The Enchanted Metsät of the Far North

With two thirds of its territory covered with forests (metsät in Finnish), as the land of Santa, Finland is best known for its dark and cold landscapes and early twilights. The winter solstice (shortest day of the year) is celebrated there as Yuletide, an old pagan festival honouring the “rebirth” of the Sun, on the 25th of December, after its transient disappearance under the horizon.

In Western religions, mythologies and literature, forests are places [...] where perceptions become confused, uncovering some hidden aspects of time and consciousness. In a forest, what is inanimate may suddenly become animate, gods turn into beasts, outlaws stand for justice, Rosalind shows up as a boy, the knight of impeccable virtue is degraded to the status of a primitive, straight lines make circles, and the familiar is replaced by fantasy.

~ Robert Pogue Harrison, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (1992) (retranslated back from French as I could not find the original quote — Ed.)

Ossi Saarinen is a young Finnish photographer who, like most of his fellow countrymen, is fascinated by the magic of Finland's vast forests, and especially its wildlife which became his favourite subject and field of expertise. “My typical photographing day starts before the sunrise when the animals are most active” he explains. “I grab my camera and zoom-lens, put them in my backpack and head out to the forests near my home. Most of the time is walking around searching for the animals or laying down and waiting. When the day gets brighter I go back home to rest and prepare for the evening.”

Oh deer, Ossi's stunning photos are so awesome, they look like the stuff from fairy tales as you can see on his Instagram account,  I've had the hardest time creating this sample gallery (not to mention Eklablog's servers crashing every time I uploaded a picture). I have a soft spot for foxes and squirrels so cute and expressive. How about you?

Have a Merry Christmas everyone and watch out for caribous!

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

Cover picture: Ossi Saarinen

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Snow Showers

In a previous tut, I explained why and how I have decided to do without Windows software running on Wine and create animations using GIMP only. There will be no sunshine after rain but snow in wintertime. Happy solstice!

Materials

• a picture to add snow to (for this example, I picked up an image featuring stactic snowfall to create a swirling effect)
• GIMP 2.10 (free and open source for Linux/Windows/OSX)

Instructions

1. Open a copy of the image you wish to animate in GIMP and if necessary, resize it to reduce loading time.

2. Add a new white layer on top of your existing image layer.

3. Colours - Invert menu.

4. Add noise via Filters - Noise - HSV Noise menu as follows:

- Dulling = 8
- Hue = 1
- Saturation = 1
- Value = 1
- Click on New Seed to generate new random pattern of pixels

 5. Apply Filters - Light and Shadow - Sparkle with the following settings:

- Luminosity threshold = 0,017
- Flare intensity = 0,50
- Spike length = 10
- Spike points = 5
- Spike angle = -1
- Spike density = 1
- Transparency = 0
- Random hue = 0
- Random saturation = 0
- Check Preserve luminosity
- Check Foreground colour (needs to be set on white)

6. Remove black background of the layer via Colours - Colour to Alpha menu:

- Colour = black
- Other settings left as default

7. Rename layer as Snow 1 et set blend mode to Overlay.

8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 twice. Don't forget to click on New seed on step 4 (very important). And rename layers as Snow 2 and Snow 3.

9. Duplicate background image layer twice and insert a copy under each snow layer.

10. Merge down each s,pw layer with the image layer below using Layer - Merge Down context menu. You should now have 3 different layers.

11. Change colour mode for an optimised GIF using Image - Mode - Indexed menu:

- Generate optimum palette
- Colour dithering = Floyd-Steinberg (reduced colour bleeding)

12. Now you can export your animation via the File - Export as menu, choosing Image GIF Image as File Type. Another dialog opens to adjust the settings of you output file:

- Check As animation
- Check Loop forever
- Delay between frames where unspecified = 200 ms
- Other settings left as default

NOTE: Before merging down snow layers, you may want to erase some snowflakes from faces for instance.

For my second example using a personal picture, I opted for a falling effect. I first applied a mask to soften the image. On step 7, I set blend mode to Linear light and slightly reduced opacity. Instead of repeating steps to create additional snow layers,  I duplicated the first one twice and applied a vertical offset using Layer - Transform - Offset menu with y = -30 for snow 1 layer and y = 30 for snow 3 layer, while snow 2 layer remained untouched. Then I duplicated and inserted each background image layer under each snow layer and merged down as previously explained. Upon exporting as GIF image, a pop-up window prompted me to crop overlapping layers by clicking on a button. Finally, I chose a frame delay of 400 ms.

Well, you should now be fully prepared to fight against global warming, otherwise ready to animate electronic Xmas cards. As for windy conditions, let's save it for another tut.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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The Feline Cuddle Therapist Who Rehabilitated All Black Cats

A while ago, I wrote about a “cuddle therapist” black cat by lake on my doorstep helping me and other people feel better. It would appear that the lovely tom has a twin. Or maybe he can be at several places at once. Or  that angels have decided to shape-shift into black cats in attempt to open up the hearts of humans, leading by example and at the same time, dissolving all those stupid and cruel superstitions which unfortunately still persist. I was deeply moved by the story below and I expect you will be too.

According to the old legend from Ancient Egypt, cats have nine lives. It would appear to be true for Rademenes, a two-month old black kitten given up for adoption and condemned by a fatal upper respiratory infection before ending up as nurse assistant to a veterinarian in the unpronounceable city of Bydgoszcz, in Poland,

Dr. Lucyna Kuziel-Zawalich works in an animal shelter. After the black kitty was brought by his owners to shorten his suffering and she “took the little ball in her hand,” she couldn't bear to euthanise him. Since his condition was very contagious, he had to be quarantined. But thanks to the devoted love and care he received, Rademenes quickly made an impressive turnaround. “Maybe he knew he as near the end and began fighting for his life,” explains his rescuer.

Ever since, Ramedenes never left the shelter and now devotes his life giving back the love and care he received to other sick pets, cats and dogs alike, cuddling up with them with his comforting purr, sometimes licking their wounds, in the awareness that his caring loving presence can only speed up their recovery. “It's as if having been so close to death's door himself, he now wants to help others get better,” says Dr. Kuziel-Zawalich.

Anyhow, this adorable cat is more human than most humans (fortunately not all of them), has become the mascot of the shelter and even has his own Facebook page. Actually, his story went viral on the Internet and he's now a sort of local tourist attraction as the black cat who brings luck: “This sounds ridiculous but he actually comes out to greet new people coming in. Which is really, really endearing.”

This story is somewhat reminiscent of some anecdotes by this retired vet from Yorkshire:

“I know about Oscar now,” I said.
“Know what?”
“Why he goes on these nightly outings. He's not running away — he's visiting.”
“Visiting?”
“Yes,” I said. “Don't you see? He likes getting around, he loves people, especially in groups, and he's interested in whatever they do. He's a natural mixer.”
Helen looked down at the attractive mound of fur curled on her lap. “Of course... that's it... he's a socialite!”
“Exactly, a high stepper!”
“A cat-about-town!”

Cat Stories, James Herriott

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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Mad Hatter

He's mad...
He's mad...
He's mad...
He's mad...

You may have read the book,
You might have seen the film,
But I've seen it with my eyes.
Was it tweedle-dum?
Was it tweedle-dee?
But I saw through his disguise.

There was a Cheshire cat
Next to a water rat
And a JuJu awful wise.
We were sat to eat.
Now was it trick or treat?
We were in for a surprise.

Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...

He doesn't need a hat,
He's got crazy eves
And he rolls them round the group.
He's got stories tall
And a winning smile
As he then surveys his troups.

Then he'll about a lot of things
In a song you've never heard,
But it sounds so sweet.
He gets up on his feet
And he's looking for the word.

Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...

Mad as the Mad Hatter...
Mad as the Mad Hatter...
Mad as the Mad Hatter...
Mad as the Mad Hatter...

It went on oh quite late
As I went through the gate
And I began my journey back
I was glad to know
That I'd seen the show
That I'd found a happy jack
Because they're getting rare,
We never get our share.

Seem to be a dying breed
But they're so much fun.
Laughter's on the run
As the Hatter plants the seed.

Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...
Here comes the Mad Hatter...

Mad as the Mad Hatter...
Mad as the Mad Hatter...
Mad as the Mad Hatter...
Mad as the Mad Hatter...

Original text by HUGH CORNWELL

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