Category: Photos

As Charlie Brown Would Say…

Good grief!

Summer is almost over and I forgot to post my summer header pic. And it’s my favorite of all my header pics! So, for now, you won’t see a random header when you travel through the site (which mostly means reading individual posts). You’ll just see a boy enjoying his own summer in the best possible way—jumping into a stream. (Or any other swimmable water source. “Swimmable” is a real word. I’ve just made it up.)

Here’s the full picture (resized, because it is HUGE). It was a bitch to edit to fit the header dimensions.

Boy on a rope swing

I Haz Pikturz!

Here ya’ go!  I downloaded Paint Shop Pro 2019 this weekend.  I went with the full version vice the upgrade since 1) the old PSP isn’t on this computer and 2) it wasn’t much more expensive.  And it’s still cheaper than Photoshop Elements.  Maybe Ps Elements is better, but I have years of experience with PSP.  Not so much with Ps, even less with Ps Elements.

Romeo doesn't care for his namesake mitts.
A hand pat and some sun. LIfe is good.

The photos were taken a couple of years ago, back when I was actively knitting and was regularly on Ravelry.  The pattern is called Mitts for Romeo—because it gets cold waiting on the balconey for your Romeo to show up. With a name like that, I had to make them!  And of course, I had to include Romeo in the picture.  He wasn’t all that excited about it.

Incidentally, I can  find only one of the mitts now.  And Michaels no longer carries (or makes, since it’s a Michaels brand) this type of yarn anymore.  Although I do believe I have an extra skein… somewhere.

Serendipity @ Midnight

Chris Hardwick awards points to guests for funny comebacks.
Points! [photo from funnyordie.tumblr.com]
Last night The night before last (I’m really horrible about posting in a timely manner!) I was still up late enough to watch @Midnight live. It’s a fairly new quiz-type show on Comedy Central hosted by Doctor Who mega-fan Chris Hardwick.  He poses questions to three guest comedians based on some of social media’s wildest postings.  The guests compete for “Points!” and the honor of “Wins the Internet for the next 24 hours.”  Unless it’s Thursday, in which case the winner gets to claim  for the entire (extended) weekend, until a new winner is declared the following Monday.  Unlike SyFy’s now-defunct The Wil Wheaton Project, @Midnight is hilarious.  (Incidentally, Wil and Chris were roommates at one time.  Scifi nerds, unite!)

The show is so hipster-oriented, I often have no idea what they’re talking about,.  Not so much because of the social media stuff, but because of the slang used.  This ignorance of course, is a product of age, which is something the show loves to make fun of.  To which I say, “Just you wait!”  Heck, if you don’t grow old, something’s happened—and it’s not good.

Nonetheless, I’ve learned many things from watching this show.  One of which is a “furry” is a person with a fetish for dressing up like a stuffed animal, and seeking like-minded individuals for various forms of “social” intercourse.  Which means, of course, there are indeed furry-dating websites.  [All this makes me think I ought to change my “Furries” category here, because that is not what it refers to.]

Anyway, back to the discussion at hand.

Continue reading “Serendipity @ Midnight” →

Sunday Seven: Around the Neighborhood

Picture #2 is so pretty I had to feature it.

On Columbus Day, I took my new camera on a stroll around the neighborhood.  It was the first sunny day in about a week.  Here’s what we (my camera and I) found.  (Picture #2 is above.)

Hibiscus (?) plant. Yeah, I’m going with that.
They deliver!
Lulu

  1. A potted plant (it’s a hibiscus, I think) in our pool area.  We filled in the kiddie pool years ago because it was too expensive to repair.
  2. The hibiscus bloom, taken from the same spot as #1, but with the zoom.  The photo is unretouched, except for size.  It turned out so lovely, it’s featured at the top of the post.
  3. A dry cleaner that delivers!  I took the photo to remember the name and contact info, since I’m always forgetting to take stuff to the dry cleaner’s.
  4. Lulu!  Is she not adorable?  She’s part Yorkie, part chihuahua. She looks it, doesn’t she?  (I also met Pepper, a shih tzu, and her owner, a Coast Guard officer who had the day off; but was too embarassed to ask if I could take Pepper’s picture.)
  5. The Leaning Tower of Alexandria, er, the George Washington Masonic Temple.  The fence between our property and theirs was recently reopened.  There had been a pass-through when I first moved in, but they closed it up years ago.  On my walk, I met a man coming out of the bushes, and voila!, learned the fence had been opened once again.  Yay!
  6. The Masonic Temple, full optical zoom.  Still tilted.  It’s claim to fame is an elevator that runs diagonally.
  7. And once again, this time using the “intelligent” (i.e., digital) zoom.  It too was tilted, but I straightened it (a little) with my graphics software. (Although I have Photoshop, I prefer Paint Shop Pro.  Simpler software for simpler minds.)

The Leaning Tower of Alexandria, er, the George Washington Masonic Temple
Masonic Temple, zoomed. Still leaning.
Zoomed even more. And straightened somewhat.

Playtime for a Rainy Day

The day before yesterday, after I visited PetSmart, I went next door to Best Buy.  Not because I wanted anything, but I hadn’t been in there in a while.  The season 8 Supernatural DVD set was there, but I’ve already ordered it from Amazon (way cheaper), so that wasn’t on the list.

Instead, I gravitated towards the cameras.  I decided I needed a small camera to photograph my cooking adventures.  These two Nikons caught my eye as both have a Wi-fi capability and were on sale.

My technical term: the white one.
The purple one, “technically”

I fell in love with the white one because 1) it’s white, 2) it’s new,  3) it’s different, and 4) it’s mega-cool.

Continue reading “Playtime for a Rainy Day” →

Happy Birthday, America

In my effort to better understand photography, film, and color, I wanted to dissect Paint Shop Pro X5’s filters used to create these photos.  This seems as good a day as any to go exploring.

The effect shown above was easier to do than I’d remembered.  I used the Instant Effects palette (new in PSP X5, and rather cool).  From the palette, I selected “Film Styles” from the drop-down menu, and then “Instant film.”  Interestingly, “Film Styles” has several options that aren’t available from the “Effects > Photo Effects” menu.

I attempted to replicate the effect through various Film Look, Creative Filter, and Retro Lab options; increasing saturation and making depth of field adjustments; and adding a picture frame—all to no avail.  Turns out you can get the Instant Film effect by choosing Effects > Photo Effects > Time Machine > Cross Process.  Even the frame is added.

The next question is, what is Cross Process?  From Corel/PSP:

Cross-processing is a modern photography technique that creates unique color effects by mismatching the film and the chemicals used to develop the film. For example, you can achieve this effect by processing slide film in chemicals designed for color negative film. Cross-processed photos are often characterized by skewed colors, high saturation, and extreme highlights.

Since I’m drawn to photos with high saturation, it’s no wonder I like this effect.  Still, I’m not sure how instant film equates to mismatched film and chemicals, but there you have it.  The instant film I remember was created by the old Polaroid cameras.  I don’t recall the pictures being overly saturated, although the colors were often skewed.  Somehow, I doubt color skewing was a purposeful effect.

Sunday Seven: Fun with Photos

(and Photo Editing Software)

It’s a lazy, rainy Sunday.  Emphasis on lazy.  I’m not motivated to write a Sunday Seven, so how about some pictures?

I’ve been playing with Paint Shop Pro X5’s photo filters (plus one Photoshop filter—#7).  Nothing fancy; just experimenting.  All the effects are basically 1-step filters (with possibly minor adjustments).  I was planning to go into more detail about the effects, but that’s too much writing for today, which, as I said before I’m trying to avoid.  We’ll discuss them another day.

Can you tell I love bare tree branches?