Day 262 - Photo Effects

I liked the cloud variance in the panoramic I took. Since sky photos work well for photo effects, I decided to play with it. I used Picnik for this. Since pans look better larger, you definitely want to click on the photos to see the color details better.

Original photo with no effects.

HDR-ish and Heat Map on Thermal

HDR-ish and Hogla-ish

HDR-ish and Invert

HSL Filter

Day 262

Kit and I spent today in Northern, Va, driving back to Richmond, VA and in Richmond, VA.

We had gone to a Korean spa late last night. This was the sky when we got back to the apartment building. Note that you can see a star.

After some much needed rest, we went to the Asian grocery for treats. This was a tree outside the store.

I rode in the back on the way to the apartment, so I took some photos of the weeds along the shoulder of 7 Corners.

This is a panoramic of the sky by a cute shop called Thingamajigs.

After returning home and on the way to dinner with John and Alex, I found this beetle laying on the parking lot. There are lots of beetles here during the Summer, but you rarely see them. This one is deceased. 

Day 261

Today Kit and I were in Northern Va visiting our best friend Katie for the weekend.

There are rose bushes in front of her apartment.

Later in the day, we went to her in-iaw's house because it was her sister-in-law's birthday. The Trans grow lots of fruits and herbs.

Grapes

Grape leaves

This was growing beside the mint leaves.

Mint

Day 260

I decided to get a closer look at the birds on the back balcony. Unfortunately, the camera wouldn't focus on the baby birds. I was able to photograph the mom. While trying to photograph the babies, they flew out of the nest. They were fairly large, so they were ready to leave the nest.

The sun was casting shadows of the Crape Myrtle on the window. I tried to line up the shadows with the piece of the tree that was creating the shadow, by moving my camera at different angles.

Day 259

I've been hearing chirping by the balcony for weeks, but I never saw anything out there, until today. I noticed two baby birds in a nest. The nest is on top of wind chimes. It's nestled between the strings that hold the chimes steady to a loop. I think these are wrens. I took the photos inside, because I didn't want to scare them. I auto adjusted the colors, so the details showed a bit better. Still they aren't as clear as I would like, but it's better to have fuzzy photos than disturb the birds. They were chirping for their mom, who did come to feed them. This is when I saw how large they were.

Day 258

Today, I went out front to see what new growth and things I could find.

Cloud caused by a plane

Tulip tree leaves

Camellia leaf bud

Rhododendron flower bud. This plant take months (almost a year) to make a flower, which only last a few weeks.

Day 257 - Photo Effects

I've been playing with combining 3 effects in Picnik to enhance some photos in an artistic and unrealistic way. I haven't post any yet, so I made this set using the same unaltered photos as I just posted. I used the Boost, Lomo-ish and HDR-ish effects. The specification are different for each, as I shifted the setting according to what I thought looked best.

Day 257

I liked the look of the many crape myrtle flowers through the rain streaked window. I would wash these window if I had a really long pole, but I don't.

Day 256

I was waiting for the rain to start, but that never happened. Instead, I took a few fuzzy night photos from inside.

Day 255

Today was hot, but a short rain storm created interesting photos.

Day 254

The heat was so high, I waiting until late in the day to snap a few more photos of the garden, before getting ready for the party.

Day 253

Today, Kit and I traveled to Topping, VA to see a friend from Japan, her husband and his parents. They got married in Japan last year and wanted to celebrate with her family here. Her mom has an amazing garden and spacious farm.