New toy from the Internet

I love to play with my photos and today I decided on adding a sketch to a perfectly good picture. I spent hours using a filter to create a line drawing from this photo.

To do so I converted to black and white and increased the contrast then brought into use a filter from "Image Skill" called "Outliner". This did a very good job of creating the outline - but outlined all the ripples in the water and leaves on the trees - so I had to spend more time removing all the black from the places I did not want outlines. I was pretty happy with the final image once I had put it over the original image and used "multiply". Then I decided to do a search for other sketch software and downloaded a freebie called FotoSketcher. It does wonderful things and I will show you.

These are two of the effects you can get by using the presets for watercolor and for vintage and further adjustments can be made by sliding the sliders and changing textures. But I digress! I wanted to do a line sketch and put that over the top of a photo. I will show you the sketch and the result.

I wish I could draw as good as this and as fast as this was done!
Next up I copied this "drawing" and pasted it onto the original photo and clicked on "Multiply" in the layers blending options. I found I needed to increase the midtones brightness in the photograph because the black from the drawing in the trees and water made the picture too dark. Here is the result.

The effect of putting a sketch over something with defined edges makes quite a statement. I quite like the effect. It isn't something you would do for every picture but it works really well on photos of architecture. This program does a good job in a fraction of the time it took me with the filter.

There is a downside though. Somehow the program has also managed to hijack my browser and although I de-activated the Fotosketcher tool bar , the web page suddenly sprang back up while I was writing this blog. I will have to so some work on it! Grrr!

My town

I always seem to be writing about "other places" so today I decided it was about time to point the camera at my own little town. Mudgeeraba grew from a small settlement of ceder cutters - timber-men and their families - and is now a town and district that has five large schools to accommodate all the children! A delightful statue that is a tribute to the ceder cutters stands in the "Village Green", a little park in the centre of the town.

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The plaque beneath gives the story of Mudgeeraba - click on the image to see it large enough to read.

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The timber building that is called "The Old Post Office" was once the Shire offices, it was the Post Office when I first moved to Mudgeeraba. and I was fortunate enough to be able to interview, on video, the post mistress just prior to the closing of the doors in 1993.

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A feather was put into Mudgeeraba residents' hat when the town was given a special award in 2009, it was chosen as the "Friendliest town in Queensland"! So timber sign boasts to all who drive into the cutting that gives access to the small town.

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The Wagon wheel and axe are the symbols of Mudgeeraba's heritage, below the wall is the timber sign that tells of the Friendliest Town award. The black rectangles are spot-lights for the two signs.
In the main part of the town - around the Village Green - the buildings have been constructed in such a way that they echo the history of the area. They are not genuine old buildings at all, they have been built in the last 20 years. The rounded roofs are called bull-nose roofs and that shape is typical of buildings in the early 1900's as is the colouring of the walls and veranda railings. These are "heritage colours".

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The Wallaby Hotel has been in Mudgeeraba since 1883 - what we see now is not the original but renovations of the original! Somewhere under all that weatherboard and paint there are a few original timbers! This part of the hotel is renovated in a very similar style to the original however the place is so much bigger than the original and has a large modern restaurant that is off to the right of the photo.

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I did consider doing some "Photoshop work" on this picture to remove the severe lean - but I rather like the look as it is, so left it! To straighten it would have meant losing quite a bit of the picture, including the top.
 Finally I am including a shot, which wouldn't win any prizes for composition - but it goes to show the proximity of the main Brisbane motorway to the entrance to the town. The wooden signs shown in an earlier photo are just on the right of this shot.

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The signs are on the corner of this road. Just the other side of the service road is the M1 and you can see some of the cars whistling past and missing the beauty of my little town.
For those of you interested in photography and the settings I used.  Today I used Manual because it was the middle of the day and the shadows were rather heavy and aperture priority gave either over or under exposure. I set the aperture to what I wanted and then adjusted the shutter speed to get the correct amount of brightness. The beauty of using a digital camera is that you can make mistakes and learn from them!
AJ

In the old style

Murwillumbah is a small, busy town with almost every building in the main part of town a slice of history. Murwillumbah came into being in 1902 and the name is taken from the aboriginal language of the time.It roughly translates to "camping place" – from Murrie, meaning "aboriginal people", Wolli, "a camp"; and Bab, "the place of" (Thanks to Wikipedia for that translation!)
While the shop fronts look modern (in many cases) the upper story of the buildings tells a different tale.

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Each one is a different style and a different colour.

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The Commonwealth Bank is very impressive with Grecian pillars.

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The most necessary building in any town of this size, is the Police station. The Police Station in Murwillumbah is very similar to timber police stations in many country towns. It looks cosy rather than foreboding. The little lock-up next door does not look quite so welcoming, though! Standing right next door to the lock-up is the court house so all these important buildings are together in the centre of town.

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Murwillumbah (we locals pronounce the name mer - wool - um - bah)
One of the famous people who call Murwillumbah home is Stephanie Gilmore, the young surfer who took the world by storm on the waves and holds four world titles.
AJ

A country Art Gallery

Not too far from the border between New South Wales and Queensland is a country town called Murwillumbah. I have visited the town many times in the past but had never been to see the art gallery. This week changed all that!

The Art gallery is a short distance out of the town itself and on the top of a rise. After parking the vehicle I dashed back down the drive to take a photo of the metal art that decorated the garden and caught my eye as we drove in.

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The entrance to the Art Gallery is very striking with its strong lines. Most people walk in without really noticing but when you have a camera in your hands it is difficult to walk past anything that catches your eye!

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Stepping through the doorway I was immediately struck by the dramatic window and the silhouettes of the people in the foyer. The view through the window is like a picture hanging on a wall – except that it is a constantly changing picture.

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Inside the gallery are so many wonderful things to linger near. There are paintings, big and small and some photographs that are quite thought provoking, I found a row of black Madonnas hanging in a long row on one of the walls, the shape of each was exactly the same but everyone was detailed quite differently in black and grey and they were adorned with feathers and beads and wire in different ways too. They were created by two aboriginal artists in WA.

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I could not resist stepping outside those windows in the foyer and taking a long look at the view from the Art Gallery. The Tweed River and the lush Tweed Valley was spread out in front of me. I would imagine that someone with a love of landscape painting would love to stand right here and try to capture the scene in water colours.

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For me the joy of photography gives me that same pleasure!

AJ

Art in the country

Small towns are often full of surprises and one little place not far from where I live - but over the state border in New South Wales - is a little beauty. It is as small as a postage stamp and yet it attracts bus-loads of visitors every day and bigger crowds at the weekends. The town's name is Stoker's Siding. The little town started life as a dairy farm but a railway siding gave the necessary impetus for the town to grow. The reason the visitors love this place is due solely to the marketing skills of a very talented potter, everyone who comes here goes in to see the pottery and crafts that are for sale in a building that is close to 100 years old.

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The old building was once a general store and it has been lovingly maintained in its original form and is a photographer's delight! The panes of glass decorating the space above the main windows are not seen like this any more.

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I was rather taken by the unusual glass creations that were hanging inside the main display window. It was a bit difficult to take a photo of them with all the reflections on the glass - and even the circular polariser did not help very much.

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Inside the place is filled with the most exquisite pottery, paintings and works of art. If you want to see unusual glazes and huge platters and special pieces of pottery - this is the place to come!

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The train that converted Stokers Siding to a town has ceased to run and the grass grows tall between the rail lines, there are no noisy trains to disturb the peace any more neither to stop here nor to travel further north to Murwillumbah. The cows can graze in peace and quiet once again.

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The children must travel by school bus to Murwillumbah every morning and some creative parent has decorated the bus shelter. This must be one of very few bus shelters that does not have graffiti all over it.

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Even if you have visited Stokers Siding before, it is always worth another visit. The artwork in Stokers Siding Pottery is always changing and always interesting - and a new business that will attract visitors has opened next door.
AJ

A short note about the Macro shots

What I failed to mention in my blog yesterday about the photos included was that all the photos were "as taken'. There was no Photoshop tweaking or cropping - except for that very last shot of the ants in the centre of the flower.
Normally EVERY shot I take is modified in some way. The levels are adjusted, there might be a slight colour adjustment and there is always a touch of sharpening.
However I thought it would be better for comparison if there was no adjustment at all to the shots taken by two cameras using different lenses.
AJ

Fun with Macro

A friend of mine has given me his Canon 40D and f/2.8 Macro lens to play with while he is away touring Australia. This morning - before the thunder claps and rain arrived - it was sunny and worthy of going outside with a camera. With this golden opportunity I decided first to take a few shots with the dedicated macro lens and then take similar shots with the Nikon with the screw-on macro adapter lens I had bought (new) from Ebay.
Here are the first two shots of a tiny grasshopper I spotted on one of the early Chrysanthemums. The head of the flower is only two centimetres across which will give you an idea of the magnification/closeness of me to the creature and petals. First the Canon 40D

 and now the Nikon D90

The depth of field is actually better with the dedicated macro lens on the Canon but I am really amazed at how well the sub $50 adapter behaves. The adapter is in two halves and when I unscrew the wide angle lens I can get up really close - to about 15cm from my subject.
Here are a couple more photos for comparison - the ones taken with the camera were when the light was a bit brighter - the thunder had already started rumbling by the time I took the Nikon outside. The loud bangs and the torrential rain came as soon as I moved indoors! We have had 29 mm of rain since it started ten minutes ago!
First the Canon

The colours are true in this picture from the Canon. The Nikon has tended to pinks.

The colours may need adjusting but see how much closer I can get once I take off that wide extension? Mind you, the depth of field is really really narrow! This flower is only tiny - about 1.5cm across. Because of the fading light I moved the plant outside.
All my photos are taken in full manual (with a few trial runs to get the settings correct!) The pre-sets did not seem to suit either the macro lens on the Canon nor the supplementary lenses on the Nikon. Focus is on manual too.
I enjoy playing with cameras (you would never know it, would you?) so being given permission to use someone else's camera and expensive lens is like going to heaven!
Just to finish, here are two more shots I want to share with you.

Both these flowers are small - the partly open Chrysanthemum is only 2cm at the most. It wasn't until I peered through the camera lens that I could see there were ants crawling around inside it.

If you click on any of these photos, they should open into a larger image, to return to this blog to finish reading or look at other pictures, click the "back" button.
Apologies for not writing in my blog for a while. I have not had good Internet connection due to switching ISPs but hopefully all that is behind me!
AJ