Twice today I’ve seen a Belted Kingfisher at my dock. Twice today I’ve grabbed my Olympus OMD EM1 Mark II with 300mm f/4 Pro lens to try to sneak up on him and get his picture. Twice today, said Kingfisher saw me coming from a long way away and flew off.

So I get to the dock and there’s beautiful light. No birds to take pictures of. So I try to reset my vision and see things in a different way. Wonderful reflections played on the water and caught my attention. Beautiful trees filled with autumn color danced in the water. So I tried a few different compositions, paying attention to the lines in the trees, the dots of the colored leaves and the movement of the water. Finally the one that made the cut is the one above. Bringing into Topaz Studio and using the Impressions plug in, I added a painterly effect with reduced opacity. I then rotated the image upside down to have the tree appear like it was right side up.

In the afternoon, the water reflected the skies and the trees across the river. Depending on which direction I faced, the water had a different color. Watching the river’s movement I captured the waters spirit.

The setting sun caught a tree on fire across the river and it was begging for an impressionist capture. Here is the original:

The lines and leaf structure in these trees had lots of detail that reminded me of Pointillism and using Topaz Impressions plug in with Topaz Studio I tried a wide variety of artistic filters to find the one that I liked the most. This is with the Swirly Strokes filter with reduced painting process and opacity.

In 2018, I hope to begin exploring the world of abstracts and art more in depth. Opening up one’s eyes, mind and heart to see the world around us in a different way will bring such amazing discoveries that would have never been seen before.

I can’t wait to see where my path leads me on this journey of the intangible.