Category Archives: Uncategorized

France, Uncategorized

Arles Arches

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Roman Arches

Of course there is the Roman Amphitheater:

Peek-a-boo view of the Amphitheater’s arches.

Inside the Amphitheater:

More arches in Arles

Down almost every alley

It is common to see a few arches when you look down a narrow alley. In places where there wasn’t room to put in a foundation the buildings support each other.

Where space is tight the buildings support each other.

The Mairie (town hall)

This town hall has a fascinating structure of partial arches carefully balanced. It’s held up for a very long time, the building was completed in 1676. You can read a bit about it here: The Vault of the Hôtel de Ville in Arles.

The town hall has partial arches carefully balanced.

Van Gogh’s arches

The garden of the former hospital building is maintained to look like van Gogh’s “Garden of the Hospital in Arles”.

Romanesque arches

The Church of St. Trophime is a lovely building with lots of arches, inside and out. If you are interested here is the Wikipedia article about it: Church of St. Trophime, Arles. The article includes a description of the fascinating sculptures around the portal.

The West Portal of the Church of St. Trophime.
A lovely little side niche in the Church of St. Trophime.

For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Curvy or Arches.

photo processing, photography, Uncategorized

One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge

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One-to-three is a monthly photo processing challenge on my other web site, theSquirrelChase.com. I’d love to have you join in: The challenge is simple: take one photo and get creative with it by processing it three different ways. Then share the results, with a link to this month’s post. I’ll do a start up post on the first of each month including a round up of entries from the preceding month, so we can all share in the creativity and fun.

Here’s my October 2021 contribution:

  • Original image
  • G’mic Colored pencils
  • Topaz Line & Ink
  • G’mic highlight bloom

How to get the looks above:

I used filters in the G’mic plug-in for the GIMP and in Topaz Studio 2. I was looking for effects that would make the bicyclists stand out better.

The GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) is open source (=free!) software that compares to Photoshop. G’mic (also open-source) is a plug in that has over 500 filters. Both of the G’mic filters I used are in the Artistic group.

Background

Since having to isolate due to the pandemic, last spring, I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with photo processing and I thought it might be fun to share some of the things I’ve discovered and see what others are doing.

I’m hosting the challenge on the other site to try and keep my WordPress.org skills.

Link to the One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge.
Uncategorized

What would Vincent do?

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Sometimes I take a picture because it has elements that show what a place was like then, when I pull it up, it seems blah. That happened with this one:

Roads radiating out from the Arles Arenes.

Since I was up anyway, thanks to jet lag and a hungry cat, I started to play with this in Topaz Studio 2. Doing artsy stuff fits with Arles, since it is where many of the impressionists came to work, argue and drink.

Here are a few variations on the original.

  • Same scene with the "City Flare" look in Topaz Studio 2 applied.
    City Flare look applied.
  • Same image with the "Line and Ink" look in Topaz Studio 2 applied.
    Line and Ink look applied.
  • Same image with the "Color Sketch" look in Topaz Studio 2 applied.
    Color Sketch look applied.
  • Same scene with the "Color Blast Grit" look in Topaz Studio 2 applied.
    Color blast grit look applied (at 68% opacity).
Which way would you choose?

For Alive and Trekking’s Which Way photo challenge.

France, Uncategorized

At the end of the day-Avignon

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Amie-Lu and I migrated today. The easy way-we took the Train de Grande Vitesse from Gare de Lyon to Avignon. Gare de Lyon is a lovely old train station that is a major hub for all trains heading south and east.

  • from the outside
  • from the inside
Gare de Lyon

Avignon was noticeably slower moving than Paris. Some of that might be the heat, but I think it was more the approach to life showing through.

I took the wrong straight (I needed to take the bent one) and eventually realized it. Sitting next to a dog who looks a lot like Max I decided that everything happens for a reason, and the reason for this mistake was clear: cassis sorbet. It was meant to be.

  • Max-alike
  • cassis sorbet
Palais des Papes

Instead of making a reservation and spending the evening dining Amie-Lu and I picked up a sandwich and some fruit at a grocery store and went exploring as the day wound down.

Avignon has a lot of warm yellow stone in the walls of its various edifices, and intriguing little passages.

We wandered along the outside of the city walls, took in the famous Pont d’Avignon then found a stairway up the Roche des Doms and enjoyed a gently lovely sunset from the top of the town.

At the end of the day.
photo processing, photography, Uncategorized

One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge

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One-to-three is a monthly photo processing challenge on my other web site, theSquirrelChase.com. I’d love to have you join in: The challenge is simple: take one photo and get creative with it by processing it three different ways. Then share the results, with a link to this month’s post. I’ll do a start up post on the first of each month including a round up of entries from the preceding month, so we can all share in the creativity and fun.

Here’s my September 2021 contribution:

  • Original
  • Chiaroscuro
  • Melting
  • Watercolor II
Fuscia processed in Topaz Studio 2

How to get the looks above:

This month I experimented with some of the looks (presets) in Topaz Studio 2.

Background

Since having to isolate due to the pandemic, last spring, I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with photo processing and I thought it might be fun to share some of the things I’ve discovered and see what others are doing.

I’m hosting the challenge on the other site to try and keep my WordPress.org skills.

Link to the One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge.
photo processing, photography, Uncategorized

One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge

2 Comments

One-to-three is a monthly photo processing challenge on my other web site, theSquirrelChase.com. I’d love to have you join in: The challenge is simple: take one photo and get creative with it by processing it three different ways. Then share the results, with a link to this month’s post. I’ll do a start up post on the first of each month including a round up of entries from the preceding month, so we can all share in the creativity and fun.

Here’s my August 2020 contribution:

  • Original
  • GIMP Illusion
  • G’mic Sharp abstract
  • Topaz studio impression filter.
Sunflower

How to get the looks above:

The GIMP Illusion filter is found in the map group: Filters>Map>Illusion. I used type 1.

The second one is the Sharp abstract filter in the Artistic group of filters in the G’mic plug-in for the GIMP.

For the third version I used the impressions filter in Topaz Studio 2.

Background

Since having to isolate due to the pandemic, last spring, I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with photo processing and I thought it might be fun to share some of the things I’ve discovered and see what others are doing.

I’m hosting the challenge on the other site to try and keep my WordPress.org skills.

Link to the One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge.
photo processing, photography, Uncategorized

One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge

5 Comments

One-to-three is a monthly photo processing challenge on my other web site, theSquirrelChase.com. I’d love to have you join in: The challenge is simple: take one photo and get creative with it by processing it three different ways. Then share the results, with a link to this month’s post. I’ll do a start up post on the first of each month and at the end of the month I’ll do a round up, so we can all share in the creativity and fun.

  • Cartoon
  • Linear iterative clustering
  • Dream smoothing
  • Kuwahara

Here’s my July 2020 contribution:

How to get the looks above:

I did four instead of three. These all use open source software: the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) and the G’mic plug-in for the GIMP.

The top row is filters built into the GIMP: Both the Cartoon and Simple linear iterative clustering are found in the Filters menu. Filters>Artistic>Cartoon and Filters>Artistic>Simple linear iterative clustering.

The second row uses two G’mic filters. Both dream smoothing and Kuwahara are in the Artistic group. Filters>G’MIC-Qt>Artistic.

Here is the original image:

Bright clouds over the Olympic Mountains just after sunset on Puget Sound.
Just after sunset.

Background

Since having to isolate due to the pandemic, last spring, I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with photo processing and I thought it might be fun to share some of the things I’ve discovered and see what others are doing.

I’m hosting the challenge on the other site to try and keep my WordPress.org skills.

Link to the One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge.