Imagine This

Happy Easter

 

Hallelujah! Praise God!

 

 

 

 

 

(Original photo source unknown. Photo edit is mine.)

 

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Holy Saturday

A Bittersweet Wait

 

Holy Saturday is the final day of Holy Week, the final day of the traditional 40 day Lenten Fast and commemorates Jesus lying in the tomb until his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Icon: Joseph Wraps Christ's Body for Burial

Holy Saturday is sacred as it is the day of the Lord's rest; it has been called the "Second Sabbath" after creation. Christ lies in the grave, the Church sits near and mourns. After the great battle He is resting in peace, but upon Him we see the scars of intense suffering.

Icon: Triumph Over Death (Anastasis)

 

Christ breaks down the doors of hell, conquering forever our enemy, death. With His death, we are saved from our sins and consequently from the wages of sin - - death.

The Immortal One is laid in a tomb as a mortal man.

The women have come to anoint Him with myrrh,

Weeping bitterly and crying:

“This is the most blessed Sabbath

On which Christ has fallen asleep to rise on the third day!”

~~~

Hallelujah and Amen!

,We Wait in Darkness

 

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Good Friday

 

The Passion of Christ

Good Friday is observed on the Friday before Easter Sunday. On this day Christians commemorate the crucifixion - the passion, or suffering - and death on the cross of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Icon: The Crucifixion

According to the Gospels (Matthew 27:45-54), Jesus agonized on the cross for six hours. During his last 3 hours on the cross, from noon to 3 p.m., darkness fell over the whole land. With a loud cry, Jesus gave up his spirit. There was an earthquake, tombs broke open, and the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The centurion on guard at the site of crucifixion declared, "Truly this was God's Son."

My painting, You are the Light of My Life, shrouded for Good Friday

Some Christians may attend special church services or prayer vigils on this holy day. Good Friday is a day of mourning and quiet prayer for many Christians. The candles are often extinguished and statues, paintings and crosses may be draped in black, purple or gray cloth. Some Christians treat Good Friday as a day of fasting or partial fasting involving the exclusion of meat.

My own personally painted icons are draped in black for today.

Some homes keep a quiet atmosphere, with little or no outside activities and limited television, radio, and computer use, in observing Good Friday. Others choose to play music such as JS Bach's St. Matthew's Passion.

I have enjoyed my "fast" from television today. Instead, I've been listening to St. Matthew's Passion, which I got from iTunes especially for today. That means it's on my iPhone and my iPad so I listened with earphones most of the day. The music beautifully accompanies the worshipful mood of the day for me.

Cross with Sign Erected on the Shore at Crystal Beach, Texas

~~~

Praying for a blessed Eastertide for you and yours

Much love,

Sallyt.

 

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Maundy Thursday

Christ Awaits His Betrayal and Crucifixion

Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the Christian holy day, falling on the Thursday before Easter. It commemorates the Maundy and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles as described in the gospels.

Most scholars agree that the English word Maundy is derived from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you"), the statement by Jesus in the Gospel of John 13:34 by which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing their feet.

~~~

You are invited to attend the church of your choice for a Maundy Thursday service. If you usually make it a practice to attend a church service on Easter Sunday, you would be blessed to add the Maundy Thursday service and participate in the sacriment of holy communion.

 

Our church will be welcoming participants in the Maundy Thursday service beginning with The Stations of the Cross at 7:00 tonight followed by the Tenabrae service.

Tenebrae Service

WhenThu, March 28, 7:30pm – 8:30pm

WhereSanctuary, First Christian Church

DescriptionTenebrae is the "Service of Darkness". We will read through the passion narratives in 12 sections, extinguishing one of 12 candles after each reading. This is very moving service of remembrance as we prepare ourselves spiritually for Good Friday and Easter.

First Christian Church

1800 Avenue R

Huntsville, Texas

 

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ~John 13:34

At First Christian Church, Huntsville, we are learning to love and be loved.

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Gypsy Girl and A New App

Gypsy Girl

Actually, I have a new favorite app for iPhoneography, InstaEfffectsFX Pro, which is purely for textures. I used the app to create this luscious little gypsy lady.

Starting with a portrait image from The Graphics Fairy, my app path looks like this:

App Path for Gypsy Girl

1. Original image from The Graphics Fairy. (I used BeFunky app to crop the original image to a square format.):

Original Image (from The Graphics Fairy)

Cropped Image

2. Open the image in InstaEffectFX HD Pro iPad app and add the texture shown (blue and green watercolor splotches). Erase certain parts of the texture using a large dark brush at the most faded setting. Apply the erase brush especially over the eyes and facial features.

Texture from InstaEffectsFX App

3. This step shows the combined effect of steps one and two. Save the photo as it has been edited so far:

Result of steps 1and 2

 

4. Using the photo from step 3, open it in InstaEffectFX HD Pro iPad app. Add the texture shown in step 4 (blue and yellow watercolor streaks.) Erase certain parts of the texture using a large dark brush at the most faded setting. Apply the erase brush especially over the eyes and facial features. Lighten the effect slightly by using the "EditFX" sliders.

Texture from InstaEffectsFX App

5. Step 5 shows the resulting image so far. Save this image.

Results of Steps 1 through 4

6. Using the photo from step 5, open it in InstaEffectFX HD Pro iPad app. Add the texture shown in step 6(sheet music). Erase certain parts of the texture using a large dark brush at the most faded setting. Apply the erase brush especially over the eyes and facial features.

Texture from InstaEffectsFX App

7. This step shows the resulting image after doing steps 1 through 6. Save the image.

Resulting Image after steps 1 through 6

8. Using the photo from step 7, open it in InstaEffectFX HD Pro iPad app. Add the texture shown in step 8 (dark scratches). Erase certain parts of the texture using a large dark brush at the most faded setting. Apply the erase brush especially over the eyes and facial features.

Texture from InstaEffectsFX App

9. This step shows the final image after steps 1 through 8. Save the image.

Resulting image after steps 1 through 8

Following Step 9, I took the photo into Pixlr Express+ app to add an ink effect ( Borders - Ink - Black two @ 35) to darken the edges and a border effect to set the image off with a faint, transparent edge (Borders - White Ripped - tjugofyra@15). Lastly, I took the image into A+ Signature app to make my watermark signature.

Gypsy Girl

Just for fun I took the unframed image into BeFunky app and used the Effects menu to change the image to B&W Warmer filter:

Gypsy Girl, Blue

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, of sorts. Happy iPhoneography!

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Palm Sunday

Happy Palm Sunday

 

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App Play Saturday

Oh, Babydoll!

Shot with iPhone5 at The Antique Gallery in Spring, Texas. Edited with InstaEffectFX HD app and PicGrunger app.

 

Lady Gwendolyn

Shot with iPhone5 at The Antique Gallery in Spring, Texas. Edited with the fabulously fantastic app called Pixlr Express Plus. This FREE app has everything! I used the formatting tools to crop, blur, and adjust the contrast and noise. Then I selected from the dozens of overlays to add romantic color. The myriad of effect filters came next to put a vintage twist to it. Finally, I chose from the vast array of frames. (For example, there are ten categories of borders, with 20 to 30 borders in each category!) wow, this is a powerful, well done app.

Someone Left His Toy Out

For this look, I chose to use DynaLight HD app for the Orton effect, InstaEffectFX HD app for the tattered filter, and Pixlr Express+ app for the border.

 

The Road to Somewhere

Below is the app trail for The Road to Somewhere. The original photo, taken with my iPhone 5, was combined with a texture from InstaEffectFX HD (see "Resulting Blend #1 below.) That blend was then combined with the "Old Road" filter from FilterMania 2 app (see "Resulting Blend #2 below.) next the blend was combined with the "Flock of Birds" filter from FilterMania 2 app. (see "Resulting Blend #3 below.) The final touch was the use of the "Vivid" filter in the My 365 app just before posting with that app. (See "Final Image" below - and above.)

App Trail for The Road to Somewhere

That Great Lunch Again

Oops, no apps used for this one. I just liked the original photo from my iPhone5. This is my Grapefruit and Avacado Salad with Sweet Onion dressing.

 

Little Pink Barn

This is a simple alteration from the Jazz app. If you haven't tried Jazz, you should. It offers unending alternative images with opportunities to adjust each element and even add or subtract elements in each image. It's a really fun app.

 

Downtown, Shiro TX

This charmingly western town landscape was created using the "Grunge" filter from the FilterMania 2 app and several rounds of PicGrunger including scratches, aged, and border.

 

King of the Hill

This is a simple edit using DynaLightHD and Jazz apps.

 

By the way, my standard for a cropping app is CropSuey. Most images are run through DynaLight as a second step after cropping. This punches up the contrast and saturation. As a general rule, I try to remember to "sign" my work by creating a watermark in A+ Signature app.

Casual Friday

This image is a result of selecting an image from those generated by Jazz app. In addition, I used touchRetouchHD app to erase cars off the distant road as well as a power pole and power lines.

 

Gossip

This horsey coffee clatch was captured with the iPhone camera and edited with Jazz app.

~~~

I recommend the apps I've used for the images in this post. FYI, the FilterManiaExpress app I've used in he past is no longer available so if you have it and lke it, don't delete it. You won't be able to get it back. However, the FilterMania 2 has most of the same editing filters - plus.

So, get snapping and leave me a comment as to where I can see your work and pick your brain . . . Chat with ya latter.

 

 

 

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