What I've Been Up To

Hi, all!  Things are gradually getting back to normal, as far as posts go.  It's still surreal down here in Alabama, but I want to do a huge shout-out to the people who have come together and helped out those in need.  We have really handled this terrible situation admirably.  So, say what you will about Alabama--but we're kind of awesome.

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

As the title has suggested, this week's Jen post deals more with the loose ends I've been working on with my unexpected time off from work.  I won't really go into too much detail analyzing the photos, but I will let you know that I've had quite a bit of fun sprucing up these photos in Photoshop.

Aye, I see with my eye.  (2011)

Hey, it's a photo over another photo!  Fancy that.  In a nutshell, I took a "texture" photo of river water, set in on Overlay (I think) as a new layer over the portrait, and adjusted the transparency settings.  Kind of neat.  I actually ended up using two duplicates of the texture photo, as it had been taken with my old point-and-shoot camera (whereas the portrait had been taken with my DSLR, Ernst).  It's worked out fairly well, though I want to fiddle around with it some more to see what I can do to make it even neater.  This is one of those photos that I have fun creating, and I created it because it's fun.  It's a nice respite from trying to be Ahtsy, particularly when I achieve nice effects, like this.

Bottles! - Lowe Mill, HSV, AL (2010)

Another fun foto (see what I did there), featured left, has a few things going for it: lighting, color, interest (if you like still life), etc.  I actually didn't have to do too much editing with this photo except for a bit of color saturation, but, were I to create a series of Bottle Photos (So indie!  So hipster-tastic!  So Etsy!), I may hold an art exhibit of these beauts in some decrepit log cabin.  Or at least display them in an apartment.  Still!  I like the photo's composition, particularly because the chain draws the viewer's eye all along with picture's length, thus emphasizing the bottles' colors and lighting. 

It was also a bit fun trying to wedge myself under these things.  I'm incredibly short, but I'm sure it was amusing watching me position myself.  For Aht.

Besides, it makes an oftentimes-lackluster art scene more interesting and bearable.

Haley Being Haley - March 2011

This last one is one of my favorite types of portraiture: spontaneous.  This kind of portraiture combines both skillz and luck (well, timing, rather), and I'm always very glad when my skillz get lucky.  This one was taken right as Haley was laughing evilly over beheading a Peep and smearing its head and body with red food coloring.  The evil glee is definitely obvious in this captured moment, and I'm quite pleased with the overall feel of the photo.  I mean, don't you want to evilly cackle along with her?  I know I do.

All right, kids.  Tomorrow will be another mixed post, featuring both Haley's and my photos of the same object, but interpreted differently.  Stayed tuned, and be sure to await the upcoming blog post with baited breath!