Camera App: Hipstamatic
Lens: Melodie
Film: Dream Canvas
Additional Apps used:
Iris PhotoSuite 1.4 - to crop the picture from the original Dream Canvas frame that I disliked here and to resample the picture resolution to 2048x2048px
AutoPainter II - to create a Chalk layer with focus on the figure of General Patton.
SimplyHDR - to create a HDR layer of the original cropped photo
Blender - to blend the Chalk layer with the HDR layer.
FilterStorm2 - to create a desaturated layer.
Blender - to blend the result from the blending of the Chalk+HDR layers with the desaturated layer.
VintageScene - to create the old-fashion frame.
TouchRetouch - to remove the remaining rest of the photo from the middle of the frame. There had been part of the photo remaining even after pulling the fade out slider to the full left.
FilterStorm2 - to create a 40% white frame on the picture.
Iris PhotoSuite 1.4 - to put the white framed layer over the old-fashion frame layer, then erasing the white frame to let the old-fashion frame appear.
A+ Signature - for copyright watermark
Today I started a new project. I had the idea already in the Winter to ride my bike to all of the monuments and memorials erected in Luxembourg in remembrance of our American liberators who brought our freedom back in the Winter of 1944/45 as they finally defeated the Nazi occupants in the Battle of the Bulge. More than 5570 of these brave men found their final rest at the US Military Cemetery in Hamm, which is not far from Luxembourg Airport. After General Patton died in a car crash in Germany in 1945 he too had been buried among his men. For that reason I started my project today on our National Holiday with a visit and the picturing of the Patton Memorial in Ettelbrück. This is the first picture but more will follow. It shows the huge statue of General Patton in his typical pose, with the binoculars and his two Colt revolvers on his belt. The statue is well detailed. However, as I worked on this picture I decided to go for a retro style with an old-fashion frame instead of a colorful output. The whole memorial is more than just an over-sized bronze statue of General George S. Patton. It is in fact a little park with a Sherman tank, a huge obelisk with an eagle on top of it and several bronze plates donated by US units that fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The plate that is fixed aside a bronze map had been presented by the son of the General, Captain George S. Patton.
To me, this project is of very personal value and importance. Since I was a little boy I always felt very grateful to those men who came over to Europe from a land far away only to give us freedom back. Too many of them lost their lives or their health in that battle that finally brought the decision over the defeat of the Nazi Empire - the Battle of the Bulge that broke loose on December 16, 1944 as the Germans started a massive counter attack against the US forces. Today, in the 46th year of my life, I still feel the same, and I will never forget that I owe the good life that I have to those men. And I feel the highest of respect not only for them, but for all the fighting men and women who nowadays risk their lives and health in too many conflicts worldwide to defend our free world against all who threaten it.
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