New Meets Old

One of the things that my new venture  will allow me to do is to alter photographs to whatever extent I desire.

Previously with my photographs I endeavored to be true to what I saw.

That meant only that what I saw had to stay, but I could increase the sharpness, add contrast, etc., to make people believe that my beautiful true-to-what-I-saw photograph came from an expensive camera and lens. I could crop, and often did.

I don’t have to abide by the true-to-what-I-saw requirement anymore.

As an example, here’s a great picture of the Union Pacific 844 steam engine meeting a couple of modern Union Pacific diesel locomotives.

Union Pacific 844 is a 4-8-4 steam locomotive built in 1944. It was the last steam locomotive delivered to Union Pacific and is the only steam locomotive never retired by a major (i.e., Class 1) North American railroad.

I took that picture on November 17, 2011, just south of Palm Springs, California. It’s a beautiful picture, and was ruined only by wires running through the sky, a telephone pole bisecting one of the diesel engines, the man on the ground waving, and an ugly freight car behind the two diesel engines. I tried taking the telephone pole and man out of the picture back in 2011 and was unsuccessful. My Photoshop skills were not up to snuff. I was able to clone the wires out, but if you look real closely you can still see ghosts of where they were.

My Photoshop skills are vastly superior today than they were in November 2011, so this weekend I took the original picture and endeavored to turn it into photographic art.

I very easily removed the wires (much better this time), the telephone pole, the man on the ground waving, and even the ugly freight car behind the two diesel units. No need to crop, so I have two full diesel locomotives in the picture. My finished picture now looks like this:

I really like having both diesel units in the picture. Normally I get distressed when people go missing, but in this instance, the waving guy missing doesn’t bother me at all.

After getting a picture that I was happy with, I resorted to all the filters in Photoshop, Photo-Paint, and PaintShop Pro to get photographic art:

In a future post this week, I’ll show you how to easily, quickly, and miraculously remove those dastardly wires that seem to ruin so many pictures. All without the benefit of alcohol……………..

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Leave only footprints

Many decades ago, when I was but a youth of 12 or 13, my wise old grandmother took me to Padre Island National Seashore in South Texas, about 15 miles due east from my hometown of Kingsville, 60 miles if driving on paved roads.

Padre Island was where I first saw a Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle. Back then there were hundreds, maybe thousands of them, at certain times of the year.

As I was playing in the sand and surf, I found a mound of flowers. I picked a few to give them to my wise old grandmother.

She took them, said “Thank you!” and then admonished me for picking flowers at the national seashore. Loosely quoted, she said, “No one else will get to enjoy these beautiful flowers because they have been picked and will soon die. It is best to admire them where they grow and leave them for others to also enjoy.”

On the drive home, which was about 45 miles, the flowers sat between us on the bench seat (smile if you remember when cars had bench seats and you could slide over to be next to your loved one or, perhaps, keep some flowers between the two of you).

I felt so bad about picking the flowers and started talking about how sorry I was for taking them and preventing other people from enjoying them. That’s when my wise old grandmother told me something that I have never forgotten: “When you go to a national park, leave only footprints.”

Well, to honor the memory of my wise old grandmother, following are a dozen pictures of footprints from the beaches of San Diego.

Can you identify the footprints, like we did in Scouts?

One picture is of my footprints; which one?

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Office Depot’s photo printing services—A review

My new enterprise, Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos, requires that I be able to print 4×6 pictures quickly, same-day, spur of the moment. They have to be the best quality imaginable.

My old Oki C5500 color laser printer is on its last legs, so I had been looking at a new printer and the requisite cost of printer consumables like the ink and toner cartridges, drum belt, etc. It’s funny how what looks like a great printer can be $99 but the cartridges can be $49 to $259 EACH! I’ve learned over the years that the cost of the printer should not be the deciding factor when buying because, if you print a lot, that $99 printer can cost $99 a week or more for those dastardly consumables.

While I was looking around at ways to accomplish my goals with ultra high quality printing but as inexpensive as ultra high quality would allow, I discovered Office Depot’s same day photo printing service. I gave it a test run yesterday, uploading two pictures to be printed at 4×6 at my requested resolution of 300 ppi. I’ll put the two pictures in this blog post since I can’t have a blog post without pictures. This is, after all, Russel Ray Photos!

When I picked up the two pictures just three hours after submitting them, I was floored by the quality. Totally unexpected. Far superior to anything I’ve ever seen come out of a portable printer for the home. They are of a quality that I could never have gotten regardless of the type of photographic paper or the printer. They were, in one word, stunning. Can you detect that I’m gushing over these pictures?

And the cost? A mere 29¢ each.

I’ll repeat that so you don’t think it’s a typo that I didn’t catch: 29¢ each. Yes! Twenty-nine cents each!

And remember that this is same-day service. Took all of three hours!

Check out Office Depot’s printing services at http://officedepot.com/photo.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Photographic Art

When I got sick back in mid-November (probably from those K-6 students I teach chess to!), I was looking for something to do while sitting at home. My music collection and YouTube playlists were complete, so that left my collection of 317,872 (plus or minus) pictures. About half of them had never been cataloged…. just sitting in file folders with the date and location noted. So I got busy. It took until yesterday, but I finished, and I found a lot of interesting stuff!

A couple of things happened while I was cataloging pictures. First, I noticed how big the RAW files were, and whenever Photoshop made changes to a RAW file, it created a little “sidecar” file. I found the sidecar files irritating. So I went looking for options and discovered Photoshop’s open source DNG files. DNG is a RAW that is not proprietary; anyone can use it! The coolest thing about the DNG files, though, is that they are about 80% the size of Canon’s CR2 RAW files and when Photoshop alters them, the information is included in the DNG file instead of in a separate sidecar file. I downloaded Adobe’s DNG converter and went to work.

While I was cataloging pictures, I found lots of old video files in the AVI, MPG, and MOV formats. Those video files were huge! I found a free (open source) video converter called DVDVideoSoft Free Studio and converted all my old video files to the modern MP4 format. Conversion was fast and painless.

When I first started taking pictures with the Canon Rebel XSi, I had it set for best quality JPG files. Then I switched to RAW+JPG. Once I understood how RAW files worked, I switched my camera to RAW files only. However, I never went back and deleted all those duplicate JPG files. Done.

After converting CRW, AVI, MPG, and MOV files, and deleting duplicates, I had an extra 4½ terabytes of disk space available!

Lastly, I noticed that I had a lot of good pictures. Some were really good pictures. None of them were great; I don’t have the equipment for great pictures. However, with over 300,000 pictures, I was thinking, “What can I do to distinguish myself from other photographers and, perhaps, make some money from my interest in photography, nature, and life?” Ah, the quandaries….

Could I make my not-great pictures into great pictures with digital photo editing software like Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, and Photo-Paint, all of which reside on my computers? My answer: A resounding “No!”

However, all three programs have some very interesting filters, and I’ve learned how to replace backgrounds, merge pictures, create composites, etc. I decided to take a not-great picture that I really liked and see what I could do with it. Here’s the original picture or, as my wise old grandmother would say, the basics as it came out of the camera:

That is a White’s Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea), also known as a dumpy tree frog or an Australian green tree frog. The Australians apparently simply call it a “green tree frog.” I guess that means that I can call a California Condor simply a condor…. Hmmm….

My basics picture is washed out, lacking in contrast, lacking in sharpness, lacking…. and the poor dumpy tree frog has some skin blemishes which distract from the picture except for perhaps a biologist or pathologist.

First I cloned out the skin blemishes and added some contrast and sharpness to get this:

Then I went to Photoshop’s Filter Gallery and created these:

Photoshop Water Color Filter

Photoshop Angled Strokes Filter

Photoshop Angled Strokes and Dry Brush Filters combined

Photoshop Poster Edges Filter

Photoshop has several dozens of filters and third-party filters also are available. Filters have slider controls to create interesting effects within each filter, and filters can be combined, stacked, etc., to create hundreds of thousands of interesting variations. Add filters from PaintShop Pro and Photo-Paint into the equation, and the possibilities probably get up into the millions, perhaps endless….

My favorite is the poster edges, followed closely by the Angled Strokes Filter. What I was trying to do was create a porcelain frog, which I think the Angled Strokes Filter does quite sell. At the very least, I wanted something that looked fake instead of being a photograph of a living creature.

Having been successful in trying to create something different from everyone else, I had to decide if there was a demand for it. I am not sure if there is a demand for it per sé, but I am pretty sure that I can create a demand. My marketing and real estate background gives me the skills I need to do that. I’ll divulge more in a post coming up in the very near future, like in the next couple of days.

I also had to have a name for my work. I have settled on “Photographic Art.”. I’ll be working on a logo today. Not sure what I will come up with, but here’s my first attempt:

Quite often one’s first attempt at something is correct (think answering questions on a test). I really like my first attempt and it won’t surprise me if that’s the logo I go with.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Best wishes to all for health and happiness in 2014 and beyond

My #1 absolute greatest discovery in 2013:

Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

Cure for disease

Where the eighth day in the week was hiding

How to get more than 24 hours in any day

That Paul McCartney has been writing songs in my honor for 48 years

How to create world peace

How to play chess like Magnus Carlsen

How to get paid for blogging at the beach

Google Translate

Yep.

Google Translate.

When I was in high school in Kingsville, Texas, (way down South) back in 1970-73, our core curriculum required that we take two semesters of a foreign language. I think our choices were pretty limited, something like French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian, and Latin. I didn’t see myself going to France, Germany, Greece, or Italy anytime soon, so those were out. I knew Latin from Catholic mass……. :)………. Actually, I had an English/Latin missal so I could follow in English what Monsignor was saying in Latin. A lot of work. Maybe that’s what turned me off of religions………. Nope. That’s not it……… 🙂

Many of my friends spoke not only Spanish but English as well. I wanted to learn Spanish and be able to talk to them. Spanish it was….

Ha! In high school I was an honors student, and I made only two grades lower than a B+. Those two grades were in Spanish, and they were C’s. I was devastated. Fortunately, the important parts of Spanish have remained stuck in my brain for these past 41 years:

Para estudiar in la biblioteca.—My answer to my wise old grandmother when she would ask, “Where are you going?”

Uno mas cerveza, por favor.—Very important since I live just 11 miles north of the Mexican border.

Uno mas grandé raspberry remolino, por favor.—Used when I go to happy hour at On The Border.

Without Google Translate I never would have been able to actually read great blogs by great folks living in great countries written in, uh, something other than English. Google Translate lets me know within seconds just exactly what that “something other than English” is. So for all my great blogging friends in foreign countries, the following is for you.

For those of you who want to follow along, the languages used for the following sentences are, in order, shown here:

Beste wense aan jou en joune vir gesondheid en geluk in 2014 en daarna.

Urimet më të mira për ju dhe tuajat për shëndet dhe lumturi në vitin 2014 dhe më gjerë.

أطيب التمنيات لكم ولكم من أجل الصحة والسعادة في عام 2014 وما بعده.

Լավագույն մաղթանքները Ձեզ եւ ձերն առողջության եւ երջանկության 2014 եւ դրանից դուրս:

Sizə və 2014 və kənarda sağlamlıq və xoşbəxtlik üçün sizin ən xoş arzularımı.

Best nahiak duzu eta osasuna eta zoriona zurea 2014 eta haratago ere.

З найлепшымі пажаданнямі да вас і вашым для здароўя і шчасця ў 2014 і ў наступныя гады.

আপনি এবং 2014 এবং তার পরেও মধ্যে স্বাস্থ্য এবং সুখ জন্য খুঁজেছেন প্রাণঢালা শুভেচ্ছা.

Najbolje želje da tebi i tvojima za zdravlje i sreću u 2014 i šire.

Най-добри пожелания за вас и ваш за здраве и щастие през 2014 г. и след това.

Els meus millors desitjos per a vostè i els seus per a la salut i la felicitat en l’any 2014 i més enllà.

Best mga pangandoy kanimo ug sa imong alang sa panglawas ug kalipay sa 2014 ug sa unahan.

祝愿您和在2014年及以后为你的健康和幸福。

祝愿您和在2014年及以後為你的健康和幸福。

Najljepše želje tebi i tvojima za zdravlje i sreću u 2014 i izvan nje.

S přáním všeho nejlepšího pro vás a vaše pro zdraví a štěstí v roce 2014 a dále.

Bedste ønsker til dig og din for sundhed og lykke i 2014 og videre frem.

Beste wensen aan u en de uwen voor gezondheid en geluk in 2014 en verder.

Best wishes to you and yours for health and happiness in 2014 and beyond.

Bondezirojn al vi kaj via sano kaj feliĉo en 2014 kaj tie.

Parimad soovid teile ja teie tervisele ja õnnele 2014 ja pärast seda.

Lubos na bumabati sa iyo at sa iyo para sa kalusugan at kaligayahan sa 2014 at higit pa.

Onnea sinulle ja sinun terveyttä ja onnea vuonna 2014 ja sen jälkeen.

Meilleurs voeux à vous et les vôtres pour la santé et le bonheur en 2014 et au-delà.

Moitas felicidades para ti e os seus para a saúde e felicidade en 2014 e alén.

საუკეთესო სურვილები თქვენ და თქვენი ჯანმრთელობისა და ბედნიერება 2014 წელს და მის ფარგლებს გარეთ.

Beste Wünsche für Sie und Ihre Gesundheit und Glück für 2014 und darüber hinaus.

Τις καλύτερες ευχές μου σε σας και δικοί σας για την υγεία και την ευτυχία το 2014 και πέρα​​.

તમે અને 2014 અને બહાર માં આરોગ્ય અને સુખ માટે તમારામાં શ્રેષ્ઠ શુભેચ્છાઓ.

Nou voye meyè souwè pou ou ak pou ou pou sante ak kontantman nan 2014 ak apre.

Buri mafi kyau a gare ka da kuma ga naku da kiwon lafiya da farin ciki a cikin 2014, kuma bayan.

איחוליי לך ושלך לבריאות ואושר ב2014 ומעבר לו.

आप और 2014 और परे में स्वास्थ्य और खुशी के लिए तुम्हारा के लिए शुभकामनाएं.

Qhov zoo tshaj plaws xav li cas rau koj thiab koj li kev noj qab haus huv thiab kev zoo siab nyob rau hauv 2014 thiab tshaj.

Üdvözlettel neked és a tiéd az egészség és a boldogság 2014-ben és azon túl.

Bestu kveðjur til þín og ræða um heilsu og hamingju í 2014 og víðar.

Echiche kacha mma gị na nke gị n’ihi na ike na-enweta obi ụtọ 2014 gabazie.

Terbaik ingin Anda dan Anda untuk kesehatan dan kebahagiaan pada tahun 2014 dan seterusnya.

Ádh mór oraibhse agus mise do shláinte agus sonas i 2014 agus ina dhiaidh.

Auguri a voi e la vostra per la salute e la felicità nel 2014 e oltre.

あなたと2014年以降の健康と幸福のためにあなたの最高の願い。

Best wishes kanggo sampeyan lan kagungan kanggo kasarasan lan begja ing 2014 lan ngluwihi.

ನೀವು ಮತ್ತು 2014 ಮತ್ತು ಮೀರಿ ಆರೋಗ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂತೋಷ ನಿಮ್ಮದಕ್ಕೆ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳನ್ನು.

​បំណងប្រាថ្នា​ដ៏ល្អបំផុតដើម្បី​អ្នកនិង​សម្រាប់សុខភាព​របស់អ្នក​និងសុភមង្គល​នៅឆ្នាំ 2014 និងលើសពីនេះ​។

당신과 2014 년 이후의 건강과 행복을위한 당신의 최고의 소원.

​ຄວາມປາດຖະຫນາ​ທີ່ດີທີ່ສຸດ​ກັບທ່ານ​ແລະ​ຂອງທ່ານສໍາລັບ​ສຸຂະພາບ​ແລະຄວາມສຸກໃນ​ປີ 2014 ແລະກາຍ.

Vota tua salute et felicitate in MMXIV tibi et ultra.

Vislabākos novēlējumus jums un jūsu veselībai un laimi 2014 un ārpus tās.

Geriausi linkėjimai jums ir jūsų sveikatos ir laimės 2014 ir vėlesniais metais.

Најдобри желби до вас и твое за здравје и среќа во 2014 година и пошироко.

Best ingin anda dan anda untuk kesihatan dan kebahagiaan pada tahun 2014 dan seterusnya.

L-isbaħ xewqat lilek u tiegħek għas-saħħa u l-kuntentizza fl-2014 u lil hinn.

Best hiahia ki a koe, me koutou hoki te hauora me te oaoa i roto i te 2014 me te ki tua atu.

आपण आणि 2014 आणि पलीकडे आरोग्य आणि आनंद घ्या साइटशी सर्वोत्तम शुभेच्छा.

Та нар, 2014 болон бусад эрүүл мэнд, аз жаргалын төлөө та нарынхаас нь амжилт хүсье.

तपाईं र 2014 र परे स्वास्थ्य र आनन्द लागि तपाइँको को लागि शुभकामना।

De beste ønsker til deg og dine for helse og lykke i 2014 og utover.

بهترین آرزوها برای شما و شما برای سلامتی و شادی در سال 2014 و فراتر از آن.

Najlepsze życzenia dla Ciebie i dla twojego zdrowia i szczęścia w 2014 r. i później.

Muitas felicidades para você e os seus para a saúde e felicidade em 2014 e além.

ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਅਤੇ 2014 ਅਤੇ ਪਰੇ ਵਿਚ ਸਿਹਤ ਅਤੇ ਖ਼ੁਸ਼ੀ ਲਈ ਤੇਰਾ ਤੱਕ ਬੇਹਤਰੀਨ ਵਧਾਈ.

Cele mai bune urări pentru tine si a ta pentru sănătate și fericire în 2014 și dincolo.

С наилучшими пожеланиями к вам и вашим для здоровья и счастья в 2014 и в последующие годы.

Најбоље жеље за вас и ваше здравље и за срећу у 2014 и даље.

S prianím všetkého najlepšieho pre vás a vaše pre zdravie a šťastie v roku 2014 a ďalej.

Najlepše želje za vas in za tvoje zdravje in srečo leta 2014 in po njem.

Best rabitaanka aad iyo adigaa iska leh, waayo caafimaad iyo farxad in 2014 iyo wixii ka dambeeya in ay.

Mis mejores deseos para usted y los suyos para la salud y la felicidad en el año 2014 y más allá.

Bora anataka wewe na wako kwa afya na furaha katika 2014 na zaidi.

Hälsningar till dig och de dina för hälsa och lycka i 2014 och därefter.

நீங்கள் மற்றும் 2014 மற்றும் அப்பால் உள்ள சுகாதார மற்றும் மகிழ்ச்சியை உன் வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

మీరు మరియు 2014 మరియు దాటి లో ఆరోగ్య మరియు ఆనందం కోసం మీదే శుభాకాంక్షలు.

ด้วยความปรารถนาดีให้กับคุณและคุณสำหรับสุขภาพและความสุขในปี 2014 และเกินกว่า

Size ve 2014 ve ötesinde sağlık ve mutluluğu için sizin için en iyi dileklerimle.

З найкращими побажаннями до вас і ваших для здоров’я і щастя в 2014 і в наступні роки.

آپ اور 2014 اور اس سے آگے میں صحت اور خوشی کے لئے آپ سے نیک خواہشات.

Lời chúc tốt nhất cho bạn và bạn cho sức khỏe và hạnh phúc trong năm 2014 và xa hơn nữa.

Dymuniadau gorau i chi a chi ar gyfer iechyd a hapusrwydd yn 2014 a thu hwnt.

בעסטער וויל צו איר און דייַן פֿאַר געזונט און גליק אין 2014 און ווייַטער פון.

Ti o dara ju on iba feran lopo lopo si o ati awọn tirẹ ni fun ilera ati idunu ni 2014 ati ki o kọja.

Nginifisela okuhle kuwe kanye neyakho impilo nenjabulo 2014 nangale.

See y’all around the blogosphere!

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Hang time

I’ve been doing so much photo cataloging during the past six weeks that I have neglected my time to create new and exciting posts to publish in my blog.

Thus, for today, you’ll just have to make do with a bunch of old videos from November 2008 of Zoey the Cool Cat demonstrating her hang time during her early morning play time.

I do believe Michael Jordan would be jealous.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!