The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Art for art’s sake.

On 26th Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In arts, editing and effects, photography7 Comments

Well, it looks like we survived the first two named storms of the season, although it did feel like we might get blown and/or washed away over the weekend, so let’s get to The Cosmic Photo Challenge while the getting is good.

In an effort to stay warm and dry, I chose to once again use a prompt which meant I could focus on the creative side of editing; Art for art’s sake.

I spent an entertaining hour over my morning coffee yesterday, playing with my One Lab app, transforming some recent pictures into abstract art.

This, believe it or not, started off as a church

A strange, spheroid shape hovering in the woods

Now let’s see where your artistic muse led you this week…

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To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.
Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.

Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 23rd Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Good evening from an extremely wet and windy Devon in the UK, where we are currently experiencing Storm Austen (to be closely followed by Storm Boelo tomorrow), so I think this week’s homework for The Cosmic Photo Challenge will be an indoor affair. I will give you an advance warning, however, that next week will be our annual Autumn Colour roundup, so you might want to keep an eye out for anything that fits that brief, too. ;~}

So to this week, where we are taking another one of our semi-regular plunges into the world of; Art for art’s sake.

As usual, this is pretty much an open field for you to show some artistic flair with your pictures in whatever way you choose, try something different, or showcase a talent for editing and effects.

Have a great weekend, stay warm and dry and I’ll see you on Monday.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Repetition.

On 19th Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In arts, editing and effects, photography16 Comments

Good morning, everyone, I hope you had a pleasant and relaxing weekend, now it’s time to get down to the serious business of The Cosmic Photo Challenge.

The theme this week was inspired by my first photo, of a line of identical, half-machined bearing housings at work; Repetition.

But on Saturday I thought of a more creative spin on the prompt, an idea which ended up taking several hours to complete, but which produced some rather striking results.

I decided to multiply individual elements of perfectly ordinary scenes, to create the surreal masterpieces you see below. This involved taking a copy of the original picture, painstakingly removing everything but the chosen object (by precision fingertip erasing on my tablet), then manually repositioning each copy back onto the original.

These are the cutouts I created from the original photos

This was complicated enough, of course, without giving myself the extra work of adding in multiple reflections and re-adding an overhanging branch into not one but two overlapping layers of images, just to give that extra look of convincing unrealism.

I have to say I’m extremely pleased at how they came out, you’ll notice I even blanked out a couple of neighbourhood car number plates, a touch I was especially amused by.

Ok, back in the real world, what repeats did you manage to capture..?

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 16th Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Hi there, it’s time once again to set your weekend homework for The Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Following on from last week’s patterned theme, today the prompt is along similar lines, but with broader scope; Repetition.

Your pictures don’t have to conform to any recognisable pattern or design, nor do they need to involve symmetry or tessellation, I’d just like to see photos that contain more than one of something.

Give that some thought and I’ll see you all on Monday.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Patterns in black and white.

On 12th Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In arts, editing and effects, photography9 Comments

Good morning, welcome to the best start to the week, The Cosmic Photo Challenge, which today is themed around the prompt; Patterns in black and white.

There’s also a bonus Art for art’s sake photo, because I couldn’t resist.

I walked from home to Tesco and back on Saturday morning and captured the many different types of iron inspection covers there are on the pavements, along with some zig-zag brick paving and two differently constructed walls.

But we’ll start with a simple shot of a drainage grate which, when I got home and first looked at it, reminded me of a tower block against a cloudy sky, reflected in a puddle.

So, hold that thought…

An interesting experiment:
These are the machined ends of aluminium blocks at work. Now, if I had told you they were the ends of sawn timber, would you have known they were silver and not pine-coloured?

This is an enhanced “height map” image of the stone wall in the second image.

And now the extra picture I couldn’t resist making, for which I decided, in keeping with the prompt, I would use black and white, with just a touch of colour for effect.

I’m not sure how good my upload resolution is, but I think all the details should be visible if you zoom in on larger screens.

There are 26 separate images in this collage, including; 5 squirrels, 7 pigeons, a dalek, a bee, 4 of me and the moon.

Now let’s see how your pattern recognition projects went over the weekend…

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 9th Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Oops, I almost forgot, it’s time for me to give you your prompt for The Cosmic Photo Challenge.

This week I’d like to see images on the theme of; Patterns in black and white.

Your pictures can be of natural or man-made patterns and they can either be pictures made of patterns, or patterns made of pictures, the choice is yours.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Moss, ferns and fungus.

On 5th Oct 20264th Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In nature photography, photography13 Comments

Welcome to The Cosmic Photo Challenge, which this week features pictures inspired by the prompt; Moss, ferns and fungus.

At the weekend I walked a two and a half mile loop from home, which takes in a couple of areas of woodland (arrowed on map), where I found some fine examples of all three types of shade and moisture-loving plants.

For even more geographical context; the green arrow shows exactly where in the UK I’m located

Now let’s see what treasures you found in the undergrowth this week…

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 2nd Oct 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Hi there, it’s Friday, which means prompt day on The Cosmic Photo Challenge and this week our photographic foraging will be concentrating on; Moss, ferns and fungus.

I’ll also accept lichens, algae, or whatever equivalents you can find in your part of the world (or your archives, if you are currently experiencing a different season), for Monday’s post.

Have a great weekend, see you on the other side.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: An Autumn walk.

On 28th Sep 202627th Sep 2026 By dalecooper57In nature photography, photography12 Comments

Good morning, one and all, welcome to The Cosmic Photo Challenge on a damp, autumnal Monday, which is perfectly appropriate for today’s theme; An Autumn walk.

Most of my pictures are from a walk to Barnstaple town and back, starting in Rock Park, which borders the River Taw. I even mapped the route with my Strava walking app, for a bit of extra context.

Where did you wander in search of inspiration over the weekend..?

Cosmic Photo prompt.

On 25th Sep 2026 By dalecooper57In photographyLeave a comment

Hey, it’s Friday already, so it must be prompt time for The Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Now the hot weather has passed, it seems like the perfect time to go for; An autumn walk.

Plenty of scope there, after all, you could be walking pretty much anywhere, so I’ll leave the subject matter up to you.

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday.