Mural Day 2
Shit. I’m pretty much going to get a Day 3 and then won’t post another one until about day 10. Oh well.
My First Camera Shoot
If you follow the blog you know I’ve been learning Photoshop for the past year or so. I’m hardly skilled but I’ve learned a trick or two. In my pursuit of developing the ability to manipulate pictures I realized I lacked of an essential part of Photoshop, the photo.
I went out and bought a Nikon 3300 which is an introductory model DSLR. There is a minimal amount of zoom but the pictures are of higher resolution and I’m still working on the adjustments. With my experience of Photoshop and the newly equipped tools to take a quality photo, I was set on my journey to become… I have no idea.
What the Hell Am I Doing?
Not quite there yet.
At 7pm I decided to venture out into the real world with my camera for the first time. I got in my car and traveled to Wawa to get some food and a coffee for what I wasn’t sure. It was 7:20 when I decided to start following the sun. I was driving west on Washington when I occurred a glaring, beautiful red ball of sun. Picturesque. Wow this is easy I thought. My first time trying to take a picture and I’m following a RED sun that I can’t even think of how many times I’ve seen it like that in my life. I couldn’t decide if I should just pull over and snap a pic or if I should keep driving closer to it so I could get a picture that wouldn’t have traffic lights in it.
I kept driving and before I knew it the sun had ducked behind some clouds and I was driving in a different direction than it was setting. Now I was scurrying to try to find a good picture again but I couldn’t find a good spot and there was no where to get out anyway. Before I knew it it was 8pm, no picture in sight, and I had to go home because it was dark. I took one picture from my car, which was highly dangerous, because I figured I needed to go home with some memory. The first is the original and then what I shopped.
Before
After – I could have done better in the upper right with more effort.
Slow Work Day
Everyone is on vacation so why aren’t you? I’ve been fiddling around in Photoshop and this is what I’ve come up with today.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Photoshop Samples
I need to buy a camera because I don’t have enough images to play with. This leads to experimenting with the same images over and over. I’m starting to get more familiar with the adjustments. Next stop are the filters.
I Can’t Make This Racist Stuff Up
Today I’m driving up on 4th street (the right side of the picture) and hit an intersection that has two stop signs. It’s not a 4 way because both ways are one way. There is a big bus on my right and he is going through the intersection. There is no car waiting at the front view of the picture at this point. I barely breeze the brakes and as I’m doing so a Cadillac pulls up to the other stop sign and he barely breezes the breaks. I had made up my mind at that point and was not relenting and I owned the car in the game of chicken.
As soon as it happened the guy starts tailing me which I didn’t think to much of because I was going to be turning anyway. I make a left down a side street and he does too and starts to pull up to the side of me on a 2 way street. Not wanting to floor it and get into a bizarre street chase, I slowed down and rolled down my window. He says, “You just ran that stopped sign and I bet you said some racist shit.”
Not the actual vehicles.
At first I was in disbelief and ready to start cracking up because I’m not sure how I could have identified his race in the split second I was running the stop sign. So instead of getting into an argument with a hot head who looked like Idris Elba, I decided to do the smart thing and say, “We both got there at the same time, I’m sorry.” I got the feeling he wanted the situation to escalate but it’s hard to carry on when someone diffuses a situation in a calm manner.
He then drove off and I followed him down the side street that I work on. He took this as I was looking for further confrontation and pulled over to the side and got out of his car. I drove passed, opened my garage door, and went to work.
The race card is not a concept I experience very often. I don’t have prejudice towards anyone but today I witnessed a person who drives around constantly thinking the world is against him. It’s tough to grasp not being the one who feels racial tension but it is certainly evident in the world today.
Photoshop Work
I’ve been back to learning Photoshop and I’ve paid some money for a subscription to Lynda.com to further my skills. I still have a few more hours of basic understanding left but I’m coming along. Here are a few of my latest works. Realize the hardest part about Photoshop is creating. Part one is knowing how to use it and part two is being creative enough to come up with pictures to mess with. Don’t judge me.
My Signature – I was somewhat surprised it didn’t vary much from when I write it in pen.
Emma Watson With a Banana – This was a lesson on blend modes. They use pictures that are of the sky and gardens and I put banana’s in Emma Watson’s mouth.
3x Sam – I was actually fairly profecient in doing this previously but I got a bit better at refining the edge and placement. I did this in about 2 minutes and could still have improved it but I thought it was pretty funny. I was actually going to make a post on if there were a million of you in the world with this picture as my visual but didn’t see that going many places.
Their House vs Mine – I was following along the lesson without realizing the teacher was building a house. Mine didn’t come out exactly right but it would very difficult to break into.
The Ebola Apocalypse
Although the likelihood of the Ebola virus turning into the Bubonic plague is slim, it is certainly the talk of the town. Deadly viruses are a complex beast because of the uncertainty and what precautions must be taken. Here in America our media makes it seem like Ebola can be spread by talking to someone else when there have been a total of 2 documented cases. This isn’t Africa where we are rubbing our wounds together.
With the popularity of all of these zombie shows, they make you think that the living dead is an actual possibility. Who says it isn’t? Some scientist may believe that this is impossible but if Michael Jackson in Thriller was actually staring you in the face, you might sing a different tune. I know I’d be screwed if it were to happen. I have no weapons and no survival skill-set.
I’m certainly not concerned quite yet about catching any deadly virus but I have been feeling a little odd. I’m pretty sure everything is fine. Here is a recent selfie I shot. See you soon!
Perfect Philly Photo
Sometimes I’m walking around and see something that I think would be a cool picture. Then I think to myself that there are so many better pictures out there and mine will never bring anything new to the table. This is accurate. Here’s a great pic of Philly from the Camden side.
To add a little more to this post.
Photoshop Experimenting Continued
Still improving, what do you think?
Looking somewhat realistic? Or is it?
Adding images and backgrounds
Still perfecting duping and moving.
Learning hair coloring and other areas.
Photoshop Creations
Here are my latest creations.
