News Cred!

My photos have been published and credited. Link for my first formal picture publication.
Thank you, Melissa.
Check out the well-written article and the awesome Cafe 81 (81 East 7th street between 1st avenue and 2nd avenue) as well.




*Edit: Shot of the article added. Thanks to the Photoshop Nazis for suggesting that addition and for teaching me to piece the entire article together into one shot.

PS Robot

My oh my, I have had a long weekend of doing absolutely nothing. And who could blame me when the weather outside is so frigid.
Luckily I did do my usual routine of swimming on Sundays despite below freezing temperatures. And I practiced some more selective color in PS.
Not works of art or anything mind-blowingly spectacular, but more practice since I haven't really PS-ed in a while.
Here is Take 2 of the Easter Moon and Gold Fever flowers photo. If you compare the 2 pictures full size, you can really see the difference. (original post was done on 11/26/2008.)

And the rest of these were done in about an hour. haha. Results of speed "shopping".

Plus, I finished Twilight and the draft of Midnight Sun. (Book 5 that will most likely not be completed as the draft was leaked. boo hoo.) Twilight is honestly a pretty good (and entertaining) book for the girls (or guys who enjoy teen romances). I single out the girls, because I honestly don't know any guys who have read this book. Now I am anxiously waiting for the arrival of Breaking Dawn (Book 2 of the saga).

Do-Over

It's 2 am on Thanksgiving night. Jamming to some Prince music. I am experiencing extreme drowsiness from the long day and all the turkey hormones inducing food coma. But I could not let myself fall asleep before I made a less pathetic attempt at selective color in PS. So here is another picture of some lovely flowers.


And now I can sleep soundly. Good night.

BTW, I started reading Twilight tonight. It's not so bad, but I have high expectations considering all the things I have heard about this book from everyone. I am still on page 3, so the verdict is still out on what I think about Twilight.

Groundhog Day

On this Thanksgiving eve, I am thankful for so many things. I am thankful that I am healthy, I have a roof over my head, food in my belly and that I still have a job. As appreciative as I am to have a job, I must say that having the job I have is very draining. It's so repetitive and mundane. On the plus side, I have ample time to blog and surf the internet at work. One good thing that has come out of that is that I have become very good at the Facebook game Geo Challenge. I can identify 30-50 countries' flags. Hooray for useless trivia knowledge!

As this is a long weekend, I am trying to make the most out of it. No, not by searching for the best Black Friday deals, but by practicing my PS skills.
I know it still needs work, but I'm glad that I am putting PS to use.

Attempt 2 of the picture that I was working on last week.


Selective Coloring on Easter Moon Flowers.

(And thanks to my PLP and to Anatole for continuing to help me in learning PS when even "Photoshop for Dummies" has failed me.)
P.S. I am also thankful that the seemingly never ending work days are over for this week.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Last time, I swear

Okay, last time I talk about getting the James Jean Fable's Cover book, because the package came to the Vortex of Suck (aka the job) today! And I only ordered it on Amazon on Tuesday night. Since I saved some money on shipping and by buying through Amazon, I couldn't help but slip in Twilight by Stephanie Meyers in the shopping cart too. I have to see what the hype is all about.


So last night was my "stop being a lazy douchebag and try to do something" night.
And I did try to do something. I photoshopped while watching VH1's 100 greatest songs from the 90's. If y'all didn't know. I love the 90's. Here's the top 10.
Note top song #3! I knew they were pretty damn good! #1 was pretty awesome too, but no where near as cute.

100 Greatest Songs Of The '90s
01. Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
02. U2 "One"
03. Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way"
04. Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You"
05. Madonna "Vogue"
06. Sir Mix-A-Lot "Baby Got Back"
07. Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time"
08. TLC"Waterfalls"
09. R.E.M. "Losing My Religion"
10. Sinéad O'Connor "Nothing Compares 2 U"

My PLP (platonic life partner) was kind enough to encourage me to do some PS and to do a selective color (or color on B&W) picture on one of my many many many flower photos.

Here's what I got:
Original v. My version


Like I told her, I don't know how, but it looks cross-processed to me.

And here are her examples for me.





0, 10, 50, 100 feathering.

Not sure I can do that yet, seeing as I only know PS actions that change an entire photo.
I'm going to do an attempt 2, so we'll see.

Pumpkins and such

A new post about Some random fall things, because I am sick of the post about Pat aging. Aren't you guys? (And by "guys", I am speaking to my glorious readers. All 2 maybe 3 of you, Thanks.)

And on to the meat of the new post. Anatole suggested I do a great post exposing dirty dog orgies and fetishes at the 18th Annual Tompkins Square Park Dog Costume Contest. I'm not that great of a writer. So don't expect that from me. But I am posting some of the photos from last Sunday.

Here are two photos I took of Little Red Riding Hood and Granny. Even though I griped about my DC photos being too dark and orangey, I tried the shade technique again. The first photo on 'P' setting and 'direct sunlight' made the whites too bright in some areas. The 'P' setting and 'shade' gave me a nicer, easier on the eyes look, but a bit too dark for my taste. Still trying to work a middle ground out. I've been watching You Suck At Photoshop ('cause I do suck at PS), but I am still resistant to learning it.


And since tonight is HALLOWEEN, there should be more photos of the festivities as soon as I kick my butt into gear to post another blog update. I will be taking pictures tonight.
So just bask in the beauty of the photos I have taken so far.

And this is just a cute picture of my dog, Peko and his new haircut.

P.S. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Merry candy grubbing.

And in Other Uneventful News...

My eyes are blurry.
Today is another day in which a large number of brain cells could potentially die...

Over the weekend I went to D.C. to see Buckethead and be that annoying tourist taking pictures of really stupid things.
I was reading Ken Rockwell's Photography Blog last week and I remembered that he suggested taking pictures in "Shade" mode even in direct sunlight to get a nice warm and inviting (slightly orange look instead of blueish) look. I think it backfired on me and I got a bunch of dark-orangey photos. Maybe I didn't follow the instructions right. Seems like the powers that be are forcing me to use Photoshop. How dreadful! I'm such a moron when it comes to PS.

So this is what I have so far:






(Some were just too dark because I didn't put the flash on. But flash would have just created super glare. Any suggestions and tips either on photography, photoshop or just random rants are welcome.)