Presumed Water Color - B.J. was Back!

My old brother did water color and Chinese brush painting when he was young. He got his first award in a regional art contest when he was only 15, but he only painted till he graduated from college.  And he has not picked up his paint brush since. I wanted to paint, but I don’t have the talent.

My memory goes back to the drawing class in middle school. I could not draw and I was always dragging myself to the class. My old brother, on the contrary, he loved to paint and once time he even 'edited' my drawing homework. I got an A for that drawing project, but I was not happy due to the thought of cheating.  I was an Asian obedient and disciplined kid. My parents have super high ethical standard. I have never cheated in the tests while going to school nor had I done anything bad to grief my parents, this one time out-of-character act becomes a forever memory.

I cannot paint, so I take pictures.Thinking of my brother’s nice paintings, I had urge to make my photos to look more like paintings. Photoshop can literally transform a photo to a painting or other artistic form that we may be interested. It is great fun to play with Photoshop and come up various artsy effect for our pleasure.  Best case scenario, we take good pictures and we are also good at post processing.

Dandelion

I am just using the tools I know to make a few painting like images for fun.  We usually don't give much attention to dandelions, but with morning sunlight shining from behind, I found these few tiny buds and flowers attractive. Verbena flowers are fairly small, smaller than the purple flowers below. I used extension tube for the shoot for a bit more dramatic look. The red color is very pretty but overpowering for my taste, so I decided to fade it for a paint look.

A little girl and her grandma was walking down the trail. She saw me crawling down the ground to take close-up shots, and suggested that I should take the picture of these colorful flowers, so I did and saw a big smile on her face. This flower is about the size of a penny but colors are bright. I applied Orton effect to tone it down.  So, these are my version of water color 'paintings' :-)

Verbena

Orton Effect

My new goal in photography is to get better with my photoshop skills. I will not be interested in the dramatic make-over of original photos, but it is so fun to play with various effects.  Of course, it is still more important to take good pictures first.

Three nights ago, we were enjoying our dinner outside on the deck. A Stella Jay showed up quietly and perched on a tree limb where many birds like to stop. The limb is about our height as we stand up, and about 10-12 feet away from where we sat.   This bird was on a limb for quite a while. A sudden instinct came to our mind. My husband and I were both wondering, can this be B.J.? Its behavior is certainly very different from other Jays. It did not approach the feeder and did not make any single noise. But we said to ourselves. No. impossible, it has been too long since we last saw him... It was still standing there, out of curiosity, I came into the house and grabbed my camera. Then I stood up closer and took half dozen shots. He was not afraid, he just stared at me. I came even closer, then he eventually flew away.

I ran into the house and downloaded the pictures. OMG, we were both screaming, "It is B.J.!!!" He is three years old now and he looks like he has travelled long distance (or is it just my imagination?).

Did he read my blog? Why he suddenly showed up?  We were all stirred up again. My husband murmured, "I wish I have chance to save another bird." I hope he will come back again, otherwise, I will really miss him.

Surely B.J. (not presumed)
July 14, 2011

Note: If it is other Jay, it would first come to the feeder, squeak harsh sound and surely it would immediately run for its life when we showed up, not mentioning that I had actually moved closer and closer to capture my shots.  Besides, we were very familiar with his departure style. He would usually fly lower first (kind of saying farewell) before he completely took off. The tree where B.J. was sheltered after his birth fell in last snow storm, and the tree he perched last is just next to it.