F O R D

Here's another before and after.  The after is at the bottom of the post.  But I did all this tweaking on my phone, and there's a rather lot of it.  And I didn't log any of it.  So I can't tell you what I did....  But it involved filters in snapseed (Drama, I think), and a significant amount of selective exposure (similar to burn and dodge)

(sorry)

Anyway....  We took a trip to Atlanta over Thanksgiving, saw some family....  all that good stuff.  During a visit in Mableton, GA (west side of Atlanta), I saw this old truck, and decided to shoot it. I used my iPhone, for simplicity.  I tried a couple of angles, but settled on this one.  It won out (barely) over a version from a lower angle, which took that building in the background out of view (the one you can see through the truck windows).  But I liked the better angle of the hood in this one.

Original, SOOC version:

Overlook

Diving I-24 across Tennessee has some nice scenery.  Especially the stretch from south of Nashville to Chattanooga.   The high point (literally) is Monteagle, where the highway crosses a mountain, which might not technically be a mountain, but certainly acts like a mountain!

Anyway, there's a rest area at the west side of the "mountain", and ont the back edge of the westbound stop, there's this very nice view.  This is a simple iPhone shot, but significantly tweaked on my computer.  So similar to last week, I thought I's post the original with the final, and try to remember the process.  Everything is in Photoshop Elements unless noted.

Original:

1. Adjust levels
2. crop to 4x6 aspect ratio
3. Adjust hue/saturation.  I think I boosted red and yellow, and decreased magenta (there was a bit of "purple fringing" in the trees.
4. resize to 1024 px on long side
5. Apply Unsharp mask.  My default is amount 48%, radius 0.6px, threshold 0
6. Create a new layer for effects
7. Apply Topaz - Impression filter. I actually tried several of the presets, adding a unique layer for each.  Then I could compare, by switching layers on and off.  I settled on "Oil Glaze"
8. Add texture filter.

Last Splash Of Color

Last weekend, I shuttled a group of kids to Little Grassy Lake for a church youth retreat.  Of course, I had to take a little time to wander the grounds, and take a few pictures (here and here). Same as I did last year.   So, this year we got to the camp just a few minutes before a storm was to blow through.  The light was pretty even and flat, no harsh shadows (even though it was mid-day).  So I hustled to grab a few shots before the storm.

Anyway, the image above turned out reasonably OK, but not until there was a LOT of tweaking.  Below is the original SOOC (stright-out-of-camera) version:

So, what did I do?  Well, I don't usually track my workflow real carefully, but this is close:

1. Try to fix the exposure:  Duplicate layer, set blend to multiply, drop opacity until it looks optimum.  This is a cool tool, think I learned it from a Scott Kelby book.  
2. Flatten layers
3. Fine tune levels.
4. Crop to 4x6 aspect ratio.  Just because I generally prefer 4x6, unless there's a reason not to...
5. Create a new layer for effects
6. Apply Topaz - Impression filter.  I'm pretty confident I used the "Edward Hopper I" preset.
7. Apply Topaz - Simplify filter.  I used the BuzSim preset, but tweaked the Simplify function way down, (<0 .10="" li="" nbsp="">
8. Adjust colors.  I selectively dropped Reds (to de-emphasize the dead leaves) and boosted the yellow a little, to make those leaves "pop"
9. Resize for publishing (I usually use 1024 px on the wide side for 365project.org).
10. Flatten and save.  

Sounds like a lot, but not really.  Maybe 10 - 15 minutes of time.  I'll spend that much easily dialing in a B&W conversion.

When The Golden Leaves Begin To Fall

"When the moon shines on the Blue Ridge mountains,
And it seems I can hear my sweetheart call,
How I long to be near to my darling,
When the golden leaves begin to fall"
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Title and lyrics from the Bill Monroe song, but the Wayfaring Strangers do a nice version, toowhich I was listening to while finishing this....

Isn't It Ironic?

No, not the Alanis Morissette  song, which uses non-ironic situations...

So...  one of my pet peeves is when people shotgun emails to huge groups of uninterested people.  Although it only really bugs me when I'm one of the uninterested people.  For example, at work today, somebody in one of our non-US offices added the group "US Field Employees" to an email response.This appears to include everybody in the US, but not in  the main office.  Probably a couple thousand names.  Text of the message was:

.Buenas tardes
[redacted name] sera el lider electrico de este proyecto
Gracias!
Saludos!

OK, not really that great a sin, probably not really worth getting too wound up about....  especially wound up enough to blog about it.  Except the inevitable response, the next sin:

Almost immediately, folk start to respond with comments like:  "I believe this email is for someone else other than myself ", and "I don't know what this is about" or "I'm confused why I received this".  All sent using reply-all.  I think this is a much worse sin, as it geometrically expands on the original sin. I'm pretty sure I've ranted about this before, even.

Which brings me to the ironic part.

The gentleman who, after three folk hit reply-all, sends out his own request:  "Can we please stop replying to all US FIELD EMPLOYEES?".  Which, of course, he sends via reply all.  

 I have to admit, I actually smiled a bit a that. And it didn't stop the replies, either...

Early Sunset

It has been almost a week since we switched away from daylight savings time, and I'm still adjusting. Just after 4pm and the sun is racing for the horizon... Oh well, 6 weeks and the days will start getting longer.

Crosby Lake, St. Paul, MN

This is a rarity for me....  The image is "straight from the camera" (SOOC).  And from my iPhone, even.  Usually I some SOMETHING to every image, recrop, level...  convert to B&W.  But I decided to let this one out in its untouched glory.

Pretty cool little park I found on the way to MSP airport last week, posted to 365 project straight from my phone.

I still might do some tweaking.  I generally prefer 4x6 aspect ratio, rather than the iPhone's 3x4...  A shorter 4x6 crop could take out that distracting log in the bottom corner... but would also take out the ice (and some of the depth of the image)...  And there's a slight blue cast, and looks like some purple fringing up in the tree branches...  And the bottom left is a little dark...  And, and, and.

Or should I leave well enough alone?

7 Days...

So, there has been a challenge floating around Facebook, to post 7 Days of black and white images.  One per day.  The guidelines seem to vary but as challenged to me state:

Seven days, seven black and white photos of your life.  No people, no explanations.

Well, that's pretty much right in my wheelhouse, so I was happy when my oldest daughter challenged me.  I did add a couple of personal twists.  All of the images were shot with my humble iPhone 7.  All (well, 7 of 8) were processed on my iPhone.  And all feature minimal adjustments.

Here's the 7 photos I posted:

Day 1:  Thursday, November 2

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Day 2:  Friday, November 3

 

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Day 3: Saturday, November 4

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Day 4: Sunday, November 5

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Day 5: Monday, November 6

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Day 6:  Tuesday, November 7

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Day 7: Wednesday, November 8

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BONUS:  Day 8, Thursday, November 9:

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So there you have it.  Seven days (+1) and Seven B&W photos.  Hopefully each says a little something about me.  I'm torn about adding explanations, but for now, I'll not.

The truth is in the eyes 'cause the eyes don't lie...

"(Beware) beware of the handshake. 

That hides the snake (can you dig it, can you dig it?), 

(I'm a-tellin' you) beware, beware of the pat on the back, 

It just might hold you back"

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Today's song is from The Undisputed Truth, with their one Top 40 hit, "Smiling Faces Sometimes".   Thios gem peaked at #3 in September of 1971, stalling out behind McCartney's Uncle Albert and The Bee Gees' How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.  Tough competition.

Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrent Strong, this was first recorded by the Temptations.  But this is the hit version.

In Trouble And Strife...

Doing alright

A little jiving on a Saturday night

And come what may

gonna dance the day away

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This in one of those songs that just grabs you when you hear it on the radio.  Or at least grabbed me.  One of those "who is that?!" kind of songs.  Yes, a one hit wonder, peaking at #15 in the fall of 1979.  Fall of my sophomore year of college.  Of course I bought the album, and it is very good.  Highly recommended, if you can find it.

Yes, we're talking about the song "Driver's Seat" from the band Sniff 'N' The Tears.  

And that's all right with me...

"I put her out, in a town that was so small,
You could throw a rock from end to end,
A dirt road main street, she walked off in bare feet,
It's a shame I won't be passing through again...

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Another one hit wonder, and one I'v always liked.  Chevy Van from  Sammy Johns.  Peaked at #5 in May of 1975.   Ah, the days of the custom vans...  Of course, this song peaked just a bit before my 15th birthday, so it's not like I had a van.  I was just slumming in the back of my dad's Buick...

It's such a fine and natural sight...

Everybody here is out of sight
They don't bark, and they don't bite
They keep things loose, they keep things light

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From one of my all time favorite songs, 6 on a scale of 5.  Dancing In the Moonlight, by King Harvest.  Peaked at #13 in early 1973, when I was in 7th grade. Happy to see this one make an appearance in Guardians Of The Galaxy 2... 

Several other folk have have remade this, but I haven't found any that come anywhere close to the original (IMHO)

here, here, here, here..  but not here...   Anybody know of other (good) versions?

Aside:  If you listen to the song, I believe they sing "They keep things loose, they keep things alive", but I really prefer the published "light".