Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Sleet, Nor Hail Shall Keep

Dave from his grill.

Let's just say it rained. Hard. But that wasn't going to keep Dave from grilling our hamburgers tonight.




Did I mention it was raining? Hard.




I didn't say he did it with a smile on his face. : (




We did eat those hamburgers with smiles on our faces. : )

A Winning Photo

Dave has been off this week and we have spent it doing projects around the house. One of Dave's projects today, since it was raining, was to take me down to Cranberry to have lunch at Sibas. They have a Lobster BLT that I really like. We made our way back home, I gave Jo a little lovin' and opened up my Hotmail. Imagine my surprise when I saw this: an email from Matt saying "Congratulations!" That's nice, but congratulations for what? Oh, it's from Backroads a company that we have used for many of our trips. I read further and I realize it is the photo contest winners. I won? No, that can't be because I don't remember entering. It must be the winning photos. I opened it and read further.


Dear Carrie,

We're pleased to inform you that we've used one of your New Zealand (NZ) images (thumbnail below) as the cover on our 2010 Walking & Insider catalog. We've awarded you $250.00 in trip credit, to be used toward any Backroads trip of your choosing. Your credit has been entered into our system and will never expire.

Thank you again for submitting your photography to Backroads!

Matt Orendorff PRODUCTION ARTIST




After some consideration I remembered submitting some photos for their contest last winter. But what photos? What won?

Well, thankfully they included my winning picture and here it is:




This is Alex. Dave and his wife Jules got along famously. In fact, I had taken a picture of the two of them sitting just to Alex's left looking out over the same vista. Dave says that is his shadow that you can see in the left of the photo.

Before you get too excited another email from Backroads sitting above this email. It said:


Dear Carrie,

Apologies, I got my form emails mixed up. We used your image as an interior photo in the 2010 Walking & Insider catalog, not as the cover. Your credit however, remains the same.

Thanks again for traveling with Backroads,
Matt


You know what? I don't even care. One of my pictures is going to be in their catalog and that is exciting enough for me. Maybe next time I can get Dave in one of their catalogs.

Third Time's A Charm

As you know I am on my third dump truck of mulch this year. He only hit one tree backing his truck through our woods to dump part of my load.




With all of that mulch you would think that I would half of the county covered in mulch. I don't but I do have one of my beds in the front finished. I wish I had taken a picture before I started because then you could really see how much of a difference there really is. One reason it has taken so long is because the entire bed was covered in weeds and it took me quite a bit of time to get those pulled. But I have them pulled and this is the final result.




Here is a view looking from the front of the house toward the street.




Doesn't it look pretty?




I also have some hydrangeas just starting to bloom. They are competing with the trees for moisture and sunshine so they aren't growing as fast I would like but I am hoping that in a few years they will reach a size to really make an impact. In the meantime I will enjoy them even in their smallness.

This is Limelight. They start out blooming in this lime green color and as fall approaches they turn a burgundy shade. I have a few of them scattered around the yard and they are one of my favorite plants.




Here is they everyday hydrangea that you see everywhere. They range anywhere from pink to blue depending on the ph of the soil. Pretty.




I am still working on the center planting bed and will post pictures when I finish it.

In The Beginning

I am in the process of moving my files from my old computer over to my new computer. Look what I found as I was copying photos. This was taken in the fall of 2005. This is around the time they had met. Awwwww. Isn't this just the sweetest picture?

Storyboards

I have finished Day Twelve, Storyboards. This is something that I have always wanted to learn how to do. I like this, even if it did take me an hour to figure it out, and can see myself doing this one again. What do you think?

Selective Color

It's Day Eleven. Yes, I have skipped Day Ten for now. I will get back to it but for now it is on to Day Eleven, Selective Color. That means choosing a portion of the photo to be in color with the rest in black and white. It is actually quite easy to do though a little time consuming. Here is my original photo.




Here is my photo using some selective color.




What do you think? I'm still not sure of I am a fan of this or not. I think it takes the right photo and it is really easy to make it look really garish. But it is a technique that some people really love. More to come in a few days.

It's Day Nine

I have gotten a little behind. JPEG images and PSD files will be the death of me. But I think I have gotten it figured out and am ready to show you what I have learned.

Day Nine is about burning the edges of a photo. Burning the edges just means making the outer edges of a photo a bit darker. This draws the eye to the middle of the photo which is generally the area that you want to emphasize. The most important thing to remember when doing this technique is that it needs to be subtle. Here is an example of what you don't want to do. My apologies to the unknown person who's photo I am using.




Here is my photo before I burned the edges.




My photo after.




I like it. What do you think?

Photo Editing, Continued

I have completed three more class assignments. I admit it I am a couple days behind. Good thing we don't get graded on this or I would be in trouble.

Day Five was all abut textures. Specifically textures that are added over photos. They are either photos or high resolution scans of objects that have some kind of texture to them. The only limit is your imagination. Typical items that are used are cloth, wood, concrete or paper. For this photo I chose a texture of a rain covered window. I reduced the color of the photograph and then ran the texture over that. I think I reduced the opacity so it really isn't that obvious what the texture is.




Day Six was a technique called "Through the Viewfinder". This involves using a texture over a photograph to give it the appearance that the photo was taken with an old camera so the photograph has a worn faded look to it. I think this picture of the Eiffel Tower I took while I was in Paris was the perfect picture to try this on. I also added a frame to the photograph to enhance the appearance that this is an old photo. Does it work?



Day Seven was a day of rest. Whew. I needed that.

Day Eight was learning how to apply type to a photograph. I actually knew how to do this but I learned a few tricks that made it easier.




I plan on doing the rest of the assignments and will show the results in a few days.

Newton's Cradle

Check out my new gadget but watch out it is addicting! Yes, it works just like a real one. And yes I have too much time on my hands.

Celebrate, Celebrate, Dance To The Music

Well on to the real reason we were downtown that Saturday night.




We were there to see my favorite band when I was in high school and apparently so were a lot of other people.




This is the Three Dog Night I remember. Pictured is Cory Wells on the left, Danny Hutton in the middle and Chuck Negron on the right.







From 1969 to 1974 nobody had more Top 10 hits, sold more records, or for that matter sold more concert tickets than Three Dog Night. They had 21 consecutive Top 40 hits, including 3 #1 singles, 11 Top 10's, 18 straight Top 20's, 7 million-selling singles and 12 straight Gold LP's. But that was then and this is now.




If you are observant you will notice that Chuck is missing. Yes, my favorite is no longer with the band. I tried to find out the specifics but all I could find out was that he had serious drug issues and ended up leaving the band. He eventually entered rehab and is now touring solo. He also has written a book about his years with Three Dog Night and his recovery. I don't think the parting was amicable because the official Three Dog Night site doesn't even mention him. His name never came up at the concert either. :( So sad. I really wanted to see him but, hey, two out of three ain't bad.


Well we were ready for Three Dog Night, minus one, had good seats and a beautiful night by the rivers. But first things first. Look who is trying to make his way to his seat and seems to be having a little trouble. Could Gene get some help here?




He ended up sitting just a few feet feet from us. Luckily the excitement of having him there died down and we were ready to enjoy the concert.




Here's Danny




and here's Cory.



I have to say I knew all but two of the songs they sang that night. They didn't sing my two favorite songs, Eli's Coming and Pieces of April. Maybe because they were known more as Chuck Negron's songs.

Anyway here is Shambala as performed by Three Dog Night that Fourth of July night.




Of course they ended the night with this.




The night ended with fireworks. Unfortunately you either had good concert seats or good fireworks seats. You know what we chose.




Next on our concert schedule is Foreigner. Be there or be square.

Photo Editing, Continued

I got a little behind on my photo editing class. I thought it would be so easy to keep up but I was wrong. I sat down this morning and went through Lessons Three and Four.

I had managed to do Lesson Two on day two and have been waiting for a couple more lessons before I posted. Lesson Two was about using digital brushes which is just a fancy way of stamping on photos. It was actually pretty easy. I'm not sure if it is something I would do a lot but at least I know how. Here is what I did.




I have some word stamps that I might use but I'm not sure about some of the other fancy stuff that can be stamped on photos.

Now on to Lesson Three. She taught us how to add a vintage hand-tinted style to a photograph. This I liked. It took a little bit of time and I watched her video a few times but I think I understand it. I think I had the perfect picture to try this out on. What do you think? Can you see the subtle rosy tint to her cheeks?




Lesson Four was about clipping masks. I'm still not sure how this works. I ended up having layers locking on me and I'm still not sure I did it correctly but I did end up with a grungy edged photo mask on this picture. I think it is something I need to try again.




I plan on working on Lessons Five and Six later this weekend and then I will be all caught up. Hopefully she takes Sunday off so I really will be caught up.

Celebrate

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a week since the Fourth of July. As many of you know Dave and I went to Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh to celebrate this year. Of course we were there for a concert but first things first. We claimed our place on the lawn which ended up being the second "row" behind the reserved seating. We were about as close as we could get. Sweet. Then it was off to scope out the food choices.




Ah, what to eat, what to eat? As you can see we had many choices but sadly one of them wasn't a Primanti Brother's sandwich. Dave settled on a stromboli. I have to admit it did look good.




But I decided to go the healthy route and had vegetables.




Later I ended up getting an elephant ear. Listen I had vegetables for dinner. It was very good but I can only take those about once a year. This was my once a year. Promise.

We were sitting in our seats eating our dinners and half listening to the band that was playing. I believe they were called The Businessmen. Did he just say Gene Simmons? Why yes he did and there he is standing on the stage.




Why was he there? I don't know. What was his connection to this band? I don't know. Like I said we were more interested in our food than the band that was playing.

But look. There he is again. Hiding off to the side. I was hoping he would come back out and perform but he didn't. I have to say that it did add some excitement to the festivities.




We still had quite a bit of time before Three Dog Night so we decided to walk down to the river. Isn't the fountain pretty?




The fountain sits on the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River. You can see the first bridge that spans the newly formed Ohio River. I don't know the name of it but give me a break. The city of Pittsburgh has 446 bridges. If you look to the right you can also see Heinz Field.




We ran across these yahoos on our way back to the concert area. Back off, people! Don't touch me and no one will get hurt.




Here is a hint of things to come.





Thank you andyLeer for this video clip. You should have been sitting where we were. Did I mention that we had great seats? Come back tomorrow to see what Three Dog Night looks and sounds like today.

Another Class

Yup, my not that much younger sister and I are taking another class online. This one should be really fun and easy if the first day is any indication. It is by Jessica Sprague who is known in the scrapbooking world as an expert in Photoshop and all the fun things that can be done with this program. The best part is it's free! Yes, free. Isn't she generous?

It is called Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects. Today she showed us how to place frames over our photos. Free frames can be found all over the internet. Some for sale and some for free. Part of this class includes some free frames. I used one of them on this photo of Jo.




In the next couple of weeks I will post some more of the fun things she teaches us how to do.

Welcome!

Let's all welcome Dave to the Bike Your Age In Miles Club. Way to go Dave!! John, Sarah, Chris, Carla and I welcome you and hope to see you as a member again next year.

The Fun Continues

I know I have been a little absent lately but I have been trying to catch up on some other things. Plus, I am still figuring this whole Apple thing out and that slows me down a little. Here is some more action fun.

Here is the photo straight out of the camera. I know I can do better.




This is how I would edit this photo if left to my own devices. Not bad.




This is Pioneer Woman's Fresh & Colorful. This is a good photo to run this one on. I think it really works.




I wonder how this would look in black and white? Do your magic Pioneer Woman.




The last of the actions is called Soft & Faded. I like it.




That's it. That is all of Pioneer Woman's Actions. Some I like better than others. I am sure you will see some of these popping up again on my blog.