Harry Stone

[Dennis Bishop]

When I spied these stones (just off the southern shore of Lake Erie) with whatever was growing on them, I had to take some photos. When there's something stationary in moving water, I often do long exposures. The longest in the set of three from which this was produced was 30 seconds. That rendered the water featureless, which didn't work with the large expanse in the upper left, so I added some interest to the water with textures.





Nikon D3s, ISO 100, f/22, three-exposure HDR, zoom lens at 102 mm, no doubt one or more neutral density filters, and perhaps a 2X teleconverter

processing highlights

• two Photo Filter adjustment layers (Underwater and Red), inverse masks
• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset, masked
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode
• another Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Cooling 80, masked
• seven (yes, seven) Belle Fleur textures -- four masked
• Fractalius -- three saved black-on-white layers; Multiply, Divide, Multiply
• Snap Art and Simplify -- two saved black-on-white edges presets, Multiply
• Alien Skin Exposure -- for the wash effect at the edges

[Hazel Grant]

A fun play on words. Nice contrast between the textures of the stones and the softness of the water background

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Dennis, this reminds me of an illustration in a children's book (maybe about pirates and this is a map of their sailing routes).

[Diane Miller]

Nice find and wonderful idea with the slow SS. The treatment and textures are perfect here!!

[Nancy Bell]

Cheryl captured my thoughts exactly. This is delightful and whimsical! BTW, very clever title. Much better than "slimy green stuff on rocks".

[Anita Bower]

Nicely presented. I like how the colors seem to be evenly spread out (not sure that sentence makes sense.) Nice work on the water. I wonder about adding some of the slimy green stuff to the one stone along lower border so it doesn't stand out as much. This could be a crayon drawing--a very nice one.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I wonder about adding some of the slimy green stuff to the one stone along lower border so it doesn't stand out as much. . . .

Thanks, Anita, you have a good point. It really hadn't occurred to me because of my familiarity with what's pictured, here. That rock in the foreground, and I think it's mostly-hidden neighbor to the right, were on the shore and not subjected to the green stuff. I don't think I'd want to add any to it, but desaturating it a bit and adding some yellow -- more like on the other rocks -- might make it stand out less.

[Judy Howle]

I love this Dennis! Perfect processing and nice colors. Well done!