Sometimes You Just Want to Have Fun

This image started out life as a photograph. We were on a road trip and on the way back from Tennessee. Now, Tennessee to Connecticut is a fairly straight shot, but we wound up driving through West Virginia. Sometimes we don't exactly travel the most direct route. The trips are more fun that way and avoiding the highways lets one get a glimpse of this great country. As we drove north on some byway (this was before the GPS attachment for the camera) we spotted an old gas station with an old car sitting out front. Had to stop, had to get a couple snaps of the joint. As you might guess, it was pretty dark under the canopy of the station. Look closely and you'll see one of my speedlites on top of the gas pump. It bounced enough light around to get a decent exposure.

The image is obviously "highly" processed. Things you can't see would be the removal of the tow bar at the front of the car, the replacement of the hand printed "out of order" signs on the pumps and a fellow walking into the scene from the left. Once all that was done, making it into the "cartoon" style was fairly easy. Corey Barker, over at Planet Photoshop has an excellent tutorial on how to do the cartoon effect. Check it out over there. The added title is a nod to West Virginia and the Sunday funny papers.

dreaming of a better day

 
 
 

blazer, Bershka. tee, Forever 21. skirt, DIY. shoes, Aldo. belt, unknown.

Things I hate:

1. Essays and assignments from every class due on the SAME day.

2. Windy days.

3. People who never say what they really want to say and make you guess what they mean to say, but than you don't want to guess because you might be wrong and end up looking stupid.

4. When people smoke right next to you.

5. Running out of time.

6. People who are scared of taking risks and putting themselves out there.

7. Followers.

Things I like:

1. Love.

2. Dancing around my room to old school songs.

3. Beautiful clothes.

4. Making disgusting smoothies with my best friend and talking about life.

5. Cherry Blossom trees and Magnolias.

6. Feeling like there's no tomorrow, only today and tonight.

7. Dancing.

Sometimes Things Fall in Your Lap

Occasionally you stumble on things that have the elements to make a good image. Sometimes you have to pay some money to be in a place to do the stumbling, but it's a stumble anyway. Such is the case of this shoot. We were at a festival called Schemitzun in eastern Connecticut a few years ago, wandering around taking in the activities and looking for shots. Native Americans gather to celebrate their rich and colorful heritage in full regalia.

We wandered into a large tent where different tribes would demonstrate their traditional dances. We took a couple of shots but, due to the cluttered background, there wasn't anything special. We started walking back out through the entrance tunnel and came across the fellow pictured here. After getting a little background (bad pun) information (he's from the Nez Pierce tribe) I asked if I could take his picture. He said "sure" and grabbed his young son. I'd guess he figured this wouldn't be a shot I'd be interested in. I bent down to "kid level" and snapped the shutter. Light was coming in through the entrance tunnel, the background was the canvas of the tent and the expression on the child's face was priceless.

We wandered around the grounds for another couple of hours (in 90+ degree heat) and were just about to leave when we came across the buffalo skull. It was part of one of the vendor's display. It looked interesting, so I shot it. Had no idea where I'd use it, but knew it could be a component of some shot.

Back at the gallery I knew I wanted to get rid of the blank canvas of the tent and put something symbolic in. The end result was to keep the canvas and layer in the skull. The skull was masked and the opacity lowered. The result was then masked again to reveal the man and his son.

If anyone recognizes this fellow, let me know. I'd like to offer him a copy of the image.

i wish life was simple, like a retro pop song "i want you to want me". the end.

Thank you so much to everyone for the supportive comments. 

So far the weekend has been absolutely beautiful, apart from the rain this evening, yet it was still refreshing, and after only about an hour of rain I noticed that my backyard was greener than it had been just an hour earlier. I do love rain on a warm day. 

Since I had no school Friday, I have been working on homework all weekend, getting together at people's houses, therefore, my outfits have been consisting of boyfriend or skinny jeans, with a simple tee. I have been overloading on jewelry though, but I cannot be bothered to be creative in my outfits when I have mountains of homework resting on my desk. Although tomorrow I promise an outfit update. :)

Anyways, these are some lovely inspiration pictures for you all to view.  They're from various people and sites, but I got them all off the blog "The Drifter and the Gypsy" so if you want to see who they are by, please visit her blog. None of the following pictures are mine. :)

 

On some random news, today I decided to use Safari instead of Internet Explorer and I really love it so much better than IE. It's faster, and I just adore how the pages are displayed. The only thing I don't like is that I cannot open various pages in one window, as I can on IE. Although I might be able to, but I just don't know yet.
Have an awesome day everyone.

you want a peice of me?

First off, thank you so much to everyone who reads this blog and likes it. I appreciate it so much. Your support means everything to me. :)

Second, to the anonymous poster who has decided to write rude comments on my previous post, you have serious issues. I don't see you posting your pictures on the Internet, and the fact that you have to write everything anonymously just shows how insecure you are. Before you start criticising my blog and the way I dress and look, you should go and look at yourself. I'm not the one who needs to get a life, you are, especially if you spend your time writing rude comments on a blog that you apparently don't like. If you need to put others down to make yourself feel better, then that's not my fault. Just because I dress different and not like an Abercrombie or Hollister clone doesn't mean you have to act like an idiot. If you don't like my blog, then DON'T READ IT!!!!

Oh, and PS. relle is not a word. It's spelt REALLY. Learn to spell before you go around being an ass.
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No new outfit posts, but I did do a little photoshoot today. I was so tired that only one picture actually came out really well. Enjoy!

I decided to drop my shoe right when the camera took the picture, so it looks like my shoe is resting on my leg, but it's actually falling.

Making Friends Look More Like They'd Like

Some friends were out shooting last night and one took time out to sit for a single shot. It was just about dusk, so light was low. We were on the main thoroughfare through town, playing at a little hardscape park. There's a few benches, some apple tress in blossom, lights that look like they would have had been gas lit back in the 1800's. The lighting comes from a Nikon SB 600 shooting into a 30" x 40" softbox with a rig for the speedlite. Nikon's CLS was used to fire the speedlite. A gold reflector is camera left to fill in the shadow side of the face.

To increase the dramatic effect Photoshop was used to bring out details that might have been lost, such as the pants leg and the jacket sleeves. The upper right background was toned down to wrap the subject more closely. More picky adjustments were made to the face. Using the Liquify Tool in PS the face was thinned just a bit and the eyes pumped up one click using the bloat section of Liquify. Because of the character in the face's ruggedness very little was done to remove texture and lines.

april showers bring may flowers

dress, Marciano. tight, unknown. wellingtons, Cougar. belt, vintage. blouse/shirt, vintage. April showers really do bring may flowers. I expect that by the end of April my whole backyard will be in full blossom. Oh, I just cannot wait! I have never been this excited for spring to come, but I think blogging has really made me realise how spring is affecting my outfit choices. I stepped outside today after the lovely rain we had, and found my whole backyard alive. I even saw the first tulip of the year, how exciting.

I think it's time for a little update to my blog. Nothing major, but maybe a different header and some other slight colour changes. I'm in such a spring mood, I have an urge to just make the existence of winter disappear.

Below are some of the lovely flowers appearing in my garden. Gorgeous.

This is my neighbour's tree. I can't wait till it blooms.

Pictures Tell Lies.

Every picture can be taken and can be "made". Here's an example of a picture that's been "made". "Just About Closing Time" started out as a picture taken at 12:48 in the afternoon. It was transformed into the night shot in Adobe Photoshop CS4. It's become a stylized image rather than a straight photography. This is the type of thing we'll be discussing at The Kayview Gallery. We'll talk about things done at the gallery and take a look at images that have been sent in to the gallery. Everyone is invited to take part in the experience. Welcome, this "train" is about to leave the station.

just a small town girl, living in a lonely world

dress, american apparel. jacket, Marciano. tights, unknown. shoes, some store in Lithuania. This is what I wore last night. Coffee House was so amazing, and I had such a wonderful night. Some songs that were performed were, Daughters, Banana Pancakes, Killing Me Softly, Viva La Vida, Don't Stop Believing, A Thousand Miles, Blackbird, and so many other wonderful ones. There was some original songs, a couple musical comedy performances, a dance, and even some rapping. Overall a wonderful way to spend a beautiful spring night. I wish every Friday night was so amazing. And today I went to the mall to get some black tights for school and two people in two different stores asked me if I worked at the store I was in at the time. It was really funny. I wore an outfit really similar to one posted previously where I'm wearing the flowered patterned linen pencil skirt. The rest of the day was spent procrastinating on homework. Anyways, hope you all had a wonderful day, and I must say that the weather is amazing!!!

haute couture

shirt, DIY. shorts, American Eagle. shoes, Aldo. tights, unknown. fedora, Aldo.
What beautiful spring days. I've been walking around with my camera today, taking pictures of all the budding trees. Oh how I'm excited for spring.
This shirt was a DIY I did over the weekend. I never completed it fully, but I still like it this way. I might leave it or change it a bit...not sure yet.
Tomorrow is Coffee House, and I have the perfect outfit planned out so stayed tuned.
On other news, prom is nearing, and my friends and I are getting all stressed out planning the limo and pre- and after- parties. Who knew prom could be so stressful?


Have a wonderful day!

who you gonna call?

shirt, DIY. skirt, DIY. belt, vintage. tights, mom's. shoes, Aldo.

The weather is amazing, and the lovely people on the news said to expect amazing weather all week, on Friday it's supposed to be up to 18 degree Celsius. I cannot wait!!! Friday I'm going to a little shin-ding at my school called Coffee House. It's basically a night of music, singing, and sometimes even dancing and stand up comedy. My school transforms our cafeteria into a little coffee house like room. There's a couple couches, a little stage and a lot of circular tables to sit at. I'm really excited because a lot of my friends are performing and it's just an overall great way to spend a Friday night.

Today was no uniform day at school, so this is what I wore. The shirt is the DIY I was talking about earlier. Ghosbusters anyone? The skirt is also a DIY.

The picture below is of the buds starting to appear on my apple tree. Yay! SPRING!!

Hope you all have an amazing day!