AVO-kurssin 6. viikko käsittelee (käsitteli) valokuvaamista. Se onkin minulle entuudestaan tuttua, olen napsinut fotoja älypuhelimellani ja laittanut niitä Flickriin jo muutaman vuoden ajan.

Yleensä en kuvia ole juuri muokannut, toisinaan olen käytellyt GIMPiä lähinnä kirkkauden ja kontrastin säätöön mutta melkein useammin käytän nykyään Flickriin upotettua Picnik -kuvankäsittelyohjelmaa joka toimii suoraan selaimessa. Yksinkertaiset toiminnot, kuten rajaus ovat kaikkien käytettävissä. Maksullisena ominaisuutena on lisää jippoja, esim. clipartia ja monimutkaisempia säätötoimintoja. Olen ostanut itselleni Flickrin pro-tunnukset, mutta Picnikin maksullisia ominaisuuksia en ole käyttänyt. Puhelimessani (Nokia N95) on myös kuvankäsittelyominaisuuksia, mutta niiden käyttäminen on niin hidasta että olen lähinnä käyttänyt niitä joskus rajaamiseen ja muutaman kerran lähettäessäni kuvia sähköpostilla tai MMS-viesteinä.

Kirjastopäivät 2009–paneeli

Vastikään käytin GIMPiä koostaakseni yksinkertaisen panoraaman Kirjastovirkailijapäivien paneelista. Päivät olivat itseasiassa aivan juuri, viime viikolla. Panoraaman pohjana on kolme kuvaa. Muita Kirjastovirkailijapäiviin liittyviä kuvia en Flickristä löydä, enkä netistä muutenkaan. Vaikka kirjastoissa onkin kyse ennen kaikkea julkaisuista, eivät kirjastolaiset itse ole kovin hanakoita julkaisemaan netissä. Ei ehkä tule mieleen, niinkään.

Tämän kuvatehtävän yhteydessä voisinkin mainita, että yksi parhaista, koskaan nälemistäni oppiresursseista on You suck at Photoshop. Siinä käsitellään erittäin herkullisten ja hienosti kerrottujen tarinoiden kautta Photoshopin kehittyneemmistä ominaisuuksista. Fotari tulee itse käytettyä erittäin harvoin, mutta samat perusperiaatteet ovat johdettavissa kuvankäsittelyyn yleensäkin. Jaksoja näkyy nyt olevan jo parikymmentä. Helmeä xD

Julkaisemissani kuvissa käytän miltei aina Creative Commons Nimi mainittava-Sama lisenssi -lisenssillä. Stressaannun ellen taggaa kuviani. Olenhan kirjastolainen!

Siution Pyhän Pietarin kirkko

Wikimedia Commonsiin, Wikimedian yhteiseen mediakirjastoon olen kerran laittanut yhden kuvan, testimielessä. Se on kuva Siuntion kirkosta jonka kohdalla  pysähdyin pyöräilyreissullani Helsingistä Lohjanjärvelle kesällä 2007. Muistan että olin vastikään hankkinut itselleni N95-älypuhelimen, ja olin oikein innoissani siitä että saatoin samaan aikaan lukea karttaa, tallentaa matkanopeuttani ja -reittiäni GPS:n avulla, kuunnella podcasteja ja näpsiä vieläpä valokuvia pienellä, taskuun mahtuvalla laitteella.

Minulla on mielikuva että Wikimedia Commonsiin kuvien laittaminen oli jotenkin vaikeaa. Muistaakseni se liittyi lisensseihin, taisin haluta käyttää ei-kaupallinen -lisenssiä. Tuo rajoitus ei ole yhteensopiva Wikimedian käyttämän lisenssin kanssa, joka ei salli kuvien rajoittamista vain ei-kaupalliseen käyttöön.  Laitoin kuitenkin kuvan tuonne. Nykyään suosin itsekin liberaalimpia lisenssejä, jotka eivät rajoita kuvia vain epäkaupalliseen käyttöön. Näen tuolta Wikimedia Commonsin sivulta, että Siuntio-kuvani on jopa käytössä!! Rumahan tuo kuva n, mutta Bulgarian-, saksan- ja englanninkielisissä Wikipedioissa kuva on koettu hyödylliseksi. Hienoa

It has been a very long time since I blogged on here.   (So long I almost forgot how to add a new post!)  And it’s not that I haven’t been taking photos, I have.  Tons.   My life has been taking lots of twists and turns and sitting down to blog, for me, requires a bit of introspection which I didn’t have the courage to do for a while.  It’s like working up the courage to tackle a bathroom that hasn’t been cleaned in several months.  But I’m excited now to share with you what I’ve done.  Sorry if it gets overwhelming… but I hope you enjoy it )

I started playing around in Picnik again and managed to make a few that I think captured my mood.  (If you haven’t discovered picnik.com, you should check it out!  It’s addictingly awesome.)  These are from Canadian Thanksgiving when my sister and her bf came to visit.  We enjoyed the last few days before the rain set in by going to Stanley Park and walking around downtown.

Förresten, ni trodde väl inte att någon människa kan spexa till det vid 29 års ålder och fortfarande se såhär perfekt ut? Älskar mitt premiummedlemsskap på picnik och tillgången till alla touch up-funktioner. Ska airbrusha ALLT i framtiden.

photography, of course.  lol

Gerber Daisies (so beautiful)

a marathon of any of my fav shows [on a Sunday]

exploring abandoned buildings

driving with no destination, every window down, sunroof open, & the radio up loud

meeting new people

learning something new

giving someone pictures that they LOVE

christmas lights

an evening stroll on an empty beach

local history

introducing my children to a new place, game, and watching their excitement

debating the great Capt Trap

a good (dirty) joke- have you heard the one about Cinderella?

facebook.com, craigslist.com, wordpress.com, & picnik.com…  every day!

sterling silver jewelry

peridot (not diamonds or pearls, sorry)

changing my hair color

acting my shoe size instead of my age

holding someone else’s baby (totally not into the midnight feedings)

designing tattoos from zodiac signs

Pickle hugging me when I pick him up from day care

my annual vaca to Bradenton

Thanksgiving with Hitler & fam

all my nephews & nieces… shout out!! 

couldn’t resist playing with this leaf in picnik, too.

The “miss” happened yesterday. All set to play with quilt layout  for my line&shape blocks, I was faced with an inkless printer. So much for doing mini mock-ups the easy way.

As for today, I’d call it a hit:

Nov 20

I used my alley picture and played with it in picnik.  Then I cropped and enlarged it in Photoshop, and now I have a great start for a fiber piece into which I can incorporate some of my hand dyed  blue fabrics.

För att trösta mig själv köpte jag mig själv ett premiummedlemsskap på picnik.com. Onödigt, men roligt. Där kan man göra såhär roliga grejer med sina bilder.

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My Thoughts Enclosed…Rb

This is for your Nicole! Cooper is a lovely 15 month old that I know. He makes the perfect little subject for a little photo editing practise!

Well, she isn’t so little anymore! She turns one on 12th December and wow, she’s growing fast! Here she is in March this year, at about 4 months of age.

I am about 70% sure that I did not take the pictures in this post; Brandon did.  However I have taken the liberty to play around with them on picnik (don’t worry; I saved the originals!)  Back in September and shortly after Adeline was born, we went for a walk in a city park about 20 minutes from our house. I think this was one of the first days we had our new camera and we spent plenty of timing playing around with it at the park.

I like the pumpkins in this picture (it is Fall, after all), and I think they are a timeless subject.  I used a “vintage” style to edit this photo and added some texture to add to the older feel of the photo.  Of course the rounded edges top it all off.  I think the rounded edges are currently my favorite way to edit my photos.

The picture of the outhouse is begging to not be so centered, but even with cropping this was the best I could do.  I still think it’s an interesting subject for editing, especially with the opposing colors of red and green being so prominent.  I just wish I could see off the the left of the photo a little further!  Oh well.  We learn as we go.  Now we’ll just have to go back to the park and get another shot.  I warmed up the tones a bit in this one then used the “cross processing” edit.  I am not really sure what that means, but I like the way it looks.  It definitely amplifies the rustic quality of the outhouse–which I happen to think was painted within the last few years but made to look like it hadn’t been painted in 20!

The first thing to do is create a name for your brand new empire. Before you get to excited, you need to check if it already exists by typing the name and trying every possible ending (e.g. com, .co.uk, .nr, .net, .gov, .org). When you are sure that your name doesn’t exist then it is time to start creating!

First you need to find a secure and professional web hosting website. Here are some good websites:

1. http://www.yola.com/
2. http://www.webs.com/
3. http://www.moonfruit.com/
4. http://www.wix.com/

When you have decided what website you want to use (it doesn’t necessarily have to be any I have selected) you can now start to build your site. It should be easy considering their main aim is to make it simple for you to make a website. When you are finished you need to publish it. Whenever you add something new to your website, update your fans by creating a blog. But remember, always update your site when you add something new.

If you want to take your website to the next level (you may have noticed that your site has the website you made it on at the end) then you can pay to have your own domain name.

What’s that?

It’s a website without the website you made it on at the end of it (e.g. www.example-of-a-domain-name.com)

Once your empire starts growing, you’ll want to grow with it so create a logo. An excelent website to make this on is:

http://www.picnik.com/

 10/24/09 

 I used the “Vampire Eyes” tool on www.picnik.com to make my eyes creepy looking.  I had asked Harry to take a few photos of me before I went to my friend’s Greek themed Halloween party.  I went as a Greek widow, but I kinda look like a gyspy here (except for the eyes).

In my pre-college days (which is beginning to feel like a long time ago) I worked in a photo developing station at a drug store in a quaint village  of northern California (that’s the PC way of saying small, rural town).  This was back in the day when the majority of people still developed their photos from real film and a select few used digital cameras.  This was also during the days when the county fair was a BIG deal.  If you didn’t go to the fair, you were truly square.  And if you didn’t enter something, anything–a rabbit, a quilt, a photo, some flowers, just something–you were almost just as square.

Back in those days, people would come in to get their photos developed for submission in the County Fair.  And there was a lot of talk behind the counter of which photos would win prizes and which wouldn’t.  Then there were the conversations about the digital photos and *scandal of all scandals* which ones had been edited!  That was my first brush with photography and for a long, long time after getting my first digital camera, I was too scared to edit my photos or at least to admit that I edited my photos.  It would be like admitting I had a nose job (which I do not have).

Things have since changed.  Most people edit their photos, and the editing has become part of the fun.  There are so many programs to help you edit your photos, and I am in the process of looking for a great one that won’t cost an arm and leg, or just an arm or just a leg for that matter.  I have no limbs to spare.

Thus far, picnik has been my editing site of choice.  It is amazing that I can take an ordinary photo like this

And turn it into this

Or this

Take this boring old close-up as another example

It is much more appealing to the eye when it looks like this

While I am not overly impressed with my photos or the edited versions (I’m not submitting any of these to the county fair), I do think that photo editing is an art form just as taking photos and developing photos is. Perhaps I could say I am an artist in the making (and this is where I would use a smiley face I weren’t too ashamed of the nose that would show up)

If you would like to recommend a good photo-editing website or software that would allow me to retain all limbs, that would be welcome.  For now, I’ll stick with picnik and just wait until I get a Mac (that is a whoooole other post that I probably won’t write any time soon!)