I was playing around with my phone camera last week and realized there were some cool settings on it. I hadn’t noticed before that I can take a negative picture, or a monochrome or sepia, or solarized…
I had no idea what I was doing at the time; I couldn’t see the screen for the sunshine, so I just started snapping photos. The first two are solarized shots of the sun setting over the water. I did nothing to alter these after they were taken.
All-focus
All-focus
Here’s a panoramic shot I took, without filters, of the same scene.
And here’s one I took a couple of weeks ago from the same spot.
Do you ever wonder if you’re being followed? Or at the very least, feel like you’re being observed? I do.
It all started with the Daily Post last Thursday. The word of the day was “obvious.” I follow their prompts on my fiction blog, so that day I wrote a post entitled “Obvious.” Obviously. It’s a very short fiction piece about a car accident. You can find it here. The next day – Friday – the Daily Post prompt was “witness.” Hey, that’s handy, I thought. I’ll just write a part two for Thursday’s post. Here you have “Obvious, Part 2.”
When the prompt came up on Saturday, and the word of the day was “mistake,” I was tempted to keep going on my little car accident story, but I didn’t. Instead I wrote about a cheating husband. So what happened? Today’s one-word prompt on the Daily Post is “cheat.”
In response to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge prompt this week, which was shadows and silhouettes, I decided to use a picture I took in May. I was standing under a cherry tree and for some reason or another, took a picture of the sun through the branches.
Here is the original:
I thought first to see what my new phone could do with it. I was quite happy with this version, which I did nothing particular with except change the filters available. I like the way the branches stand out, giving it a skeletal look:
Then I decided to play around with that. This version, I think, has a bit of a Dystopian feel to it:
And finally, here’s what I ended up with when I played around with the original. I was trying to bring out the prism of the sun’s rays. It certainly shows off the actual brilliance of the pink blossoms:
Our prompt this week on, Helen Espinosa’s fabulous Song-Lyric Sunday is a song from our first concert. Since I’ve already posted a song from “Hotel California” (that was my first concert – I was 14) I decided to post one from the group I saw second, which was Styx.
If you don’t know the “Cornerstone” album, you probably don’t know this song. The lyrics are about longing for the past. For me it’s not as much about the lyrics though – I love this song for the awesome mandolin, and, of course, the heartthrob that was Tommy Shaw in his prime.
“Boat On The River”
Take me back to my boat on the river
I need to go down, I need to come down
Take me back to my boat on the river
And I won’t cry out any more
Time stands still as I gaze In her waters
She eases me down, touching me gently
With the waters that flow past my boat on the river
So I don’t cry out anymore
Oh the river is wide
The river it touches my life like the waves on the sand
And all roads lead to Tranquillity Base
Where the frown on my face disappears
Take me down to my boat on the river
And I won’t cry out anymore
Oh the river is deep
The river it touches my life like the waves on the sand
And all roads lead to Tranquillity Base
Where the frown on my face disappears
Take me down to my boat on the river
I need to go down
Won’t you let me go down?
Take me back to my boat on the river
And I won’t cry out anymore
And I won’t cry out anymore
And I won’t cry out anymore
Lyrics by Tommy Shaw, copied and pasted from AtoZ Lyrics
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday (brought to you by the lovely and talented Helen Espinosa – click to see the prompt!) we were tasked with coming up with a song from the 90s. I listened to the radio a lot back then, driving back and forth to my job in Ottawa, but there aren’t too many songs that stuck with me. This was one of the few.
I loved “Uninvited” from the first time I heard it, which I think was at the end of the movie, City of Angels. But what makes it even more memorable for me, was seeing Alanis walking up King Edward Street in Ottawa one day as I was driving to work. I was surprised at how tiny she is, considering the set of pipes on her. I don’t know, I suppose we expect people who are often on stage to be taller, I guess. 😛
Anyway, here’s an awesome live performance with an entire orchestra.
And the lyrics:
Uninvited – Alanis Morrisette
Like anyone would be
I am flattered by your fascination with me
Like any hot-blooded woman
I have simply wanted an object to crave
But you, you’re not allowed
You’re uninvited
An unfortunate slight
Must be strangely exciting
To watch the stoic squirm
Must be somewhat heartening
To watch shepherd need shepherd
But you you’re not allowed
You’re uninvited
An unfortunate slight
Like any uncharted territory
I must seem greatly intriguing
You speak of my love like
You have experienced love like mine before
But this is not allowed
You’re uninvited
An unfortunate slight
I don’t think you unworthy
I need a moment to deliberate
For this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge, the prompt is “architechture.” Since I don’t have a lot of fancy tools at my disposal for altering photos, I decided to choose a building and pick it apart. I thought what better place to look than Japan, where aesthetics is everything.
Here’s a picture I took in December of 2014, of the Disney store in the Shibuya section of Tokyo. Click on the pictures for a closer look:
The whole building, for perspective
Who wouldn’t want to go in? Note the sign that says 7F… that means the store is 7 floors high.
Above the entrance The store inside is tiny in square footage. It’s all upwards, via a skinny circular staircase, on which you have to squeeze past the people going the other way.
This is where you come out – the cash registers in most stores in Japan are at the back.
Above the exit is all interesting textures – for no particular reason. There are no windows in the store.
Fancy frontage, but not part of the store. It’s all between the entrance and the exit.
And finally the roof, with the obligatory plants. The Japanese grow things anywhere they can – and it’s all beautiful.
This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge prompt is “Quest for Fire.” I decided to go with a picture I’ve posted on my blog before, except this time it’s modified. At the time I shot it, I actually shot three as I often do, so I can be reasonably sure one of them is good. The first is a modified version of the one you may have seen before. I heightened the saturation to bring out the colour of the fire.
In the second one, the camera, for whatever reason, picked up the flame’s aura above it. I’m guessing it was due to the angle of the lens. I kind of like the black and white version.
The third and final one was out of focus. I call this the drunk version:
I love it, but I felt like it needed something extra done with it. My camera washed the scene out; while it looks hazily romantic, it’s not clear enough to see what was there.
Here’s what I came up with: first, I darkened it to make it look closer to the actual scene.
Then, just for fun, I took the colour out of it.
I like the way the swans pop out of the picture in this last one.
Which do you prefer?
For this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge, the prompt was “Into the woods”, giving you a pretty broad theme of trees, woodlands, forests, leaves, anything arboreal in fact. You can find it by clicking
here.
Today’s theme for Song-Lyric Sunday is Moms. I wanted to share something a little different. I’ve always loved the song, “The Way,” by Fastball. It reminds me of carefree days before kids, when the world was my oyster and the road was paved with gold, at least in my mind. It also reminds me that there are people in the world who never grow up, who never submit to the responsibility of the children they bear. What the couple does in the song is a fleeting fantasy. One I admit to occasionally having. In me, it only lasts a split second. For some…
“The Way” – Fastball
They made up their minds
And they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going without ever
Knowing the way?
They drank up the wine
And they got to talking
They now had more important things to say
And when the car broke down they started walking
Where were they going without ever
Knowing the way?
[Chorus:]
Anyone can see the road that they walk on
Is paved in gold
And it’s always summer
They’ll never get cold
They’ll never get hungry
They’ll never get old and grey
You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere
They won’t make it home
But they really don’t care
They wanted the highway
They’re happier there today, today
Their children woke up
And they couldn’t find them
They left before the sun came up that day
They just drove off and left it all behind ’em
But where were they going without ever
Knowing the way?
I took this picture at sunrise from my hotel room. The original was far more faded; I brought up the saturation to make the colour of the sun in the reflection of the windows pop. I only wish I had been able to get a clearer shot. You can see how long the shutter was open by observing the lights of the cars going by on the highway.
The three, in this case, (because the theme today is “three”) are the two buildings and the cars. Yes, a bit of a stretch, but it’s the best I could do in a pinch.
P.S. If anyone knows of any good (and cheap or free) programs for altering photos, I’d love to know. Thanks!
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