Aww…some Monday’s Music Moves Me

Aww…some Mondays

Fun With Filters

A lot of people I know enjoy taking photos but they dislike the post processing. I actually enjoy both. I am by no means an expert in either phase of photography and there are a million things that I still need to learn about capturing and editing images. From time to time I like to take an image and just mess with it by adding filters. My photo editing programs of choice are PhotoShop Elements 2020 and On1 RAW. PhotoShop Elements does more than I am capable of doing and is less expensive than the subscription service to full blown PhotoShop. On1 RAW is a series of pre-sets and filters one can use to create unique effects without an in depth knowledge of photo editing terms like layering, masks, etc. Recently I took a walk around our local town and photographed some murals. There is a small restaurant/coffee shop that caught my eye, so let’s have some fun with filters.

This image is SOTC (Straight Out of The Camera). The mural is whimsical and I asked myself, “What happens if you close to that plant and shoot through the foliage?” It kind of looks like you are sneaking up on the cat.

After a few enhancements to clarity, texture, and adding a vignette, here is how a focused section of the mural. The image has been cropped to 8×10 proportions, the colors have been enhance slightly and the exposure has been edited in PhotoShop Elements (PSE). The texture has been enhanced with On1 RAW. Now let’s get funky.

Okay, now I have added a dark vignette and a “Cold Fusion” lens flare pre-set from On1 RAW. The yellow flare over the cat almost looks like an idea has popped into his head. The whole process took about 15 minutes and now I get to share it with you and my FaceBook friends. This is just one of the ways I entertain myself during these shelter-in-place COVID-19 days.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

Last week I got ahead of myself and posted songs fit for this week’s theme. The theme at 4M this week is songs that are about the moon or have the moon in the title. If you want to know what my original choices were, just scroll down and listen to my choices. I think I will freestyle this week, with one exception. My parents were members of The Greatest Generation and their favorite music came from the Big Band era. My mother’s favorite big band was the Glen Miller Orchestra because Glen Miller played the clarinet and that was the instrument my mother played in her high school band.

Now I’m going to switch gears and choose music from a different theme. I graduated from high school in 1965 and looking back it was an awesome year for music. The Stones released “Satisfaction”, the Beatles charted “Help”, the Righteous Brothers had their best year with “Unchained Melody” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”. Even the Billboard 100th ranked song for the year was Marvin Gay and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You). So, let’s start there and listen to just how great 1965 was for music.

1965 was a very good year. Have a blessed week.

26 thoughts on “Aww…some Monday’s Music Moves Me”

  2. Cathy Kennedy

    I love to do photo play! Like, you I enjoy all the various processes in bringing a photo to Blogosphere. There’s much I have yet to learn, as well. Your photos are always excellent. I like the photo-edits of the fun mural. I want very much to go downtown to have time to photograph whatever captures my eye. I’ve been saying this for the past two or three years and have yet to do it. Life with all of its busyness is to blame. Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Serenade” is a gorgeous song. I love the big band sound and how it transports me another time. Your 1965 songs are classic, well known tunes. I was only 4-years old when these songs came out but they played frequently toward the end of the decade and into the 70s for me to remember from my childhood. I love mewsic from the past and no matter what the era is, the tunes seem magical. Thanks for sharing the 4M dance floor with us this week, my friend. Have a boogietastic week. Stay safe and be well. 😉

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    1. DrillerAA

      I honestly believe that the 60’s will be remembered as the golden age of rock music. The variety was endless and the bands were epic. I could do a whole year of posts just on the bands.
      There is so much I don’t know about PhotoShop Elements and On1 Raw that it is frightening, but I enjoy the learning experience every time I load an image for processing.

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  4. Sandee

    I love your photography. I’ve not tried to edit photographs. Not that accomplished.

    I love the shot of Miss Lucy. What a happy pup.

    Moonlight Serenade is one of my favorites. I love all the big band sounds.

    Thank you for joining the Awww Mondays Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Awww Monday and week, my friend. 🙂

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    1. DrillerAA

      I enjoy sharing Lucy with other bloggers. Our town is full of interesting mural art and I need to post a little more of it. “My Girl” is just such an easy listening, make you wanna dance song.

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  12. My GBGV Life

    Editing is part of photography and it allows you to not only fix up a photo, but to add your own personality to it. We have photoshop elements as well, but there is so much to learn we will never figure it all out. We tried to switch to lightroom which is supposed to be better, but it was like starting all over with learning to edit, so we went back to photoshop. Editing takes a long time, but it can be fun too.

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  13. yogiabb

    Great job with the filters. You have the artistic sense and technical skill to really makes some works of art.

    Musicwise, 1965 was great. It’s kind of funny from the 60’s to early 70’s when I see top 100 singles list for those years I know almost every single song. I look at a current top 100 list and I don’t know any of them. Literally, seriously.

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