My GPS Camera Phone

Yesterday morning, we had frost covering everything. It was cold. Really cold. What a great time to visit Paynes Prairie.

Since I live in Florida, I’m not accustomed to cold weather, even though we get some chilly winter nights now and again. In spite of that, I love the freezes. A hard freeze brings with it ice crystals and a white sheet that covers everything – definitely a sight that is rarely seen around here. When this happens, it opens up a whole new realm of photographic subjects, which are a welcome change from the all-year earth tones that Florida experiences.

The overlook was absorbing the growing heat of the rising sun’s rays, quickly melting the frozen dew. I knew this golden photo opportunity was rapidly evaporating, so I hurried the kids out of the house and got them to school.

In the school parking lot, my youngest wanted to finish her snack and then go to class. As we sat in the car, I watched water droplets fall from the tall palm trees next to the road, indicating the fast onset of the brutal Florida sun.

Drip…drip…drip.

With the kids unloaded, I gunned it down US 441 hoping to get a good look at a frozen prairie. As the tree-lined road spilled out into the open prairie, I noticed that it wasn’t too late. Everything had a dusting of white frost. The overlook boardwalk was covered in ice as well, with some parts actually being dangerously slick when walked upon. Better yet, the sun had already melted the ice where it could shine, but anything in the shadows remained frozen, leaving a perfectly angular pattern. Look close at the deck and you can see the lighter frozen parts contrasting with the darker thawed parts.

I left for work after chatting it up with a man on his way to work for a local courier, knowing that there might be more of this waiting for me tomorrow – dead brown foliage blanketed in bright white.

More photos of this adventure to Paynes Prairie can be seen at the Nokia Chronicles site. Photo taken with a Nokia 6650 (courtesy WOM World) and edited with Photoshop CS2 (level adjustments and minor sharpening to highlight the ice crystals).

Visit the Wordless Wednesday HQ for more!

I didn’t realize the time, so stop by Dan’s blog and thank him for getting this post out the door today. On to the how-to!

Nothing was coming to me last Tuesday night, which nearly led to me not participating in yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday. Instead of giving in, I tried something that works for me when I get stuck: I went back to basics. Locating a simple image was the first step. After an intense staring contest with computer screen, I decided to re-visit the blending modes, but this time using one image with multiple modes and layers.

After opening the image above in Photoshop CS2, I desaturated the image and then copied the background layer six times, which ends up giving me seven layers total to work with. Switch off the visibility of all layers except the background and the layer above it.

Note: There’s no right or wrong way to do this. Experiment with different layers’ opacity and blending modes for many different results.

I left the background layer at 100% opacity as a foundation for the next six layers above it. Then, starting with the next layer above the background, rotate the layer via “Edit->Transform->Rotate” to any position desired. Try thinking ahead to the final finished product when doing this. Once the image is rotated to your liking, press Enter and the transformation will apply to the layer.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Change the layer’s blending mode to whatever you want, depending on the effect you are trying to achieve. In this case, I utilized Overlay and Multiply on various layers to get the effect you saw yesterday. You can also play around with layer opacity settings, but I don’t believe I did that on this image.

Once completed, turn on the visibility of the next layer and repeat the process. You will probably end up going back to lower layers for some fine tuning, but the end result will be nothing like the original photo.

With regard to blending modes, I’m partial to Mulitply, Overlay and Screen, but I’ve been leaning toward Luminosity as of late. Do you have a preferred blending mode or techniques? Let me know in the comments.

The closest guessers from yesterday: dcr, Chica, Raven, CatSynth, The Right Blue, Ryanne, on the Rock, smarmoofus, DrillerAA, Shiela, Secret Agent Mama, SarahHub, Sister Sassy, BK, Michelle Gartner, Vixen, Brony, kelly and nance (my darling wife).

Hey wait, that’s everyone who commented. Oh well, I’ll bend the rules a bit this week. Next week, though, only the closest guess (or two) wins a link! (Multiple guesses/comments allowed.)

Jeez, I get 60 RSS subscribers and it goes to my head. No posts in a week! Well, I can assure you that I’ve left Cloud 9 and have resumed the life of the mundane, as portrayed in this most plain shot of a sunset viewed from a strip mall parking lot.

Of course, I had to do something to liven it up. I mean, it’s a strip mall parking lot, come on. For now, I’ll give you the basics and then maybe make it a tutorial. Here goes:

Open Photoshop CS2. First, I did the basic level adjustments and cropping, along with an auto color adjustment. Then, I killed some of the ugliness by using a radial blur set to zoom, focusing on the sunset. Finally, I decided to add a lens flare, even though it’s a filter that’s way overused. In this case, I think it’s excusable.

I hope you enjoy. I’ll be posting more, promise. Thanks for sticking with me.

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