This month Katherine Cobert of Cobert Photography chose the theme {Double Exposure}. We did this theme a number of years ago in 2017, but it was great to revisit it again. I certainly experimented a bit more and learned some new methods of doing things

I will confess that by Monday evening a week before we were due to go live, I had nothing. The little guy in the picture below is our heart, and he was really sick last week. I had had him the Thursday night and he cried sobbing pitiful crying most of the night until he eventually fell asleep on my chest. Saturday night he was rushed to the ER where his parents were told that his ears and throat were blood red. That’s resulted in a lot of shots and doctors and specialist visits. It’s Saturday today and while he is a lot more cheerful. You can help though to want to watch him closely.

For my first Double Exposure I picked two images to combine. The first of Luka and the second of his mom. I had to rotate her so that she fitted into the image better. The image of Amy was taking during her pregnancy and so the words that I added really speak to the pregnancy. ” No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all you are the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside”. I can tell you now, not only does she love him, but he really loves her. That’s who he wants every time there is a choice. Below are the two images I used to create this double exposure.

Back in 2019, when Amy came back from Macedonia, I did a number of “business” type photo’s of her. Recently in January I visited the Butterfly World. I wanted to combine the two images without going outside of her body. I learned how to rotate images using the R key and using a mask to keep the pictures inside her body.

Below are the two images I used to create this double exposure.

Last year we traveled to Macedonia for the second wedding reception for Amy and Daniel and especially for Daniel’s family. What I tried to do with this double exposure was create a photo mosaic. During this challenge I discovered Blue Lightning TV Photoshop and he really does a step by step tutorial on how to do this. He made the images a lot smaller, but I chose to make them bigger so that you could see the different places we visited. The mosaic is made up of 100 images and then combined with their wedding image

Below are the two images I used for the image above. One learning curve if you try this, make sure all your image face the same direction. Only use vertical or only use horizontal. I had to go back and change out the images.

During our time in Vinica, Amy, Richard, Luka (in his stroller) and I did a walk (although it felt like a hike) up to the fort ruins above the city named Vinikco Kale. These ruins apparently stretch right through to a neighboring town and more and more of it is being excavated. We only did the area directly above the city. For this image I combined a photo of Amy on the fort walls and an image looking out to the next city Kochani.

Below are the two images I used. The countryside is beautiful and you can see the new town over in the middle of the image. I was reminded of the country I grew up in. Florida is so flat that when you see mountains you truly appreciate them.

For this image I combined another image of Amy taken in 2019, along with a photo I took in Kochani, Macedonia. I saw the words in one of the clothing store windows and really loved it. For this image I reduced the saturation and then combined it with the word image.

Below are the two images I used.

While in Macedonia, we visited a town called Struga. It was very much a holiday town, with lots of hotels and restaurants on the lake and along a city waterway. They also had a great umbrella walk. We noticed a couple of young men kayaking in the waterway. The river flows through this water way to the lake so the current moves fairly fast. Also they have a new bridge called the New Drim Bridge and the current flows through there and creates a weir of sorts. I combined three images in what I understand is called stacking.

Below are the three images I used. I did some cropping and rotating to get some of the wave action. Another interesting tale. People were diving off bridges and swimming in this waterway. It was a great little town and eventually I will get to the blogs on the city.

Another city that we stayed in was the Capital. I always think of the Hunger Games when I say the capital. Skopje is a very interesting city. The capital it is the largest city in Macedonia, with a population of around 640,000 people. The majority of the population are ethnic Macedonians, however 25 % of the population is made up of Albanian, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities. It’s an interesting city of new and old culture. The new side of Skopje houses the hotels, businesses more modern living. The older side of Skopje, the Old Bazaar, is where you find interesting passageways, places to eat and drink and of course there is always Turkish coffee if you are someone who loves coffee. Another thing of interest is that Skopje has about 100 statues scattered around this area.

I chose these three images to combine in a stacking format. The first image is the family walking from the Old Bazaar over the stone bridge back into the newer part of the city. This is a great big square with a great big statue of Alexander the Great. At the base of the statue are various lions and fountains. One of the first images I have of Amy in Macedonia, when she was with the Peace Corp, was of her running across the square with water fountains rising up from the ground. Moving on down the river from where the stone bridge crosses were three boats one of them was actually a hotel. When I was originally researching accommodation, I looked at the boat as a potential place to stay. However, now that we have been there I am glad that we did not choose to stay on a boat. I did enjoy the comforts of the Marriot Hotel after the road trip we did.

This image was taken in the countryside of Macedonia. While researching things to do and see in Macedonia (because I always like to be prepared), I came across a article on a place called the Sunken Church on the Mavrovo Lake. From what I had read the church was built at the bottom end of the lake. At some point they decided to create a larger lake and flooded the area with water, and the church became a casualty of that exercise. From what I read, dependent on the water level at the time, the church could be totally under water, halfway under water for as it was for us, completely out of the water. In fact, they actually looked like they were working on the church.

I used these three images below in a stacking format. The image of the outside of the church shows that they are doing something to the church but I am not sure what. When you walk inside the church the roof is totally destroyed and the inside pillars are either broken or lying at odd angles. It was a super interesting building and I am very grateful that we stopped there to see what we could see. The last image I stacked was taken in the grasses just above the church. One day I will get to blog this visit as well.

Shifting away from Macedonia, I wanted to try another form of double exposure. Again using a tutorial from Blue Lightening TV Photoshop, I did my best to transform the photo into a brick wall portrait. Actually I attempted this image with 3 different walls. I will say that the clean smooth wall worked the best. For this image I used a photo taken at the gum wall in Seattle and combined it with a photo I had taken of Luka in December.

As you will see from the image below I first had to remove the heart and b&b from the gum wall as well as the name Liz. I thought people may think Luka’s name was Liz and that he was a girl 🙂 . I also relocated one of the pieces of gum as well. This was an interesting experiment with a lot of work, and replaying the tutorial over and over again.

Another image from the Seattle trip with this one of Bruce Lee. Again I used the stacking concept for this image. Chinatown in Seattle was so interesting and I loved combining all three images to show case the fascinating history that it has. If you grew up in my era, you will know who Bruce Lee is.

Finally this was an interesting concept to attempt. Using Blue Lightning TV Photoshop tutorial I attempted to use smoke brush keys to change up the photo of Amy. His tutorial had smoke going off the head of his model but honestly, every time I tried to do that it just looked weird. So I decided that I would use the smoke brushes to create a different type of texture to her hair.

Below is the image I used to create the smoke textured hair. Obviously I created a background a different shape to her original photo. I selected and moved her onto the back ground and then using the transform tool I resized her to fit what the canvas that I had. I also used the Rotate tool a lot in this image. The brushes were interesting shapes and it definitely was fun but it was an image that I re-did 3 times.

Double exposure if fun. I loved playing and I really enjoyed all the different techniques that I tried, even if I had to do them over and over again. It was definitely a learning curve.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Lupji Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what he has to share. You can see more of his work by clicking on his Instagram page. Definitely check out his incredible art.

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