Does this make sense to you?  Would you believe that it does to me?

This is the conclusion of the report on my project for Anna (pastor’s daughter) and Terry.  After showing childhood pictures of the bride and groom as they grew up, the third section was images of them together.  The final portion comprises photos of the couple after they were engaged to be married.  The following images are from that final section.

The photo was taken on a cloudy day.  Consequently, the image was kind of flat only the shadow helped to add depth to the scene.  I added a special lighting effect to make it appear that Terry and Anna were “in the spotlight.”

This is very moody.  However it is difficult to identify the subjects.  Also, the focus is a bit soft.

Some touch-up, cropping and use of a filter in Photoshop Elements changed that and added a new (unreal) dimension to the tracks in the snow.  Do you think this improved it?

What would you do with this image?  The photographer used the setting sun to create a great effect.  Isn’t that terrific?  What would you do?  I wasn’t satisfied and so I went to work with Photoshop Elements.

I cropped the image to remove [mostly] the power line overhead and to move in on the area of interest.  An edge filter changed the background, removed some distracting details and added a slightly altered quality to the photo.  I was satisfied and used this image in the presentation.  I particularly liked the enhanced contrast.  The darkness of coats, jeans and trees magnifies the brilliance of the sun.

After the wedding, I added this lighting effect at Photofunia.  Would you have used this in preference to the previous picture?  Is it too much?  Does it add to the magic of the moment?

Perhaps you understand why I enjoyed this project so much.  Sometimes it was tedious to do so many steps for even plain images.  Then came the few opportunities to transform an image.

The reaction of the bride and groom made it all worth while.  I only asked to share some images with you and that wish was granted.  Thanks Anna and Terry may your marriage be long and lives happy.

The story continues from Tuesday.

As some observed, it was a lot of work to scan 200 photos and prepare them for inclusion in a Power Point presentation.  It was a lot of fun despite that.  Okay, a few days my hands were tingling from so much repetitive motion.  Nevertheless, it was fun.

Anna is a delightful person to know.  A great mix of fun, compassion and a love for life.

If you get the feeling that the image of cheerleader Anna and the context don’t fit together like you’d normally expect, than I accomplished what I wanted.  This gal is not a stereotype.

Once again, it’s not where you’d expect to see an image of the preacher’s daughter.  I’m happy that she liked this one.

The girls were in college, Valentine’s Day was near and none of them had a boy friend.  What to do?  The gals decided to celebrate appropriately.  They decided to dress in black and enjoy some time together.  They did and started a tradition, which continues though some are now married and others are in committed relationships.  I added the hearts to the touched-up image.  Those involved understand.  Others may ask.

In the photos were a collection of four pictures of four friends.  I wanted to combine them in a single image that would tell the story.  Thanks to Photofunia, I put this together.  Somehow those images didn’t belong in this gallery.  It’s just too “stark.”  These fun loving pals should be surrounded by life and action–lots of action.

Don’t they look like they belong there on those billboards in New York City?  This was my favorite image of the entire collection.  A print of is displayed on the parsonage refrigerator.  That is unless Anna took it with her.

I was happy to meet these friends of Anna at the wedding last Saturday.  They are as great as they appear to be in the photos.

It started in my Sunday School class.  Since last fall, we have been studying the kings of Israel (northern kingdom) looking for patterns, cause, effect and what we can learn.  Class members take turns giving the backgrounds of the characters and starting the discussion.  As class members did their research, they noticed that a man’s name would sometimes be rendered more than one way.  Why?

Only two of us have experience with more than the English language.  The class came to realize that there are names and nicknames.  They also learned that names don’t carry across into other languages.  For example, my given name is Charles.  Everyone called me that until I met Sylvia.  She said it sounded “stuffy,” and if I wanted to go with her she would call me Chuck. Neither Charles nor Chuck work in Spanish.  For that reason, a number of my Spanish speaking friends call me Carlos.  My German speaking ancestors would have probably named me Karl.  You get the idea.

The class took a side road as we looked into the relationship between language and culture.  Obvious examples include Spanish speakers saying, “white and black” or the “house white.”  Not so obvious are cultural perceptions and practices.  In Japan, addresses are based on the block–they are numbered.  Buildings are numbered in the order they were built.  They do not follow street names and sequential numbers.

Confusing?  Perhaps it is to us.

Just for fun, I took a familiar piece by Wm Shakespeare and ran it through an online translator.  Starting with English, I then translated to Spanish, then Greek, Japanese, Hindi, back to Spanish and finally to English.  Here’s what happened:

Original

Who is Sylvia? what is she, That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she; The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admirèd be.

Is she kind as she is fair? For beauty lives with kindness.
Love doth to her eyes repair, To help him of his blindness,
And, being helped, inhabits there.

Then to Sylvia let us sing, That Sylvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.

Final Output

Who is Sylvia? This is my blessing to all the pastors?
The grace of God, a way to give a fair and reasonable to heaven
It can be seen.

What is it justified? Let the beauty and good living.
I love helping a blind eye repair
And it has helped because I live there.

Sylvia song again, Sylvia is excellent.
It is good that the slack in the housing land once each person:
This will make a wreath.

You don’t have to use that many languages to get bizarre changes.  It might seem a miracle that we are able to communicate at all.  Nevertheless, all share common thoughts and feelings of joy and sorrow.  Desire and frustration.  Contentment and unrest.  Hope and despair.

Have you experienced anything like this?

I have finished my graphic projects.  Sylvia and Bonnie did their presentation last Sunday and the wedding is coming up on Saturday.  I had carefully tweaked about 300 images for the two projects.  When they were finished I looked at them on our big screen TV.  I was not satisfied with what I saw.

I came back to the computer room and worked with my monitor for a bit over two hours.  I just couldn’t adjust the monitor to display images the way they look on the big screen.  It turns out that the nice projector at church agrees with the big screen TV here at home.

I then turned my attention to finding a replacement for my 17-inch LCD screen.  I measured, calculated, compared specs, conferred with my consultant (son) and placed an order.  The new 23-inch LED monitor arrived Tuesday.

When I had installed the wide-screen beauty, I displayed a picture of the old monitor and captured this image:

Don’t let the diagonal measurement difference trick you into thinking that I now have a much larger screen.  Well, it is . . . but the height of the display is less than a half-inch greater.  It seems to be the perfect size for me.

The first think I noticed was how much brighter the whites are and how black the blacks are.  Amazing!  Now I can see the same subtle flaws on my computer monitor that I see on the big screen TV or the church’s projection system.

Other Changes

To celebrate, I implemented a change in my blog template.  I had experimented on this with my wide-screen laptop earlier.  I chose the dandelion background for two reasons.  The blue is very nice and appeals to me, and the dandelions continue a theme that is current. With the change in template, I also increased the width (in pixels) of the blog and sidebar.

Anyway, I hope you like the new look of the blog.

It sure feels great to be back with you and to visit the usual blogs each day.  I really did miss that.

There has been some discussion online concerning dandelions.  I believe Lin may have started it.  Others were involved as well.  Last week, or was it the week before, I went out for a bit of fresh air and to capture an image of the golden beauty that adorns our lawn.

This shot was taken from the front of our house and looks down toward our secondary road.  Mild temperatures and plenty of rain have brought the world back to life.

I returned to the office and took this shot from the window to the right of my desk.

I zoomed in for a closer look at the many blossoms.  Do you think I should pull out the dandelions?  Do you think I could do it if I wanted?

While I was taking a break and capturing these images, what do you suppose Sylvia was doing?  I was curious so I started looking for her.  There she was on the south end of the barn.  She was pruning the raspberries to get ready for this year’s crop.

Little wonder she stays so trim and fit. 

The following story came to me in an e-mail from my older son.  Sylvia and I had lunch with him and his daughter today.  It was fun and we laughed a lot.  Here is his story:

An oldie but goodie …..
A Florida senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. 

Taking off down the road, he pushed it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left.  “Amazing,” he thought as he flew down I-75, pushing the pedal even more. 

Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Florida State Trooper, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.  He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. 

Suddenly he thought, “What am I doing? I’m too old for this!” and pulled over to await the trooper’s arrival. 

Pulling in behind him, the trooper got out of his vehicle and walked up to the Corvette.  He looked at his watch, then said,

“Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes.  Today is Friday.  If you can give me a new reason for speeding, a reason I’ve never before heard, I’ll let you go.” 

The old gentleman paused then said: “Three years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper.  I thought you were bringing her back.” 

“Have a good day, Sir,” replied the trooper.

The old fellow certainly earned ten out of ten for creativity!  My clever replies usually come to me several hours to a few days later.  How about you?

I’m still working on graphics for next weekend’s wedding.  The good news is that the end is in sight.  My hands are a bit sore, but it should pass.

I have photos to share with you, and I’ll try to do that one of these days.  I need to get away from this computer now.  I’ll be back soon . . . I think I’ll be back soon.

Mom and me — 1940

I thank God for my mother.  She was a woman of firm faith and principle–loved by her family and respected by the community.

She was born in August 1920 in Michigan.  The next year her family moved to Washington state where they lived for the next 6 years.  In 1927, her family moved back to Ingham County, Michigan.

Mary Wyman Hutchinson

In her freshman year of High School a new (sophomore) boy moved into the community where she lived.  They married shortly after she graduated from High School.  The next year, one day after her 20th birthday, she gave birth to a son.  A daughter came along a couple of years later.  Then World War II put all plans on hold.

While her brother and her husband and his brothers went into the service, she went to work in a factory.  Her children were cared for by her mother.  It was not an easy time.  She did not handle the stress well, but she made it through.

After the war, she and Dad bought her folks house. ( Dad lived the rest of his days there.)  A couple more daughters came along.  When her children were grown, she worked for the local dry cleaner.  It was good for her to get out of the house and to be involved with people.  We saw a new side of Mom as she developed a confidence that we had not seen before.

For many years, Mom was the financial secretary at the church where she was a member.  She never would talk about what anyone gave to the church.  To the best of my knowledge she never indulged in gossip and never shared what was told her in confidence.  She, and Dad, were great in that way and fine examples for their children.

The greatest lesson I learned from her was never compromise your integrity, and that means keeping your lips sealed about matters that should be held in confidence.

On the weekend that Mom and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, they discovered a tumor in Dad’s lung.  The cancer moved quickly, and 15 months later he passed away.

Two of her daughters lived with her for some time after, but it was clear that she was not doing well.  About a year later, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  Mom passed away in September of 1996.

Yesterday was cinco de Mayo and because it fell on a Thursday, Sylvia and I met our son at the usual Mexican restaurant where we usually have lunch.  They have good food at reasonable prices, the staff is friendly and the place is always clean.  There was only one disappointment for me.  They have switched from the Pepsi products that I prefer and have gone with C*** C*** stuff.  Fortunately they have root beer and orange drink.  I like to mix the two of those together.

After we returned home, I checked my e-mail inbox and found a link to this video:

I found that the girl had faithfully represented my exact sentiments.  Watched it at least a dozen times.  Hope you enjoy it too.

Still not finished with photo stuff.  On Wednesday, I took time to mow most of the lawn.  Other parts are still too wet to run the tractor across.

Thursday, the mower came off and the tiller went on so I could till a neighbor’s garden.  Our’s is still too wet.  I did take a little time to visit a few blogs.  Still so far behind, but promise to get caught up again–hopefully soon.  When work was done,  I captured a few images in the flower gardens.  Will try to share those with you next week.

Next week’s weather promises to be warm.  Hooray!  After that, it may get cool and damp again.  Okay, not so great.

Busy as a bee

I have a couple of large projects on my plate just now.  I’m cropping, sizing, and processing photos from Sylvia’s mission trip to Honduras in February.  She went with Bonnie, a friend from the neighborhood, and a group from the area.  I’m putting together a presentation for the gals to share with our church.  It takes a lot of work with my hands, so I’m not going to be spending much time online this week.

I’m also scanning photos and preparing a presentation for the wedding reception of our pastor’s daughter.  That happens in less than four weeks.  The bride to be and her intended are both great folks, so this is going to be a lot of fun.  I’m going to do some effects with photofunia to make the presentation more creative and interesting.  Of course the bride will see this before so there should be no unhappy surprises.

Bottom line: I’m going to be a bit less active online for a couple of weeks or so.  Sorry if I don’t visit your blog and leave comments as frequently as I used.  You have my promise that I’ll be back.