355/365 - Ripples

A quiet day at the pond.

311/365 - River Birch

They've turned out to be some of my favorite trees that we've planted here-- largely because they do so well and put out decent growth relatively quickly. The peeling bark is pretty, too.

308/365 - Basket

Not much more to say about it than that! (g) It's a small wall-hanging basket that I found in a thrift store.

291/365 - Pineapples

I've since finished this shawl. It was kind of a pain to crochet. The pattern seems easy enough, but for whatever reason, I managed to make mistakes all too often. I usually wouldn't find them until I met them going back across on the next row, so there was a fair amount of ripping out and re-doing.

Still, the pattern does turn out to look nice, if you're a fan of the pineapple design.

286/365 - Woven

Macro of a small ceramic trinket box I bought at a yard sale...  (Naturally sepia-toned photo!)

282/365 - Fronds

I spotted these fuzzy fronds popped up in the center of our large sago palm. A few days later, they were rich green and spread out-- already much more like the mature sago palm fronds, but still a lot less rigid. A couple days more and they were hardened and inhospitable.

246/365 - Dog Brush Abstract

This is when you know you're bone-dry on photo inspiration (and that maybe this Project 365 thing has done you more harm than good, photographically speaking)-- when you finish giving your dog a good brushing, take a look at the brush full of hair, shrug, and say, "Yeah, sure. That'll do for the photo of the day."

You have my sincerest apologies. ;o)

211/365 - Ginkgo

(Very faintly-tinted) sepia-toned ginkgo leaves.  I planted this seedling just this year, up in the northeasternmost corner of our fenced yard.  I hope it'll thrive there and grow quickly.  I've been trying to make sure it gets enough water, at least.

Incidentally, I just learned that I've been misspelling "ginkgo" (the handful of times I may ever have used the word).  I could've sworn it was spelled "ginko"!  "Ginkgo" still feels absolutely wrong to me, but I guess I'll have to get used to it.  ;o)

163/365 - Window

. . . detail shot of the window in my parents' new front door. . .

156/365 - Construction Abstract

I don't remember what these are called, but they're the support system for the second floor of my parents' new house.

115/365 - FAILING

I'm just playing around with a few more shots of the "visiting" trucks.

I noticed that this one has the word "FAILING" emblazoned upon it. Failing what, exactly? We may never know. . . ;o)

69/365 - Gloria in Excelsis Deo

I took this photo of part of our nativity scene yesterday (day 69), but I must admit that I didn't play around with the layers, textures, and colors until today (day 70). I'm still counting it, though. (g)

I suppose it's possible to go too far with layers and textures, but it's so addictive! Today's photo used three layers. First, there's the one I took yesterday-- the nativity scene. The other two are older photos from a special folder kept for occasions just such as this. There's a rainy windshield and an unusual play of light through the glass block window in our bathroom.

35/365 - Lichen-Grown Oak

Have I mentioned that I like moss and lichen? Well, I do. ;o)

Editing: Resize, Orton technique, Unsharp Mask, ta-da! (Only it's not much of a "ta-da". Still, the rules say "a photo a day", not "your-best-photo-ever a day". (g))

16/365 - Leathern

There's not much to say about this one.  It's a macro of a leaf blown into our yard from some unknown tree on one of the occasional gusts we're experiencing this afternoon. (Our weather has shifted back to lukewarm mugginess-- not summertime heat, thank goodness, but not crisply autumnal, either. We're expecting rain overnight, though, and after that we should get some relief from the humidity.)

The color and texture of the fallen leaf reminded me of leather, as you may have guessed from the title. ;o)

Editing: Cropped, Resized, Curves, Unsharp Mask.

11/365 - Dragonfly Wings

We found a dragonfly hanging on to an oak tree in our yard. I don't know what it was up to (maybe nearing the end of its life, maybe just taking a rest), but it let us get very close and sat almost perfectly still while I fetched the camera and photographed it.

Dragonflies are one of those few insects I actually like. Most of them, I don't particularly want to touch (even though they make good photos), but I think I'd be ok with a dragonfly. (g)

Editing: The most interesting aspect of editing this photo (as well as a few others from today and yesterday) was that it is actually two photos in one.  I combined two photos of the same subject, allowing only the best, sharpest portions of each to show in the final product.  I think this can be a very useful technique, but yesterday was my first time using it, so I'm still learning its ins and outs. 

Here's how I did it (for future reference): 
Open the two photos in Photoshop.  Select one and paste it as a new layer onto the other.  If necessary-- if, like me, you didn't use a tripod when taking the photos-- lower the opacity of the top layer and position it so that the two line up as perfectly as possible.  Pull the opacity back up.  Select Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.  Using the paint brush tool (w/ black as the paint color), "paint" where you want to bottom layer to show through the top.  

...That's about all.  It's not difficult, and I can think of many possible uses.

6/365 - Textures

I thought I'd give self-portraiture a try today. I wasn't entirely pleased with the results, but I'm "making do".

This is me sitting out on the porch swing with a denim rag quilt and my newly crocheted scarf. (Even though it's gotten warm enough today that I didn't really need either, I thought they'd make a more interesting photo.)

Sepia-toned and gently Ortonized.