Shades of autumn–red

No thinking or hunting needed for this one – it had to be my lovely shiny new wellies

The frame is another of the fabulous freebies on The Coffe Shop Blog

Check out other red shades of autumn here.

Making nature psychedelic

Yes, the big image was created using only the 4 photos on the right which I took on a walk earlier this week – mixed together using blending modes in PSE.  I like the idea of my shadow against a psychedelic river.

I used the colour palette frame from the CoffeeShop Blog.

Check out other photo art created with digital magic on Pixeldust Photo Art

shorter days do have a silver lining

I’m not a fan of short days.  One of the things I love about living in Scotland are the long evenings with plenty of daylight.

But, I have to admit that this week the shorter days have delivered some fabulous light on my daily walks.

At 4.30pm along the river

and coming back in the other direction

and then in the morning by the sea

and when the sun came from behind the clouds

I’m loving how my familiar views are taking on new looks with the amazing light of the golden hour that I’m actually seeing due to the shorter days.  Have you been noting the change in light at the moment?

In a New York state of mind

My next trip is to New York City so I’m looking for suggestions from my lovely blogland friends who have experience of the great city on things to see and do and eat.

I’m there for work so only have free time in the evening and, I hope one afternoon and a Saturday morning.  My hotel and the workshop venue are in the financial district.   I’m interested in any suggestions of places to visit in Manhattan that I wont have read about in the ‘top 10 things you must do’ guides – shops, photo-ops, walks etc.

In particular I’d welcome suggestions on things to eat.  I’m going to buy some candy corn and other Halloween related treats – what else?

And for my non-American friends – I’m open to some photo scavenger hunt challenges to hunt down on my trip – yellow taxi cab; statue of liberty; Halloween decorations – what else??

Shades of autumn–orange

While searching for orange in the gardens I pass on my daily walk I discovered that the vast majority of berries and rosehips are red – a deep red, red.  I did find a few that were orange – and appreciated all the more for being unusual.  A nice range of oranges from the yellow to the red ends of the range.  I love the colour contrast with both the green leaves and also the blueblack of the iron fence.  Check out what others found in orange for this weeks shades of autumn

Frames are again from The Coffee Shop Blog

Wrapping up the week with some photo art

To end my week of memory keeping with photos of my Kathmandu trip, I played with some of the photos and textures to create some photo art to share on Photo Art Friday.

I loved these flowers that were floating in a large tub in the hotel lobby.  I included them in my photo page about the hotel which I posted yesterday.

For the art I added Bonnie’s medieval magic texture on linear light blending mode at 50% and then her dappled dawn texture with the same blending mode and opacity.  Then I applied the rough pastels filter for that painted look.  I love the vibrant colours.

Red brick in common in Kathmandu – this is in the hotel gardens.  I added Bonnie’s fanciful texure on colour burn blending mode at 58% and them her medieval magic on colour dodge mode at 62%. 

Finally I really went to town on one of the landscapes that I included in my post on Monday and created an almost abstract piece. I can imagine it as a silk print

I applied Bonnie’s dappled dawn texture on luminosity blending mode at 100% and then duplicated the photo and used hard light blending mdoe at 14% to bring back a small amount of the building details.

Thanks to Bonnie for the fabulous wild textures and the prompt to share photo art each week.

more of Kathmandu trip

I’ve decided I’m going to have 4 pages for each place in my photobook of my current work trips.  I’m using templates from Biograffitti who is running a retirement sale at oscraps at the moment if anyone needs some great album templates.

The above will be the first page.  I have written about the workshop and trip in the bottom block but it contains too many details about other people so I’m not showing it here.  I did manage to get one photo of me at the workshop – looking rather colonial with the cup of tea !!  I loved the tables all ready for the workshop with the flowers and marker pens.

pages 2 and 3 will be the one of Kathmandu buildings from Monday’s post and what the women were wearing from yesterday’s post.  Then page 4 features the hotel and the fabulous views of the snow capped mountains of the Himalaya range behind the city hills.

I loved the bright flowers that were displayed all around the hotel.  And that large lounging seat in my bedroom was fabulous for relaxing and looking at the view, checking e-mails and blogs etc.  I didn’t take a photo of the outside of the hotel because it was a dull modern building.

Nepalese women are so vibrant

I was in Kathmandu to conduct a workshop which had many women participants who were all quite happy for me to photograph their lovely clothes.  I used another Oscraps template for a page.

Most of them wear the long tunic over leggings and have a matching scarf.  A few wear a sari although they said these were more often kept for special occasions as they have not pockets and are not practical when moving around a lot.  Several of the women were wearing western style clothes but  didn’t photograph them.

I love the bright colours that many of them wear and the patters.  The one on the top row, 2nd from the left, is woven cotton from hill tribe designs. On the bottom row, 1st picture, the 3rd women’s tunic has amazingly detailed embroidery in gold thread all over the front. 

Interesting that this style which they have been wearing for generations is very similar to how many western women dress at the moment with the popularity of a dress or tunic over trousers or leggings.

More of my trip photos tomorrow.

Kathmandu

Kathmandu is a spectacular city, ringed by hills and then the mountains behind.  The buildings are tightly packed, tall and often look either rundown or unfinished. Cables and wires are strung all over the place, including big bundles of cable.  In many buildings there are shops on street level with 2 or 3 levels of housing above that. There are small Hindu and Buddhist temples scattered around everywhere (which I didn’t photograph).

I love the vibrant colours with all of the brick and the painted walls and plenty of trees as well.  Many buildings have plants on the roof and a relaxation place.

I also like how these photos seems to have captured the strong light and also the distant haze.

I used a template from Biograffitti (who has a retirement sale over at Oscraps). I’m going to use the set of templates to create a photobook of my trips.  Photos of what the women wear tomorrow.

Shades of autumn–yellow

I arrived in Nepal at the end of the Dashain festival so was treated to lights and decoration everywhere.  The festival is the biggest of the year and when many people make their annual trip to visit family.

I was on the lookout for yellow as the shades of autumn colour this week and found plenty in the special decorations – yellow and orange flowers are used to decorate the temples.  Interesting to see that yellow is associated with celebrations at this time of year in other cultures too.

The ‘web board’ is again the Coffee Shop Blog.

I’ll share some more photos from Nepal over the rest of the week.

look at my view !!

This is the glorious view from my hotel room in Kathmandu – part of the Himalaya range of mountains.  This one taken as the sun was setting so the snow is lit and stands out more.

 

just a taste til I get to faster internet connection.

Shades of Autumn - green

I’m joining in the shades of autumn photo challenge which is running over the next 8 weeks with a colour specified each week for photo inspiration.

The trees around me either bare or green at the moment and with all the rain that we have have recently, the grass is also looking lush.  I took these on a walk last week.

The frame is from The CoffeeShop Blog.

hydrangeas

What with overcast weather meaning few photos and lots to do workwise, the only creativity I’ve managed in the last week is some photo art prompted by Bonnie’s Photo Art Friday

I combined a closeup of hydrangea bloom with a photo of the river and tried all the different blending modes.  Then I was thinking about ways to compare the effects and ended up showing 2 effects in each image (I used a gradient mask).  The frames are from The Coffee  Shop Blog

I will definitely be playing with this merging again.