What is a gardener to do when the wind is howling and the rain lashing against the windows, and this is how it has been for days now, it seems like weeks. I decided to play around on my lap top. In the past I have been asking various people for advice on how to make a collage of my photos and have got different answers each time, usually saying that I will have to buy some software. Eventually I asked Google and they came up with a website which looked as though I could understand it and it was free! I got a bit stuck in the middle of the instructions, but a quick e.mail to my son soon sorted that out. What you now see is the result of my playing around with shapes.
Snowdrops and Crocus flowering last February.
I then decided to find some more spring flowers to make different shapes.
then to use Day lily photos as I have rather a lot of them.
I thought I would try lots more squares for all the summer flowers.
Followed by some some autumn tints, I’m beginning to enjoy this!
Ending with some snowy pictures from 2010/11, not from this year I hasten to add, so far no snow down here, thank goodness.
Yes, I did it!! They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, well now I have proved them wrong, just because I’m the wrong side of 70 doesn’t mean that I’m not able to learn something new, what next I wonder?!
I am really impressed, Pauline. Your collages are beautiful . I have see these them on other peoples’ blogs and wondered how on earth they did it. It is particularly lovely to see your gorgeous spring flowers displayed like that. That is what we are longing for now. And we are nearly there. The Hellebores are really early this year. You have some lovely doubles. And is that Daphne the gorgeous ‘Jacqueline Postill’ ?
Chloris
Chloris, I’ve now put a link in to the website that I used, sorry I missed it out. I felt I ought to make an effort to find out how to make a collage with the snowdrops just starting, soon there will be lots of different ones to enjoy. Yes, the Daphne is Jaqueline Postill, she is covered in buds at the moment, soon the woodland will be filled with her perfume.
Absolutely gorgeous, Pauline – showing them en masse like this really sets them off. I guess you are not using Pic Monkey, as you seem to have some arrangements I don’t think they have – which one have you used? I don’t edit in WordPress at all (other than size) now since PicMonkey was recommended to me and I discovered what else I could do in Picasa. I can hardly wait to see some of your hellebores again in ‘real’ time – and what are the names of those beautiful hemerocallis, the purple one and the pink in the top right?
Thanks Cathy, I had fun doing it. I’m afraid I’ve never heard of a Pic Monkey, I’ve now added a link to the website I used, should have done that earlier. Sorry, I don’t have a record of the Day Lily names, they were bought long before I started this blog! As you say, it will soon be time for the snowdrops and hellebores once more, lots more photos to be taken!
Well done Pauline – it must the be week for learning. I’ve taught my mother how to text words other than OK this week. A non patronising pat on the back to the both of you.
Your images remind us of what lies ahead, full of cheer, except the last one that is!
I use google picasa to do collages, I bought an extremely expensive software program and found it wasn’t compatible with my know how!
Thanks Angie, it gives us oldies a sense of achievement when we can manage a bit more modern technology! I’ve now added a link to the website I used, sorry, I should have added it originally. Sorry to hear that you had problems with your software, that is what I was afraid of happening, I was so glad to find a simple, easy,free website to help me!
Those are excellent. I used a thingy on wordpress that does it for me but I have no control on the size or shape of the tiles. I will have to check your thingy out
It would seem Helen, that I struck lucky with the website that I found, I’m rather pleased with all the variety of shapes and sizes that are on offer. I can see I’m going to have fun as the year progresses!
Hi Pauline,
Well done you! 🙂 Sometimes things sound much more difficult than they actually are and once you get the hang of it; it’s easy peasy.
Looking forward to more collage photos in future 😉
I think wordpress has a gallery option, that places photos into a sort of collage arrangement – have you tried that out? Here’s a how to: http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/ it’s not quite the same as a collage, but useful all the same if you fancy it.
Please, please don’t jinx us with those snowy photos…
Many thanks Liz for the link, I will have a look and see what they have on offer. Sorry to have spooked you with the photos of the snow, felt I ought to include some really wintry scenes, hope we have nothing like that this year!
Great collages, and then you can show a lot of flowers at once. Of course you can learn new things on the computer.
Here in Denmark we are all beginning to show photos from last summer, and it just makes you long for those days when we can do some gardening again.
Yes Gitte, sometimes there are so many photos, too many to include in a post, that why I thought collages would be a good idea. It seems strange at the moment, to believe that in only a matter of weeks, we will all be showing wonderful spring flowers again. We just all want this non stop rain to end, have you been having it too in Denmark?
They’re lovely Pauline – I’m very impressed. The second one with the Hellebores is gorgeous! Hope the rain lets up soon. It’s damp and grey here too, no sign of snow.
Thanks Cathy, I had fun doing it! It won’t be long before the Hellebores are out once more, so there will be lots more photos to take. We are all hoping the rain stops soon, all the fields are flooded once more and also houses and businesses unfortunately.
It is nice to look back through photos when gardening is not practical. Your collages turned out well. Thanks for the link. I was going to recommend you look at the WordPress gallery option, but Liz mentioned it already. You have more control though with the collage patterns using the software you found. The autumn one is striking.
At this time of year Susie, when the weather is stopping any gardening, looking through previous years photos reminds us of the joys to come. I have looked at the link that Liz gave me and it was very interesting, something to try on another wet day! I’m glad you liked the autumn photos, I tried to find the best from each season.
I don’t know about new tricks, you’re a natural Pauline, you’ve balanced the colours beautifully.
I found several new hellebore buds today, it won’t be long at all!
Jessica, it was a good way to spend a really wet day! It won’t be long at all until the hellebores and snowdrops are flowering again, we have lots of buds everywhere too.
Wow, great collages. You surely did figure it out and well! Blessings, Natalie 🙂
Natalie, I was lucky that the site I chose was so easy to follow, if not, I might have given up!
Your collages look super, Pauline – a great way of showing your beautiful flowers. Thick, pure-white snow always looks magical, but I’m in no hurry to see it here either!
We don’t often get snow in Devon Wendy, the winter of 2010 was exceptional. I’d been wondering for quite some time how to collect photos together so that each one didn’t have to be uploaded separately and was so glad I found the website that sorted me out.
Brilliant Pauline! I will have to learn too. My MIL is an inspiration to us all, she’s nearly 88 and learnt to use the OC so she could skype us and her grandchildren, write letters and she now follows several blogs. She has had problems with following yours which I need to sort out. Lovely imges to make us wish away winter.
Your MIL is wonderful, there’s time for me to learn a lot more yet! Spring will soon be here, the bulbs are all pushing up, it won’t be long before all the flowers start again.
Oh well done Pauline – if you had not told us I would have never guessed that you and collages were new to each other. A perfect way to spend some time on a bleak January day as well as reminding us what is to come:) I’ve used PicMonkey for a while now but will have to have a dabble with Fotor. Would love to know names of top right and bottom left snowdrops in your first collage. Both look familiar 🙂
Thank you Anna for your comments.I think the snowdrops you refer to are top left, Merlin, with the all green inner petals and bottom right,Robin Hood, with the cross markings on the inner petals.
Pauline, I thought I ought to warm you and other readers that accessing Fotor can easily result in downloading some spyware (conduit search) that hijacks your search engine. I am still not sure how it happened and even though I uninstalled it immediately it still left the spyware which took me hours to completely get rid of (had to do a system restore in the end). All very frustrating – but it so easily happens. I had played around with the trial version and it looked really useful but don’t think I want to risk trying again 🙁
Sorry you’ve had problems Cathy, everything seems ok still at this end but I will keep it in mind, although I’m afraid I wouldn’t have a clue what to do if something did go wrong. I have since had time to check my security, AVG, and thank goodness it says that they protect my computer from spyware and other nasties.
Those are pretty, Pauline! (The snowy one reminds me that I do hope we escape this year, brrrrr.)
I’ve been using the gallery function on WordPress myself, but I do like yours very much indeed. May have to go ferreting about myself!
I hope Kate, that we escape the snow too this year! Obviously I will have to explore WordPress and see what it has to offer, quite a few suggestions have been given to me, but for now I’m pleased with what I found.
Thank you for mentioning this website. It looks very interesting and I look forward to trying it out.
Thanks for stopping by Alain, its good to hear from someone new! I enjoyed using the website, it was all so easy!
Oh, good for you for not letting these quiet winter days go to waste! I like the crocuses and early spring collage best; it gives me hope for the warmer days to come. Thinking of putting together one of my own highlighting best bird pictures of 2013, now that we’ve learned how to squirrel proof a bird feeder, so we’re getting lots of feathered visitors in the backyard at last (we were wondering where they all were, then discovered squirrels were eating all the seed). Thank you for the inspiration!
So glad Christina that you have sorted out your squirrel problem, they can be such a nuisance on the bird feeders. We sorted ours out with a cone on the upright, it seems to work.