MULTIPLY Monochrome Monday

It was called monochrome Monday and is or was a photo group where we played a bit with out photographs. I just do not know if it still exists, but I still enjoy playing with photos, so here is a little something. Sometimes I find things that perhaps inspire me, or are interesting.

In this case I was attracted by this small flower. A pansy seed had found its way into a crack in the concrete surrounding my friends house. Every time I went in or out, the colours attracted my attention. Eventually I did what I wanted to do and took my camera, preparing it for a macro picture and here is the result.

Astonishing the little wonders you find in the streets of London. Although this in itself is a nice little photo, I decided to do a bit of work on it. I transformed it into black and white and fiddled a bit with the contrasts. I coloured back the flower petals, doing some dodging on them to make them stronger in colour and then put a frame around them. Here we have the finished product,

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And now for something completely different. On my flight home I was again busy with the camera from the windows of the plane. The windows are not very large, so I have part of the engine of the plane on the left hand side, and on the right the frame of the window. Never the less I managed to take a picture as we were crossing the english coast. I combined this with a photo of a crow that I took in England sitting on the pavement at the side of the road. Here are the originals.

I decided that the bird should accompany me on my flight. He was looking in the wrong direction so I turned him around, cut him away from the background and perched him on the plane motor. I framed the picture and that was all. I decided that a view from a plane does not need more to be done to it. Here is the result.

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MULTIPLY MM My Own Thing No. 3

This week I visited our bank. As I had some time and as always had my camera with me, I decided to take a photo on the first floor as the architecture I found to be quite interesting. I then put the photo into Piknik and monochromed it. It was OK but I decided to do a bit more and did a Holgaic version of it, which is also black and white, with a bit more to it. I also brought the original colour back into the two large tubes in the middle on the ceiling. I trimmed the contrast and eventually did a mirror frame on it. This is the result.

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For my next work I decided to go to the art world. Some years ago my husband and I spent a week in New York on holiday. Apart from the usual tourist visits, we also visited some art galleries and museums. We went to the Museum of Modern Art as we partciularly wanted to see a work of art by a Swiss artist, Meret Oppenheim. She died in 1985 but is well known in Switzerland and I even had the privilige to see her once when our family paid a visit to the zoo in Bern, as she was also amongst the visitors.

One of her most popular works in Switzerland is a fountain she created for the town of Bern Click here. However her most well known work was the fur covered cup which is shown in New York in the Museum of Modern Art. Quite an honour for an artist from such a small country such as Switzerland. My husband and I found the cup and were most impressed. Click here for more information.

So there I am with my work for the week - created something similar in a photo. First of all I needed a cup, saucer and spoon which I took from our daily crockery. I then needed fur, so what was more easier than to take a photo of the fur coats belong to my cats. I chose tabby cat and Fluffy cat for the contrasts. Tabby supplied me with the inside of the cup and the saucer and Fluffy with the spoon and cup.

I put all three photos into CS3 photoshop. I worked with layering and the eraser. First of all I had the cup with Tabby's fur as a second layer. I removed the inside of the cup and the saucer which left me with some fur. I flattened this and then took my furry cup and spoon and did a second layer with Fluffy's white fur. I used the eraser and transferred the spoon and outside of the cup into white fur. I used the eraser as I could pull the furry hairs a bit more at the edges. I flattened this, put it back into Piknik and did a mirrored frame making a light blue tint to it. Are you with me? I lost myself in this process, but here is the result.

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MULTIPLY MM 1: My Own Thing

It seems that Gator is redesigning his boat somewhere in a swamp in Savannah and that the monochrome Monday thing is dying a slow death, to be brought to life now and again by some good colleagues, so I have joined them. Now and again will post some photographic experiments of mine.

Here is the monochrome thing I did for this week.

I have been spending some time in the garden lately taking photos of all sorts of creatures that fly, creep and slime their way through life. This ladybird decided to pose for a photo so here she is. If you want to seen the full size of the photo then click here.
So what did I do with this photo. Well the usual thing. I did it in Piknik and changed it into monochrome, twiddling a bit at the contrasts and then brought the red of the ladybird back. I think I even enhanced the red a bit with a lomoic thing, but just cannot remember. Anyhow I decided a sort of black frame with a hint of red would be ok which I did in Piknik and here is the result.

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I decided now to play around with a couple of photos I took during the week.

Click here for larger version of sunflower

Click here for larger version of clock

I put both photos in Photoshop CS3. I removed the background from the sunflower and did a few duplications of the flower inserting one layer after the other on the flower. I then replaced the clock face with the sunflower. I then removed the background from the clock and put the clock on the original sunflower photo, squeezing it into the space. The frame is a mirror frame from Piknik and here is the result.

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Perhaps some are wondering why the clock only goes up to 11 instead of 12. There is a reason. This clock hangs on a wall in the town of Solothurn, near where I live and was made especially for the town. The number eleven occurs so much in Solothurn, that it is known as the Solothurn number. We have 11 fountains and the steps to the cathederal are divisible by 11. There are also other 11 things, but I don't know them all. Anyhow we are probably the only place in the world that has a clock with eleven hours. It even chimes the hours.

MULTIPLY Mono Monday Plus #51 (MM #65)

I really did not have any bright ideas this week for something mono, so I started with this photo of a bee that settled on one of my marigolds and decided to do a monochrome of it in Piknik, bringing back the colours of the bee. I also did a frame around it in Piknik and a bit of a dark vignette around the edges. I also touched up the black and white with the contrast and brightness. Here is the result.

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I was also a bit at a loss for something plus. Anyhow I took a photo of my flower box this week with the geraniums and I had a photo already of the Arc de triomphe that I took once on one of my stays in Paris.

I then put the geraniums into CS3 Photoshop and removed the background with the magic wand and I layer a sky in the background. I then cut the arc de triomphe out with the magic wand removing the sky, tree and people and complete with lampost constructed a photo with the geraniums. I did a bit of clowning of the arc to make it look as if it was in the geraniums and there we are. I did the mirror frame in Piknik. I really did not have any brilliant ideas this week for something to do.

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For more click here

MULTIPLY Mono Monday Plus #50(MM #64)

Here I am again in our local town of Solothurn. This picture shows the Landhaus situated on the banks of our River Aare. I decided to play around with this one. The sky did not suit me, seemed a bit drab and lifeless, so I changed it for another sky in my collection. I then converted it all into monochrome and painted the shutters back in. I did the mono in Piknik, but the sky layering in CS3. The frame is also a Piknik mirror frame. Here is the result.

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I was wondering what to do with the picture and then I borrowed Gator's idea. I used the following photos

and cut out the figures with the magic wand in CS3. I then put the ladies on the river of my landhaus photo and did yet another different sky in layering as a background. Afterwards I put it all in piknik for a frame. So here is perhaps the feminine version of Gator's photo.

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For more click here

MULTIPLY Mono Monday Plus #49 (MM #63)

I did not have a lot of chance to do something artistically striking this week as I do still have one arm a bit handicapped, although I can move the fingers. Most of my newest recent photos were taken from the hospital window so I chose this one. Basically a view over the countryside, but if you look carefully you can see the beginnings of a motorway tunnel on the right with a restaurant. This motorway exists only about two years and to preserve the country are where there a many farms and wild deer etc. it was decided to build a very long tunnel under it all and here is where the tunnel starts. We used to have a 35 minute drive through many small villages and countryside to the next big town of Biel from Solothurn and now thanks to the motorway it takes only about 15 minutes. We didn't even hear any noise from the cars in the hospital ward. Although quite near I did bring it a bit nearer with my camera. Anyhow there was not much I could do with the photo, so I decided on a monochrome and flattened it. I then converted to sepia and brought the modern motorway parts in monochrome. I then did a frame. All the work was in Piknik and here is the result.

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And now for something I planned to put up two weeks ago, but unfortunately a small accident came in the way. It is my project for Gary's challenge. I did not really know what to bring, but it so happened that our local high school had a concert of the big band and the jazz workshop which my husband and I visited. My husband plays for a jazz combination, drums, sort of bi-bop mainstream and takes drum lessons at the school. His drum teacher leads the big band and another colleague, who is bass player, organises the jazz workshop. The musicians are all students at the high school, and we really enjoyed the evening. Apparently when the idea was born some members of the teaching department were a bit dubious about jazz instead of classic, but jazz won and the result is good. Anyhow I took three photos: one of the big band, a photo of some piano music notes I have (I also play - it was a Duke Ellington piece) and took a photo of my son's electric piano as follows:

I then made three layers in CS3 Photoshop and played around with the magic wand, eraser, clone tool and goodness knows what else. It was so long ago I cannot remember. Anyhow I then had the finished product and did a sort of poster for the concert - here is the result.

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Although late, I decided to post it here as I had done quite a bit of work on it. And now, for those that want to hear what they sound like, here is a small video I made. The quality does not do the music so much credit as I only did a bit more than a minute with my Panasonic camera. Introducing the Jazz workshop of the Solothurn County High School.

MULTIPLY Mono Monday #47 (MM #61)

What with challenges and mono I have had a very busy week-end. Our town has the magic number of 11. The steps to the cathedral are divisible by 11 and other things come in elevens. We even have a special clock that only goes up to 11 o'clock. We also have fountains with statues, sort of a Swiss thing, most old towns have them. I decided to use of our statues for a theme this week. I monochromed him in Piknik and brought the gold colouring back. I then put it in the sandbox and twiddled a bit with it and this was the result. The frame also comes from Piknik.

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Now what to do with him. I took him in photoshop CS3 and isolated him from the background with the magic wand. I then took a photo from part of the garden and copied my isolated statue a few times and put him onto the garden background. I now had a space in the middle so took a pigeon, removed the background and put the pigeon in the middle.

The colour looked a bit lifeless to me, so I put the photo into Piknik again and did one of those fancy colour things with it (was it Lomo or something like that, cannot remember). Did a mirror frame around it and now Introducing Mr. Pigeon.

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Mono Monday Plus #47 (MM #61)

MULTIPLY Mono Monday #46 (MM #60)

Yesterday morning I was in town with my camera naturally and shot a few photos, again naturally. These pigeons were sitting in the sun on the stone wall bordering our River Aare. I told them to stand in a row and keep still. The row was not so neat and they were not still, but this is the result. I put the photo into Piknik, monochromed it and brought the colour back to one of the pigeons. I then played with the contrasts a bit and afterwards made it something called Lomoish which seemed to be what I wanted. I then put a mirror frame around it and here is the result.

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For my plus something completely different. Actually I was going to do a nice black and white daisy with yellow center for the monochrome, but changed my mind. Not wanting my daisy to be forgotten I did a bit of layering with three pictures: the daisy, my cat Nera (of course) and me in a garden restaurant. Here are the three original photos.

I then combined all three with three layers. First the daisy, where I made the center disappear with the magic wand and inserted Nera with the second layer. I flattened it and then replaced my face with Nera surrounded by her daisy all working with magic wand and the clone tool. I also made my arms furry with the clone tool. I would have like to have made a photo with me with a cat head and arms, but it just wouldn't work. I eventually did a sort of polaroid picture with it in Piknik. Here is the result. Nera has still not forgiven me for putting her head in a daisy.

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Mono Monday Plus #46 (MM #60)

MULTIPLY Mono Monday Plus #45 (MM #59)

This week I was in another village along the line (mountain and railway line) with my first aid group testing the students at one of the schools for their first aid certificate that they have to have for passing the driving test. Although the same mountains, there was a bit of a different angle so I was taking photos. Actually my husband grew up in the area shown on the picture in a small village a bit higher up. I wanted a sort of old effect on the photo, but have not yet found the exact way in CS3 yet, so I did my own sort of thing. The photo on the right hand side is a cutting board I use when cooking that had not been washed. It is actually a creamy sort of colour but I sepiafied the photo.

The next step was to take the original mountain photo and make it sepia in Piknik, twiddling around for various effects. I did not like the sky, much too quiet so I took a photo of clouds, did it sepia, and made a second layer. I then removed the original sky and made it all cloudy and threatening with a second layer in CS3 Photoshop. Now for my own invention, perhaps. I had my sepia photo and I then superimposed my photo of the cutting board on top of it making transparency about 60% (I think). I then went into the insides of CS3 seeing what effects that had to offer. I just cannot remember which one I took, I think something with intensify. I then put the photo back into my Fireworks programme and chose a wooden frame. Actually the frame is twice on the photo in different sizes. Anyhow here is the finished result.

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Now for my plus. Actually I did one, was not satisfied so did another one. Afterwards I could not decide which one to bring so here are both.

On my excursion to another village (which was Hubersdorf) I met some goats outside the school. They are kept there in a neat pen, three of them. Of course I went berserk with the camera and took a few photos. At the same time my wisteria was blossoming in the garden looking very nice, but making a lot of work as we have to sweep the blossoms up every day. I decided I wanted to combine the goats with the wisteria. I put these two photos into Photoshop CS3, made two layers and removed a few things with the magic wand. Back to Piknik for a mirror frame, and here is the result, which I thought a bit boring.

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Here is my second attempt. I told the goat to stand on the platform and he helpfully obliged. I then put both photos in CS3 Photoshop. I cut the goat out of his surroundings with his platform and put him into the Wisteria. One goat alone seemed a bit boring to me, so I copied him a few times and eventually had four goats. I had to keep shifting the copies around in CS3 to get one goat in front of the other. Those that have photoshop know what I mean, and those that don't are probably as lost as I am when working with the programme. Anyhow I had four goats with giant wisteria in the background. I then had a look to see what photoshop had to offer and transferred my photo into a canvas background, something like the artists do with oil paint. Back to Fireworks for a suitable frame and here is the result. Any questions - just ask, but I cannot promise I know the answers. Otherwise ask our crocodile in the swamp, I am sure he knows.

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Mono Monday Plus #45 (MM #59)