A Picturesque Late Summer Friday Afternoon at Colonial Park

On Friday, my girlfriend and I went for a visit to Colonial Park. It is a beautiful local park with formal gardens, including a Rose Garden, as well as some other beautiful parts. There is a pond and even easy access to the Delaware Raritan Canal. We went to that and I took my shoes off to dip my feet in the water. We only have a few weeks left for it to still be warm enough to do that here, as autumn is now fast approaching.

We walked through the Rose Garden and relaxed under the cover of the gazebo, listening to the water by the fountain (see pictures). She briefly laid down while I read a book (There, There) which my mom recommended to me during my recent trip to visit. 

I took some pictures, of course. 

The First Sunrise Over the Lake In Months

Since they changed our hours at my main job, coming to the lake to take pictures of the sunrise has gotten to be increasingly rare. Sometimes I can get out there with enough time. Most of the time, however, it feels a little too close for comfort.

Yesterday morning, however, I happened to have plenty of time. Not having worked, and having left home early, I in fact had time to kill.

So it seemed like a good idea to me to go back to the lake, which I was going to almost every weekend for a while there, in order to take some pictures.

These ones came out pretty well.

What do you guys thing?

Anyway, here they are. Enjoy. 

Some Unusual Flowers Seen During My Daily Walk

Bizarre weather we have been having in recent days. Yesterday stayed in the upper 60's for most of the day here, which is probably still well below average for this time of the year. Yet, it felt warmer than the temperature read. Then today, it returned to feeling like a hot and humid summer day after the earlier clouds and light rain.

Unusual, even for the turbulence of these times when seasons begin to change.

Anyway, I saw these flowers during my walk. Decided to take a picture, and it seemed like it would be worth sharing here.

Enjoy.

Pastel Dusk Skies Over Hornell, New York

 

So I arrived in Hornell yesterday, shortly after noon time. All things considered, that made pretty good time, since I had two stops of some length.

Last evening, I went outside and cooled off a bit on a nice, pleasant evening. It occurred to me that under different circumstances, it could have been an absolutely perfect night for a campfire. 

However, this was my mom's place, in a residential section of a village in western New York state, and not somewhere in the woods or at a campground. 

One thing that I did do was take a picture of the sky, which was truly beautiful. It came out nicely in this picture, although it was a bit more beautiful in real life. However, it still seemed like it would be worth sharing a picture here.

Enjoy.

Some Pictures From a Recent Walk (at the Canal)

Took a couple of pictures during my walk at the canal a couple of days ago. Or maybe it was yesterday, actually.

Whatever.

Anyway, these two pictures were from the recent walk, and seemed worth sharing here.

Enjoy.

Reworking Photos With Surprising Results

Earlier this week, I was playing around with some of the photographs that I recently took. 

One of those pictures was a sort of remake of an older, quite similar picture that I took. It was of a bust of Stephen King which I obtained earlier this year, set against a backdrop of books by King. In this case, it is the Dark Tower series. I was trying to recreate a similar photo with another Stephen King bust that I got a number of years ago. That one did not turn out quite as nicely as I had hoped. Or rather, it was difficult to tell that it was supposed to be Stephen King, at least at first glance.

While I was playing around with it, there was a different which I could not help but notice. The free drawing style, if you will, just was not coming out the way that I hoped it would. So I tried some other things, like the black and white and such. As it turns out, the results were quite a bit more to my liking than the drawing style proved to be for this particular picture.

Frankly, it almost looks like an old photograph of King from a different era. From the late 1970's or early 1980's, to be specific. 

In short, it came out very nicely, if I may say so myself. If you did not look too closely, and see that his shoulder were cut off, you might almost think that this was a period photograph of King taken back in the day, set against a backdrop of his books, or something like that. 

Maybe I am making too much of it. But I really did like the way that this one came out.

Take a look at the pictures, and how I reworked them, little by little. 

Enjoy.

In these two more or less blueish pictures, I was trying to recreate the image of a young King on the cover of Hearts in Suspension.

The old, reworked photo. You can kind of tell that it is supposed to be Stephen King, especially if you see his name or work in the background. But it is not easy or automatic to tell that just at a glance. That is what I wanted to change.

More Pictures From Past Trips Done in Drawing Style

Some time back, I began playing with some pictures, trying to actually use AI to alter them to looking like charcoal drawing styled illustrations. For the most part, I had to admit that the style and look in most cases appealed to me.

Now here I am, once again doing some old pictures in drawing style. Have to say that some of these came out quite nicely.

Take a look and enjoy.