Ambitions (journey from tiny to grand) Day 301

Istanbul, "village" of Kilyos. Interesting how a back alley view can completely change the perceived grandness of this once popular resort.

Ran it through HDR just for the ... I still have a few days left on that trial download. Kept it in sky, grass and old house.

Oh, I didn't bother cloning the birdies our.

Click on pic for better colours.

Daydreaming Day 300

365_300 Every now and then I have to have a little fun. Wouldn't do if I took it all too seriously, no? LOL

So, you're sure it was just a turtle or was it someone a bit more magical??? ;-D

Extensive list of thank you-s & attributions:
For corals, fish and turtle: Thank you to Andreas März for several photos from the beautiful Red Sea set www.flickr.com/photos/andreas63/sets/72157623658484818/wi...
For the whale's tail: Thank you to Big Blue Ocean for www.flickr.com/photos/bigblueocean/2291048820/
For the jellyfish: Thank you to baxterclaus for www.flickr.com/photos/baxterclaws/2038114777/
For the texture: Thank you to Nick & Whitney | Studio for www.flickr.com/photos/whempsey/3405564402/

I used my photo actually shot for the day 300, Merman photo from the day 241, his eyes from the day 234...

Converted to BW, combined in PS, added texture for the rays and used motion blur to give the impression of being underwater.

1st try at dreamscapes, still have A LOT to learn!! Without the beginning nothing can be achieved...

Faith Day 299

Praying in the grounds of the mosque but not indoors. In Islamic world, praying can be done anywhere. I was very far away. It was taken on 7D with 300mm lens, which is effectively 480mm.

I hope this shows my respect for the subject matter and won't make anybody uncomfortable.

I was always concerned about the privacy in such a subject. Changed my mind when a friend of mine easily obtained permission to photograph during the service in a mosque (which is normally forbidden - otherwise the tourists would forever distract the faithful). Well. I still won't go hunting for such images or trying to obtain that permission (I'd never get it, he was a man) but I don't feel guilty anymore.

The man's relationship with God, when based on love and gratitude is beautiful and that's what this photo is all about, for me.

I should have framed a bit more to the left... well, that moment is gone...

Replacement - had I payed a bit more attention to which memo cards I'm formatting, I'd not have formatted the wrong one as well... but since I didn't loose anything prize-worthy LOL, I'll survive.

6x6 Day 298

Wrestled w ideas for 6x6, mostly the clue reminds me of the multiplication tables I was forced to do in lower school :-D So here is the result. The negative, HDR, Old Patina, Palladium Print, XPro & Polachrome version of the shot in 1st row and 1st column, the rest "multi-played" (layered in PS).

Visually is not much really but it was fun and surprisingly quick to make.

My 2 fav results are below.

.. here she goes again ... Day 297

HDR, what else ;-P It's not easy to make them seem natural. Pulling a ND grad filter over would probably achieve that better for the clouds, I returned a bit of softness in Ps for that purpose. I'm in two minds about this program, few more days to decide...

Not beads, apples! Day 296

365_296 Yap, the red "necklaces" are not made of beads but apples, the guy holding the T shaped ?walking stick? sells them.

Different modes of being Day 295

Played with Aperture yet again :-D I run 2 sets of levels on BW image, one on blue colour, the other one on red. I have never realized that by playing with 3/4 settings I can introduce a quadtone... surprise, surprise :-P

I like the contrast of traditional (the 3 men) and modern (the 2 teens).

I'm also experimenting lately with weird compositions. Probably does not work. But yeah, I took a year of 365 project as a learning curve, what can I say? I really could not care less about producing a set of pleasing candy eye photos - oh, the rebel in me ;-P hahaha