'shrooms and Photoshop

I have a fondness for fungus in nature. I take photos of them in my neighborhood, in the woods and anywhere I can capture their beauty. While walking my terrier, Honey, I've taken loads of pics of mushrooms growing on my neighbors' front yards. The city replaced several trees on their parkways in the Spring, so it was a good summer to see a lot of different varieties. I captured the 'shroom above basking in the sunlight. It was a perfect angle for the shot.

I then went home and uploaded it to my laptop and played with it in Photoshop. I didn't need to enhance or change the actual fungus--it was perfect! But I added some "accessories" to my scene. With the first, I added more mushrooms from previous photoshoots and popped a fairy into the scene.  

With the second scene, I cropped it close and added a photo of a garden gnome from another neighbor's yard. The gnome in this case was pure white cement, so I colored in his clothes and  beard to make my fantasy figure a little bit more believable (that doesn't even make sense, but...).

You never know what you'll discover when you take a walk, whether it's in the city, the suburbs, the countryside or an island. Happy hunting!!
 

Fantastical Challenge at Ike's World Challenge Blog

One of the things I like about playing with images from Ike's Art is the fantastical drawings she comes up with. Take the Hatter, for example, whose image I colored and popped onto a card. Until I saw the most recent version of Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp playing the same role as this guy, I thought of the Hatter as this funny, lovable character (kind of like in the Disney animated movie).
But Ike has brought to life a newer, sad, deranged but still lovable character...and we all get to color him and play with him and create with him. It is a mad, mad, world, and if you're playing with the Hatter, you're in very good company!
So today marks the midpoint of the Fantasy challenge over at Ike's World Challenge blog. You have one more week to let your imagination fly and link it up with us!!