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TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE
Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!
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2021 52 Week Challenge Class
Challenge: Black and White Click to view larger image. Sarah says: Well, it seems silly to take flowers and turn them into black and white. This is the end of my Valentine's Day Flowers, and I put them on my light box. I shot the picture (s) then came to LR and turned them B&W. After adjusting the "normal " sliders, I adjusted the clarity, texture, dehaze, and vibrance sliders down, to create a dreamy feel. I used the brush tool to darken the edges, ( lowering the exposure slider), squared everything, and used the spot healing brush in PS to clean everything up. I learned a lot. |
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2021 Critique Group
Challenge: Use A Mirror Click to view larger image. Lorne says: The Mirror Doesn’t Lie, but Neither Does It Tell the Truth” This week’s theme was quite a challenge for me; I rarely even notice mirrors, let alone reflect on them, and I really can’t see myself looking in a mirror. I know this image might strike some viewers as being unrealistic, and they’d be right - I actually haven’t been outside in ages. As I turned up the collar of my favourite winter coat I asked my wife if she could think of a good quote or song title for this photo, but she was too distracted to answer and only grunted “I’m Looking at the Man in the Mirror”. Incidentally, the pose was necessitated by my limitations in Ps. I kept on getting halfway through my edits when I would suddenly notice something amiss - for example, a straight on shot wearing a shirt would mean the back of my shirt behind my head would have to be visible, so I tried with a tie, then with a coat and scarf. It finally occurred to me that if my mirror image and I were both facing away from the camera it would be much easier. Similarly, having a hat to adjust made the image both more natural and, I think, more interesting. |
2021 Smart Phone Challenges
Challenge: Upside Down Click to view larger image. Karen says: Lila upside down on the beach. Distressed edits added with birds. |
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Ricky's Challenge Photos:
Challenge: Single Leaf Click to view larger image. Ricky says: Other than the permanently installed mirrors in my bathrooms, the only mirror I had available was a round hand-held makeup mirror. (don't ask). So, I walked around seeing what I might capture of interest using that. The big boy camera was cumbersome, so I switched to the iPhone. I took all sorts of images, and even tried a distored panorama and my striped shirt, but when I discovered how the mirror worked with the organ keyboard, I liked what I saw and played with that for a while. I also like that the black curved mirror frame mimicks the keys. |
Challenge: Upside Down Click to view larger image. Ricky says: I suspect like many of you finding some thing that was upside down that seem to work, was really a challenge. This is my pump organ, photographed upside down, at least at a vantage pointe that the keys are not as I see them while I’m playing. This was edited in Prisma using the Berries preset option |
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Click on quilt for detailed view. |
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Detailed view - Click to enlarge. |
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Bears In Bertie's Log Cabin by Ricky Tims In 2002 I was able to purchase forty acres in a fir forest at high elevation in central Southern Colorado. In 2003 a little log cabin was erected. It was only 10’ x 12’, had no electricity or running water, and had a little pot belly stove for warmth. I named the cabin the Bertie Marie, after my maternal grandmother—my Granny. It was a fantasy to imagine staying in that cozy space for a few days…and QUILT!
I like sewing on a machine. That became possible at the cabin because I acquired a Singer treadle sewing machine—and what better project to work on in a log cabin than to make a log cabin quilt? We also have bears roaming the woods and so I decided to incorporate the bear paw block into the quilt too. Being truthful, this quilt was not entirely made in the Bertie Marie cabin, but many of the log cabin blocks were stitched on that treadle sewing machine during the times when I would stay there.
The fabrics are all hand-dyed. The border design is quilted with Razzle-Dazzle (in the bobbin). The Razzle-Dazzle was stitched while it was still a quilt top - so in essence, it is “embroidered”. Then, once the quilt sandwich was assembled, I just used regular thread and free-motion quilting and stitched directly on top of the embroidered Razzle-Dazzle. The effect is...that the quilt is bobbin quilted, but in fact, it’s not.
As many of you know, in 2018, an extensive and destructive wildfire burned about 109,000 acres in southern Colorado. It was called the Spring fire and it burned all of my land. The Bertie Marie and my tipi were lost. Miraculously, my house, which had just been completed in March 2018, was spared (unscathed) even though the fire came within thirty feet of the structure.
Many days after the fire, when I was finally allowed to return to the area, I went down to the cabin to see what remained. The pot belly stove was about the only thing to survive. The Singer treadle was destroyed. Someday I hope to rebuild the Bertie Marie and then I will begin the quest to find another very functional and operable treadle. Bears in Bertie's Log Cabin holds the memories of a wonderful time when the Betrie Marie was a refuge and solace. That’s the thing about quilts—isn't it? They hold memories, and in turn become family treasures.
TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!
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2021 Photo Critique Group
Challenge: Jagged Click to view larger image. Sandy says: I borrowed my husbands's handsaw, used a flashlight to back light it and a long exposure in a dark room to emphasize the jagged teeth. |
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52 Week Challenge Class
Challenge: Forks Click to view larger image. Scott says: Background hand-died fabric by Cassie Conway. Forks suspended in space with vice grips 4" above fabric. Lens flare created by iPhone "flashlight" under fabric. Tripod, full manual. Shutter remotely activated with iPod. Natural light through window. Highlights +100, shadows -100, clarity -55, whites +26, blacks -16 |
2021 Smart Phone Challenges
Challenge: Single Leaf Click to view larger image. Charlotte says: It’s been extremely cold around here this week. -25 to -35 C cold! So I haven’t been venturing outside much this week. Last night I found a leaf under some snow just outside my back door. Put it in a bowl of water outside and waited for it to freeze. |
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Ricky's Challenge Photos:
Challenge: Single Leaf Click to view larger image. Ricky says:
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Challenge: Jagged Click to view larger image. Ricky says: This is my gastro aloe that has survived my black thumb now for three years and has sent up a bloom spike about 6 times. It's showing age, but it's definitely one of the most jagged subjects I had around. Cropped square. Edited to a high key BnW - then exported both the high key and the color edtied and did a BnW dreamscape, with the BnW sharp, and the color out of focus. Because of the white edge, I decided to add a frame so there was an obvious frame edge. My frame is the photo rotated 180˚, then blurred and enlarged so to fit the expanded canvas. |
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Announcing the GRAND PRIZE WINNER in the RISE UP QUILT CHALLENGE!
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Xanadu |
Carol says: These last 10 months there have been lots of ups and downs, good days and bad. Being a business owner there have been some very uncertain, stressful moments. Making business altering changes to protect our staff and clients. Calming fears and trying our best to keep everyone safe from contacting the virus. Working through dealing with supply shortages of paper towels, cleaners, masks, hand sanitizers, spending hours trying to find suppliers to send us these needed items. Days were long and stressful. At the end of the day I would go to my studio to unwind and just relieve the stresses of the day. Xanadu was made to symbolize the emotions during this pandemic. I named it Xanadu because this is my "place" where I go to find peace and contentment. I was sitting on the couch early one morning working on my computer and looked up as the sun was rising. This beautiful, colorful sunrise was being painted across the morning sky. At that moment it hit me what to create for this Rise Up Challenge. |
A huge thank you to all who submitted and shared their stories and inspired creative endeavors during the time of this historic global pandemic. The additional entries can be seen here.
TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE
Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!
