August is coming, so it’s time to offer a nice calendar page design for the month.  This beautiful page  contains wonderful design, stunning full color, and a thoughtful inspirational observation from our favorite quote writer.  This page is a perpetual design you can use again the next time August begins on a Monday. 

Another beautiful calendar page.

Do you have photos that did not quite come out the way you wanted, but you keep them anyway?  Maybe the picture is slightly blurred, off center, or not as impressive as you hoped it would be when you took the shot.  Well, at Matte Watch, there is something you can think about doing with these types of pictures to make them stand out in an unusual way.  I have dubbed the technique I use to do this “reverse matting.”  Using the flawed photo as a subdued background matte, and enriching a secondary matte with color matching from the photo, I then create a digital abstraction from the original photo, and make this the center of the finished piece.  This technique is demonstrated as a result below, and I think it makes a picture worth having.  What is your verdict?

Reverse Matte Abstraction

Turning "Oops!" into "Ahhh!"

In our last episode, Littlehead had finally reached the Alamo after a long and arduous journey.  Following a brief visit, he rolled on in search of his favorite puddin’ and stumbled upon a birthday gathering in a nearby park.  Though it was unlikely the celebration would include good puddin’, Littlehead thought he might be welcome to have a nice piece of birthday cake, and take some time to share a few stories with the birthday boy and his friends. 

As it turned out, Littlehead wandered a bit too close to the party balloons, and was mistaken for a balloon that had lost its helium.  Somebody snatched him up and pumped him full of fresh helium before he could think to tell them he was not really a balloon.  Of course the birthday boy and his friends were delighted to get this unusual new balloon into their party games, so they took Littlehead out into the field for a test flight.  Before long, one of the birthday boy’s friends let go of the string, and Littlehead began to sail off into the blue, and on to his next excellent adventure.  Bye bye, boys!  As Littlehead rose higher, he cleared his head and shouted down to the boys, “Remember the Alamo!”  The boys thought he said to remember the a la mode, so they went back for some cake and ice cream.  Sometimes there is a good reason when stuff like this happens, and you would do well to smile and go with the air flow, just like Littlehead.  Up, up and away.

Littlehead smiles as the helium kicks in.

When you want to enhance your photos using my digital matting services, I can offer a variety of ways to bring out the highlights in your pictures, ranging from simple to more complex forms.  Since I create mattes to compliment the colors in each photo, I save you the trouble of trying to hunt for mattes to fit your pictures, so you can focus on the style, design, and presentation that best suits your needs.  If you do not know how to start, or what you are looking for, I can take your photos and offer some ideas for you to choose from.  You pay nothing for this service until you have selected the end results you like the best.  This gives you simple harmony at the lowest possible price.  Let me show you some samples built on your photos today.

Digital Photo Matting Made Easy

Get great results with 3 words --- "I want it!"

This month is the birthday of a close friend, so I put together a greeting for him that he appreciated.  His words were “…You always send the really nice ones.”  Our greeting cards start with your photo, and build from there, so you do not have to pick from a bunch of unrelated templates to find the card and sentiment you want to send. Every card is a unique and creative way to remember your family and friends on their special days.  Matte Watch greetings are lasting and good for the environment too.  Let us put a nice greeting card together for you today.  Thanks for visiting.

Digital Greeting Cards

Show friends and family you care with a Matte Watch Greeting Card!

For a long time now, I have been displaying various works drawn from photos taken by me and my wife to show how my treatments enhance every day photos and compositions.  Each post on this site relays the inspirations and processes that go into creating a variety of unique product offerings.  Over time, we have received lots of nice feedback expressing appreciation for these works, but we are short on people who wish to engage with ideas and requests for things they would like to see posted, which we have not yet shown. 

At this time, I want to reiterate a desire to hear from our audience, and invite you to make a no risk, no obligation connection by expressing your creative ideas and comments for what you would like to see posted on this site, and what you like or do not like about our offerings.  In the end, it is our customers who lead the way for what we do.  How can we work for you today?

Lots of people offer different ways to put together quick calendar pages for your photos, but I take a different approach than the cookie cutter template makers.  When you give me a photo to create a calendar page, I start making a calendar display to suit your photo, rather than making you sift through piles of templates to figure out which one you want to drop a picture into.  Each creation starts with your photo and builds outward to create a work that is made to suit your composition.  The end results will look good on your blog page, as a screen wallpaper, in your digital picture frame, or displayed on any of your other popular image devices.  I can also create the image to meet your specific display dimension requirements for the best in clarity and format satisfaction.  If you think my calendar creations are a bit different than others you have seen, you are right!

Digital Calendar Creations

Your photos look better in a Matte Watch calendar design.