Week 26 by Judy

Egg-citing

I wanted a really cool photo to commemorate the half-way point of our NWG's 52-week photo project. The photo isn't that great, but it is of something I have never witnessed before and may never again in my lifetime. We went camping for the Thanksgiving weekend to a great county campground in Narcoossee, FL. This Peninsular Cooter Turtle surprisingly stopped and laid her eggs in the empty campsite next to ours. She dug two holes with her back legs and alternated laying her eggs in each hole. As she laid each egg, she would cover it with a thin layer of dirt and then move onto the other hole. She laid 22 eggs and it took her about a half hour. She seemed oblivious to us watching her. When done, she added enough dirt to the nest to level it off and walked off, never to visit the nest again or to ever see her baby turtles. She had some damage to her shell, probably done by a boat propeller, but it looked like it had healed. What a neat event to have witnessed!

Week 26 by Robin

Retired...For Now

This Volvo was in a wooded area at my brother's house. It may once have been in one of those Daytona car shows like Becky attended this week, but now it waits for someone to restore it to its former beauty...or not. My brother said the owner left it there. I was looking for a tutorial on how to process an old car in Photoshop for the most impact, but didn't see one that was right for this photo. So, I applied some Topaz magic and this is what I came up with :).

Week 26 by Becky

CLASSIC ABSTRACT

Had a hard time picking a photo from the many I took. My choices were a photo of my husband, my sister acting goofy during a ping pong game to the many photos I took at the Turkey Run Car/Swap show in Daytona. The car show is one of the biggest in Florida. Major classic car overload. Enjoyed it very much. I have no idea what car this is. Should start writing that down. Anyway, I just loved the lines on this one. Who am I kidding, I loved the lines on many of the cars. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 25 by Becky

Pollen Bath

This is a Green Bee I stumbled upon in my garden. It was literally bathing in the pollen. It was very interesting to watch. Not to keen on my processing on this one, but I don't have time to spend editing it.

Week 25 by Judy

Chasing Nirvana

I went with Robin to the Fine Arts Festival and I think I probably took this photo at the same store she took her gnome; although, I didn't see that little guy. That's what is so fun about going places with other photographers...everyone sees and captures different things. The store was a florist/plant nursery and had statues and figurines for sale to use for garden decorations. They obviously caught both mine and Robin's eye.
I used Topaz 5 Film Collection Vintage Grunge II. Yes, Topaz has another winner. I liked so many presets it was difficult to choose which one to apply.

Week 25 by Robin

Napping Gnome

We went to the Eau Gallie Fine Arts Festival today. There were many talented artists and it was a very enjoyable morning and early afternoon. This little gnome was in a beautiful little garden adjacent to one of the shops. I used Topaz Adjust 5 for the first time. I ran it through three of the presets, but I had so much fun playing with them I can't remember which ones. I am delighted with the new version! Yay! Topaz Labs! :)

Week 24 by Robin

Squirrel in the Tree

Went squirrel chasing this afternoon. She was up a tree looking down at me. I made her drop her nut and I am sure she is giving me a look. I rotated the photo for a more pleasing view, cloned out a branch and used a touch of Topaz, mostly on the squirrel and tree.

Week 24 by Becky

Double Bee Butt!

Walking my yard and drinking coffee. Came across what seemed to be a million honey bees having breakfast on my honeysuckle bushes. Ran in to get my camera and took a few shots. Loved how I caught two at one time. Especially love that I caught the second one coming in for the landing.

Week 24 by Judy

Quit Goofing Around!

We attended a friend's wedding reception Friday evening (11/11/11) at Fish Lips Grill at Port Canaveral. We spent the night at a nearby hotel so we wouldn't have to drive home late Friday night and to spend some time on Saturday at the Port, where many cruise ship terminals are located, to include the Disney cruise line. This photo was taken Saturday morning of the front of the Disney Magic cruise ship. In true Disney fashion, they placed this whimsical 3-D figure of Goofy painting the name of the ship on the bow. Too funny!
I forgot to change my ISO from the evening before (drat!), which I had set at 3200, so there was noise on the photo. To help "repair" this, I used Topaz's Smooth Portrait filter. I may have to get Topaz's Denoise plug-in, if I keep forgetting to check my ISO :-).

Week 23 by Robin

Street Server

From our Tarpon Springs trip with our photo club. They were having some sort of Greek street festival and they were setting up when I captured this street server. Unfortunately, a bunch of photos I took were lost, but I had such fun, I don't care! :)

Week 23 by Judy

Sponge Docks Sunset

As Becky mentioned, our camera club went to Florida Southern College and Tarpon Springs on the west coast of Florida for our annual bus field trip. Tarpon Springs is known for the being the sponge diving capital of the world. It began with Greek immigrants in the late 1800's and a large Greek-American population still live in and around Tarpon Springs.
This was the last photo I took before loading back onto the bus to head home. Did a little bit of cropping and saturation.

Week 23 by Becky

Ummmm?

Went to Florida Southern College and Tarpon Springs with my photo club. Had a wonderful time. I decided to try to be creative and funky. I laid on the ground underneath an oak tree full of spanish moss hanging down blowing in the breeze. Added a neon glow filter to give it an abstract feel.