my grassy lawns. Bravo.

Patrice said...

Love the final result!

kareninkenai said...

Great processing, Marilyn. Lovely work as always. I just love what you come up with. Thanks. Karen

NatureFootstep said...

there is so many ways to change a photo. These are very interesting.

Merike said...

Looks very beautiful. Me too like cut-out filter. Very artistic style :)

The Artful Diva said...

I enjoy seeing the different techniques you employed to get these results. I have never thought to use the cut-out filter. That rendition is really fascinating.

Nadege, said...

I love the more abstract image. Lovely work.

Monica S Engell said...

Hi Marilyn, and thank you for your nice comment on my blog:) You asked about the processing (I forgot to write what I had done) But you're right,- I only used the wave filter on the butterfly macro. Took away the colors first and finelly used a blue photofilter.
Your work and processing are wonderful, and I especially liked the last one! It came out a bit more abstract!
Have a nice week:)