The Photographer's Personal Ponderings 2: Lazy Lazy Lazy

Gracey the chihuahua living like royalty. Picture taken before noon.

I feel lazy. Don't you hate it when you feel like that? I admit I can be lazy on the weekdays when I don't go to "work". I sleep way too long and accomplish little until the afternoon rolls around. I could list all things I'm doing and make a case for why I'm not all that lazy but, I won't. I won't because I think I might just have fallen into a habit of laziness. I look around and I see I'm no lazier than any other American (the majority anyway), but I'm reminded in the Bible that we shouldn't compare ourselves to one another. No, even if I neglect comparing myself to Christ and compare myself to other biblical figures I can't find a good one that outdoes me in the laziness department.

Hmmm... By saying I have the habit of lazy, I don't mean resting when needed. I'm talking about resting for no reason. Resting when there are things to be done. A bit like gluttony when one eats because one can. I could go a while on that one too, but I won't. I'm going to purpose to do better. I can't promise I will do better, but with God's help I don't know how I could fail!

So, that's all I wanted to say, and boy do I feel lazy. I think I'll  go back to bed....

Gracey the chihuahua continuing her beauty rest. Picture taken after noon.

Banners and Things

Wow, nine days of blogging silence. I apologize for that. At least I have something to show for it...

A web copy version of a large banner graphic which was assembled by me! This my first real project since offering art photo and graphic design services and I am pleased with it. Given that the final printed size of the banner would be 6ft x 2ft, I began the project by finding two very large images of an eagle and an American flag. I found both of them at istockphoto.com. The images were purchased by my client and when I had received them I went to work. Using Photoshop CS3, I masked out the background of the eagle pic and moved the now backgroundless (new word?) eagle image layer to a new document the size of the finished banner. I then imported the flag image layer, enlarged and rotated. I added a gradient mask to the flag after that and finished with some pixel by pixel cleanup up the whole thing. The banner image also doubled as a business card header for my client. I think he was pleased with the results.

Now one banner can't take up that whole time, so of course I did some other things. Ordinary things like work, church, and play. I hope you all didn't miss me too much (then again I shudder to think of what it might mean if you didn't miss me at all). :D

Art Show Contest Results!

The winner is...

...image number three! Receiving the third place ribbon out of four ribbons.

The show was supposed to have three categories of skill: beginner, advanced, and professional. I entered the advanced category, but by the time of the show not enough photography had been submitted to warrant the categories. Everyone was lumped together and I ended up as the only non-professional earning a ribbon. :^)

Congratulations to Elizabeth and SelahV on correctly guessing the winner!