Summer Morning

Posted by dkrashb on April 11, 2013

Hipstatmatic version of the Chickamauga Dam shortly after sunrise

Someone flipped the weather switch from winter to summer. After a quick afternoon walk in the park with Tisen yesterday when I discovered it was suddenly August, I decided it was high time I get my bike out of storage and take it for a spin.

Camera! version of the Chickamauga Dam

It seemed like a fantastic idea last night. I got it all ready to go, putting air in the tires, checking the brakes, digging up my biking shoes and helmet. I even found appropriate attire and laid it out so I wouldn’t have to hunt around for what to wear.

When the alarm jerked me awake mid-dream at 5:15AM, it seemed like less of a good idea.

But, once jerked awake, it’s hard to go back to sleep. I stumbled into the kitchen and made some coffee.

Train trestle over the Tennessee River

I eventually made it out the door, still ahead of sunrise. When I told Tisen goodbye, he momentarily raised his head a fraction of an inch and blinked. Then he fell back into a state of involving loud snoring. I was jealous.

Hipstamatic makes high tension wires look charming

Once on my bike, I realized I had never headed to the Riverwalk from our new location before. I wasn’t exactly sure how to make it to the Walnut Street Bridge without having to navigate any stairs. I didn’t quite make it there stepless–I had to carry my bike up one flight of steps–but I did make it without riding on any streets, which was a nice way to start out the morning.

Structures I normally try to keep out of the frame

I took my time riding in the dark, breathing in the smells of spring, and watching the light gradually increase in the sky ahead of me. I saw Osprey and Great Blue Herons. Ring-billed Gulls and Tree Swallows. Dozens of Warblers teased me by flying ahead of me and remaining just visible enough to be recognized as Warblers, but not long enough for their particular species to be identified (even when I got off my bike and pulled my binoculars out of my saddle bags).

The iPhone might not be good for getting photos of birds, but it does pretty well capturing high-tension wires

When I made it to the last mile before the dam, as I entered the sculpture garden, I saw the strange exhibit I call “Abduction” glowing in the dim morning light as a cloud of mist rose off the grass and the sky turned pink in the distance. I thought it was an excellent time to make use of my iPhone camera.

Abduction Sculpture at sunrise with last bit of mist in the background

When I made it to the end of the Riverwalk at the Chickamauga Dam, I coasted down to the fishing pier. I decided it was another photo op, although maybe not the kind I usually think of. The large manmade structures used to generate the electricity that powers Chattanooga (and probably a lot of other places) may not be my normal idea of a subject I want to immortalize, but this morning I just felt grateful for the electricity instead of annoyed by the environmental impacts of the dam. And for once, I found myself smiling with appreciation.

Much later in the day, Tisen enjoyed sitting in the evening sun with Cow

Fishing Along the Riverfront

Posted by dkrashb on April 9, 2013

Tisen looks so happy rolling in the grass

If I am guilty of getting carried away with my new fisheye lens for my iPhone camera, please forgive me. It’s pretty darn fun. And combining fisheye with Hipstamatic is particularly fun–the square format works well with the round shape of the image created by the fisheye attachment. However, I do like the increased bulging effect of the fisheye lens in the rectangular format.

Tisen rolling Hipstamatic Tintype Style

The biggest problem with the rectangular format is that the lens must be perfectly centered over the built-in lens or I get uneven roundness and even wide black edges in some cases when the fisheye attachment gets bumped off center (which seems to happen frequently).

This problem is compounded by the inability to see the screen to tell that the lens attachment isn’t centered. This results in images like this one:

Oops–the fisheye adapter got bumped

By comparison, the Hipstamatic version (which is really the equivalent of a cropped image) is zoomed in far enough that the curved edges do not show. Even when the lens is well off-center like the one above:

Same shot with Hipstamatic

Of course, cropping the first image would eliminate the issue. For some reason, I just really like the bubble effect. I guess if I’m going to go fisheye, I want it to be obvious.

I really like the fisheye effect for putting Tisen into an image that includes local landmarks across the horizon. While I had fun with this in the images posted yesterday, I especially like the images of Tisen rolling in the grass in the foreground with the Market Street Bridge (and glimpses of Walnut Street Bridge) in the background.

Tisen on the steps is also cute, but then, I have a hard time not loving any picture of Tisen.

Looking through the railing

For those of you who are Tisen fans, you may notice that he is not carrying any of his beloved toys in these images. However, if you happen to look back at yesterday’s post very carefully, you might notice that Tisen has his armadillo/opossum toy with him in those images. Those images were shot on the same walk as today’s.

Tisen on the steps old style

This is a sign of SPRING! Finally!

As the weather gets warmer, Tisen’s interest in walking around with a furry toy stuck to his tongue decreases. He still insists on grabbing a toy before we go out the door, but by the time we get less than halfway through the walk, he’s ready for me to take over carrying it.

I, however, do not employ the same method of carrying his toy that he does. I feel foolish enough walking around the park with a stuffed animal. I’m fairly certain people who only see us in warm weather think I have some sort of phobia that causes me to carry stuffed animals everywhere I go–one more thing to blame on the dog.

No Tisen in this one, but I like the extra curve of the sculpture

Perhaps I should shoot Tisen’s toys with the fisheye? Why do I suddenly see a future of retaking every shot I’ve ever taken with a fisheye lens now?

And, yes, I shot it with Hipstamatic as well

Night Time Renaissance

Posted by dkrashb on March 31, 2013

Bright moon, pink clouds, twilight sky–but too much wind

Sometimes at night the clouds lay low over the city and reflect back the light from the street lights below, luminous against the twilight blue sky. Usually, the phenomena of having low-lying clouds with a clear sky above is accompanied by wind.

If there is no wind, the clouds don’t break up. They lie like a blanket, impenetrable, creating only a haze of light that just isn’t as interesting as on windy nights. On this particular night, not only was the wind blowing hard with the clouds breaking up nicely, but the moon was bobbing and weaving amongst the blowing clouds.

For this special effect, the assistance of Tisen was required–a surprise pull on the leash captured Tisen’s own form of art

Who could resist trying to get a photo of that? Of course, Tisen also needed to go out, so being the multi-tasker that I am, I hung my DSLR around my neck and put Tisen’s collar around his.

While I always take my iPhone with me when I wander around Renaissance park, I had no intention of using it tonight. The iPhone is a light hog, like all digital cameras with tiny sensors. Getting a night time image with an iPhone isn’t something I’ve figured out how to do and this wasn’t going to be the night I tried again.

Shot while swaying with a post I was trying to lean on for stability

I’m glad I didn’t bother trying with the iPhone. With my DSLR set on ISO 10,000, I was still shooting at shutter speeds over 3 seconds long. This is because I was being greedy. I wanted lots of depth of field, which meant sacrificing light to get it.

This may not have been the best decision. Armed with my camera and with my tripod tucked neatly in the closet back at home, I was buffeted about in the wind like a human sail. I tried leaning against a light pole and discovered the light pole was also blowing in the wind. We swayed together as I contemplated the hopelessness of getting a good shot in these conditions.

Closer to still, if only the clouds would have paused

I remembered some of the lessons I learned about wind from hang gliding. First and foremost, it cycles. If you stand still and pay attention, you’ll feel it start to ease up until it will suddenly drop and be still. Sometimes this lasts only a split second. Sometimes it lasts several seconds. I needed 3 second windows of calm to get any sharp photos.

To make matters more difficult, the wind tossing the clouds was blowing at a much steadier pace, keeping the clouds blowing across my frame during the exposure. Even the plants in the foreground weren’t settling down when the breeze would briefly die. Everything was in motion. There were to be no sharp shots that night.

This is my favorite–the effect of the wind blowing everything in the long exposure reminds me of an impressionist painting

Tisen was happy to return to the indoors–the wind was cold and Tisen’s leg is sore. He has created yet another hot spot because of his allergies. We are treating it topically for the time being in the hope of avoiding more steroids. The pink self-sticking tape was hard to resist–he looks so cute in pink.

Tisen spent most of the day napping–he managed to wake up long enough to yawn mid-day

I got one pose out of him before he went back to sleep

Walk to Sunset

Posted by dkrashb on March 29, 2013

Sunset Rock Hipstamatic Style

In the effort to entertain my brother and sister-in-law, I came up with the following itinerary:

Have them assist in a birds of prey program at a local festival.
Take them to lunch at a famous barbecue on a hill with goats.
Haul them up to Lookout mountain and take them hiking for a couple of hours.
Drag them out for Mexican-fusion at favorite taco spot.
Give them a tour of husband’s workshop.

We are now on #3. Hauling said brother and sister-in-law up to Lookout Mountain for a relatively short, easy hike.

Sunset Rock via DSLR

One of my favorite short, easy hikes on Lookout is the hike from Craven’s House to Sunset Rock. There are many routes to choose from so it’s easy to make the hike as short as 3 miles or as long as 10, depending on how long you want to be out. Regardless of which route you choose, the scenery on Lookout and the views from the overlooks are always fantastic.

Our fearless hiking crew

The rock formations on Lookout are amazing in and of themselves. The sandstone (or maybe limestone?) splits, drops, careens, and leans in ways that make you feel like you’re doing something really dangerous by walking on stone that might fall off the side of the mountain at any moment. If the trail were along the creek with the same rock formations, it wouldn’t be quite as adventurous, but it would still be beautiful.

Chunks of ice remind us it’s only spring on the calendar

Water runs between the rocks from time to time. We were surprised on this early spring day to discover chunks of ice lingering in one microscopic waterfall. Just another reminder that only the humans around here are convinced it’s supposed to be spring.

Even the mushrooms look like they are winterized

Tisen enjoys this hike, too. He likes to linger behind, sniffing, and then dart back in front. Sometimes, he stops to check on me if I’m hanging back. I’m not sure if he’s worried I’m going to fall off a cliff (a reasonably probable occurrence) or if he thinks I might sneak off and disappear to some new life that doesn’t include him. He really doesn’t have to worry about the latter–I’m not anxious to find out what life will feel like without him.

Tisen checking on Mommy

We made it to Sunset Rock in tact, although Tisen scared me to the point that I yelled at him when he got so close to the edge that I really thought he was going to lift his leg and immediately topple down the cliff. I called him three times and when he ignored me, I panicked and yelled his name at the kind of volume that echoed off the surrounding cliff sides. He looked up at me, surprised and sheepish. I couldn’t remember having ever raised my voice at him before; I felt a little foolish.

View of the valley from Sunset Rock

The view from Sunset Rock is not actually better than the view from Point Park, but making the hike through the woods and up the mountain makes it feel so much better.

Family Planning

Posted by dkrashb on March 23, 2013

Tisen’s collection of squeaky toys seems to have grown quite a bit since October

This was the majority of the collection in October–the family is getting out of control

There’s a reason people recommend planning your family carefully. I believe it’s because after so many family members, it becomes difficult to fit everyone into a camera frame.

While we successfully kept the human side of the family to plan, the canine side didn’t go quite how we expected. Our plan was not to have any more dogs until we had settled down somewhere. Our goal was all about mobility.

Tisen inspects the family portrait pose

But as things changed and we exercised our mobility less and less, I found myself home alone way too much. Working from home is not the same as actually being around other people, even on days when I’m on conference calls for 10 straight hours.

Black and white Hipstamatic version using the D-Type film

Not wanting a long-term commitment, I decided to foster dogs for a local shelter. Tisen was my 3rd foster dog in Chattanooga. I am what is called a “foster failure.” That’s what it’s called when foster mom and dad adopt the dog they’re fostering. I can live with that kind of failure.

My boy kept stealing family members–Baby Beaver had to be omitted from the group shot to get Tisen to settle down

But, having failed to plan the permanent addition of Tisen to our family, it follows that I would be equally less deliberate about planning the additions Tisen would bring home. It started with the discovery of his love for squeaky toys. For the first year we had Tisen, he had no interest in treats. Only squeaky toys.

Tisen licks his nose after being reunited with Snake makes him sneeze

As a result, we kept getting him more squeaky toys. Soon, it became a tradition every time we went to PetsMart, Tisen gets to pick out a new toy. He carries it so proudly through the store with the tags still hanging off it. Usually, he tries to prance straight out the front door with it. He hasn’t quite gotten the “we have to pay for it” concept down yet. So far the store manager has been very understanding and hasn’t prosecuted Tisen for attempted shop lifting.

A more traditional image of the family yielded a pile of jumbled colors

Today, I decided, was the day to find out just how large the family had grown. I haven’t attempted a family portrait since October, when Cow Ball joined the family. I was a bit shocked when I gathered up all the family members and piled them on the sofa. This actually took two trips!

Tisen isn’t quite sure what he’s supposed to do with the huge pile of toys on the sofa

I got out the last inventory list I’d made and checked off the toys as I found them. Each and every one of them was accounted for, plus about 10 news ones added since October. There was even one extra–White Ball. White ball doesn’t belong to Tisen. He “borrowed” it from Twiggy, his girlfriend. It’s probably some ploy he’s using to try to get her to come over–she likes to play it cool.

Close up of Big Dog, Red Dog, Artie (the Armadillo/’Possum), and Puppy Luv cuddling

I had a little trouble fitting the entire family into the frame. I’m a little worried they’ve started multiplying on their own–how did we end up with 3 bears? Last time I checked, we only had Minnie and Eddie Bear. Now we have Flat Bear, too. This is why family planning is so important.

Had great fun with an overexposed shot–after much adjusting, it ended up reminding me of a crayon drawing

Tisen’s Toys

Posted by dkrashb on March 22, 2013

Tisen cuddling Mr. Beaver quite a few months back (B&W HDR processed)

This evening, I realize I need to shoot an updated family portrait. It’s been quite a while since I last captured Tisen’s collection of “babies” (as they say in the South) together. I would stop writing to go shoot them now (even though it is already 20 ‘til 11PM and I have a 6:30AM yoga class in the morning), but I’m not sure where all of them are.

I know Tisen has left a large collection in the mini-van. Every time I open the door I do a double take. Big dog is occupying the back seat. Lamb, Red Dog, Purple Monkey, and a large collection of others are strewn across the seats.\

Tisen taking Eddie Bear for a walk

But then I wonder what has happened to Lamb, who has frequently disappeared, Duck, Hog, and Mini Bear? They were once favorites, but I’ve rarely seen Tisen with them in the past few months. Tiger and Lion have also been replaced with new favorites. Skunk, Cow, and the Green Reindeer seem to be vying for the latest round of the “favorite toy” awards.

I’m curious to see how big a pile Tisen’s toys would make these days. I know they no longer fit into the hamper we use to store them when they’re all found and tossed together. Perhaps that’s because they get feisty when they’re all in the same bin and start kicking each other out.

My personal favorite–I can’t remember the last time I saw Puppy Luv

Curiously, Mr. Beaver has recently reappeared from the bottom of the toy pile. I thought Tisen had given up on dragging Mr. Beaver along on walks. Mr. Beaver is too long with his tail. He drags on the ground tripping one or both of us. I have been on a secret mission to convince Tisen that Mr. Beaver is not the toy he wants to take on a walk for at least 6 months now.

Just when I was sure I had convince Tisen that Mr. Beaver should be left at home in favor of shorter toys that don’t hang out of his mouth and create a tripping hazard, Tisen suddenly dug Mr. Beaver out of the hamper.

Lamb, so often lost, looks so cozy in Tisen’s arms

I have taken the substitution approach. This is the same secret technique used successfully by women when retraining men for centuries. Instead of convincing said man that he doesn’t want something he thinks he wants, said woman simply chooses something she prefers and then presents it to said man in such a way that said man does exactly what said woman wants while believe he is doing what he wants.

This is much more easily accomplished with Tisen than with Pat, for the record. With Tisen, Mr. Beaver does not have a particularly good squeak. Tisen is a sucker for a good squeak. So, all I have to do is pick up Skunk or virtually any other toy in Tisen’s collection, and squeak it. Tisen immediately drops Mr. Beaver in favor of any toy that squeaks for him. Then, off we go with Skunk instead. Works every time.

Tisen awakened from a nap with Minnie Bear

Dog Walk

Posted by dkrashb on March 20, 2013

The “Happy Puppy” face comes through even in the Hipstamatic blur effect

I discovered something about my dog last weekend. At least I think I did. I’ve always suspected he thinks he’s walking me when we go for our spins around the park. He has good reason to believe this. I take the approach that as a dog with no yard, his walks should simulate the experience of wandering around the yard amusing himself.

An urban dog’s lot in life is to enjoy the outdoors while attached to his people

Instead of expecting him to heel, I let him pick where he wants to wander within reason. If he meanders off the sidewalk and into the grass because he’s suddenly caught a really good scent, I follow.

Is it time to go? Are we going? Now? Now?

If I get impatient, I whistle to him and say, “Let’s go this way,” in my high, happy puppy voice and move my body in a way that suggests play. I hope no one has ever caught this on video. Usually, he will come with me.

But when an urban dog is at home, life can be pretty luxurious

Interestingly, he rarely pulls on the lead. When we’re in motion, we walk together like he’s been expertly trained. The lead hangs so loose, I have to loop it to keep it from dragging and tripping one of us. He walks at my side content until the next great scent piques his interest.

So, while on the one hand, he could have the impression that he is walking me, on the other hand, he stays with me nicely much of the time. It’s a win-win and I’ve never really worried much about it–he and I seem equally content in our style of walking together.

Cuddling in a blanket next to Mommy seems to be the highlight of the day

When we went for our little hikes in the Prentice Cooper State Forest this past weekend, we let Tisen off his leash when we were on trails where we were unlikely to run into anyone and far from ATVs. Because Tisen is the kind of dog that wants to have his people in sight all the time, we don’t have to worry about him running off (unlike an Akita we once fostered who seemed to think he needed to run 10 miles a day and that being let of the leash was an invitation to go do so).

Hey! Where’d everyone go?

Tisen sometimes gets lost in a scent. He forgets where he is, who he’s with, and goes blind as all of his brain becomes occupied with deciphering what message was left for him. When we hike, we just keep going, figuring he’ll catch up after a bit. If he doesn’t show up before we get very far, we call him. Then, he usually panics and comes galloping back to us like he’s just had the daylights scared out of him.

The blanket is supposed to protect the sofa from Tisen–a point he seems to have missed

This isn’t new behavior. But, for the first time it dawned on me that he’s shocked to realize we can get away. He forgets we’re not on a leash. He expects to look up and find us standing next to him, waiting for him to finish. I feel certain his panic is proof that he really does think he’s walking us.

This photo may be blurry, but it still cracks me up–Tisen is so determined to hide his face, he sticks his head in the crook of Daddy’s arm

Just Ducky

Posted by dkrashb on March 16, 2013

Sometimes black and white makes an otherwise uninteresting shots better, but not always

When we went to the Nature Center a weekend or two ago, we went to see the Red Wolves. But the only wildlife we saw were these two mallard ducks. Seeing a mallard is not exactly the most exciting birding event in the world. According to several sources (including Cornell), they’re the most abundant duck in the world.

These two really did not want their picture taken. They were paddling along serenely until I pulled my DSLR with the 70-200mm lens on it. It’s as if they knew what a hunter with a gun looked like and were confusing me with one. They made a bee-line for cover. I rushed the shot, trying to get a nice close up before they got out of sight.

This is a “traditionally” adjusted version–just nothing to get excited about

As a result, I didn’t get a chance to change any settings on my camera from the last shot I’d taken. Having been shooting in the treehouse just before this, I had the camera in full manual mode and set for a pretty dark scene. So, of course, my duck images came out pretty darn bright.

So, once again, I found myself playing with adjustments in Aperture to see what I could come up with. Nothing like a bad shot of a ubiquitous subject to make you feel like you can go crazy with the editing.

Playing with the “blur” brush, I applied it to the whole photo and then erased the blur where the ducks were. I’m not really a fan of this look.

An interesting side effect of going crazy with the photo editing was that it really demonstrated the superiority of the female mallard’s plumage. As I adjusted and twisted and played, the biggest challenge was keeping her from disappearing all together. With brown speckled feathers, the female just kept blending into the background.

I would probably like this if the female showed up better

Surprisingly, as I did a little reading on the mallard–a species I have taken for granted since the first time I through them bread crumbs when I was about 4 years old–I learned that sometimes the male is just as well camouflaged. As an “intermediate” birder (on a good day), I was a little embarrassed I didn’t know that the male mallard loses his flight feathers at the end of breeding season at the same time he molts into an “eclipse” plumage. For about 2 weeks, he can’t fly. The brown plumage provides cover while he’s vulnerable.

This was created mostly with the curves feature–but the colors just seem to compete with the ducks

Every time I think I know something, I learn something new about it. And when I’m sure I’ve exhausted all of the current information, usually new information is discovered if I wait long enough. Good thing I like to learn.

Oops–I slipped with the curves adjustment. But look at what happened to the male duck

Tisen is an avid learner, too. He has made more progress in his current hobby of “ground-dogging.” I can’t recall him ever seeing a groundhog, so I’m not sure exactly where he got the idea to burrow under anything, much less blankets, but he’s now added snorkeling to his repertoire of blanket-burrowing techniques. This is a welcome relief–sometimes when he gets himself completely buried, he starts sounding like he can’t breathe. I’m always relieved when we see his nose.

Tisen snorkeling from under the blankets

Loupe-less

Posted by dkrashb on March 15, 2013

Looking through a metal cutout on a treehouse door at an intricately carved post

Do you ever take a photo of something and think, “Oh, that’s really, cool!” only to be sorely disappointed when you look at the image on the big screen later? This happens to me more and more.

I attribute this phenomenon to a combination of 1) improving pickiness and 2) diminishing sight. I see what the image looks like in my head. I look at the relatively small screen on my camera or phone and think it looks pretty good. Then, I get home, look at the same image on my much larger laptop screen with my reading glasses on and think, “Oh, no!”

This is one of those lessons I learned and unlearned. After getting home with too many photos where I had missed focus and didn’t realize it, I invested in a loupe that is contained in a rubber “plunger” that goes over the screen on my DSLR. The loupe magnifies the image and the “plunger” part blocks the sun so I can see the image clearly.

I’d learned to use the loupe religiously. While I don’t bother taking it with me when I’m shooting birds or other wildlife–by the time I figure out how the image looks, the subject is gone–I’d come to depend on it in most situations.

But shooting with the iPhone erased this lesson. After all, am I seriously going to walk around with a loupe looking at my iPhone screen after every shot? Suddenly, I found myself shooting with my DSLR much like I’d shoot with my iPhone–no tripod, casually grabbing shots, and loupe-less.

As a result, I visualized something really cool when I took this shot:

But, when I looked at it with glasses on, I was sorely disappointed.

This made for a good time with the Aperture curves feature. I still don’t have the shot I imagined, but I felt free to modify to my heart’s content since I didn’t like the image. It’s fun to feel like a kid again.

While I wile away the time adjusting photos, Tisen takes cuddling in a blanket to new heights. When we settle down for the evening, my husband and I each take our place on the sofa in front of the TV.

We sit down and Tisen stands on the floor and stares at us. We call him up on the sofa and he blinks. Then, when I pull the blankets out of the closet, as soon as I throw one over my husband, Tisen jumps up on the couch and immediately ducks his head under one edge. Tonight, Tisen burrows his way under the blanket, up onto my husband’s lap and leaves only his tail end visible.

I cannot resist putting the Camera! app to the test. Its flash feature allows you to turn the “flash” on so that it stays on while you frame the shot and shoot–really handy when trying to capture my ground-dog burrowing in the dark.

Tisen is in there somewhere–not sure how he’s breathing though

Thrown a Curve

Posted by dkrashb on March 14, 2013

Getting crazy with the Aperture curves feature

After playing with my Hipstamatic images for the past several days, I finally remembered that I’d taken a few shots with my DSLR the same weekend. I pulled out the memory card and downloaded the photos.

I seem to have had some difficulty switching from the square frame of Hipstamatic back to the rectangular frame of the DSLR–there were many extraneous things in my DSLR images.

I thought about talking about how the DSLR images were technically better images than the Hipstamatic images, but really, they’re not from an execution point of view. If you want to compare megapixels and talk about sharpness, well yes, they are. But, that’s not better execution; that’s better equipment.

A more conservative adjustment

In any case, instead of trying to prove you can take technically better photos that still don’t look as appealing as what might be considered a flawed photo, I thought I’d try taking one image and doing a lot of different edits with it. I chose a DSLR image because of the better resolution and because it’s in RAW, both of which help images stand up to more edits.

This is the Hipstamatic image that I spent about 30 seconds creating:

Hipstamagic

By comparison, this is the original image from my DSLR (no adjustments/edits):

It’s not quite a fair comparison because of the differences in composition, but it’s the best I can do.

Now, what can you do with a not very exciting image of a treehouse? Well, Hipstamatic has already done a lot of editing for me. But I decided to push Aperture a bit to get a better idea of what kinds of things can be achieved in this relatively simple editing tool.

I don’t advise this exercise be started within 2 hours of bed time. It’s addictive.

This is what happened when I started playing with the separate RGB channels in the curves feature

For most of the effects, I used only one adjustment: curves. I tweaked a bit in saturation, highlights, and levels. But I literally spent an hour playing with dragging a curve around into crazy shapes just to see what would happen.

By the way, I didn’t sit down thinking “I think I’ll play with the curves feature tonight.” This idea all started when I was adjusting an image and I accidentally pulled the curve too far in one direction. The photo did something interesting and I liked it.

The curves feature is truly like coloring. Maybe scribbling is more accurate. Whatever it is, it’s fun. I don’t often say that about photo editing.

Tisen cuddles Skunk on the sofa after a walk

Tisen has resurrected Skunk from the bottom of the toy bin lately. This may be my doing–sometimes when he wants to take Big Dog or Squirrel on a walk (both of which trip him when he carries them), I make a quick substitution. I think he had forgotten he had Skunk. I like that the two of them together make a stripe pattern against a swirl pattern, but both in black and white. Tisen seems to have discovered Skunk also makes a great pillow.

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Category Archives: Dogs