(willow having a good ol’ laugh)
- I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose. ~Woody Allen
- At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. ~Jean Houston
- Even if there is nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit. ~Author Unknown
- Mirth is God’s medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it. ~Henry Ward Beecher
- Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis. ~Jack Handey, “Deep Thoughts,” Saturday Night Live
- The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. ~e.e. cummings
- Laughter is an instant vacation. ~Milton Berle
- What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of a laugh! ~Agnes Repplier
- So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter. ~Gordon W. Allport
- Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. ~Victor Borge
- What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. ~Yiddish Proverb
- When people are laughing, they’re generally not killing each other. ~Alan Alda
- Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. ~Kurt Vonnegut
- A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. ~Irish Proverb
- Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on. ~Bob Newhart
- A hearty laugh gives one a dry cleaning, while a good cry is a wet wash. ~Puzant Kevork Thomajan
I found this isolated boardwalk at Birdlands in the Dandenong Ranges, Australia. After a few picts I just couldn’t capture the curves, motion and contrasts I was seeing. I tilted the camera and voila … an image with nice motion running down the curves of the boardwalk. Now that’s more like it!
EXIF Data
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL
Shutter Speed: 1/1600 second
F Number: F/5.6
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Date Picture Taken: Apr 9, 2008, 2:06:32 PM
I have started experimenting with combining my love of art, especially indigenous art, with my photography. Using the GIMP, I edited one of my old photos of a butterfly garden decoration. I removed the background to the butterfly and tweeks the image curves to produce an image with nice stark contrasting lines and no background.
Using a multitude of layers, I slowly experimented with various paint brushes and tools to produce the effects I wanted. The final image background was produced by painting a green, blue and dab of white background. I then used the filter>artistic>cubism selection to create the chunky effect,
The rest was a slow and patient application of dots with the paint brush tool.
This was a test run to see what types of effects I could create. All in all, I like the concept and have a few other ideas up my sleeve. If you have any ideas or want to share your work … give me a comment below.
This image was inspired by Dan Simmon’s book Hyperion. In it there is a planet called God’s Grove. God’s Grove is a forest planet, home of the Templars, whose worship of nature seeks to mold life to preserve and spread it throughout the galaxy. The Templars designed their star ships to look like giant trees.
High resolution images taken of Space are grand and majestic. However, few people have exposure to them. Occasionally I’ll develop a concept like this to utilize these powerful images. I do this for my own gratification but also to hopefully encourage more people to develop an appreciation and desire to learn more about objects in our heavens. The image above uses a Hubble Space Telescope shot of the Orion Nebula.
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south[b] of Orion’s Belt. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,270±76 light years[2] and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. Older texts frequently referred to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula. Yet older, astrological texts refer to it as Ensis (Latin for “sword”), which was also the name given to the star Eta Orionis, which can be seen close to the nebula from Earth.
The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula.
If you get a chance, read some of Simmon’s books. He does an excellent job of blending classical literature with Science Fiction and also, take the time to look upward and appreciate the majesty of space.
