On a recent comment, oneowner and I discussed Topaz’s Legacy plugins . . . which prompted me to play with a few I haven’t used in a while. The photos I used to play with the plugins were those of the recent bird post (HERE).

The first candidate was the Gray Catbird . . .

My aim was to transform photos into drawings. I think the above is me using Impression 2. I liked the results, so I continued.

For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.  

For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

A few of my apps can ‘insert’ fire into a photo. I don’t use them because I don’t think the results look realistic

Here are a few photos; from a few flames to a raging inferno.

For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS SmugMug Gallery.  

For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

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Painting pergolas is tedious work . . . especially since the people who originally painted it didn’t do a good job of prepping it.

When I went to scrape off the loose paint, I found a few boards were rotting away. I don’t think the joints were properly caulked, so moisture got trapped between two of the support beams, and since they rested on a flat board, the water didn’t have many places to drain … so it didn’t.

So, rather than take the thing apart — which would basically mean replacing it all, I executed repairs, stripped as much of the old paint as I could, recaulked everything, and I’m now ready to prime and paint.

What was meant to be a one or two day job, got longer because people can’t be bothered to do a good job. Really, it was a half-assed effort and I’m now having to put the other half-ass in. Plus, I don’t think they primed the pressure treated wood (or it was still too wet) so lots of the paint was loose. If I were to give advice to someone who built a pergola, it would be to either leave the natural wood or stain it. You can paint it, but then every two years or so, touch it up before the paint starts to peel, otherwise you’ll have a messy and tedious job on your hand.

So, I’m tired, don’t feel like writing, don’t feel like doing a proper post . . . so I played around with the above photo.