Originally we had a hiking holiday in Slovakia planned, but due to some bad weather we decided to spontaneously head south instead to find some sunshine. Many Czechs and Germans go on holiday to Croatia, and we knew it had both sea and mountains, so it seemed like the perfect choice for a quick getaway. I’m a bit short on time to write these blog posts so decided to make some notes in the car – here is our road trip travel diary complete with Instagrams I made along the way – more photos to follow soon in a photo diary! Continue reading
September One Photo Focus challenge: Pendennis Castle
This month’s One Photo Focus challenge was a lovely photo of Pendennis castle by Benjamin Rowe.
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I love castles and old buildings. Often photos of monuments such as these can also be transformed into great line drawings. This can be done simply in Photoshop Elements by going to: Filter –> Artistic –> Poster edges. For different effects try playing around with the three options: Edge thickness, Edge intensity and Posterization.
To add writing into your drawing, just click on the Horizontal Type Tool. You can change the text type, size and colour in the toolbar at the top of the screen.
Have fun!
Here is the original photo that was used to create this line drawing. You can check out what other people did with it by heading over to the challenge webpage.
Look who was sleeping in the garage…
J’s brother-in-law found a little guest sleeping in the garage while he was tidying up. He brought it to show me as he knew that I’d never seen a hedgehog before! This little guy was quite smart as he pretended to be asleep until he thought we weren’t looking, then turned himself over and strolled off across the lawn. Hope to see him again sometime!
Colourful World: Burgundy or maroon
This week Cee’s Fun Foto challenge is Maroon/Burgundy.
In Berlin, there are some trees planted near the Reichstag (parliament building) and also along the river Spree, whose leaves turn amazing shades of red, yellow, orange and pink during autumn. They have a name but I can’t remember it, I heard it for the first time the previous autumn in Berlin. One day after work it was a sunny and mild autumn evening, so I decided on an impromptu bike ride to take a look at them. Here are some photos of the trees which had leaves in a burgundy or maroon shade.
Weekly Photo Challenge – CrEePy
This week’s photo challenge is Creepy. I didn’t really expect to come across anything creepy during the week, but then lo and behold, we bumped into this scary-looking wooden doll statue next a kid’s play area in a service station! I wonder how toddlers feel when they come face to face with this child-sized wickedly grinning doll and her looming shadow? I’m sure whoever painted her intended her to look quite friendly, so it shows how your imagination can transform something perfectly safe into something creepy!
Cake for breakfast
While I was looking for some photos of the plum dumplings, I found this photo I took of all the delicious cakes that J’s mom and grandmother sent us home from Czech with one time: plum pastries, cake with cherries and another one, perhaps apple strudel). In Czech republic they often eat cake for breakfast, it’s great. So with these homemade goodies we had breakfasts lined up for a few days that week. Must learn to make these!
Summer fruit dumplings (Knedliky)
This is a great Czech summer dish. The first few times we had these fruit dumplings we ate the plum version, Švestkové knedliky. But this summer we had some with apricots and peaches inside, and they were just as good. It’s actually fun to make a mix so that you get a surprise when you cut each one open. Continue reading
Beneath your feet…in summer
I love the topic of this week’s photo challenge, “Beneath your Feet“.
“Look down and capture the world beneath your feet”.
So here are some moments from the last week, enjoying summer days. Continue reading
Lakes of Berlin
At the moment in Berlin we have all been sweltering, baking, stewing, steaming and sweating due to the extended heatwave that has struck central and eastern Europe. Many towns in Germany, Poland, Czech republic and Belarus have set new record highs. Thankfully today is a bit cooler, although the temperatures should rise again soon. Continue reading
Starry Skies: August One Photo Focus challenge
With all the tools for post-processing of digital photos these days, you can have a lot of fun being creative with your images. To encourage people to learn and share different post-processing techniques, a photographer named Stacey Fisher has set up a Before and After weekly event, as well as a once a One Photo Focus month event where everyone processes the same photo in a different way. The idea is not only to share the images but also some explanation of how they were derived.
This month the photo challenge was “Drawing with Light” by Katie Prior. Here is the original (made smaller for my blog):
