Splashing!
This week's collage came to me quite naturally. As soon as I saw the tree in the center of @shaka's template photo I knew that would be the central focus of my collage. Here is the template for LMAC #164. (I do not compete in the contest.)
I had been to a farm on Sunday and a little girl was splashing in a puddle. I asked the parents if I could take pictures. There was such joy in her play that I knew she would make it into my collage. The stream and everything else followed from that inspiration.
Every week I learn something new when I make a collage. I take my cue from the collage and ask a question. This week, the question was, what role do rocks play in a stream's health? As a result of asking this question, a new word came into my vocabulary: embeddedness.
Low embeddedness is good for a stream. This refers to the amount of rocks and gravel that are visible in the water. If most of the rocks and gravel have sunk to the bottom and are embedded, then the stream is less healthy.
Stream Created by Sediment Runoff From Strip Mine
Credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Public domain. This stream is actually in violation of Ohio law. Good luck to the aquatic bugs or anything else that wants to live here.
A healthy stream is host to aquatic bugs. These bugs are an important part of the food chain.
Caddisflies, for example, spin webs that reach from one rock to another. The webs catch food that is drifting by. Without rocks--no web, no caddisflies. Look at the caddisfly building an underwater web in the following Vimeo video (published by the Stroud Water Research Center).
?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=19576515Just as the caddisfly catches insects in its web, other animals feed on the caddisfly. The adult may make a meal for "Trout, birds, lizards, frogs, spiders, dragonflies...". Caddisfly larvae may be consumed by fish and eels.
If there are few visible stones and layers in a stream, and it is mostly mud and sediment at the bottom, then aquatic bugs have nowhere to live. The bugs live between the rocks and even on the rocks.
Tintagel Stream in Rocky Valley, Cornwall, UK
Attribution: Tintagel: stream in Rocky Valley by Martin Bodman. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. This looks like a really healthy stream. There is evidence of a sequence of pools, fast-flowing areas (riffles), runs and rapids. According to Texas Aquatic Science, a "riffle-run-pool-run-riffle sequence" is conducive to flourishing aquatic life.
It was a pleasure to farm the LIL library for the images I used in my collage. Not only was it easy to find useful material, but the great number of unique images in LIL also fueled my imagination.
One contributor, @mballesteros could not be accommodated by the Peakd beneficiary designation (limit of 8) so I will be forwarding the 2% to her when this post pays out.
Here is a list of my LIL contributors, with a picture of the image the supplied. Thank you, all!
@muelli
weird plant
@yaziris
Bird
@agmoore
botanical garden pool
My own photo (Not from LIL)
Brown Steer
My own photo (Not from LIL)
Girl in the brook
Process I added the stream first, then rocks, flowers and a turtles (in the water and on the rocks). For a while there were frogs, but they didn't work out. The little girl was modified by using a Sketch filter on Lunapic. The cyclist was modified also with that filter. The birds were colored in individually, as were the polka dots on the little girl's coat, and the pants on the cyclist.
I used plants from the template to decorate the rocks, and decorated the plants from the template with flowers. The black and brown steers (in the background) were an afterthought. I thought they might appear naturally in a distant meadow. The template photo was beautiful to start with, so I had great material to get me going :)
I used Paint 3D for extraction. Gimp for sizing and coloring. Paint for cutting and arranging.
Here was one of the first steps
The progress wasn't smooth, but it was steady because I knew where I was going (stream, little girl, birds). Here is an intermediate step
Another step
This was great fun. I say that every week, but I think any reader can see how relaxing this must have been for me to put together.
Making collages is a creative exercise and a learning experience. This week I learned about streams, and embeddedness! Please check out our winners from last week's contest, just published today. Tomorrow a new template will be published. Make a collage and join in the fun.
You can see that LIL, the LMAC Image Library, was an essential part of my collage creating process this week. Everyone on Hive can contribute to the library and everyone can borrow from the library. Learn about the procedure here.
I wish all my readers peace and health.
This brings back memories when I used to play in the brook by my Dad’s farm. looking for tadpoles, with my cousins.
Thanks for using my cyclist In your lovely collage A.G. He seems ready to have fun in the water. 😊
Thank you my friend. Memories for me too. We had a brook I could see from my bedroom window. When we crossed it upstream, we would jump from rock to rock.
Your cyclist was just what I needed. Thank you and have a wonderful Sunday.
The longer I looked at your collage, the more I found in it! You have an incredible talent for detail...
You've taught me a new fact about biodiversity! I knew rocks were important for many things, yet I never thought much about the amount of them in streams! I have some reading to do now on the topic. 😁
Thank you for the beautiful journey, I loved thinking of the little one playing in the puddle, the joy in simple things is infectious! Absolutely smashing collage! 💚
Hello @grindan,
So nice to see you here. Yes, I did get involved with detail. It is so very relaxing to get into a picture and fashion it according to the way I feel. I ran out of time. I was tempted to put a little movement, to have the birds react to the cyclist, the child stomp her feet. That's what she did in the puddle. She had such a great time, unaware of everything except the boots and the water.
Thanks so much for enjoying my little exercise. Sunday was my birthday and I wanted to spend it with my family on a farm, around animals. They always put all of us in a good mood.
Hope you are well and your little one is bringing you joy every day. I really appreciate your kind words.
Hello Agmoore. Wow, a fly making a net to cat
ch insects under water. hehehe, what things one discovers in all your posts.
Your collage is a mix of drawings and photos, I like it when they are done like that. I was a while waiting for them to move but they didn't : )
I ran out of time. I did want the birds, the child and the cyclist to move. You tempt me to go back :))
Thanks so much for visiting. I thought those insects were cool, also.
I think the parents of the girl must be kind enough to let you take beautiful pictures. Also, I think I can say that you are a talented photographer.
The pictures are so wonderful.
Hello @rafzat. The parents were kind. It was refreshing to see a suburban couple invite the toddler to get messy :) I tried to protect her privacy here, and yet share her delight.
Thank you, for the compliment. I'm new to photography, so I don't really know what I am doing😇. Glad you liked the shots.
Thanks for visiting.
It does look relaxing 😂😂😂
When 8 have time, I think I'll look into collage making 😂😂😂
Yes, join us. It truly is fun. You are in complete control when you make a collage. True, there is a template, but no direction. You have great artistic inclinations. I'd love to see what you do (no doubt it will be audacious 😅)
Thanks for stopping by @seki1
😂😂😂
I'll first have to find an app that'll help and learn some skills...
But sure, I'll join soon
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @agmoore ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Congratulations @agmoore! You received a personal badge!
Wait until the end of Power Up Day to find out the size of your Power-Bee.
May the Hive Power be with you!
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
Check out our last posts:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Congratulations @agmoore! You received a personal badge!
Participate in the next Power Up Day and try to power-up more HIVE to get a bigger Power-Bee.
May the Hive Power be with you!
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
Check out our last posts:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!