Art by Wade

I haven't taken any toy car pictures for a while, so here is one of my latest purchases, a Hot Wheels Car Culture 1998 Honda Prelude. I actually remember when I first saw one of these cars in real life, I thought it was a really cool car (at the time). I find it very enjoyable to collect these little gems and relive the past. Cheers, Wade #TheToyCarProject

I was in that quiet place today, you know the place where time doesn't matter. You just feel and see everything around you, but yet are so focused that distractions aren't a distraction. One of the reason I like photography is it allows me to get into that place. I also prefer to shoot photographs alone, because of this need to be in that quiet place (I just realized this). I will, however, join groups of photographers for an outing, but I mostly like to watch and ask questions. I was in this special place twice today, once at work while working on a programming challenge, and then in the garden while I photographed a few flowers (OK, maybe more than a few). The photography walk was interesting as the gardens were busier than normal, but I hardly noticed any of the people. I was so intent on looking for shapes and colors (and light) that I barely noticed. Have you done anything, like photography, that has allowed you to get into the zone where time just flows? Cheers, Wade

For the past 12 years I have taken over 100 photographs at the NC Museum of Art, here in Raleigh, NC. Below is a sampling of a few of my favorite images for this wonderful Museum. You can look at all of my images on Flickr with this link . Cheers, Wade

I've photographed well over 330 toy cars for a project I call The Toy Car Project. I take the images at home with a macro lens and a few small lights. I've started adding figures and other props into the shots. All of my Toy Car images can be found on Flickr here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wadebrooks/albums/72157641241477033 I also have some prints for sale on my site here: https://wade-brooks.pixels.com/collections/the+toy+car+project Here are a few of my favorites, but I love a bunch of them, so take a look at the links above.

I have worked at Cree, Inc (makers of LEDs and SiC devices) for the past 24 years. Over that time, I had many roles, mostly software and database development but also IT Manager, Web Master, and Materials Coordinator to name a few. I truly enjoy solving problems and helping people with their data needs. I was laid off from Cree on May 13, 2019 and was given a very generous severance package. Recently, I have started to become restless and have started looking for a new adventure. I'm not in a hurry to land a new career, so I'll be taking my time to find the right place. Cheers, Wade

With rays of warmth, he embraces her soul. Arms, iron strong, surround their love. Sunshine reaching, fills the room. With feathered whispers, they embrace the day. Poetry and picture by me.Picture taken in 2017 and re-edited today for this post. Cheers, Wade

One of my favorite submissions for the 25th round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt was for the word Pencil. My final image is shown below, but I didn’t actually draw this. I used several Topaz plugins, which I’ll detail for you after the final image. Final Pencil Image Here is the image that I started with, which is a simple macro shot with the pencil balanced on the Hot Wheels car. Initial Photograph The first thing I did was clean up the image in Lightroom. Then I sent it to Topaz’s Glow plugin, where I used the liquid lines filter to make the car look more smooth and give it a little pop. I masked out the pencil, so it would always look real. Here’s that image Second Edited Image Next, I used Topaz Texture plugin to give the whole car a sketched look. I masked out the pencil again. Third Image with the Sketched look applied After that, I sent the image back to Topaz’s Texture plugin and used the black and white sketch filter on just part of the image and masked out the parts I want...