Getting to the end Monday...

 

 

Cottage Living

The Bearded One brought the Christmas totes back from the V-Star garage so that I can De-frock the cottage. I will miss gazing up at the gilded splendor that is the view from my side of the desk. I am contemplating leaving the tree, with it's lights, just taking off the Christmas bits and adding a few winter birds and berries and calling it a seasonal "Winter Tree". I like having the sparkle up there... it gives off such a cheerful glow on these dreary evenings.

We, or I should say I, am preparing for the annual New Year, new improved me mantra that usually shows up right about now. I think that I have just about scarfed up all the things that "won't be allowed" next week in preparation. This is such an absurd behavior I know but it's one that I cling to with great zeal. As I've said before. I love the planning times. The "I will do such and such" and "I will achieve this and that" affirmations that I repeat to myself as I approach a new "do-over" or mulligan phase. My followup has a little to be desired but I think I make up for that with my enthusiastic beginnings. As I've gotten older I seem to have come to grips with the ya-da, ya-da, ya-da. I know the routine. I just go through it now more as an amused spectator, watching myself but not quite having the gumption to actually jump in and change the course.

Before and After Project 365

Before

Was finding it a little difficult to figure out a shot for 365 today. Outside everything looked the same to me. Damp, mossy, dark, and gloomy. that left me with finding something "in house". I love old bottles so my original thought was to shoot a trio of blue bottles. It turned out okay, but was just a typical shot and I found it a little boring...

 

I then tried it in Black and white. It gave it a little different feel but still wasn't what I was looking for.

I finally decided to do something a little abstract. I started with this shot below of an ink bottle and a marble in a poor composition on a cork hot pad. I was actually just playing with my settings and not really setting up the shot. Pretty obvious when viewing this photo... :-)

After

Here's what I ended up with.

I cropped the shot really tight using the meeting of the cork and bottle as a kind of "horizon", and placed my marble on the "third" (the famous rule of thirds in composition) I then used a "topaz" simplify layer, added a little boost, and made a little mini composition out of it. I love the shine on the marble. Sometimes making little things big makes for interesting art...

Pause for thought

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Until next time...