My Life, my photography, my passions
During Lent and Advent Vespers on Wednesday nights, I am the piano accompanist. I love those nights, especially during Lent, sitting a few feet from Pastor, listening to the Passion expand each week until Easter.
I try to arrive at church early, about forty-five minutes so I can warm up and play some pre-service music. Lorie Line is my favorite and The Heritage Collection II and play it from cover to cover.
Meet Joe and the Jungle as they gave a free concert in the Philsons’ basement. Beth lives across the street and her family’s philosophy should be “Life is an adventure, explore and experience”. They have traveled to all over the United States, Europe, and have hosted multiple international exchange students. They are registered Couch Surfers and the Los Angeles California band, Joe and the Jungle, were their latest guests as their tour brought them to the Midwest.
The band has been compared to a cross between Guns n Roses, Cheap Trick and The Beatles with a splash of the Sex Pistols for flavor. If that doesn’t make you curious nothing will. They are the best of both coasts starting in New York City and moving to the LA Strip and selling out venues on a regular basis.
Knickerbockers in Omaha canceled on them at the last minute so Joe and his band rocked away in the Philson basement in Elmwood Nebraska this week. Although the band drives a stereotypical van and couch surfs across the country, they have never stayed in a house with it’s own amps, woofers, drum set and extra bass. Papa Philson is a closet musician and has all the toys.
The band signs were hung, blue and red bulbs went into shop lights and the atmosphere was created. Didn’t matter that the acoustics were a tad off, the rock and roll beat was alive and a Joe and the Jungle rocked the Philson house. Those in Omaha missed out. Check out their music in the video below.
I like birthdays and I LOVE chocolate cake. Here’s a quick picture of the chocolate cake I made for a friends 14th birthday and the ever lighting candles. They drove him crazy as he tried to blow them out. My kids hate them too.
Added benefit, this image is untouched by Photoshop other than resizing and sharpening.
My first self portrait on my blog, only because I want to show the capabilities of my new Portrait Professional program. (Click on the image to see a larger view.) However, this program may encourage me to be in more pictures. I like the effect. This is virtually a photographers secret weapon.
The process is fast and easy. In less than five minutes I selected the borders of my eyes, eyebrows, nose, and shape of face. Then the program does a mild adjustment and gives you additional options to enhance even further with slide bars. I can sharpen my mouth, increase my upper or bottom lip width, whiten my teeth and even open my eyes a little more. But not so much that it’s distorted.
Ever hear how the camera adds five pounds? It can be taken off by lengthening the neck and narrowing the jaw and face. The key is to keep as much of the natural features of the face so the person is still recognizable. Otherwise you end up changing the persons identity too much, and creating a Beyonce controversy.
I think Portrait Professional can be used to a great advantage in senior pictures to cover up those temporary blemishes (i.e. acne) that might even disappear before the student gets the final photos returned. I think the image below shows this concept quite clearly. My daughters friend was much happier with the “after” image.
Thanks to this project I have met new people and advanced increased my post production skills with Photo-shop and new programs. Portrait Professional is a program I found and I absolutely love it!
My daughter doesn’t really need any help looking beautiful, I think she looks that way everyday. But, there are those teenage days when you have shiny skin and blemishes seem to pop up overnight when you least expect them. This program magically eliminates blemishes, decreases shine and can even go so far as changing eye color.
Although meant for professional photographers doing glamor shots, magazine shoots, it’s can provide just enough adjustment to give an extra edge to photographs. I’ve talked to professional photographers who take senior pictures and they swear by it and say it’s definitely the best program they have ever used.
Tomorrow I take a self portrait and see what if the program can take ten years off my face.
