Number Three-Hundred-And-Forty-Nine: Wood, Wind and Water

Here are three scenes from our trip to Battersea Beach over the weekend. I admired the scenery there and took quite a few shots. These three were my favourites but I wasn't quite sure that any of them were strong enough to warrant an entry alone. Together, though, I think they give a good sense of just how lovely it was there. I especially liked the rings and lines of colour in the birch bark although it looks like someone did take it off in sheets for their own personal use.

I took the pictures with Camera+ and cropped each of them. Then I combined them in a triptych using Diptic.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Thirty-Four: Light And Colour

So this triptych was a sort of experiment in colour, I suppose. Essie had some 3D chalk and after a piece was left on the driveway mom ran over it with the car. It exploded out in this neat pattern that caught my imagination and I took some shots of it. Essie noticed all the little shards and picked out some of the larger bits, showing me how there was a core of a different colour embedded in the outer shell.

I took the shots with Camera+ and edited them there, cropping and using the Black And White filter from Effects on the Essie pictures and the Vibrant filter from Effects on the chalk shot. Then I imported all three into Diptic where I assembled them into this triptych.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Twenty-Five: Rainbow Ribbon

I picked up a ribbon on a stick from the dollar store for Essie the other day. She appears to have been born with the concept of rhythm gymnastics hardwired into her and will use many different substitutes for a ribbon on a stick; strings, those plastic straps that go around newspapers and flyers, a length of cord… the list goes on. She currently prefers sticks from the oak tree with TWO leaves still attached at the end for fluttering. Not three, not five. TWO. Anyhow; I bought this ribbon on a stick and while she enjoys it from time to time she still likes her own inventions best. So July and I seem to play with it more than she does.

I took all these shots with Camera+, cropped them and used the Night filter from the Scenes menu on them. Then I used Diptic to combine them in this triptych.

Number Three-Hundred-And-Fourteen: Castles In The Sky

While playing in the front yard today Essie noticed that the clouds had broken up somewhat and there was a lot more blue sky. She took the opportunity to get down and cloud-gaze for a bit to try and find some shapes.

I took the pictures with Camera+, cropped them, then used the Black And White filter on them. After that I imported them into Diptic where I assembled them into this triptych.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Ninety-Six: Bratty Face Kitty

I am cat-sitting for friends this week and must go over every day to feed and pay attention to their hella cute little tortie girl cat. She is a very affectionate little thing and got comfortable with me very quickly, as evidenced by the gnawing she's doing on my hand in the top left photo in this triptych. I'm super tough (when it comes to cats) so I put up with it for the sake of the photo but don't worry, Kristen! I won't have her eating human flesh by the time you come back.

She's really very adorable. Look at those ears! Look at that sweet bratty face!

I took all the photos with Camera+, cropped them, used the Florescent filter from the Scenes menu and then the Fashion filter from Effects. After that I imported them all into Diptic so I could assemble them into this triptych.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Ninety-Four: Essie Eat Berries

Even with the drought the berry bushes are still producing some berries, although they've really slowed down over the last week and are starting to get brown. Essie is an avid berry picker although I wouldn't take her berry picking if you want to make a pie or something. I'm sure this triptych illustrates why.

I took the pictures with Camera+, then imported them as they were into Diptic where I assembled them into this triptych. I think the reason for no post-processing filters was more due to laziness than incredible satisfaction with the results but I appreciate the untouched nature of them as well.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Eighty-Two: Dancing On The Sky

Remember how I said Essie loves to dance? If I could go back to March 3rd, 2009, I'd tell myself I didn't have to worry about that little 2.5 pound baby quite so much.

I took all the pictures with Camera+, cropped them to squares then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu on all of them. After all that I imported them into Diptic and made this wonderful tetraptych with them. Dance, Essie, dance!

Number Two-Hundred-And-Eighty: Existential Angst

Essie has a little play dough kit with a bunch of cookie cutter shapes. She likes me to help her cut them all out of the dough then she draws on them with the various plastic tools that came with the set. She especially likes giving everything eyes and mouths. One tool is a pair of pincers with a spike that she uses for drawing but she discovered the pincer aspect of it today and set about tweezing the extremities off of a blue man cutout. After he was dismembered she asked me to make another one and so I did. She proceeded to draw this horrified expression on his face which was fitting because he probably knew what was coming!

I took the pictures with Camera+, then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Fashion filter from Effects. Then I combined them using Diptic.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Sixty-Eight: BUBBLES

I was looking through all the photos I took of the bubbles and trying to see if there were any that I could use. I was hoping that there was one with great focus that I'd simply overlooked but it was not to be. I did find myself coming back to this one in particular. I had edited it then set it aside as not being well focused. I liked the composition and colours but it just wasn't quite good enough for AOMi, you know?

I'd cropped it and used a Grunge filter on it from the Effects menu in Camera+ already, but I decided to fool around with it in Corel's Paint It! Now. I tried every single filter on it to see which I liked best and they were all pretty good except the Pen And Ink, which is usually very hit or miss. I quite liked Modern, Oil, Illustration and Impressionist, though, and had the idea to combine the four in Diptic to showcase the different filters.

That looked a little boring so I rotated each square of the tetraptych until I thought it looked cool. And here it is!

Number Two-Hundred-And-Fifty-Eight: Variations On A Theme

I managed to get quite a few nice pictures of the peonies before the rain beat them up the other day. I loved their ruffly petals and excessive fanciness. I was also in the backyard taking pictures of the lichen on the poor cherry tree. After I looked at what I'd taken I kind of liked how the petals and lichen echoed each other.

I took the photos with Camera+ and cropped and edited them (probably with the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu but I don't recall what secondary filters I might have used) then used Diptic to make this triptych with them.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Forty-Six: Rudy Is A Handsome Cat

Today's entry is in just before deadline because I decided at the last minute to go with my mom on a trip to Ottawa to visit with my sister Alannah and we didn't get home until a very short while ago. Well, she lives on the Quebec side but same difference, right?!?

Ha ha! Anyhow; so we went and a fantastic time was had. Alannah's boyfriend has this fabulous cat named Rudy who is just a living embodiment of that poofy, floofy feline that can't help but strike a pose no matter what he's doing. So I took a bunch of pictures of him with Camera+ and he ate it right up.

I edited the three chosen pictures by first cropping them, then using the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Fashion filter from the Effects menu. Rudy was a Fashion cat, no question about it. After that I combined the three in a triptych using Diptic. Awww, Rudy.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Forty-Three: Rounded Roundup

I haven't done an Instagram Roundup in a while. I've likely mentioned it before but I often don't use the Instagram camera; I just use the Instagram editor on pictures I took using Camera+. This is a collection of shots from over the last month celebrating the advent of warmer weather. After I selected all the shots I liked I combined them in a tetraptych using Diptic

Number Two-Hundred-And-Twenty-Seven: Junior Entomologist

Essie is a lot more interested in bugs this year and if we're out on the front step she spends a lot of time chasing after ants, trying to pick them up or trying to convince them to climb on sticks. They aren't very cooperative but she tries!

I took these shots with Camera+, cropped them and then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menus. Then I imported them into Diptic to create this triptych.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Eighteen: Stylish

I recently bought this pair of sunglasses on a trip home when I was doing a fair amount of driving and finally admitted to myself I wasn't going to find the pair I lost a long time back. Essie decided to try them on today and had a great time modeling them for me. Lately when I take out the camera she immediately says, "Say 'smile'!" I don't correct her because that there is funny.

I took the pictures using the iPhone camera but had it off of HDR so they weren't great quality. I imported them into PhotoWizard and cropped them then used the Mixer 5 setting in the Cross Process filter to get this processed effect. After that I imported the pictures into Diptic and made a tetraptych out of them.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Sixteen: Umbrellas And Boots

Mom bought Essie an umbrella while we were at a dollar store the other day. It has elephants on it so I guess she couldn't resist. Essie loves the umbrella and insists on having it open at all times so she can have me hold it over my head and tell me I look pretty. Mom also bought Essie an adorable pair of ladybug rain boots a while back and the current weather necessitates them for backyard playing.

I took all the pictures with Camera+ and edited them all using it as well. Then I selected the three I liked best and brought them together in a triptych using Diptic.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Eight: The Nicest

Mongkut is the most well-meaning yet stupid cat I've ever met in my life. So, so handsome and so, so dumb. All he wants out of life is affection and play and to sleep in the sun from the window. I wish my needs and outlook were so simple!

I took the pictures for this triptych with Camera+. I cropped all three pictures and used the Flash filter from Scenes on two of them and the Clarity filter on the upper right shot. I then used the Black and White filter from Effects on the left shot and the Magic Hour filter on the other two. After all that I brought the three of them together in Diptic to showcase Mongkut's awesomeness.

Number One-Hundred-And-Ninety-Three: Birds!

Birds, birds, birds. I am definitely turning into a crazy bird lady in my old age. Our cat Shelley was watching birds out the window tonight and wishing he could catch a few for dinner so I took some pictures of the oblivious birds. I love that in the top picture it's all starlings except for the show-off mourning dove that's stretching its wings.

I took both pictures with Camera+ but imported them into Snapseed to edit them. For the tree shot I cropped it, then used a Vintage filter. For the bottom shot I cropped it then used a Drama filter. After that I imported them into Diptic to combine them.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Nine: Juxtaposition

Today's piece was unexpected, to say the least. I took the top picture in the dyptych this morning while Essie and I were outside. It was around eight thirty and the sky was amazingly clear and blue with only the barest wisps of clouds. I took a shot not really expecting it to be much of much but the blue was so beautiful I just had to.

The bottom half was taken this evening. The brush area near the waterline that catches fire every year caught fire tonight and was burning away, causing huge clouds of smoke and a bright glow over the houses across the street. You can see the glow I'm talking about in the bottom right but it didn't show up as well as I would have liked. I took the top photo with Camera+ and the bottom with the iPhone camera. I edited the bottom one in Camera+ but didn't feel like the top one needed anything at all. After that I combined them in Diptic.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Eight: Good Old Mang

There are cats and then there are cats. Mang is a super cat. She's been with the family since 1998 and we weren't exactly sure how old she was then as we adopted her as a stray. She'd already had a few litters of kittens by the time we got her. Since that time she has been the (spayed) Queen of the cats and no other cat has ever brought her down even a single peg. We're pretty sure she has a healthy amount of Maine Coon in her blood. She's got the looks and the attitude! She's pretty deaf these days and stiff in the limbs but she'll still smack you if you offend her. And she doesn't put up with crap from Mongkut especially. Mostly, though, she just wants you to pet her and let her sit on or near you if she's in the mood. Mang is a one in a million kind of cat.

I took these shots with the iPhone camera and did some editing on a few of them with Snapseed, then brought them together in Diptic.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Three: Good Food

I really enjoy using Diptic to bring together pictures that I think might not stand up quite well enough on their own. I use it for other reasons, of course, but in this case I really liked the combination of bright colours and textures. You may recognize the carrots and raspberries from past entries but the broccoli was from a meal last week and I wanted to use it somehow. So here it is!