Montages for an art project

I just designed some montages for an art project and would like to ask some help in deciding which are the best 5 pieces for a public art show.  Please vote soon and let me know since I need to have them printed.  Thanks for any help you can give.

Flowering Cactus in May!

This plant would be absolutely stunning at the holiday season, but blooms in April and May.  My friend from Cornell Institute for Biology Teacher Days, Rita, gave me a cutting of this plant a few years ago. Time passes and I do lose track of such events. After rooting the cutting, it was several years before a flower was produced. Well worth it, however!

Right now, there are over 20 magnificent blooms on the plant, each close to 4 inches in length.  I took these pictures with a macro lens and tripod during the afternoon light.  I think they look delicious!

Montages of Six Mile Creek Plants

My artistic bent is to play with the digital images to produce montages that are artistically pleasing to me.  The process is done in Photoshop, but can be done with any software.  It involves extracting portions of a digital image and arranging the portions on the digital canvas in Photoshop.

The Photoshop software is powerful and I feel I have just scratched the surface of the learning curve.  I find it rewarding to develop new skills each time I use Photoshop.

Here are some montages I produced from the digital images I took on my walk last week. Would love any response and opinions.

The montages below, in order of presentation, are of Blood Root, Marsh Marigold, Ferns and Skunk Cabbage, Hellebore, Jack in the Pulpit, Skunk Cabbage, and Red Trillium.

Six Mile Creek Watershed

The Six Mile Creek Watershed in Ithaca has it origins in the Caroline community and reflects much of the glaciation that was prominent in this area. It spans the very rural communities in Caroline to the very urban in the city of Ithaca, where the creek flows behind the library and eventually into the Cayuga Inlet.

I took a walk today to photograph the creek and some wildflowers.  After two hours of crawling on the ground to get some good shots, I ran out of digital space and returned home.  The photos include two types of ferns with their opening fiddle heads, Dutchman's Breeches, May Apples, and Jack in the Pulpits.

Sunny morning after the rain in Ithaca

The soft sun lured me out into the garden this morning with macro lens and tripod.  I had purchased some tulip bulbs from Aalsmeer market in Amsterdam last year and was anxious to see how they bloomed. The parrot tulips are blooming later than other varieties, but are exquisite.  Here are some shots of tulips, a Rhododendron and a White Bleeding Heart.

Ithaca Spring Flowers

The sun comes to Ithaca only infrequently this spring.  When it does, I dash outside with camera and tripod to capture some of the beauty of the emerging flowers. There is a significant difference between bloom time in the heart of the city and at my home on the hill.  When I photographed these plants pictured here, it was a bit windy.  Wind and macro photography do not work! To save the day, I shot some of the pictures with the sports setting on my Canon Rebel and was able to obtain better focus than in the other settings.


The Center of the Magnolia was taken near BJM elementary school, the Flowering Cherry trees were near Bangs Funeral Home on Green Street, the Magnolias were in front of the Court House on Court Street, and the Tulips were in front of Temple Beth-El on Court Street.

East Shore Festival of The Arts, Lansing, NY

The Second annual East Shore Festival of The Arts (ESFOTA) will take place at the Lansing Town Hall, 26 Auburn Road, Lansing, New York, with an art opening on Friday, May 13 from 6-9 PM. There will be entertainment and refreshments that evening. The show will remain up until July 18th.


I have the following montages on display at the festival and hope to see many friends from Ithaca at the reception.  


Two of the montages were produced from digital images of the cement sculptures at the Cornell Plantations. Those sculptures were designed and produced by architecture students at Cornell ion 1961 as a senior project.  I find the sculptures excellent photography subjects during all seasons and lighting.


The lotus montage is one of my favorites with the artistic compilation of flower parts from the lovely lotus flower.


The fourth montage is a street model in New Orleans.  Many people making a living as painted characters, this one being of silver tones.