How I did it -

COMMENTS:

Steve Estill	An excellent composition, which works very well. I like the KPT filter - I haven't been able to find it for Vista, only XP. Anyone any ideas? My only comment would be to be a little more careful when erasing parts of the layers - the edges of the 'swan' layer are a bit distracting and maybe some of the sky in the lower left could be toned down a bit. Do you use a layer mask for erasing? It makes it easy to go back and to amend the selection and also to change the brush opacity for better blending.
Candy Childrey	Nice color, not too bright. Maybe being able to see the whole swans on the edges would be better than having part of them fading into the abstract area. I do not understand to point of the image.
Phil Coleman	The swans and clouds seem to fit with your title.  I don’t have so good a feeling about the multicolored spirals.  Overall, there seems to be too much going on and I don’t sense a focus.
Semi Ayatar
Avis Davidson
Georgianne Giese	My first reaction was that this was like going into a candy store—the eye is drawn fitfully everywhere! There is a profusion of imagery, perhaps a bit too much. However, I really love the fractal component. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Leif Alveen	This is certainly creative by any standard. I had to google the kpt filter collection as I had never heard of it before. It looks like a great tool, great fun, but quite expensive for a plugin filter, unfortunately. I love the effect of the fractals, but then again who wouldn't? A great idea to use the clouds with it, it creates a lovely image where the parts weave in and out at (what seems to be) random. The swans are nice as well, even though I have to admit that I would like to have the straws removed altogether. Perhaps that was not possible if it was an image already in your archives? One note: Why is the water so dull? It looks to me as the water is more bluish in the original image, and I think that would be so much better. All in all a great effort and result.

Member Bio

Avis Davidson Photography has been my passion for approximately 25 years. My first camera was a Pentax K-1000 and I had no idea how to use it or what to do with film. Thank goodness I found a camera club and my education began. I photographed weddings and sold some of my prints for a short time. Restored Memories is a very small business that I started where I restore photographs. After trying many areas in photography, I fell in love with nature and creative work. It was very difficult for me to be creative in the darkroom. My mind would be wanting to go further than my abilities or the limitations in the darkroom. Then came digital! My heart sang for joy. But the quality was very poor and I found that by doing all the crazy things I wanted to do, the quality was no longer a factor. Then the cameras started to improve and I kept spending money on them. As my age increased, I decided to no longer carry individual lenses and cameras. My latest camera is a Panasonic and so far I am pleased with the results. I am now retired and live with my 3 little rescued dogs. My daughter, Jill, son-in-law Eric and my grandson, Avery live in Connecticut. Art quilts are another passion that I am involved in. It is amazing how much my two crafts have similar creative processes