Theme: Gatorzilla!

I used a scan of a Gelli Print that I made for the background and created a threshold adjustment image of my gator photo and placed it on top.

Sorry I've been away so long, I've been painting and still doing digital composites, but my desktop with most of my older photos and plugins etc. has been in the shop for over 3 weeks, the motherboard died. It's 5 yrs. old. After almost a week in the shop I picked out a motherboard and new processor since that type of mobo was obsolete and ordered it and they put it in. Picked it up last Sat. and it had problems so I took it back Monday and haven't heard from them since. The guy supposedly had it working fine on Friday but it wouldn't boot up when I got it. I'm getting along OK with the laptop except for all my plugins and many programs and 2 drives of photos.

I like the way the ripples interact with the background. Are they from the printing process?

Thanks Dennis. The ripples were in the gator photo, not the Gelli print. Since they were light colored the blending made it hard to tell. I don't remember which blend mode I used.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Bishop

I like the way the ripples interact with the background. Are they from the printing process?

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This is the original of the gator which has been enhanced, maybe with Topaz Clean. I also added the highlights in the eyes.

I love the bg Judy. What do you use for the print, acrylic paint? I wonder if you reduced the opacity of the bg just a bit, the gator would stand out more? Marvelous work.

Thanks Jackie! I did use acrylic paint which is what is recommended for use on the Gelli Plate. I have lightened the background to make the gator show up better. Unfortunately I didn't save the layered image so I duped it in screen mode at reduced opacity, then added levels adj. layer and lowered saturation just a smidge.

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Originally Posted by Jackie Schuknecht

I love the bg Judy. What do you use for the print, acrylic paint? I wonder if you reduced the opacity of the bg just a bit, the gator would stand out more? Marvelous work.

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Hey, Judy, welcome back and I'm sorry you've had so much trouble with your computer. I have a very hard time processing images on my laptop. I think I prefer the repost - good suggestion from Jackie. I also like the one with Topaz Clean :S3:

I like the repost Judy:)

Hi Cheryl, and thanks! I have the laptop hooked up to my 24" monitor so it's not hard to process on it, it's a pretty high end laptop for a 2010 model. The worst thing was that I was just finishing up a big project of restoring/retouching 5 images for the local university to be framed together in the newly restored music hall and hadn't printed them yet. They were not copied onto my external hard drive so I had to get them to transfer them onto it at the shop, they put it into a dock to do it. (I have 4 drives in my desktop.) Then I did the final tweaks and printed them from the laptop. I sure was glad to get that behind me!!! I haven't had any paying jobs since then and hope I don't till they get it fixed.

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Originally Posted by Cheryl Slechta

Hey, Judy, welcome back and I'm sorry you've had so much trouble with your computer. I have a very hard time processing images on my laptop. I think I prefer the repost - good suggestion from Jackie. I also like the one with Topaz Clean :S3:

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Judy, I like the original because it made me open my mind to the whole image before the gator emerged from the background. For a moment I thought I was back in the 60's looking at a poster for the Fillmore. :c3: I love the subtlety of that and I think that gets lost in the repost. Either way, it's a great image!

Thanks Kerry! I like that aspect of it too. In fact, a Facebook friend suggested the name "Find the gator". I should have called it that! I also like the bolder colors, but when I created it I could have toned it down just a little but not as much as my re-do which did make it easier to recognize that it's a gator.

I like both versions, can't choose between them. Love the bright colors and design. As I wrote on flickr--the alligator is much too close for comfort--and those happy colors don't fool me. :-)

Too bad about your computer troubles. So frustrating.

Thanks Anita! Yep, it was pretty close! They have many gators at Noxubee Wildlife Refuge and to my knowledge no one has been attacked and I know of photographers who have approached them on land as close as 15 to 20 ft.! One of the park employees told me that someone in a canoe tried to go down a small ditch or creek and ran over one and it bit the canoe. Who could blame it?!

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Originally Posted by Anita Bower

I like both versions, can't choose between them. Love the bright colors and design. As I wrote on flickr--the alligator is much too close for comfort--and those happy colors don't fool me. :-)

Too bad about your computer troubles. So frustrating.

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Congratulations!