Small World

I learned how to make this "small world" effect lately. I did not realize it is just easy.
You only need to follow a few steps:

• open a photo in Photoshop
• crop the photo so that the width is about 1/3 longer than the height
• resize the photo to a square (remove constraints and copy the width numbers to the space for the length)
• rotate the photo 180 degrees
• click on filter >distort>polar coordinates and viola! you have your small world!
• clean up the seams by using healing brush
• you can now display your small world photo!

Yes, it's just easy!

There is a more detailed description of the process in my HubPages article.  

A blogger, Robin, just finished doing this "small world" based on the tutorial I shared in my HubPages article. She posted her work in her blog here: 
http://cherrylime2011.blogspot.com/2011/11/day-293-robin.html

Thanks very much Robin! I'm so happy for you!

Precious Moment Christmas Decor

Even if the predominant colors of Christmas are red, green and gold, it's still nice to come up with other colors especially on the Christmas tree.

I just love this little blue doll on a tree. This doll is made by Precious Moment which has a Christmas house here in our country. I just love visiting their Christmas house.

By the way, if you would like to know how the red,green and gold Christmas colors originated, please check out my article over at HubPages.
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Colors-of-Christmas-Red-Green-and-Gold

Another Rainy Day

It's another rainy day today. So what else can I think of but rain. Here's a raindrops photo for you.
As I mentioned before, raindrops and flowers are my favorite subjects for my photography.

Do check out my hub about raindrops:  http://hubpages.com/hub/RaindropsA-Few-of-my-Favorite-Things

Turn Your Photos Into Art

I just tried a program today. It's called FotoSketcher. You can use it for turning your photos into art. I really had fun playing with it. There are two great things about this program:
      1) It's easy to use, it's simply playing, and
      2) It's free! Can you believe that?
Below are some of my "art" after using the program. What do you think?

Here is the link to that program if you want to try it. http://fotosketcher.blogspot.com/

I don't have any commission for promoting this program. The owner does not even know me. I just want to let you know because I enjoyed using it.

I wrote a full blown article about Turning Your Photo Into Art in my HubPages:  Wait-Dont-Delete-that-Photo-Turn-Your-Photo-Into-Art?

Book Lover

How would you illustrate a book lover? Here is one idea. What do you think?

I love playing with paper especially when it is raining so hard outside and I cannot take any outdoor photos. I then turn to things inside the house. And since books and paper are aplenty at home, then I gravitate towards them naturally for some inspiration. I just fiddle with them and arrange them into different forms. The photo above is the result of "fiddling" around with books and paper. Tell me what you think.

Don't Delete Your Not So Good Photos, Play with them Instead

I have been trying to sort and clear my photo files since I already have thousands of photos in my computer drive. So every time I look at a photo, I have to make a decision on whether to keep or to delete them.

I always find it hard to delete photos because somehow I kind of have an attachment with them. Then I read one photographer who adviced - "Don't delete not so good photos right away. Check if you can still make something out of them"  

So I followed this advice and played around with some photos that I already marked "for deletion". Now I'm happy that I gave some photos a second chance because I came up with some interesting images after I used Photoshop filters. One of the results of this experiment is the photo above. What do you think?

Original photo before using filters

Garden Beauties

I was so lucky to chance upon these two beauties along the roadside. It's good I had my camera with me so I was able to capture this rather rare event.

I call this rare event because I hardly ever catch photo of a butterfly. Most of the time, they just fly away before I could even focus.

So from this experience I learned to always have my camera ready with me.

Wild Mushroom

It has been raining lately so this increase in humidity has triggered the appearance of wild mushrooms.

I found several of these mushrooms in our garden walkway and I just had to take some photos. Here is one of them. This kind is so fragile, it easily breaks especially once it starts to form new spores.

I love the raindrop that was caught on the mushroom's surface.

Wild mushrooms from our garden walkway

          

Cocoon, fully formed

The caterpillar's cocoon is now fully formed. It covers completely what used to be a caterpillar. Now I am eagerly awaiting for the day when it would emerge as a full grown butterfly. I guess I will have to wait for about 2 weeks or more for that.

I will keep you posted about this.

Caterpillar now fully enclosed in a cocoon

Caterpillar (higad) Preparing a Cocoon

As I mentioned in my last post, there are so many caterpillars crawling around in my garden. This particular type called "higad" here is just everywhere, there is always the risk of bumping into them and getting itchy all over. However, as I showed you last time, they are so colorful and symmetrical such that I cannot help but take more pictures of them.

Anyway, as I ventured out into my garden yesterday, I saw another "picture perfect" opportunity. I saw this caterpillar starting to form a cocoon around itself. It was moving ever so slowly as it formed threads around itself. It was my first time to see such an event so I excitedly took several shots again.

You can still see the bristles of the caterpillar and even its orange head is still evident. However, it is now enclosed in some silvery threads that definitely show the beginning of a cocoon. Isn't this exciting?

caterpillar or "higad" forming a cocoon around itself

Have you seen a "higad" (caterpillar) close-up?

For the past weeks and month, we have been having "higad" galore. There is an acacia tree in our front yard and this tree is one of their favorite hangouts. We usually encounter the "higad" hanging by a silvery thread from the tree. They are so small such that you usually don't see them before it's too late. Too late means you have them on your skin or your hair and of course your will get the allergic reaction. This is the reason why I always try to avoid them - I get itchy all over once they contact my skin.

I am however curious how these little creepy crawlers look like in close-up. So I got a small twig from our acacia tree and took photos of them. It's no wonder they are so itchy. Just look at their bristles! Ugh! They are so ugly yet so beautiful too. Their symmetry and color are fantastic. Don't you agree?

 

When You Can't Think of Anything to Shoot - Just Add Water

Sometimes (or is it many times?), we can't think of anything to shoot. We wake up in the morning and can't imagine shooting another sunrise or another face, what do you do then? One advice I remember is - "just add water"and go on shooting.

So I explored this "just add water" advice throughout my photography adventure. In the process, I have collected hundreds if not thousands of "water" photos.

I remembered this advice when I was thinking of what article to write for my next hub. It was just perfect. I gathered my "water" photos, and now I have a hub. Please check it out at  http://hubpages.com/hub/Just-Add-Water-A-Photo-Tip-When-You-Cant-Think-of-Anything-to-Shoot 

learning about filters in Photoshop

I have recently been experimenting with the filters in Photoshop and have created some interesting art works. Can you guess what this photo above is? I just used "distort" then "artist" to create this.
What do you think?
This is really fun and you should try it too!

one little candle

Yesterday, we had an almost all-day brown-out. There wasn't much to do in the dark so I started taking photos of the candles we were using.

Candle photos are fun to take because they already have their own light. Still, I found that my photos appeared better and with more details if I cranked up the ISO setting a bit. Here is one sample photo.

Moon and Venus Aligned

Last Sunday, May 16, 2010, we were treated to a rare phenomenon in the sky. The Moon and Venus were aligned with each other for a few minutes and this created such a happy picture. A kind of smiley picture.

Some people believe that this augurs well for our new incoming president, Noynoy Aquino. I certainly hope and pray so.  

I was lucky to have been able to witness such phenomenon and even more important, I was able to take a picture. So here is the photo I took.

 

                                                          Moon and Venus aligned

Taking Photos From an Underground River

Early this month, I visited the underground river of Puerto Princesa with some friends. I really enjoyed the tour and was able to take some pictures.

Taking pictures inside a dark cave required me to use my flash just to be able to get some light. The one in-charged of holding our beam light kept on moving the light. It was hard to get a good picture because at one moment everything is totally dark then suddenly as I am about to click my camera, the beam light would suddenly illuminate what I wanted to focus on. Thus, everything will be over-exposed. Sigh!

Anyway, despite the moving light, I was able to get some pictures. Check them out in my hubpages. Please click on the link below.
http://hubpages.com/hub/I-Recommend-a-Visit-to-the-Underground-River-of-Puerto-Princesa-Philippines

Corregidor, Once More

I know I posted a photo of  Corregidor before. However, I gathered several of my photos of the place and wrote a hub about it.

If you are thinking of going away for some summer adventure, I suggest that you also try this place aside from our usual summer vacation spots. It's a totally different kind of adventure.

The link to my hub is here. Please check it out.

http://hubpages.com/hub/I-Recommend-an-Adventure-in-Corregidor

The photo above is that of the Eternal Flame sculpture which is found in the topmost part of the island.

All About Roses

I really love taking pictures of flowers. They are my first subjects when I started my photography adventure. Anyway, I just published an article about roses in my hubpages. I share several of my rose photos there. Do check it out. You may also leave a comment if you feel like it. You can do so even if you are not a member of hubpages.
Please click on the link below if you want to check it out. Thank you.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Roses-are-Red-and-Pink-and

distortion in perspective

We had a photo contest last week about churches/architecture. I did not have time to shoot any church photos so I just went through my old files and picked some old photos. Since churches are usually one of the most interesting structures in any location, I did have a few photos. I had a problem though because those photos where taken simply as souvenir shots, I did not have much control of lighting. So to jazz up the photos and give it a little bit of twist, I thought of playing around with perspective in photoshop. I just learned how to do this so I was rather eager to try it out.
The process is rather easy. Just open your picture in photoshop, duplicate your file and then go to the crop tool and select the whole photo. Then put your cursor over the corner of your photo and bring the crop arrow towards the center. You can do this with the other corner and also slide it towards the middle. Then finish the cropping action and viola ... you have changed the perspective of your photo. This is what I did to this photo I'm sharing today. However, I just used the bottom corner for the distortion. The photo came out rather interesting, don't you think so? The two photos are the before and after distortion. What do you think?

My photo did not win in the contest, but I discovered a new way of adding something interesting to a photo - distortion in perspective.

My First Real Model Shoot

I experienced my first model shoot last Saturday. I didn't realize that it would be enjoyable. I really learned a lot and now I am confident that I can wing it when another opportunity comes.

Why did I say my first real shoot? Well, I joined a model shoot before but nobody taught me anything because everybody was busy trying to get their own shots. This time however, it was different. There were professional photographers around who readily helped us (especially me!) with camera settings. Also, everything was so well-organized such that even if each of us were only given 3 minutes each to shoot a model, we were all able to take good photos. It was really fun!

So today, I am sharing one of my model shots.   Ala - 5th Element. What do you think?

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

I really love this photo of a beautiful morning in Boracay. Everything is still with just a hint of the sun's light as it rises. I was then reminded of this quote and thought that it is just perfect for this photo. What do you think?

photo of the week

Guess what? Why photography started with a bang this new year! Wow! What a way to start a new photography year! My photo was featured as "Photo of the Week" in a major newspaper here in the Philippines.
Please click on the link below to check it out. Thank you.
http://mbpictureperfect.com/pp/2010/01/05/photo-of-the-week-29/