Texture Tuesdays | The Gratitude Edition

This week, let's all be grateful - for everything that we have, may it be good or bad, because what we have makes us whole, makes us strong, makes us hold on. I do have a ton of pictures that depict gratitude (come to think of it, all the pictures I take has its own hint of gratitude), but for this week, let me share this:


* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
An old picture (circa 2009) I took in Manaoag Church (Pangasinan). That time, I attended at church org conference in Baguio City, and because my paternal hometown was just two hours away, I decided to make a side trip home after the conference. As soon as I arrived, my Aunt Julie told me cousin Mhai just passed the Nursing Board Exam, and she asked how long will I stay because she already filed a leave of absence at work (my Aunt is a nurse as well) because she wanted to go to Manaoag Church to offer some prayers of gratitude. I can stay as long as I want, so I waited for that day so I could come with them as well.

My Aunt is a devotee of Our Lady of Manaoag, also known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag. This trip was all about gratitude: for helping cousin Mhai pass the exam, me growing more spiritually through the conference I attended, and for the good health Aunt is having (she is diabetic). Aside from our own personal intentions, we were also thankful for the blessings that have come our way and our own families.

Talking more about the post-processing of the image...

• Made a selection around the crucifix, then feathered the selection.
  
• Inverted selection, then gave it a pass of Gaussian Blur, set to 20%.
  
• Ran the Sunshine Action, then adjusted the levels.
  
• Ran the Burn Tool, set to shadow at 10%.
  
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Word" texture, set to Multiply at 100%.
  
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "The Ladder" texture (flipped horizontally then rotated 180 degrees), set to Screen at 40%.
  
• Erased texture around the crucifix (eraser's opacity set to 40%).
  
• Ran the National Geographic script, set to my own preference.
  
• Added some Noise.
  
• Added my name stamp, flattened and saved image.

Just so you know, the SOOC was indeed sepia... part of the pictures I took that day was in sepia, and since I still didn't have GIMP that time (I was using Arc Soft software to post-process my pictures), I didn't know how to turn images to sepia, so my only way to have sepia-toned images was to set it directly from my camera.


PS- Since we are now talking about gratitude... let me say thank you that you hopped in here. :)