It seems like Milo has been stuck in the Doldrums forever! But he is now finally making his escape! Thanks to the help of the Watchdog, Milo has figured out that the way out of the Doldrums is to think of new things and things he already knows. So he thinks about words that begin with J, numbers that end in 3, yesterday's lunch and tomorrow's dinner, birds that swim and fish that fly. And as he thinks of all these interesting things, the wheels begin to turn, and the car begins to move! As Milo's thoughts grow, the faster the car goes until finally he is well beyond the Doldrums heading towards his original destination, Dictionopolis. And he now has a companion, the Watchdog, to help keep him on task.
What amused me the first time I read this book with my older son, was the fact that the author depicted "real life" in such a creative but truthful way. How many times over the course of my life have I found myself in a funk, feeling blah and unmotivated. If I just get the wheels of my brain turning, I'm amazed at how quickly I pull out of it. I think that's one of the reasons why I enjoy challenges such as this, because they cause me to think and look at things in a different way. My first thought in conquering this word was to pull some fish out of the freezer and shoot that. Too easy!! So instead I used a little glass fish that was given to me as a gift a while back and played around with the processing. I love it when my brain cells get fired up!
@daveanajao Thanks Dave! @karenann You would not believe what I did to this one! I don't even remember all the different effects I used!! But I really do like how it ended up! @changingtides Thanks Allie! @digitalrn Thanks Rick!
wow! this is fantastic. it's like one of those expensive lithographs i see in those fancy nouveau shops. talk about fired up brain cells. no wonder you look so young - from one grandma to another :-)
@summerfield Thanks Summerfield! Yes- I totally agree. Using your imagination and sparking up the creative brain cells definitely keeps you young! From one young looking grandma to another!!
Oh, I LOVE this. Fav for me! I love the processing step...some denigrate it, say it isn't good if not SOOC, but to me, it is another talent and art form... Were the wavy lines in the background or edited in there? Anyway...love it and thanks for letting me know to tag my shots for the challenge. I agree about the challenge too...that it gets you thinking and " playing" ... you never get old if you keep "playing."
@espyetta Thanks so much Marybeth! The waves in the background and the ridges on the bottom are from scrapbooking paper- the bottom is sandridges and the background a decorative wave pattern. The original shot of the little glass fish was ok, but nothing worth taking a second glance of. So I bumped up the color just a notch in the basic edits, then hit "boost" in the special effects. After that I ran it through the Cross Processing effect and really liked how it changed the colors! After that I was just goofing around and added on the Infared effect for "thermal" and pow! It just became this truly interesting shot! But it needed a little more balance, so I added the bubbles to put a touch more blue in there and I think it finished the picture perfectly. I could probably play around with every picture this way, but I don't want to rely on processing too much (it can be overused) so I try to go back and forth from SOOC and processing. That too, keeps your mind always on the go! Thanks so much for the fav!!
@olivetreeann The bubbles DO make it. And yes, I like both...processing and SOOC. They are both worthy! :0) And thanks for the processing details. A few months ago, if you'd written that to me, I would have been like "WHAT are you talking about?" but I got it now! Yay!
@kerristephens Thanks Kerri!
@karenann You would not believe what I did to this one! I don't even remember all the different effects I used!! But I really do like how it ended up!
@changingtides Thanks Allie!
@digitalrn Thanks Rick!