The Polar Coordinate Filter

Photo manipulating programs have a polar coordinate filter that can turn a photo into a circular shape that is reminiscent of a fortune teller’s orb. I recently found a post by Russel Ray with full directions and illustrations for how to create An orb in Photoshop. Be sure to go to his post to see his intriguing results!

I used Photoshop Elements to create my Orbs (also called Amazing Circles). I’m very excited with the results, though I will soon have so many of them that I expect the novelty will wear off – for you. I don’t think I will tire of it soon because each one is so unpredictable. I never know what will be inside the orb photo until it is complete!

Here are my first three orbs and the photo I used to create them.

Mayday Tree

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Bergenia

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Willow

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If you would like to try making your own orb photos, here are my simplified directions. If you have any problems, go to the Russel Ray link at the beginning of this post.

1. Open your picture in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop and enhance it as desired. I usually adjust the lighting levels.

2. Crop it to a square, or a ratio of 1:1.

3. Click on Filter – Distort – Polar Coordinates – Polar to Rectangular – OK

4. Click on Image – Rotate – Flip Vertical.

5. Click on Filter – Distort – Polar Coordinates – Rectangular to Polar – OK.

That is it. You are done.

This isn’t a new technique. It has been around for a few years. Click on this link to see a large number of Amazing Circles that have been submitted to flickr.

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For my photo of a warped Jellyfish  see Weekly Photo Challenge: Distorted

iSee Ladybugs

Ladybugs all dressed in red
Strolling through the flowerbed.
If I were tiny just like you
I’d creep among the flowers too!
- Maria Fleming -

The Ladybug wears no disguises.
She is just what she advertises.
A speckled spectacle of spring,
A fashion statement on the wing….
A miniature orange kite.
A tiny dot-to-dot delight.
- J. Patrick Lewis, “The Little Buggers” -

The ladybug’s a beetle.
It’s shaped like a pea.
Its color is a bright red
With lots of spots to see.
Although the name is ladybug
Some ladybugs are men.
So why don’t we say “gentleman bug”
Every now and then?
- Author Unknown -

How brave a ladybug must be!
Each drop of rain is big as she.
Can you imagine what you’d do,
If raindrops fell as big as you?
- Aileen Fisher -

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SLIDESHOW: Click on any photo to open a slide show. Press your ‘es-ca-pay’ button to close the slide show.

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COMMENTS are disabled for gallery posts such as this. If you have a ladybug story to share, click on the following link and choose one of the posts: Ladybugs

Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

Dory: [Reading a sign on a door] Hey, look. “Es-ca-pay”! Hey, it’s spelled just like escape.
- Dory the Blue Tang fish in the movie ‘Finding Nemo’ -

I always thought that Ford Motors should have used Dory’s mispronunciation of ‘Escape’ to promote their Ford Escape.  ‘Es-ca-pay’ sounds so much more daring than plain old ‘escape’.

When we were living in the Middle East, I drove a bright red Jeep Cherokee. One day a British women approached me (and my Jeep) and said, “Oh, I just love your Chur-o-key!” It took me a few seconds to realize that she was referring to my car. (Cherokee, to me, starts with a ‘chair’ sound, to her it starts with a ‘chur’ as in church sound.)
The lesson I learned from my years overseas is that there is more than one way to pronounce a great many words, and the sooner you accept that, the more fun language becomes.  I can ‘es-ca-pay in my chur-o-key’ – what words are you willing to liberate?

There is a hill behind the cabin and at the very top is a huge pasture. We often see horses up there, yet we never see them down in our valley. I don’t really understand why they don’t escape from their confines – the fence is down in many places.

I suppose, to the horses, the grass is simply not greener on the other side of the fence. They do not want to ‘es-ca-pay’!

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Other barbed wire photos: Macro Monday – Poked

Surprise in the Ditch

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Other Photos for this Challenge: Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

A Yard Full of Prickles

He’d always had a quickening of the heart when he crossed into Arizona and beheld the cactus country. This was as the desert should be, this was the desert of the picture books, with the land unrolled to the farthest distant horizon hills, with saguaro standing sentinel in their strange chessboard pattern, towering supinely above the fans of ocotillo and brushy mesquite.”
- Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man -

We spent part of our winter in Arizona. The landscaping in our yard is more aptly called hardscaping since it is mostly paving stones and rock. There are a number of green plants – most of them of the prickly variety. Here they are, up close in all their spiny glory.

Golden Barrel Cactus

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Fishhook Barrel Cactus

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Possibly a type of Hedgehog Cactus

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Saguaro Cactus

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Prickly Pear Cactus

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There is one animal that is not intimidated by the Prickly Pear Cactus. It is the Javelina. It looks much like a Wild Boar, but it isn’t. (For more information about this animal, here is an article called ‘Do Not Mess with Javelinas‘). I haven’t actually seen Javelinas in our yard, but I do know what they dine on – my Prickly Pear Cactus!

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My recent story about a cactus in bloom: Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense