One of the advantages of traveling is . . . you don’t follow the news as much.
The consequence is that I miss out on a whole lot of indignation and consternation. I mean, sure, I get the peripheral noise of people screaming about this or that or TEOTWAWKI but functionally, none of it affects any portion of my life.
Also, invariably, something which everyone screamed was an immediate concern a month ago is forgotten within a week. Many other things of immediate concerns happened between then and now . . . and still, none of them affected my life.
The buds don’t care, either. And here’s the funny — or not so funny — stuff about it all. None of the associated dire predictions came true. None.
For the vast majority of the people, not only did nothing happen, but none of it was of any consequence to them. It kinda makes one wonder why so many were so worked up about it to begin with . . . I mean, I’m sure it can’t be healthy, physically or psychologically.
Yes, yes . . . we got problems. But, many are made-up problems and other problems are things we always had but that apparently we now associate with TEOTWAWKI . . . except, you know, they’re not.
I don’t know . . . the fact I didn’t have much time to comment on the things I heard about is — in a way — a good thing. Actually, a double good thing.
One, I didn’t work myself up in a frenzy and spend precious portions of my remaining time writing about it. And, two, after a few weeks, 90% of the hype is recognized as just that.
Perhaps we should all wait two weeks from when we hear something before we say or do anything.
So, the above photo . . . Magnolia buds, methinks. I don’t know but that’s what came to mind when I saw them. I think I’m right but comment below if you know different.
Anyway, that’s a shot from my Samsung Note 8 processed in Snapseed on said phone.
Here’s the same shot processed on my PC using Lightroom and Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4.
You can click on the photos and they will open on separate tabs so you can compare them but — again — the differences are subtle. I give the nod to the PC version but that’s just me.
On the Note 8, I used Photoshop Express to play with additional processing.
Eh . . . it’s OK, but the original is good enough to not need additional processing . . . or so I think.
You might recall THIS post about the sunrise and you might remember this next photo from the B&W post.
The above photo is a B&W representation of a shot of the lake partially frozen and with the open water completely calm and acting as a mirror.
Here’s the color version — also from the phone — but processed on the PC.
I have this scene captured with the P900 as well . . . but this is about phone photos.
Anyway, a week after the above photos I got another opportunity to shoot mirror-like water . . .
The above is the Samsung Note 8 photo processed on the PC.
Below, is the same photo as originally processed on the Note 8.
Again, not much of a difference but I don’t know if that’s the tools being that good or the person using the tools making the same mistakes no matter the tool he uses.
And, because I hate when people speak about themselves in third-person, the person I’m referring to in the last paragraph is, in fact, me.
I did a B&W version of that photo as well.
The Note 8 has two cameras and the above was shot using the “zoom” lens (a 2x magnification). Here are the color and B&W processing for the wide-angle shot:
To be candidly truthful, I processed the B&W because the scene was pretty dark due to the strong backlighting; it lends itself to B&W processing.
But, here’s a neat trick . . . Load the two versions — color and B&W — into Adobe Photoshop Mix and by playing with the blending options you get this:
I like that effect . . . but I like almost everything I do.
So, remember this shot?
Well, overlay that shot onto the previous shot and you get this . . .
“So what?” you ask.
Well, I can load that shot up into Paper Artist and . . .
I could do more but you get the picture. Get it? Picture . . . nevermind.
But, let me go back to the reflected sky scene . . .
What about loading that one into Paper Artist and trying a few of my favorite filters?
Like . . .
. . . or . . .
. . . or . . . 
. . . or these two . . .
Oh, I see . . . not abstract enough for you, is it?
Well, I’m sure by now I’ve lost most readers so let me wrap it up with a gallery of the above . . .
That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.
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Disperser Tracks 
Good stuff, I like the coloured trees and the little bug thing!
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Thank you, Andrew.
. . . although the little bug thing and the trees are one and the same.
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I’m impressed with the seemingly endless processing options. (And most of your variations quite impressive and interesting!) Also wonder how you can do all this while “on the road!” I envision you both traveling in a van with your computers in the back, a big swivel chair, and antennas on the roof pointing to the cloud!!! M 🙂
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85.19% (23 out of 27) of these were processed on the Note 8 and as such required little time and effort. Most apps have presets and some of the above “looks” require little but cycling through presets until one pleases. Occasionally, I’ll tweak some of the settings but even then, it’s just moving sliders.
Plus, I can save my preferred settings and edited settings and since I’ve been doing this for a while, I have a lot of presets.
Second, no car-top setup. I have a laptop I purchased specifically for traveling.
One of the things that has changed from even a few years ago (and that probably few people notice any more) is just how good WiFi connectivity is at hotels and motels and public places in general. The infrastructure can now handle more throughput and traffic in general so that processing stuff on the road is nearly as good as doing it at home on my big rig. Plus, even a cheap laptop like mine has the muscle to process much of what I do. Again, a big change from even a few years ago.
Yes, the laptop is slower but — as I said — I do stuff on the phone whenever I have a few minutes here and there and then wait for the opportunity to aggregate it into a post.
Side note about the laptop: most people buy expensive laptops geared toward gaming and video processing. Depending on the tools you use, you don’t need super-powerful laptops for photo processing. I concurrently run Photoshop and Lightroom and make use of powerful Nik Tools and Topaz plugins that have a lot of computing power requirements. High amounts of memory and a fast disk are more important than a top-of-the-line CPU.
After all that, thank you. The tools indeed offer nearly countless ways to process photos. I but scratched the surface of all the tools I have at my disposal. Some of the posts I do — like this one — are specifically to document the possibilities these apps offer up.
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Yes, lots of room to swap files in and out and quickly!
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Yes! More artsy photos! What a glorious way to start my morning. The tree/lake series is just fabulous. But, I gotta say that your “young witch” photo series is very interesting. l say witch because that’s a complete figure wearing a dress with a large white bow in front like a young girl would wear, but that hair and flimsy wings do push her into the witch category, for me anyway. All these creatively neat processes are great fun to see, so . . . keep ’em coming!
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Thanks, Ann. As I mentioned above, I do these when I catch minutes here and there and as such, I end up waiting until I have enough worthy candidates before doing a post.
I tried setting aside dedicated time but it seems when I try and focus on these the results are not nearly as interesting as when I just dabble in them. Or, so it seems to me.
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You were fortunate to have the time away from the outrages. Unfortunately, they build and they will be repeated; and yes, they do have consequences on many more people than would first appear to be the case. I think I will take a long trip away from the news just to get away from the daily reminders of past, present and future outrages to come. Warmest regards, Ed
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I should have been clearer . . . yes, there are consequences to many people. But the outrage that lasts two or three days and fueled primarily by agents who want to acquire power and influence, that outrage is useless and toxic and counterproductive. It’s also fueled by distortions and half-truths and selective emphasis designed to keep people ignorant more than it is to inform them.In other words, it’s useless.
Voting and getting informed by reading multiple opinions and doing some research and being mindful of the needs of oneself, others, and society in general, that is useful. That matters.
What I meant when I said it doesn’t matter is that the rabid rhetoric doesn’t sway my opinion one-thousandth of the way that a well informed, researched, and reasoned argument might. We are well-past the point where “news” (as it’s understood today) is useful for anything other than sowing discord.
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of being enraged and incensed because it seems as if you’re doing something . . . but you’re not. (I don’t mean you; I’m using “you” as a general term). “They” tell you to be mad and protest and yell and to be afraid and they want those reactions to be immediate because time and reasoning are their enemies.
Time and reasoning are the enemies of simple solutions that don’t work. Time and reasoning make it clear there are no simple answers and that “fixing” things is a lot more complicated than we’re led to believe based on listening to the latest outrage as reported in the news cycles.
Time and reasoning make you realize it’s not us and them; it’s just us and any permanent solution we might hope to achieve for any problem can’t come from an us/them viewpoint.
We’re made to believe there is no time to waste, and there isn’t. But neither is it the time to rush and blindly accept unrealistic and nonsensical solutions based on hating “the other side”.
And yes . . . it’s a good idea to step away and recharge and slow down one’s own thinking on all sorts of matters.
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OHMYGOSH! All of these are so cool and so artistic AND a joy to look at!
The reflected sky shot is so beautiful it made me go “OH!”…so breathtaking. And the filter-fun you had with that photo was fun for us, too!
HUGS!!! 🙂
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Thanks, diem3 . . . I do have fun with these and, while not for everyone, it’s nice when others also enjoy them.
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I’m hoping you weren’t in the news this past weekend! Were you anywhere near the tumultuous weather that hit the south?
Sent from my iPad
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Nope; not close to anything that even remotely worried us. Did get some ice and cold, but that’s something I’m familiar with.
As for being on the news, I live a life specifically tailored to avoid ever being on the news. So far, it’s working. Thanks for asking.
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