Stamping the Jellyfish (Stamp Filter)

Not everything should be subjected to a stamp filter. I think perhaps jellyfish fall into that category. Perhaps it is the dark background that doesn't make the filter work so well? 

Stingray (Stamp Filter)

Here's another image from an aquarium photo. I found it relaxing to watch the stingrays swim in the pool. What I like about the image above is the shadow that was cast beneath the stingray by the overhead lights; the tail wiggles in the shadow but is straight on the animal.

Thanks for stopping by!

Heart-shaped Sea Anemone (Stamp Filter)

I can't say that I'm quite sure what I was seeing at the aquarium as I was looking at this sea anemone, but what really stood out to me was the shape of the heart. Here, I stamp filtered the rest of the image in black and white, but kept the heart in red, which was actually the color that it was (whatever it was).

Thanks for stopping by!

Sea Anemone (Stamp Filter)

While I had really liked the colors in the sea anemone, there were streaks and smears on the glass of the aquarium housing the anemone. Turning the image to black and white muted the smears, or at least made them less prominent. I like how the background turned out really dark, so that the white tentacles really stand out in the edited image.

Anyway, it's something different from the Rose-breasted Grosbeak that I've been posting lately.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Stamp Filter, Colored)

I feel like the Rose-breasted Grosbeak has become my "Bird of the Month" here on my blog (replacing the Goldfinch of yestermonth...). For today's image, I followed my usual process of creating a black and white layered image (using 4 stamp filtered images) and then layered in the colored original for... voila! Today's image. I like how it has a 'stamped' effect to it, with the lines being really pronounced and how the image is 'colored' in. Thanks for stopping by!

Personification (Rose-breasted Grosbeak)

As I look at this picture of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, I imagine the bird having a conversation with some creature in the grass that is too tiny for me to see. (In actuality, I imagine the Grosbeak is having a conversation with a bug or a worm, and that conversation went something like this, "Staying for dinner?") Thanks for stopping by!

Here's Lookin' at You, Kid

No, literally, the Grosbeak was looking at me. Thanks for stopping by!

Side-Profile, Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Here is a side-profile view of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak that visited my feeder and then started picking up the seeds off the ground. (It's nice when the description runs fairly straightforward like that.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak Turning to Look

Here is the same image, posted twice. The first is without the Photomatix HDR processing, and the second... is with the HDR, otherwise all edits are the same. The second image comes out much better for being able to see the bird's eye and the head in general. Even though this side of the Grosbeak is not all that colorful, the HDR version really alerts you to the fact that there are a variety of colors on the back of the bird. It's fun to compare the two. Thanks for stopping by!

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (Dry Brush Filter)

This isn't exactly the best picture for telling that it was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, but... it was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The most distinctive feature on this bird is the red triangle (almost where you would expect to see a bib) under its head. In this particular image, you only see the slightest part of the red. I'm not sure what it was doing at my bird feeder; it certainly did not become a regular visitor.

Thanks for stopping by!

Step-Up, Oriole (Stamp Filter)

I thought I'd give it another try adding color into the stamp filter. Can't say as I've quite yet figured it out to where I'd like to have it. Here I started with an orange background and layered a darker stamp filtered image on top of it. Next, I layered I lighter stamped image on top of the previous two. The result looks like a weathered piece of paper on which an oriole has been stamped. Hmmm.... I'll keep working on the idea here. Thanks for stopping by!

Black Squirrel (Stamp Filter)

With today's post, I included both the black and white and the colorized version of this image. In the black and white, I like how the squirrel's tail blends in with the grass in this stamp filtered image. Aside from the darker shading, you can't really tell in the bw image that it's a black squirrel (at least, not like you can see it in the colorized version.) Thanks for stopping by!

Colored Goldfinch

Here's another image in my experimental goldfinch series. (So far it's a series of two including yesterday.) I've been experimenting in adding color into the layered stamp filter images. I wanted to find a way to get the goldfinch to be... yellow. At first, I tried layering the black and white stamped layer onto a yellow background, which came out with the stamped image layered over a pale yellow background. It wasn't quite what I was going for, so I took the pencil tool and paint bucket and added in the colors that I wanted. As it is, it kind of looks like a painting in progress (a coloring book in progress?) Thanks for stopping by!

Goldfinch (Yellow/Black Stamp Filters)

I hadn't realized that the stamp filter worked in other colors until the other day, by accident, when I had selected a different color for a different project. Photoshop defaulted to this new color when I went to work on a stamp project and was a little surprised to see the image appear, not in black and white, but in some shade of blue and white. I thought it looked interesting, but not for that project, so I tucked the information away. Thinking about my goldfinch images (of which, as you know, I have many,) I decided to try processing one using a two-color method. I used the eye-dropped to grab the goldfinch yellow to make the first image as my background. Next, I made a black and white image with less coverage in the stamp filter and layered it in over top of the yellow and white image. In some ways, the result reminds me of what I get in Photoshop's cutout filter, although I think that I have a little more control over the colors that appear using this method. Thanks for stopping by!

Oriole Stamp Filtered (with Color)

There is a weird color palate in this image. Green and orange make for a weird color combination, especially when there are two different (clashing?) shades of orange. It could be that the image would have looked better as a black and white? Here is a version below:

Thanks for stopping by!

Dry Brushed Goldfinch on Stamped Feeder

This picture is a little collage-y, with the goldfinch cut out and pasted (over top of itself) on the stamped version of the image. I didn't like the color background on the left-hand side of the image, which was removed in the bw stamped version. I liked the bird in color (it's a goldfinch!), so I put the two images together and... voila!

Thanks for stopping by!

Baltimore Oriole

I like how the orioles come back in the early summer, looking for grape jelly. If you can get them to nest nearby, you get to listen to their pretty call all summer long. Thanks for stopping by!

Mourning Dove

I like mourning doves. I like their black spots. I like their mournful call.

Thanks for stopping by!

Male House Finch (Dry Brush Feeder)

The green background behind this house finch reminded me of a "green screen". Not knowing how to use green screens or what I might put into a green screen behind a house finch, I left it green.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mystery Bird

The other day, my wife was looking out the window and saw this bird in the backyard. Curious, she called me over and asked if I knew what it was. Doing what I do, I took a picture of the bird. The pose that I first caught had the bird leaping from one branch to another. What was our mystery bird?

Goldfinch (Dry Brush vs. Stamped Dry Brush)

For today's image, I started off with this goldfinch photo. It isn't focused the best, so I thought that maybe there was something that I could do with some of the filters that blur the image. 

Below is the Dry Brush filter version of the above picture. I tend to like Dry Brush filtered images, as the filter makes the image look something like a painting. 

Taking the Dry Brushed image, I created a black and white stamp filtered image, layering several different layers together (of lighter and darker images). For just a touch of color, I layered the color image at 67% opacity into the black and white image, coming up with the following result:

Of the three, I think that I like the Dry Brush filtered image the best, but it's fun to experiment and see what I can come up with using the different features of my photo editing programs. Thanks for stopping by!

Black and White Goldfinch

This old-timey black and white photo style is a Box Camera-style photo, complete with a vintage-looking border. I liked the look on the goldfinch's face as it holds the sunflower seed in its beak. Thanks for stopping by!

Female House Finch (Dry Brush Filter)

I liked the angle on this female house finch as she turned slightly away from the feeder, making a nice pose for the camera. Thanks for stopping by!

Tail Feathers on a House Finch (Dry Brush Filter)

I don't remember catching a bird with its tail feathers spread quite like this before. Shortly after this picture, they were folded back together again. It was a matter of having my finger on the shutter button at the right moment... Thanks for stopping by!

Mourning Dove and Chipping Sparrow

So often, the birds that feed on the seed from my feeder chase each other away. Here, the chipping sparrow passes by the mourning dove. I don't know if the mourning dove eats the sunflower seeds, or if it is picking bugs in the grass in the same area.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mourning Dove Revisted

I suppose that it's called a "mourning dove" because it has such a mournful call. It's actually quite a pretty sound. I remember there were times that I would spend the night at my grandparents' home, where I would wake up the next morning to hear the mourning doves out the window. What I didn't know until I started finding them with my camera was that these birds have some lovely shades of blue in them, around the eyes, etc. Thanks for stopping by!

Mourning Dove in the Grass (Dry Brush Filter)

A bird in the hand is worth two in the... A bird in the grass is worth two in the...

No, just one bird today. It's in the grass, neither in the hand nor in the bush. (And it flew away not to long afterward.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Ruffled Feathers (Mourning Dove)

On this rather wet day, I saw something that I usually don't see; I can't recall ever seeing ruffled feathers on a mourning dove like you see in the image above. I guess the rainy day had... ruffled its feathers. (Groan.) Thanks for stopping by!

Flicker on the Feeder

Now this was something a little bit different from the goldfinches that had been regularly visiting my feeder; a flicker is hanging from the ring (which, if too heavy, would "activate" the doors to close inside the feeder holes. This is a feature to prevent squirrels from getting to the bird seed.) It was a little bit unusual to see the flicker on the feeder; it seemed to be more of a ground feeder (or sometimes also a 'tree feeder' - looking for bugs.) Here, it poses very nicely for the camera. Thanks for stopping by!

Old Time Border Goldfinch

For this image, I used the old-time platinum image (black and white) from Paintshop for my bottom layer, but then I layered in the color version in Photoshop. The process worked out well. I suspect that Paintshop added its border around the existing image, keeping it the same size, so that when I went to layer the two images together, the color version (slightly smaller) still lined up exactly with the underlying image. Thanks for stopping by!