Category Archives: Digital Art Meme

Digital Art – Tulsa’s Linnaeus Gardens

Linnaeus Gardens - Topaz Glow - Fin and Feather II 100 pct

Spring is here, last week, (when Spring wasn’t quite here, I guess) I took the big camera to Tulsa’s Linnaeus Gardens and took a few pics. I loved these flowers in the planter. The flowers seem a little overpowered by  the mass of the rocks in the planter and the ultra heavy duty lattice above it but with the flowers, with the bright colors, overcame that mass. At least that is what I think. I used Topaz’s Glow to bring out the grain of the wood and the texture of the rock.

I’m linking with Digital Art Meme

Digital Art – Back to the Future

Amplifier with Tubes- Topaz Glow - Blazing Neon II at 78 pct

Son Logan and I were wandering around Best Buy the other day when I was attracted to this strange glowing device. It is an amplifier for a music system and it uses tubes! Those of a certain age remember going to stores with suspect tubes in hand and putting it in the tester to check. That all went by the way side when solid state amplifiers and televisions came about. I still have an amplifier from the 80’s and some massive speakers but I haven’t played anything on them in decades. It has been all about headphones and iphones.

I had heard about purists praising tubes and okay, if it works it works. The recent renaissance of vinyl records has puzzled me also although I do miss the days of rummaging through albums and playing them in the evening with a glass of wine and friends.

Are so called stereo systems making a comeback? I have to tell you the music from the system that included this device sounded wonderful and the speakers were very light.

Anyways, I thought it appropriate to use Topaz Glow to highlight the tubes on this photo.

I’m linking to Digital Art Meme Today

Digital Art Meme – Kwan Yin Sculpture at Tulsa’s Tam Bao Temple

Buddhist Sculpture Kwan Yin - glow squiggly lines ii 82%

I went on a lunchtime geocaching adventure in east Tulsa last week and on the way back to the office I saw a huge sculpture so I pulled off the road and took a photo of the statue. I would have got closer but a dog came bounding out and although friendly acting decided to move on. It turns out that the sculpture is of the Buddhist bodhisattva, Kwan Yin, who represents mercy, compassion, kindness, and love in the Buddhist religion. The sculpture is located at Tulsa’s Tam Bao Buddhist Temple.  The sculpture was erected by the Temple to express their appreciation to the people of Oklahoma and United States for the hospitality extended to the Vietnamese refugees who came here after the Vietnam war.

It is 57 feet tall and made of granite and is beautiful. I used Topaz Lab’s Glow software to add some texture to what was a flat blue sky.

The following is a short (1 minute plus or minus) documentary on the sculpture.

I live for serendipity. Don’t you?

Linking with Digital Art Meme

The Marshes of Oxley Nature Center

Oxley Marsh Trees and Reflections - Topaz Glow - Fur and Feathers

Topaz Glow – Fin and Feathers

Oxley Nature Center is built on some land nobody else wanted. Just north of the airport, wrapped by Bird Creek, and right next to the police department shooting range, nobody likes it except hikers, families, trail runners, geocachers, and photographer, not to mention deer, squirrels, snakes, lizards, ticks, fish, and lots of birds.  The marshes of Oxley is what gives wildlife its space against us humans. I’ve been out here and have seen deer run across the marshes and swim the sloughs and leave guys like me trying to get good pictures behind.

The marshes give Oxley a lot of its mystery. I used Topaz Glow to emphasize that mystery. I like how it brought out the reflections of the trees and the texture of their bark.

Digital Art – Overlook of the Arkansas River

Arkansas River Overlook

This is [photo of the Arkansas River as seen Turkey Mountain on the river’s west bank. The river is quite full due to recent rains. You can’t hardly tell it but the other bank is  south Tulsa.  If you look close you can see cars and a couple high rises on the horizon.

I used a new app on my Ipod Touch called Stackables to edit this photo. I tried to give it a kind of a 19th century wilderness aspect to the photo. The photo was taken with with Nikon AW110 point and shoot. I posted it on Instagram a week or so ago.

The number of editing apps and their capability is exploding. Many are free and most are $3 or less. Incredible time for us picture takers is what I say. I’m wondering when we are going to see high quality cameras with downloadable and updateable apps and wifi capabilities. Many cameras now have many different effects available but they are not near as good as what is available on portable devices. Many cameras have wifi capability but I can tell you I have two cameras with wifi and it is very clunky working with them.

Oh well, for now I’ll just keep on doing what I am doing.

Linking with Digital Art Meme today

 

Digital Art Meme – 1931 Spartan Monoplane

Spartan C 2 60 - Topaz Glow - Squiggly Lines I 47 pct

A Spartan Aviation C-2-60 Monoplane. A two seater with a three cylinder 60 horsepower engine built by Tulsa’s Spartan Aviation in 1930. Spartan was trying to deal with the reduction in market by building a cheaper lighter plane but only sixteen were ever built. I think it is sleek and beautiful. This one is on display at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. Spartan is still in business as an aviation school.

I used Topaz Lab’s Glow software with the “Squiggly Lines” backed off about 50 percent. I like how the background colors faded to monochrome bringing the aircraft out of a very busy background.

Linking with Digital Art Meme

Digital Art Meme – Last Days of the Season

Home Christmas Lights - Impressions - Seurat Afternooon 35 pct

We had a brown Christmas, which suited me fine, followed by several days of lots of rain which wasn’t too much fun and then a day of sleet and then snow and now its cold so the snow is staying. So I got a Christmas photo of house all lit up with the snow which adds some reflection and makes the light a lot more even and later. I used Topaz Impressions software on this shot and then backed the effect by about 2/3 to capture the last days of the Christmas season.

The season started to end at about 5:30 the day after Christmas. Heather’s aunt, a retired school teacher, gave us all Barnes and Noble Bookstore gift cards and since we are all big readers we decided to go buy a bunch of books. So I was coming out of the store and it was raining and I was headed for the car in the rain and a car could have run over me but I was watching the drivers eyes and she wasn’t looking where I was, she was looking the other way and so I got out of her way and raised my arms up in a “What the heck lady” motion. She rolled her window down and said; “I wasn’t going to hit you and you don’t need to give me hand gestures in front of my kids.” I was like huh? and yelled “I didn’t do that!” and then she gave me the old fingered salute. Hah! it was comical and I guess that Christmas was about over, for her. I am still celebrating!!

I am staying home with the family this week eating too much, staying up too late, and sitting around too much. Back to the real world next week helping America fulfill her energy needs.

Linking with Digital Arts Meme this week.

Digital Art Meme – Holy Family Cathedral

Holy Family Cathedral

This is Holy Family Cathedral in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have taken many photographs of this church over the years mainly because it is a beautiful and interesting building situated in a great spot.

I took a photograph of the Cathedral with my Ipod Touch, crapped it with the Snapseed app and then applied a texture using the Distressed FX app, all on the Ipod and then uploaded it to Flickr for inclusion on this post.

I am linking with Digital Art Meme

It being the Christmas Season and my post featuring a cathedral I am adding a video of While Shepards Watched Their Sheep.