Archive | Photos

photoshoppiness

By Erasergirl on June 28, 2013 in gadgets, photography, Photos

I told myself i would blog more…. i am trying to stay off facebook…i think i am expending all my creativity there – or maybe just blunting it as there is lots of stupid in the universe….lets see how long this lasts.

I admit I am not the most adept person with photoshop ever..this portrait was probably outside of my wheelhouse… i am more in the adjust contrast, remove dust motes and color correction camp. But I didn’t have a decent image of this late gentleman (town historian Ernie Mack) to add to a reprint of his book on the town. it was just a pamphlet from 1976 but the folks in the town treasure it, so i have permission to do a reprint. I will work out the hard bits later, it is one of three reprints I am doing where I don’t own the rights. But they are all going to be vended at an establishment that DOES own the rights, so i’m putting my back into them just like any other book.

IMHO minimal skills with photoshop elements is a must for anyone screwing around on the internet. I got my 1st photoshop years ago but for the last few years I have been using a version of their photoshop LITE…Elements..which was well worth the money… considering i got it free with my Epson Scanner, i think i made out like a bandit. I wish I was more adept at Photoshop or Creative Suite or whatever the hell Adobe is calling it these days.. But like all my other talents, I only learn how to do something by tasking a project on that forces me to learn it. And unless there is an actual outcome I just can’t sit and screw around with something…i’m just not that creative. My brain likes to say…”lets see if i can DO THIS.” and then reverse engineers the results. I wanted a nice black and white image of Ernie for the into of the book, and I got one… I am not sure the color version will look as good on the back of the book, but I can reduce it and frame it and make up for my sins. Until i got the original with the Capt in the background, all the shots we had were terribly low resolution. This will at least give the historians in town an image to slap on websites and such.

LOMOGRAPHY2

The next thing I want to buy if i EVER GET MONEY AGAIN that doesn’t have a predisposed destination.. is this new toy from the folks at lomo. It is a SMart Phone negative scanner.. I like shooting film..but i have stopped because it’s a pain in the ass to scan every negative with the large scanner just to get the 2 or 3 that i want to play with in Photoshop. My plan is to scan the negs with this puppy and then ONLY rescan the GOOD images with the PhotoScanner thus allowing me to get the pleasures of film and the power of Photoshop digital image handling. I can’t explain why I still like shooting film..perhaps it is because i buy shitty digital cameras and have never learned them well enough to produce the same images I can with film. perhaps it is just because I piss my money away on goofy toys like this instead of investing a much higher end camera that I will be afraid to break.

brick advertising

By Erasergirl on November 4, 2012 in photography, Photos

A friend asked me to shoot some architectural images today…i shot a lot of film on top of the digital, i still like film…i adore my film camera. deal with it. this is digital…my negatives will be back tomorrow. who’s in a rush?

when i get the film back it should have a few interesting animals

more iphone tricks

By Erasergirl on August 28, 2012 in gadgets, opinion, photography, Photos, travel

I haven’t PLAYED with my phone in a while…i spent a few hours blowing up my data plan on that weekend from hell. so i had to alter my plan until next month…and i have the feeling i may leave it that way..there are too many times i have to worry about bumping the ceiling. we’ll see, right now i still have no idea where next months bill money will come from. the census sent me a note saying try again in 6 months. yatta yatta yatta…

this image is a combination of about 4 different apps, though nearly ALL photo or social apps give you the option of accessing the camera FROM the app, I like to use the Camera+ app for shooting. then I used an app called PIC STITCH to create the triptych – it has a LOT more framing options….then i used an app called OVER to apply the captions. Then I opened it in INSTAGRAM and applied one of its shitty filters…i don’t GET instragram though i keep playing with it. The only conclusion i have ever come to is that people want to apply shitty filters to their shitty camera phone pictures so they can say ‘i meant to do that.’

I know it was a lot of work for what is essentially a throwaway image, but once i DO something i keep it in the back of my brain for when i actually NEED IT.

Another app I picked up recently is called POSTCARD ON THE RUN…i had tried a bunch of image to postcard methods last year, and this one seems to be a happy medium. The app is free, the cards are 1.49 full color bleed and shipped. you have half the back to add text, you can add SMELL for .50 which is odd. not bad. if you were somewhere and you bought and mailed one it would cost that.. IF one still sends cards.and if you just wanted to print a 4×6 snapshot it would cost about .39. I’m gonna keep all these apps on the phone – who knows i could go on vacation again.

river of work

By Erasergirl on July 16, 2012 in books, Photos

I finally got out on the river last night…right before the sky got dark…and i rowed like hell to get out of the river..i tried to pull the boat out where i put in ..it’s a spot we cleared along the river bank..only to discover it was too rough and steep, I tried for 10 minutes to fitzcarraldo the damn boat up the hill and finally had to rescue myself with the truck. i THINK one can still put in a kayak or a canoe, but it has to be a boat you can completely carry. I need to start a fight with the city about getting a boat launch on the river, this is just more ammunition. But it felt good to come home feeling muddy, sweaty and exhausted… i cleaned up, fed the animals and went to bed. So much for getting any more work done.

Now its Monday again, I have the Dorgan book ready for the proof edition phase and i need to finish indexing the Cross book. I have a choice of about 4 books to do next…out of the 30 i have on my list. And i haven’t decided which one to do next. The Abigail Mussey needs to be transcribed, i have the OCR’d text off Archive.org but it’s not clean at all. She lived in the mid 19th century and became a preacher i think, but she lived off and on in my town. I don’t like to PREREAD these books, it makes it easier to transcribe…or at least more interesting. I need to move a couple of histories of Abbot Academy to the top of my list, because their librarian invited me to use their archives. I have an unending stream of work to choose from.

I sent two books to proof phase but i’m not happy with their temp covers. I have decided to try to stick with Winslow Homer for books where i don’t have art. He’s classic Americana, much of it is New England, a lot of it covers the mid to late 19th century which is the era i am having trouble getting artwork for, and best of all it’s all in public domain. Right now this is my cover for the Cross Memoir..but i need to get a nice high res version i can use. So, I put in for all the Homer Winslows from the library. I still like the Snap the Whip image but it’s too wide to make a nice cover, while this matches the contents very well.

I made a decision to spend SOME time on my own book from now on, i don’t know if it will be 1 hour a day or 1 day a week. But it’s past time to get to work on my civic housekeeping book. more later.

Making stuff up

By Erasergirl on December 10, 2011 in gadgets, photography, Photos

A a friend of mine has me looking for winebottle labels, the custom made kind …but first i have to make the label to upload…of course. So i am cruising the net for a place to get hundreds of labels printed on the cheap. I did land at MyOwnLabel.com which i think was recommended by Martha.. they do a LOT more of winelabels…if you want variety of special event products this is the place…gift boxes, mint tins, package labels etc.. a nice site if you only need a handful of really special giftables, but not as inexpensive as one might wish. Vistaprint.com has spoiled the lot of us, now only do they have a wide variety of products they are dying to throw up your logo on, they are cheap as dirt. MyOwnLabel not so cheap. 1.16 PER label, 6 on a sheet…i would have expected it to be 1.16 per sheet…so i am going to dig a little deeper into the internet for wine bottle labels. I am scrolling through BottleMyBrand.com which looks a lot cheaper but i need to be able to upload our custom design. this may take a while.

Speaking of bottles…i have been using a nifty and relatively CHEAP site in SKS Bottle and no they don’t just sell bottles. Another friend of mine is busily shoving wolf fur into tiny little bottles for necklaces as well as Christmas balls. Scrolling through all the potential packaging options inspires you to think up ways to exploit all these empty and blank goodies..but alas i don’t make any lotions or hot sauces or lip glosses or wine . . . i wish i could. but like drawing i don’t have the skill.

playing with cards

By Erasergirl on November 18, 2011 in gadgets, opinion, photography, Photos, reference

I ordered my 1st Cardstore.com card… that wasn’t coming to myself. I had a meeting with a local muckity muck that i want to stay in good with. His office happens to have THIS view from one my better photos. So, I went to CardStore.com and ordered a thank-you-for-the-meeting-card-hope-we-can-do-it-again-sometime card using this image. It was SO worth the $2.99.

On another front, the Click2mail.com card finally arrived..better late than never. It took 12 days and cost $2.24…i am not over the moon about the obverse graphics. But on the whole the post card quality was good. I think I may try Cardstore.com’s postcard and then i will have several to compare. Each site has its strength and i think Click2mail’s is with BULK mailing, sending 1 card isn’t their bag. wherease Cardstore is a little more personalized.

iphone, a friend

By Erasergirl on November 2, 2011 in gadgets, opinion, photography, Photos

yes i love my iphone..well it’s not MY iphone it is one i got from one of my jobs….and when i say love i mean :it knows everything about me including some of my personal secrets, it goes with me everywhere and i cuddle up with it everynight.’ i NEVER got that from a guy, not even my exhusband. I make it a point to figure out all the things it can do, and i am amazed..if steve jobs was here right now i’d give him a wet sloppy kiss..but then it’d be like kissing a corpse and that’d be weird.

Last night i tried out a couple of new apps, i was reading a blog post which i can’t find at the moment and it mentioned sending actually SNAIL MAIL using Iphone apps, which i had to try immediately. I downloaded three of them, and one of them was an immediate BUST it kept crashing my phone but not after it stole 2 bucks from pocket. It was a free app, but they want you to PAY to use their designs to improve your pictures. I deleted it and left them a bad review and only then read all the other bad reviews.

I went with the two still standing, basically to send a card of any time costs about $1 to $3 which i am perfectly fine with. I dont’ do it that often anyway…but to use MY images and their labor? be still my heart. • Postagram takes your picture and inserts it INTO a larger post card with the end result you can punch it out and have a snap shot. So basically you are sending paper snap shots to people. love the idea – though i don’t like Instagram you don’t have to use Instagram, it will take images from your phone and other places too.
• Cards by Apple takes your picture and slaps it on the front of a folding card, it may do other things but that’s as far as i got.
Both apps, let you personalize messages and chooses the addresses from your CONTACTS list in your phone. So basically i had to add my own address to my contacts list to test them.

I ordered one from each i will post them when they get here. If they are as good as i think they will be i may be using these apps, to send a lot of THANK YOU CARDS.

underfoot

By Erasergirl on October 10, 2011 in local, opinion, Photos

found this when i was out rambling with those college kids… am i the only one who looks down when they take a walk? Granted i find a heck of a lot of pennies…though not so many with the conomy the way it is…but i find other shit too… this is a very curious ‘brick’? don’t know yet. it will take a serious amount of History Detective to identify it. but perhaps there is enough of it to figure it out. It was embedded in the rubble packed down in the parking lot, not too bad, that new pruning knife came in handy digging it out. don’t know why i haven’t had one of these before. I may play with it a while, then when i get tired of moving it from one shelf to another i will pass it on to a historian who has a better grasp of Lawrence history.