Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Light and Shadow

Shadow Tree
Shadow tree - Corner of Tupper and St-Mathieu -Downtown Montreal


Back in May I walked around downtown Montreal trying to get images that fit a photography Challenge theme of 'Light & Shadow'. The above photo was my sure-fire winning entry. It received lots of nice comments but wasn't the winner. Oh well, next time. (smile)

But it was different, at least for me, going out trying to find subjects that fit a theme rather than shooting whatever caught my eye. Okay so I did that too. (Smile) But the majority of the shots taken that day were theme shots.


Shadow leaves
Shadow leaves


Shadow flower box
Shadows on a flower box


And then there is light - back light that is.

Fountain of Light
Fountain of Light

Fountain of Light
Fountain of Light close-up


Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open the image in my Smugmug site, where you can view a larger version. Please use your browser's "Back" button to return to the Blog.

Other images taken during my walk around Montreal can be seen in my Light & Shadows around Montreal - 21 May 2009 gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog, In my Guestbook or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Carillon, Quebec

Hydro dam
Panorama created from 8 - 12meg landscape oriented images of the
Hydro Quebec Dam on the Ottawa river between Carillon and Hudson, Quebec


When we headed up to Ottawa for the Tulip festival, we took a different route than we would normally travel. We traveled along the north shore of the Ottawa river in Quebec. As a result we stopped in Carillon, Quebec, where I took the photos used to create the above panorama.

Looking south across the Ottawa river, you see Pointe Fortune, Quebec.
Pointe Fortune, Quebec
Point Fortune, Quebec.


There is a canal and lock (Carillon canal & Carillon Lock) that permits ship traffic to by-pass the dam. You can see them in of the right side of the panorama above. The following shows the approach to the canal.

Pointe Fortune, Quebec
Approach to the Lock of the Carillon Canal - Carillon, Quebec


On our return from Ottawa, we took route 17 which allow us to stop of the south-side of the Ottawa river to take one last photo of the hydro dam.

Hydro dam
Hydro Quebec Dam on the Ottawa river between Carillon and Hudson, Quebec


Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open the image in my Smugmug site, where you can view a larger version. Please use your browser's "Back" button to return to the Blog.

Other images taken during our visit to Ottawa can be seen in my Ottawa Tulip Festival - 11 May 2009 gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog, In my Guestbook or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Some more of my favourite things


Ottawa Tulip Festival - May 2009

Tulips
Many coloured Tulips


Back in May, my wife, Marilyn, and I once again headed up to the Nation's capital, to enjoy the annual Tulip Festival. I am always amazed by the millions of tulips on display. A multitude of tulips is another of my favourite things.

For your enjoyment, here are a few images taken during that visit.


Barbados Tulips

Barbados Tulips


Pink Tulips

Pink Tulips


A rainbow of Tulips

A rainbow of Tulips


Tulips

One dares to be different



Thanks for coming along to see the tulips. Hope you enjoyed it.

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open the image in my Smugmug site, where you can view a larger version. Please use your browser's "Back" button to return to the Blog.

Other images taken during our visit to Ottawa can be seen in my Ottawa Tulip Festival - 11 May 2009 gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog, In my Guestbook or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Some of my favourite things

Idea leuconoe
Idea Leuconoe or Paper Kite


One event I look forward to each year is the Butterflies Go Free exhibit at the Montreal Botanical Gardens. (Typically it runs from mid-February to early April.) This year I visited the exhibit on three separate occasions.

I split my time there between the butterflies and the floral exhibits. Though this year I must admit I was a bit disappointed in the orchids. Just didn't seem to as many as in previous years.

Going at different times during the 8 weeks or so that the exhibit ran, allowed me to see a few butterflies I've not seen in previous years.

These are some of the new sightings this year:

caterpillar
Attacus atlas (Cobra moth) caterpillar


White Morpho
Morpho Polyphemus (White Morpho)


Cecropia moth
Hyalophora cecropia (Cecropia moth)


Banded peacock butterfly
Papilio palinurus (Banded peacock)



Hope you enjoyed these images of some of my favourite things

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open the image in my Smugmug site, where you can view a larger version. Please use your browser's "Back" button to return to the Blog.

Other images from my three visits to the Botanical Gardens this year can be seen in these galleries:
        Visit 26 February 2009 - Flowers
        Visit 26 February 2009 - Butterflies
        Visit 17 March 2009 - Flowers
        Visit 17 March 2009 - Butterflies
        Visit 26 April 2009 - Butterflies & flowers

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog, in my Guestbook or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Photo Art

Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis


In a previous post, I mentioned that I had developed an interest in Photo Art. I suspect that a number of you were scratching you head and asking, "What's Photo Art?"

The best definition of the term that I've come across was written by Danny Raphael on the RetouchPro forums. He wrote, [Photo Art is] "Art that is created using computer software in which a photo image is used as a basis or reference."

My interest in Photo Art grew out of my trying to create images for use on note cards that looked more like paintings than photographs. Built-in tools, plug-ins and scripts in PaintShop Pro were what I used initially. To that I've since added two great software, one free and one very inexpensive.

Fotosketcher is the free software. An amazing little software that creates realistic painted images. The following is an example of an image created in FotoSketcher with some post processing done in PaintShop Pro.

White Rose

White Rose


The other software is Dynamic Auto-Painter (DAP). I can not praise this software enough. Use the link to see just how amazing this software is. And then download the trial version. There is a support forum
where users share different templates and techniques as well as post examples of their finished work.

The first image in today's post (Phalaenopsis) and the next (Daisies) were both created using DAP with some additional post processing tweaks in Paintshop Pro.


Daisies

Daisies


Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open the image in my Smugmug site, where you can view a larger version. Please use your browser's "Back" button to return to the Blog. Other Photo Art images can be seen in my Photo Art gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And stop by again.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Official launch of the New & Improved Photos by Healy site.

Over the past several weeks I have been working to improve the look and feel off my photo site. This includes a better integration of this blog with my Smugmug site.

So please explore the navigation links and let me know what you think by leaving comments here or on the photo site.

Thanks for looking. And come back again, soon.