crisp mornings and yellow leaves

I had a bad day yesterday.  One of those days that should be relegated to the backwaters and forgotton about forever.  Nothing went right.  I left work frazzled and fried, contemplating how I was going to approach things differently so that I can keep turning up to work and not feel like I'm banging my head against a wall.  I dragged myself up stairs to our apartment feeling just a tad sorry for myself.  Then, in an effort to get myself out of a funk I turned on Al Green - incredibly cheesy I know, but if 'Sh-La-La' or 'Here I am Baby' can't get you wiggling your bum and smiling without seemingly overly forced then I don't know what can.  After Al Green has got your hips interested, you can turn on the pop and dance like a Diva.  Anyway, with Al Green in the background I made some Sushi and sat at my computer and fiddled with a few photos.

And within the hour the funk was over and my belly was full of delicious tuna and smoked salmon sushi rolls.  Yum!  


The photo above is from last autumn - yep, it's coming up to a year since I first moved my suitcases to Berlin and started searching for an apartment with Matthias.  I spotted the first signs of Autumn in the trees this week and the morning air is crisp and inviting.  Won't be long before everything is looking like this.  Good-bye Summer, Hello Autumn!

a little lesson

I've had a few people ask me how I blend my photos so I thought I'd put together a small tutorial for anyone who's interested.  I should qualify this by saying that I know very little about the technical names and so some of the names I use are bound to be wrong.  A lot of what I've learnt has come from trial and error and reading around the internet.  I also did a wonderful introductory e-course on Photoshop/Photoshop Elements called 'the skinny' by Kim Klassen.  This gave me the basics and the confidence to play around with Photoshop on my own - it's a wonderful course and I would recommend anyone wanting to learn how to find their way around these programs to take the class next time she is running it.  

And now onto the lesson:

Some general remarks: This little lesson is Photoshop specific, but I think it could probably be applied to photoshop elements as well.  It relies on you having a basic command of these programs to follow along.  If you have any questions, send me an email and I'll try to help out.

As a rule I think if you're going to blend photos you're better off starting with a fairly uncomplicated photo, with a chunk of foreground or background to play with.  Landscape photos or a simple still life are  good places to start.

Step One - Spruce up your photo: I'm going to leave this part up to you.  I generally copy my background image and adjust the 'levels' a bit until I'm happy.

Adding the first photo: The first thing you need to to is select the foreground with the Quick Selection Tool and create a new layer from this selection.  

- Open the image you want to blend into the foreground (I found a map on the internet).
- With your cursor button selected, drag the map onto your photo and adjust the size so that it extends over the foreground.
- Attach the map to your forground layer (you achieve this with the option key and the mouse hovering over between the two layers).
- Now is the fun bit...  Play around with the 'light' options (overlay, screen, soft light are good places to start) and the opacity until you are happy with the way the image looks.

Adding text: Create a new text layer and copy and paste (or type) some text of your liking.  

- Play around with the 'light' options and opacity until you like the way the text looks.  

- In this photo I also erased some of the text to get less severe look, but this is a personal preference

Ta-Da! Finished.  You can keep going and add more, introduce some texture, add a vintage effect - let the creative juices fly.  If I was going to keep going with this picture I'd probably end up decreasing either the writing or the map as I think it looks a bit busy at the moment and maybe bring the whole piece together with some kind of textured overlay.  

I hope this has been at least a little bit helpful to the people who emailed and asked.  If you have any other questions, just send me an email or post a comment

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

I'm back from a long weekend in Brighton, UK.  I'd like to say it was purely a happy, weekend jaunt, but unfortunately most of the weekend I was stuck in a fairly run-down Hotel for a conference.  Nevermind, the weather wasn't particularly inviting outside anyway - english summer at it's best!  When I did manage to get out between the rain showers I was a little disappointed with what Brighton had on offer.  I'd heard such good things about it's fantastic 'vibe' and that it was the next 'up-and-coming' spot in England.  Well, it all seemed a little run down and shabby to me.  And quite dirty too.  And crowded. The best part was my friend Clare (a real friend, not an imaginary doppelganger) came down on Saturday afternoon from London.  We spent four hours talking and walking before she hopped back on the train again.  So busy talking I forgot to get the camera out after taking this photo of Brighton Station before she arrived.  

there is another sky

There is another sky 

There is another sky,

Ever serene and fair,

And there is another sunshine,

Though it be darkness there;

Never mind faded forests, Austin,

Never mind silent fields -

Here is a little forest,

Whose leaf is ever green;

Here is a brighter garden,

Where not a frost has been;

In its unfading flowers

I hear the bright bee hum:

Prithee, my brother,

Into my garden come!

by Emily Dickinson

This week over at Madeline Bea the prompt was "ethereal" - the picture is two photos blended together, both from the forest surrounding Vienna.  I like the way it looks as if you're looking from one world, into another - a brighter garden, where not a frost has been.

swaps and letters

Back in July I signed up to Tillie from 'she waits for whispers' photoswap.  The instructions were easy - send your partner 24 photos.  That's it.  An easy-peasy-Japanesy swap perfect for a photo lover like me. Last week I received these lovely photos from Allison - a collage student at James Madison University.  It was so much fun to look through her photos and learn a little about her life in Virginia and see some of the gorgeous countryside around her place.  Thanks Allison!

As well as receiving mail during the week, I also sent some letters using these envelopes designed by Stella of 'the goldern adventures of a very dark horse'.  Stella is based in New Zealand and designs for Frank and Dean, making calendars, cute to-do lists and cards.  I was lucky enough to pick up these envelopes for free when she was doing a bit of a test-run.  They're fantastic. Incredibly easy to assemble and fit a standard card or letter with ease.  Plus you get a chance to get your colouring pencils out and personalise it a little by colouring in the telephone, borders etc etc.  Great fun.

this is who I am : food

This week Christina from Diva's and Dreams has us thinking about food.  I love food, in fact there's not many foods that I don't like.   I love stone fruits, cherries and strawberries in the summer but as soon as autumn comes I'm lusting after figs and chestnuts.  In winter I love homemade soups and roasts and in spring it's asparagus and fresh greens. Anyway, it should come as no suprise that I struggled to come up with a single food that I love.  

In the end I chose chocolate because it's something I'm a little picky about.  I love chocolate, but I'm discerning.  I rather have gummy bears and jubes than a cheap chocolate lolly; for dessert I'll choose a lemon tart over an overly rich chocolate mousse - but a quality dark chocolate square - well that's something I can never turn down. 

Interested in joining in? Head over to Divas and Dreams and take a look.

blossoms between the pages

Thank you to all the well-wishes that were sent regarding my homesickness.  I am feeling much better now after a lovely weekend spent cooking delicious food, taking photographs and even doing a little bit of painting.  I took these photos on Friday night and wasn't really sure about them initially.  I ended up processing them to give them a retro feel and quite like how they turned out.  A bit of a dreamy start to the week.

Happy Monday!