October 2024 - P52 Challenge

[Sue Thomas]

On 10/9/2024 at 8:33 AM, Sue Thomas said:

Carole, last night was again spectacular,  not anything like the night before, nor for anywhere as long either.  I would have it  was more of a KP3 or 4.  As the light show was much further north.  I stayed up until around 1am, then decided to go bed seeing as I  didn't get to bed the night before until around 5am. 

I forgot to mention that in this shot, look  closely towards the centre of the  page, and you will see a cluster, that cluster is Pleiades. ( A constalation within Taurus) The bright  large light towards the tree is Jupiter.  Due to compression you will have to look hard.

Edited October 11 by Sue Thomas

[Corrie Kinkel]

2 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

I forgot to mention that in this shot, look  closely towards the centre of the  page, and you will see a cluster, that cluster is Pleiades. ( A constalation within Taurus) The bright  large light towards the tree is Jupiter.  Due to compression you will have to look hard.

The cluster is visible although barely but Jupiter is very clear.

 

[Corrie Kinkel]

2 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Corrie, I hope so too,  that  you will get to experience the  aurora  at least once in your lifetime.  Night before last my daughter who lives in Haverfordwest West Wales, made a trip to the top of Preseli mountain in Pembrokeshire with others, and captured some awesome shots on her phone.  The very first time she had ever seen them.  Being a KP7 index  and higher, the viewing of them dancing can be seen much further south.  They are giving another high index for tonight, providing the sky is clear, go out after 10pm to see if you can  see them. Being on the same latitude you should see something. Don't only look north.

Yes, Susan, although I am fortunate to see the auroras dancing on a regular basis over counless years, this weeks' displays have outranked all the others I  have seen. Unreal how the skies were dancing this week, well into the early hours and longer. I have never seen anything like it. I am contantly in awe of the lady (mother nature) dancing the night away.   Last night I went to bed early, getting up at 3am this morning, to watch her still dancing.

I'm like Carole, I have  a basic phone, so I have to resort to my camera.  The slower the shutter speed the more colour I am able to capture. 

Me too but apparently I have no luck! In some places in Belgium and the Netherlands it could be witnessed but where I live we had a cloudy sky with some rain. I'll try again tonight, fingers crossed!

[Ann Seeber]

This shot was on the news showing the aurora over the Tappan Zee Bridge (now Mario Cuomo Bridge) over the Hudson River here in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

[Sharla]

Week 41 A rainbow and the sun catching a little autumn colour,. The jackdaw flying by was a pleasant addition to the photo.

[Sue Thomas]

9 minutes ago, Sharla said:

Week 41 A rainbow and the sun catching a little autumn colour,. The jackdaw flying by was a pleasant addition to the photo.

I love rainbows, unfortunately I  see very few of them out on the prairies. The jackdaw was meant to complete the shot.

[Corrie Kinkel]

Although the Nordic lights were visible in my country, we didn't see anything! Where I live there is simply too much lightpollution and there isn't an uninterrupted view of the sky. A lot of trees, streetlamps and light from the glasshouses that shine very brightly and far. One benefit of all the trees is that their leaves are starting to change color! 

[Rene Marker]

I missed the aurora on Thursday night! All my friends in Ohio were posting photos they took but I was in Massachusetts on Cape Cod with lots of light pollution. My friend and I decided not to go outside and see if we could see anything. We were both tired from our sightseeing that day on Martha's Vineyard. The museum here in town got some awesome shots with it in the background. And, the NWS (national weather service) office in Wilmington, Ohio (located not too far from Cincinnati) got some awesome shots as well. I follow a guy that does the weather on a Dayton TV station (will graduate with a degree in meteorology in December) on Facebook and he always lets people know when they might be viewable in our area. Hopefully there will be another time when I'm home that it happens!

Trip was a great time and I have lots of photos to scrap!

[Susan Ewart]

Week 40

I used two different green watercolor papers (CF), desaturated them, then colorized to suit the blue rim on the cup/saucer (then went and darkened them with a blend mode so maybe it's not so matchy-matchy with the rim anymore).  As mentioned I used a blend mode (I think multiply) on the two papers.  then added a PSP texture effect (texture) and to my surprise it looked kind of like stone.  I used the cutout effect on WEEK FORTY, but it looked horrible on the smaller text and outline, so I added a small inner bevel to them and a small shadow as well.  No more buttons, I'm doing stickers now.  I didn't know if the Lifted Photo script would lift anything round so I tried anyway.  Some orientations looked odd but most seem to look pretty cool. It's like when cheap stickers don't stick well.  

Edited October 15 by Susan Ewart

[Susan Ewart]

I forgot to add.  check out the sticker, you can really see how it looks like there is a light landing right on it.  I thought it gave a good 3 dimensional look to the whole layout.  One teeny tiny sticker with that fabulous script did all that.  So cool!

[Susan Ewart]

Week 41 

I used the pattern in PSP (purple plaid).  3 layers of it, all at different angles and sizes, then blended it and thought it looked like a faded scratched up paper.  I add a small amount of noise too. I used the same color text as I did on Week Forty and this time I used a blend mode (screen) and thought it looked like it was printed on that paper and was scratched up like the rest of the paper.  I had previously made the sticker which only had one layer of flood filled pattern.  The color was changed in the sticker outer ring and the background to suit the image.  

[Cristina]

5 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Week 41 

I used the pattern in PSP (purple plaid).  3 layers of it, all at different angles and sizes, then blended it and thought it looked like a faded scratched up paper.  I add a small amount of noise too. I used the same color text as I did on Week Forty and this time I used a blend mode (screen) and thought it looked like it was printed on that paper and was scratched up like the rest of the paper.  I had previously made the sticker which only had one layer of flood filled pattern.  The color was changed in the sticker outer ring and the background to suit the image.  

Susan, I am enjoying seeing your deck of cards so much.   Although it will take you 52 weeks to complete this task, we can already conclude that the result will be great.

[Cristina]

On 10/12/2024 at 10:23 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

Although the Nordic lights were visible in my country, we didn't see anything! Where I live there is simply too much lightpollution and there isn't an uninterrupted view of the sky. A lot of trees, streetlamps and light from the glasshouses that shine very brightly and far. One benefit of all the trees is that their leaves are starting to change color! 

It's beautiful to see all the colorful flowers blooming in Spring, but it's special when Fall comes, and we see all these colors on a sunny day. Lovely work, Corrie.

[Susan Ewart]

5 hours ago, Cristina said:

Susan, I am enjoying seeing your deck of cards so much.   Although it will take you 52 weeks to complete this task, we can already conclude that the result will be great.

Thank you Cristina.  I am enjoying trying to make a different background each time.  Thankfully, we dont have 104 weeks in a year!  hahahaha

 

[Susan Ewart]

Week 42

I had to check to see if I was in the right week or working ahead (hahaha, that would NEVER happen for me!).  This is the red joker, same style magnet as the black and same photo since the photo I chose for it didnt work out.  

I started out looking at gradients for the background then used the one at the bottom, I forget the name...radial? I added many repeats and didnt like it so then I started running down the list of Distortion Effects, piling them on top of each other. Sometimes I'd duplicate if I liked something, and use the duplicate to keep going.  I ended up in the Reflection Effects with Kaleidoscope and played around until I got something I liked.  This reminded me of some kind of knit fabric.  On the text for Week Forty-Two I had it original in the yellow color like the other two vectors which I rasterized and gave a bevel and drop shadow to.  I thought it looked a bit boring and flat so I duplicated the raster layer and selected the text and used the background pattern as a pattern and filled the letters, then I used a blend mode to make it a similar color to the background yet still stand out enough to be readable. 

The texture doesnt show well because I had to really compress this to get it to upload here.  It will eventually be on FB at the full size, soon as I get around to catching on the posts there.

 

Edited October 15 by Susan Ewart

[Julie Magerka]

43 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Week 42

I had to check to see if I was in the right week or working ahead (hahaha, that would NEVER happen for me!).  This is the red joker, same style magnet as the black and same photo since the photo I chose for it didnt work out.  

I started out looking at gradients for the background then used the one at the bottom, I forget the name...radial? I added many repeats and didnt like it so then I started running down the list of Distortion Effects, piling them on top of each other. Sometimes I'd duplicate if I liked something, and use the duplicate to keep going.  I ended up in the Reflection Effects with Kaleidoscope and played around until I got something I liked.  This reminded me of some kind of knit fabric.  On the text for Week Forty-Two I had it original in the yellow color like the other two vectors which I rasterized and gave a bevel and drop shadow to.  I thought it looked a bit boring and flat so I duplicated the raster layer and selected the text and used the background pattern as a pattern and filled the letters, then I used a blend mode to make it a similar color to the background yet still stand out enough to be readable. 

The texture doesnt show well because I had to really compress this to get it to upload here.  It will eventually be on FB at the full size, soon as I get around to catching on the posts there.

 

 

Are you going to print all of these wonderful playing cards? They would look great framed together, I think, if they would all fit. Such a fab collection you've created.

[Corrie Kinkel]

13 hours ago, Cristina said:

It's beautiful to see all the colorful flowers blooming in Spring, but it's special when Fall comes, and we see all these colors on a sunny day. Lovely work, Corrie.

Thank you Cristina, but with such colors in the sun it is very easy to take good photos!

[Corrie Kinkel]

20 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I forgot to add.  check out the sticker, you can really see how it looks like there is a light landing right on it.  I thought it gave a good 3 dimensional look to the whole layout.  One teeny tiny sticker with that fabulous script did all that.  So cool!

Yah but you see the possibilities and how to do it and that is what makes it so special!

[Susan Ewart]

4 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Are you going to print all of these wonderful playing cards? They would look great framed together, I think, if they would all fit. Such a fab collection you've created.

I'm not sure what I will do with them.  They'd look cool as cards for sure.  I will do some fun layouts with just the cards I think.  Like a Royal Flush or Full House or something like that.  If I had a printer and I guess a cricut I could maybe print and cut them.  

[Cassel]

22 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I'm not sure what I will do with them.  They'd look cool as cards for sure.  I will do some fun layouts with just the cards I think.  Like a Royal Flush or Full House or something like that.  If I had a printer and I guess a cricut I could maybe print and cut them.  

I think that someone could print/cut them for you but also, maybe there are printing services that could do that. I seem to remember one Canadian company that prints game cards, game boards, etc. I remember searching because I thought of making a "Snakes and Ladders" game with people's photos so the kids could play with a board that had familiar faces!

[Susan Ewart]

9 minutes ago, Cassel said:

I think that someone could print/cut them for you but also, maybe there are printing services that could do that. I seem to remember one Canadian company that prints game cards, game boards, etc. I remember searching because I thought of making a "Snakes and Ladders" game with people's photos so the kids could play with a board that had familiar faces!

That's a good idea, I'll look into over the winter...hahaha, if you saw my post about all the projects I was "saving" for the winter months, you'd laugh at my deluded thinking that I'll actually get it done.  

[Sue Thomas]

On 10/12/2024 at 2:23 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

Although the Nordic lights were visible in my country, we didn't see anything! Where I live there is simply too much lightpollution and there isn't an uninterrupted view of the sky. A lot of trees, streetlamps and light from the glasshouses that shine very brightly and far. One benefit of all the trees is that their leaves are starting to change color! 

Virbrant colours, I love it.

 

[Sue Thomas]

This week, like all the other weeks have simply flown by. Mother nature never disappoints. From one day to the next her mastery of applying her palette to the landscape and skies above, is an ever changing wonder.

I was lucky enough to get another afternoon out on the lake in the kayak. A glorious 21c.  Hopefully I will get at least one more  afternoon on the water before the kayak goes away for the  winter.   An old chapel hiden away amongst the trees.  Before the dam was constructed back in 1965, I believe, the chapel was over a mile away from the  shallow South Saskatchewan River. Over the years, and as the lake rises, the chapel is  nigh on the  lake shoreline.  You ahve to pay to  look around the chapel, and Hitchcock's hideaway cabin.  I  havd found  access to it via the  shore. 

[Ann Seeber]

Here's my Week Forty One for Sunday Oct 20 - My two daughters and I did a day trip to Mohonk Mountain House resort in Ulster County on Wed Oct 16. It is a huge hotel and recreation complex constructed in the early 1900s by the Smileys, a Quaker family from Maine. There were originally 2 beautiful quarries,  Mohonk and Minnewaska, which they owned and they eventually added 17,000 acres to preserve the land in perpetuity. The family still operates Mohonk as a resort though the two hotels on Minnewaska burned down. This is probably one of the most famous areas to be photographed in Ulster County, NY. You can see the hotel in the distance on the left. My daughter, Debbie, took this photo when they were hiking.

Edited October 18 by Ann Seeber

[Susan Ewart]

2 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Here's my Week Forty One for Sunday Oct 20 - My two daughters and I did a day trip to Mohonk Mountain House resort in Ulster County on Wed Oct 16. It is a huge hotel and recreation complex constructed in the early 1900s by the Smileys, a Quaker family from Maine. There were originally 2 beautiful quarries,  Mohonk and Minnewaska, which they owned and they eventually added 17,000 acres to preserve the land in perpetuity. The family still operates Mohonk as a resort though the two hotels on Minnewaska burned down. This is probably one of the most famous areas to be photographed in Ulster County, NY. You can see the hotel in the distance on the left. My daughter, Debbie, took this photo when they were hiking.

What a beautiful photo and area.  What is the building at the top of the hill?