Day: June 7, 2006

Photography

Photo Salvage

Shelly

What do you do when a photo doesn’t really turn out the way you’d hoped it would? You go a-Photoshopping, of course!

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I took this photo last night, just as the sun was setting. The summer sunset is usually pretty boring from my vantage point, because a large stand of trees blocks the view. We occasionally get interesting cloud formations, though, and I’d hoped that this would be one of them; but it ended up not being very photogenic, so I did some Photoshopping to try to salvage what I could of it.

I started by desaturating the image, darkening it, and ramping up the contrast. Because I intended to put a black frame around it, I wanted to make sure the foreground trees were a rich black, not a washed out sorta-black. So I used the Levels setting to select the tree value as the darkest in the image. Then, I used Color Balance to add reds and yellows, to fake sepia tones. Finally, I added a grungy border around the image.

Pets, Photography

Harriet! Har-ee-et, Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis

Shelly

Dogs are dangerous to live with. Sure, they might look all cuddly and harmless, but lurking behind the cute nose and delicately wrinkled brow is a wild beast who will stop at nothing–nothing!–to slake her thirst for BunnyBlood.

I give you Miss Harriet Brown. (No, really. I’ll even pay for shipping.) Do not, I beg of you, be fooled by the silkiness of her whiskers, nor the velvety softness of her nose. Harden your heart, lest you, too, fall victim to her evil devices.

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A couple of weeks ago, I was minding my own business when Miss Brown insisted that Bunny Mayhem was occurring in her yard. Yes, her yard. I opened the door to investigate, while Harriet sat, wiggling and whining impatiently, beside me. I think it is only fair to give the bunnies a heads-up, so I shouted, “Run away, run away.” The bunnies scattered, and I released Harriet. Powered by jet propelled rocket boosters, she peeled out, taking half my left foot with her. Or, rather, puncturing it in multiple places and bruising the living hell out of it. But still, ow. I had to sit down in order to catch my breath.

The immediate pain passed, so I didn’t think too much of it until the next day. Again, ow. The entire top of my foot was covered by a lovely pattern in black and blue. It was impressive looking, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. The bruise itself wasn’t particularly painful, and that soon healed.

However, even after the visible bruising is gone, it still hurts to put pressure on the top of my foot, and to flex it. Hmmm. I wonder if there’s just deep tissue bruising that hasn’t healed yet? Or maybe a bone is cracked or broken?

Anyway, dogs are trouble. T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Trouble. If they try to tell you otherwise, don’t believe a word of it, because they also lie like, um, dogs. They sure are cute, though.

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