Thematic Photographic #301 -Dirty

Dirty

One of my favorite sites that I used to visit and participate in is Carmi's writteninc. Now that I am back in the blogging world it is one of my first visits.  He gives out a photo theme for the week and any of his readers can take photos and do a post on the theme and then leave a link to that post in his comment section.  It is delightful to see what other bloggers do with his theme.  No prize just sharing among bloggers which is so much better.  I like getting to know my fellow bloggers and the exchange of interpretations and ideas is fun.  This exchange is what draws me to blogging and keeps me coming back.

The top photo was actually taken for a contest on MyShutterspace.com (which at the moment is having problems).  This particular photo contest had the theme of minimalism and since I didn't really understand the theme, I just took lots of photos and guessed.  The top photo did not qualify as the dirt kept it from having clean lines (no pun intended, of course), one of the qualities of a minimalist photo. 

However, I did like the photo of the dirty vents so I decided to play around with them and came up with a couple of fun pieces of abstract art.  Still did not qualify for the contest, but it came in handy here.

If you would like to check out how others have interpreted this theme click here. 

Enjoy

Johnina

Back to Kingsport Tenn

Rest area on I-75
All in Bloom

Took a break from visiting my daughter to continue working on my health, but I traveled back last week during the heat wave.  I made it back to Kingsport in record time.  Last time even though I thought I left at the right time to miss Atlanta traffic it still took me 2 1/2 hours to get from Locust Grove through Atlanta to Marietta.  This time it took 45 minutes.  It always amazes me at the time difference that can occur while driving in the city. Sometimes for no apparent reason your time can double or triple.  How do those who commute everyday figure this out?

Blessed shade on a hot day

The other thing that continues to surprise me is the different personalities of the rest areas.  Each has it's own beauty.  The difference between rest areas between states is even more remarkable.  Georgia's tend to have lots of wide open spaces with minimal landscaping mostly around the main building and they are not staffed except at the main You have entered Georgia Rest Area.

Georgia rest area picnic site

Tennessee has smaller rest areas with more landscaping spread across the entire area.  They also have the bonus of being having an attendant on site.

Beauty at the rest stop
Art edit

At one of the Georgia rest areas I saw some evergreens that where in some places dead, dying, and other places growing and thriving.  I loved the textures and color combinations so I snapped a shot.

Life goes on

I have been looking at a lot of abstract photos and art lately so since I really liked the colors and textures I decided to try my hand at turning this photo into an abstract art piece.

  I edited it in Photoscape (available for free on CNET) using the swirl filter then I added a lens flare.  I added three lens flares in three different colors and turned down the opacity on the flares.

I then transferred it to Gimp and layered the edited version with the original. (Gimp is alsoavailable for free on CNET). This was my first attempt at using layers. I then cropped it to emphasize the center flare and came up with this:

What do you think?
Enjoy
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Abstract Photography Contest



My Abstract Art Contest entry on MyShutterSpace

I belong to MyShutterSpace a great photo sharing site- my favorite.  Last sunday I decided to enter the contest in the Abstract photography group (they have a wide variety of groups to join).   The contest was to photograph a common household object but to focus in on the color and texture, so I searched for something interesting to photograph.  I found my knife set in its butcher block holder; took lots of pics from different angles and different lighting.  Got one I really liked and then inverted the colors to come up with the above photo.  Some of the other photos are below.

Abstract Knives

It always amazes me what a difference the lighting makes in shadows and even in the coloring; which shows up in these photos.

BTW: I got second place; there was not many entries but; hey, second place is still second place.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺