Ifferjenn Independent

I don’t usually do this, but here’s a copy-and-paste from my LiveJournal. For the three or four people who come here from somewhere else.

Was out shopping today in Boston, and found this awesome woman who makes hair pins and other jewelery. Very good part: all her pieces are originals, as she won’t do the same one more than once. Best part: my hair will stay up with them!

That second part is important, as I’ve never been able to put my hair up with hair sticks or anything like that. So I’m all kinds of stoked about that. And they’re wicked pretty, and the gal selling them was wicked nice. Go to her site: http://spiderscloset.com

Many, many, many, MANY thanks to John for my new trinkets!

On the Thursday Threesome, I’ll choose a theme and describe three things that have to do with that theme. Again, I was playing with Photoshop during lunch. Which apparently isn’t good for me writing. But, this time I had three (actually four) versions of a picture. I liked how the different filters gave the same picture three different feels:

1. 

   Base - a black and white layer faded to 70% over the background, for an antique feel

2. 

   Poster Edges filter - for a slightly comic book feel

3. 

   Dark Strokes filter - for an even darker, creepier look

Have an idea for a Thursday Threesome? Leave a comment, and I’ll see what I can do!

This one is skinnier than most of my vertical shots…mainly because I had to crop it. I don’t like cropping usually, but the guy who was sitting right next to the water had a very obnoxious blue shirt that just got more obnoxious as I played with the picture.

With this one, I started doing a threshold layer, just a bit so I could highlight the shadows. To accentuate them even more, I did a posterize layer. I’m fairly pleased!

Boston MA

I tend to be a very concrete person. I’ll accept that things are probably true if someone tells me they are, but I really won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes. Take Saturn and Jupiter, for example. Sure, we all know that Saturn has rings and Jupiter has a big storm spot, but did you know that they really have these things?? Seriously. I’ve seen them with my own eyes…though not until I was in college. So I didn’t really believe it until then.

Making this point relevant to the picture… On Facebook, there’s a game called Li’l Green Patch, where you get to send flowers to your friends and save the rainforest. I don’t know how true that is, but at this point I’ve saved 213 sq. ft. of rainforest. Anyway, there’s a lot of plants you can send, and many of them I’ve never seen. These particular ones looked so odd, I didn’t think they were really real, until I saw them. And nearly fell into Lake Quinsig. I had to make Ethan stop his crazy running so I could take pictures.

Of course, he just looked at me like I was insane.

Worcester MA

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July! I did not have any fireworks shot at my head, though there was quite a bit of fallout, as you might imagine when you sit downwind of a major fireworks display. John and I went to the Esplanade in Boston to hear the Pop Goes the Fourth concert and see the fireworks. We must have sat in a dead zone or something, since the concert itself was hard to hear unless you were paying attention. But I did really like the parts that I heard…even though Neil Diamond could have gone without the extra Sweet Caroline reprise. But it was singing along with the many, many people who were there.

And did I mention the wind? Because man, were we COLD. We wound up taking half the sheet we were sitting on and using it to cut down the wind a little. Pretty amazing for July. Though I’m not pleased with the cold I have now.

Boston MA

Ethan found this flower, just about to bloom in the morning. I took an okay picture, but managed to blur the end of the flower. But I like how it implies motion, hence the title. Worcester MA

For me, at least so far, this is a motherlode of a picture. I spent a full half hour on it, doing about 6 different threshold layers, and adding a gaussian blur to the background as well. I’m sorry folks…we work with the muse that appears.

Worcester MA

I think I may have a problem with the threshold feature in Photoshop… Parrot from the animal show at Kimball Farms. Westford MA