3D Borders (part 2)

For the past few days I have been trying my hand at making the 3D Borders (showen earlier).

The photos below are my latest attempts.  Obviously I still have a ways to go, but I said I would post my attempts so you could either watch my failures or give comments on how I can improve.

GRAND CANYON

GRAND CANYON

MONUMENT CANYON

House in Scottsdale AZ

Canadian Tulip Festival (Ottawa, Canada)

The Canadian Tulip Festival, now in its 59th year, has grown to become the largest Tulip Festival in the world. It preserves the local heritage of Canada’s role in freeing the Dutch during World War II, and the symbolic tulip; a gift in perpetuity to the Canadian people for providing a safe harbour to the Dutch Royal Family at that time.

The festival’s mandate is to preserve this heritage and celebrate the tulip as a symbol of international friendship by engaging local organizers, volunteers, artists, performers, tourists and festival-goers in what has become an annual ritual of spring and one of Canada’s best loved and well-known cultural events

In the fall of 1945, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands presented Ottawa with 100,000 tulip bulbs. The gift was given in appreciation of the safe haven that members of Holland’s exiled royal family received during the World War II in Ottawa and in recognition of the role which Canadian troops played in the liberation of the Netherlands.

The tulips have become an important symbol of international friendship and spring, with special meaning to the people of Canada and its Capital Region.

In early June 1940, Princess Juliana and her two small daughters secretly boarded a Dutch vessel bound for Halifax. After a long sea voyage, they moved into Ottawa’s Government House. Safe in the Ottawa region, Princess Juliana was able to take over the reins of government-in-exile if the need arose.

The birth of Princess Margriet Francisca, the third daughter of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard, was a symbol of hope and a source of inspiration for the Dutch who were fighting for their survival in Europe. The only royal baby ever born in North America, her birth created a living bond between the people of Canada and the Netherlands. To ensure the baby’s Dutch citizenship, the Canadian government temporarily ceded a room at the Ottawa Civic Hospital to the Netherlands. On January 19, 1943, the flag of the Netherlands flew on Parliament’s Peace Tower and Princess Margriet was born a Dutch citizen on Dutch soil in the safe haven of Canada. Once the war had ended, the people of the Netherlands and Princess Juliana sent the Canadian people many magnificent gifts, including 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada’s Capital in gratitude for the involvement of Canadian troops in the liberation of the Netherlands. In 1946, Princess Juliana herself gave an additional 20,000 bulbs to the country that had given her refuge. A few years after the Dutch tulips arrived in 1945, they became a strong attraction in Canada’s Capital, and stunning pictures appeared in newspapers nationwide resulting in more and more events around the annual bloom of tulips.

The first Canadian Tulip Festival was held in 1953 lead by the Ottawa Board of Trade, at the suggestion of world-renowned photographer Malak Karsh. Karsh is considered the founder of the Festival and his photographs have immortalized the tulip. Through his efforts, the Canadian Tulip Festival was formalized to coincide with the tulip’s annual bloom. In 2002, the Festival celebrated its 50th Anniversary dedicated to its founder, having expanded to an event of 18 days, showcasing over 3 million tulips throughout Canada’s Capital Region.

Over the years the Festival has been opened by Governor Generals, Prime Ministers and Royalty, including several return visits from Queen Juliana and Princess Margriet. Through the 1990s and into the new millennium, the Canadian Tulip Festival celebrated the Tulip as a symbol of Peace and Friendship creating an international bond by collaborating with Friendship countries, which include the Netherlands, Turkey, France, Japan, the United States, Great Britain and Australia.

To celebrate its roots of International Friendship, the Canadian Tulip Festival created the International Pavilion in Major’s Hill Park and became the “festival without fences” with all park events offering free admission. The International Pavilion provides a venue for over 20 partnering embassies and local cultural groups to showcase their wares and origins to tourists and festival-goers alike.

Each spring hundreds of thousands of people from all over North America, Europe and Asia make over a million visits to the Canadian Tulip Festival. The event, which grew from the Dutch gift of friendship, has become the world’s largest Tulip Festival. The tulip has also become Ottawa’s official flower, making Ottawa the tulip capital of the North America.

While the photos were taken by me the wording was taken from the official Tulip Festival Web Site (http://www.tulipfestival.ca/history/).

Comments always welcome.

Mother's Day Bouquet

Mother's Day has arrived and passed.  This year one of our Daughters gave my wife a bouquet of flowers.  In anticipation of the Tulip Festival I thought I might practice with these to ensure I have this technique working before I head out in search of tulips.

Comments always welcome and next should be the Tulip Festival

Learning Curve - Part 1

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was going to try to understand and incorperate the 3D Borders into some of my photos.  While I have yet to venture into the GREAT OUTDOORS for new images I have spent some time trying this new method of image presentation.

I thought you might enjoy watching as I try to master this technique.  As you will see, I still have a long way to go.

More to come as I continue down this frustrating road.

A Day Trip to Smiths Falls (Ontario)

Smiths Falls is one of the most varied and historic towns in Ontario. Located in the exact center of Eastern Ontario, it is the Falls located in the centre of town from which the name was derived.

Smiths Falls history dates from the American Revolutionary War (United Empire Loyalists). In the late 1700's UEL Thomas Smyth received a gift of 400 acres from the Royal Commission. Smyth, as well as other settlers, used the many falls in the region to build sawmills and other water-powered businesses.

Originally named Smyth's Falls in 1784, after Thomas Smyth who died in 1831, the little village began to take shape by 1840.

The Rideau Canal was formerly opened in 1832 after construction was started in 1826. It was the 'greatest engineering feat' of the day, and actually gave birth to Smiths Falls as a settlement.

By 1860 there were apporximately 1,100 inhabitants.

About 1880 Smith's Falls started being written as Smiths Falls without the apostrophe. However, it was not until as late as April 11, 1968, that the name Smiths Falls became official. It took an Act of the Ontario Legislature to officially remove the apostrophe.

Later to become an important railway centre in 1885, Smiths Falls was made the divisional point of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). And so by 1886 Smiths Falls was a "boom town" because of the railway.

In the 1890's Smiths Falls claimed to be the world's turkey market centre, including Trukey Fairs.

The 1960's was the turning point in Smiths Falls development; a downturn from which it wouldn't recover until the mid 1990's when it transformed itself into a profitable business and tourist centre.

Today the residents of Smiths Falls are proud of their community and take a very active involvement in its on-going development of industry and tourism.

Currently there are over 9,000 people who live, work and play in Beautiful Smiths Falls.

More to come soon.

Borders and Framing 3D Photos

I have discovered and am now trying to learn how to frame and/or cut borders around 3D photos.  The problem is, where you put a line or cut a photo on one side of the 3D image is not necessarily the same place you place the line or cut the photo on the other photo.

If you just put a framed line around a photo it appears flat and in the distance, care therefore needs be taken to ensure the effect you are trying to obtain.

While I have much to learn, here are two examples I have been working on, trying to get this effect to work.

1.  This photo has a standard "box" frame around it but if you  look closely, the placement of the frame gives an exagerated effect of the bow of the tug proturding beyond (outside) the frame.  Thus the frame is used to enhance the 3D effect.

2.  The next two photos are the same.  The first is the original photo taken on site and the second is the "cutout" boarder to give a "modelling" effect to the image.  While this is not necessarily the best photo to have used in this example it was the best I had at the time.  Once I get this effect down properly, I will spend careful time finding more suitable photo shoots to best fit the borders.

Any feedback appreciated.

Spring Blossoms in Our Nations Capital

Magnolia Trees:

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol.

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are tough, to avoid damage by eating and crawling beetles. Fossilised specimens of Magnolia acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae dating to 95 million years ago.  Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals: Magnolias possess undifferentiated flower parts for which the term "tepals" was coined.

The natural range of Magnolia species is a disjunct distribution, with a main center in east and southeast Asia and a secondary center in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies, and some species in South America.

More spring posts to come, as the flowers do.