Okay, so for Photo Phonday yesterday, I presented my pseudo-vintage firefly photo. Well, Teeni wants to see the original.

And, since I have yet to reveal the tragedy that befell her Meez that she doesn’t know about yet, plus the fact that I still haven’t revealed the mystery item from a couple weeks ago and still haven’t revealed all the stuff I won in the box from Michael Kwan, I figured the least I could do was show Teeni the original photo.

So, here it is:

Okay, I missed Photo Phriday, so it’ll have to be Photo Phonday for today.

And today’s image is a vintage firefly.

Okay, it’s not actually vintage; the photo was taken in July. But, Michelle flips out when I do anything vintage, and today is Phonday, so I must therefore post the vintage firefly. Plus, Deborah and JD may not find this fellow as creepy as the Assassin Bug. Then again, that could be a bad thing as I received a lot of comments on the Assassin Bug!

Anyway, back to today’s image. To give it a vintage look, I first desaturated the image a bit. The green leaves were actually a very lively green, so the desaturation took that bright green color down quite a bit. Next, I adjusted the hue slightly, as you know photo colors tend to shift a bit as they fade and the chemicals start to break down. Next, I applied a sepia filter. Not a true sepia, but just a touch to age the image a bit more. Then, I faded the edges, leaving really only the very middle section untouched. You know how those older cameras sometimes had the blurriness around the edge of the photos. Pete did that effect before; I don’t feel like looking up the exact post, so he’ll have to be satisfied with the generic link. He probably won’t even notice; who knows what he’s been doing with those funny yellow mushrooms he found.

Finally, and yes that was a bad place to break the paragraph but deal, I burnt the edges. But, without the burning effect; just to give the impression the edges had worn over time.

I think it turned out pretty good. Maybe it’s not something you’ll hang on your wall, but it’s a nice shot. Of course, if you do want to hang it on your wall, that could be arranged for a fee.

Do you think Google just goes nuts when I do titles like that, with words that don’t really exist? Apparently not, since I’m only ranking #8 for “photo phriday.” Maybe I’ll rank better with Photo Phonday? Crud. Someone’s already thought of that one too.

Deftly combining Pete’s negative week with his distrustful brain, here you can see the adult Luna Moth, perched on a black walnut tree, possibly in search of a mate. Negative above, positive below.

Urban Grasshopper

(For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.)

As development occurs around the area I work, you see an odd juxtaposition of elements. While we’re still suburban, parts of the area and looking more and more urban. In fact, where I work is likely to be the future heart of the urban area around here. So, we’re seeing a transition from a rural-suburban environment to a suburban-urban environment.

A most recent example is an old family farm that is going to become a residential development. The family wanted to keep the farm in the family, but, after the death of the parents, the IRS taxed the land based on what it would sell for as a residential development rather than farmland. So, with the high tax bill, the family had no choice but to sell.

Keep that in mind the next time you want to blame “greedy” developers for developing green space into buildings and housing. It’s the greedy politicians that are more often to blame!

At any rate, so as the world changes around them, nature’s little critters find themselves in unusual places. Thus, you see a grasshopper in an area which appears devoid of vegetation. Now, there is some vegetation by the parking lot, and a field off to the side, but the field is growing smaller as development rages on.

Of course, as we may bemoan the loss of greenspace around us, when it seems that everything is going to be developed and the only place we’ll see nature again is in photos and movies, it is easy to overlook just how much space there really is around us. We complain of urban sprawl, because we see it happening. But, what we don’t see is where the sprawl isn’t happening. We don’t often see the untouched lands, or the lands that just remain vacant of human activity because, for the most part, that’s not where we are!

How many times have you heard someone complain of urban sprawl and over-development and other such things? And, how many times have you heard that same someone complain of long drives being boring because they drove through large areas of nothing? Areas where there were no homes, no buildings, no restaurants, no visible development at all?

They’re out there. We just don’t see them because many of us spend so much time inside environments of steel and concrete.

Development may be painful and confusing for those in the transitional stages, but nature will find her way. The critters will adapt, or move.

That’s why you don’t often see an urban grasshopper. Once he finds there’s little food around, he’ll fly, or hop, to greener pastures.

For more photos, visit Wordless Wednesday.

Brickyard Butterfly Conceals Itself in Your Brickwork

(For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.)

I’m actually not sure what kind of butterfly this is. It looks like it’s from the Polygonia genus, but it doesn’t have the notched wings. Other than that, the coloring and body shape are very much like other members of the genus, such as the Comma and Question Mark butterflies.

So, for now, I’m just calling it a Brickyard Butterfly because of the way it seems to camouflage itself.

Leaving work Monday, driving away I noticed a bump on the brick wall. Wasn’t sure what it was, and didn’t stop to find out.

Tuesday morning, the bump was still there, with a Black Swallowtail Butterfly next to it. The “bump” was its chrysalis, which was brown in color and blended in relatively well with the grout. I never saw the caterpillar crawling on the wall at all, so he must have snuck in there during working hours.

At any rate, I captured the butterfly in a jar, which wasn’t difficult. Being recently “hatched,” he (or she) wasn’t very active just yet. Not wanting to damage its wings, I took a box, cut off one and a half sides and taped a screen to it. I released the butterfly in there so it would have some room. I kept it mostly in the dark to keep it from being too active and flying around.

Last night, I took pictures, one of which (probably the best of the bunch) was posted this morning: “Black Swallowtail Butterfly.” I didn’t really want to release it at night, plus I wanted to get photos of the outside of the wings, so I waited until this morning.

I released it at home, figuring that was a better spot for it than the industrial park where I work. Where he (or she) found food as a caterpillar, I have no idea. Not any parsley that I know of growing around here! Maybe there are some wild members of the carrot family in the weeds that grow by the parking lot.

I tried to release him (or her) on a post on the front porch, but he flew down to the ground, where I took some more photos. I then tried to place him on a plant, but he flew up. I tried to get a photo of him in flight, but he flew up into the tree and I lost sight of him.

I’m telling you I’m hopeless. Pete has zero chance of getting a guest post from me. Zero. Zilch. Nada. It will never happen!

I did it again! I started what I intended to be a guest post. Finished it up and was getting ready to send it to Pete. Then, I realized… my image wasn’t taken with my camera phone! Disqualified again. Well, rather than waste the post, here it is! As you can see, I bent the rules again. Pete invited me to send a grayscale image, so that was my starting point, but I did bend the rules! Of course, since it’s not a camera phone image, that’s breaking the rules…

Black and white photography can be great, revealing details and textures you might not pick up on in a color photograph. But, sometimes you might want to add just a little bit more punch to them to add interest or even special effects to achieve things a little more fantastical. When you’re dealing with digital photographs, there are no rules anymore as to what you can do with them!

Let’s start with the original photograph, taken in color.

First, choose the Elliptical Marquee tool and draw a circle around the firefly’s abdomen (the end that glows). You want to go larger than the actual tip, as you’re going to be creating a fantasy glow effect.

After you have your selection circled, set a Feather effect (Select > Modify > Feather). I used 50 pixels, but your selection may vary. For best results, experiment!

Now, make an inverse selection (Select > Inverse).

Finally, desaturate to remove the color. For my image, I removed all the color to have a grayscale image in the non-selected area. Maybe you’ll want to do the same, or leave some color in.

Here is my completed image:

Imagine a firefly that lives in a black and white world. In her world, her glow brings color. Maybe in your little world, you can do the opposite, where the firefly’s glow removes color. It all depends on what your imagination can come up with! If you want to take things a step further, you could even animate your creation, as I’ve done below. The possibilities are endless!

Just “born” yesterday morning!

For more about butterflies, check out “The Birth of the Butterflies.”

For more photos, visit Wordless Wednesday.

Assassin Bug Lurks in the Trees!

(For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.)

The assassin bug remains on the move. Slowly, cautiously, he moves about the leaves and branches, hunting for his prey. The assassin bug doesn’t sit around daydreaming about his prey, hoping it will come to him. He hunts. He pursues. He’s on the move.

The assassin bug acts.

Much ado is made out of daydreaming these days. Oh, yes, people will give it fancy names. Positive thinking. Mental Manifestation. Cybernetic Transposition.

While our thoughts shape the world, while it is important to have goals and visualize them, while it is important to believe in yourself and in your ability to achieve your goals, it is not enough to simply daydream about them. The problem that people have in this world is not that they don’t spend enough time visualizing what they want, it’s that they don’t spend enough time taking action to achieve their goals!

If the assassin bug daydreams about his next meal, visualizing it coming to him, he will likely starve to death.

There is no doubt that the human mind is a powerful thing, but let us not forget that we also have hands! There is also no doubt that we all have a tendency to do the least amount of work necessary. And, that’s what makes these programs and systems with “creative visualization” and stuff so popular, as it gives us justification to sit there daydreaming instead of taking action! We argue we are taking “action” by visualizing what we want. Dream it and it will appear! It’s more like, dream it and the bill collectors will appear!

How many successful people do you know became successful by daydreaming? Call it wishful thinking, or mental manifestation, or cybernetic transposition or whatever term you want; it’s daydreaming. Do you know of anyone that became successful by daydreaming about their success? They became successful because they took action toward it!

If you want to wish yourself successful, you might as well play the lottery.

Have a goal, and visualize achieving that goal, but then do as the assassin bug does: pursue that goal! Take action toward that goal! Achieve that goal!