2
Jul
2009
London Calling – Print Available
To date, my most popular print was taken on my second trip to the UK in May of 2005. I have always had a fondness for the traditional British Red Telephone Boxes. There’s something about them that immediately says Britain. I simply cannot tell you how many photos I’ve taken of them in previous and subsequent trips. In some ways, they have very much become dinosaurs in this age of mobile phones, but from Scottish Islands to city streets in London, you’ll still find these boxes dotting the landscape.
The first Red Telephone Box was the result of a competition in 1924 and was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. There were a few iterations culminating in the current design in 1935 to celebrate the silver jubilee of King George V. This is the familiar design that has found its way throughout the United Kingdom and beyond today.
London Calling - Red Telephone Box
This particular phone booth was photographed near the Embankment Tube Station near the Thames. It was taken with my simple point and shoot Olympus camera. Obviously, I then utilized photoshop for the final product, converting the image to black and white and then with a virtual brush, removing the black and white layer just from the phone box to allow the booth to really shine. While I’ve seen this type of selective color treatment done frequently, it’s definitely a style that requires just the right image. I believe I found it in this case.
Although so far I have mainly created work that was destined to be printed for display, this is one work that I have also converted into a popular t-shirt which is also available.
London Calling T-shirt
26
Nov
2008
Dawdling Through England
Say Cheese in Avebury!
I finally had a tourist cheesey goodness moment in Avebury. It was my second trip to the lesser known stone circle in Wiltshire. Four years prior on my first visit to London, I took a day trip out that included a morning stop at Avebury. It’s a bit of a contrats to Stonehenge. A much larger circle and surrounding ditch and mound still evident. It lacks the horizontal stone lentils of Stonehenge, but if memory serves it is an older site. There’s also a village plop in the middle of it that has in fact harvested some of the stone for its buildings and over the years removed some of the stones due to their pagan past. All told, if you are in Wiltshire, it’s a must stop on your itinerary.
Reaching Back - Avebury Stone circle and Earth Works
Avebury Standing Stones In the Sun
Avebury - An Eternity of Sunlit Days
I just have to add to that last one that the British continually joke about their lack of sunny weather, but in some weird way it makes days like this one so special. Bright blue sky filled with puffed white clouds and a green carpet on the ground – what more could one ask for?
There are also many more photos from the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey, the city of Bath, and the wee village of Lacock to check out in my England September 2008 album. You can pick up where I left off with my last blog right here.
And to see you off, one bit of photoshoppery from the village of Lacock.
Selective Color Image from the Village of Lacock, England
28
Aug
2008
Adobe’s Customer Service Grade
A few weeks ago, I got a macbook pro, as previously mentioned, and partially left the world of windows (my media center PC is still a PC). I found out (before I made the switch) that Adobe will allow you to swamp from windows or mac when you chance PCs if you already own their software (considering the price of photoshop, this was a big factor).
So, sure enough, I contacted them and spent about half an hour on the phone taking care of the swap. I had to fax a “letter of destruction” to them after the call and the cost of the swap was only the cost of shipping the new software to me. All and all, at this point I was fairly happy.
I faxed the form saying that I would destroy the windows copy of my software and waited for the new software. Two weeks passed… No word… finally, I went online and submitted a request for an update on the status. Four days passed, and I received an e-mail response that they needed an order number and the Serial # for my software. I had givent he case number for previous call in the status request… I sighed a bit and replied back with the extra requested information.
Before I got a response, literally the same day, the software arrived. There was never any communication to let me know it was coming. I had to sign for it and yet had no idea it was coming. If I didn’t work at home, of course, I would have missed it.
So, kudos to adobe for allowing me to trade in my windows copy for Mac, but you get a C for communication.
11
Aug
2008
Travelers ADD And Other Tales
Well, first to follow up on my post about the old laptop, yes, I bought a mac. I splashed out on a macbook pro, but I bought a refurb. They carry the mac warranty (and I used the savings to get the three year Apple Care, so I’m well covered). The refurb looked completely new. Who knows what horrible thing it got returned for but it’s dreamy for me so far. And if it goes bad in the next three years, back to Apple you go sir.
It’s taking some adjustment. If I hit the control key when I want to copy and paste a few more times, I may scream. But it seems to be taking to my brain somewhere considering I started getting all confuzled on the work laptop (IBM thinkpad – lousy picture but a workhorse, I give it that – the lousy screen doesn’t sell to my photog side). Kept trying to click the wrong keys, etc.
I took a two day photoshop class on Saturday/Sunday with ye olde laptop one last time. I have a licensed copy of photoshop CS3 on it. I started the ball rolling with Adobe on the cross-platform thing. They will allow you once to swap out for the cost of shipping. Adobe for the mac is on its way but not before the class. Well, the smart part of my brain didn’t point out to me until Sunday night that I could install the 30 day trial on my mac while I waited for the new software to arrive… duhhhh… At least the old Fujitsu didn’t embarass me by calling it kaput during class. It threatened a lot in the past week.
My trip to the UK is now less than a month hence. In fact, a month from now, I’ll be getting back into London from 4 days on my Cornwall Crusader trip. And from there, I officially have no clue. The time back into London is evening and an approximate time, which makes it hard to plan the next step. I’ve thought about just hopping straight onto a train bound for… uhm… that’s the hard part. But does it matter when you’re not realy sure what the arrival to London time is? So maybe a night in London before moving on to other parts? Still where is an excelent question. I’ve toyed with Paris either via train or perhaps a Ferry from Dover to Calais and then working my way down before heading back up to London. I’ve thought about Ireland but keep thinking it should be a a trip unto itself some day, not a few days squished in betwixt coming and going. I’ve thought about heading to North England, maybe seeing York, which I’ve read good things about. Then the brain turns further northward inexorably to Scotland. I love Edinburgh and there’s still some of the Highlands I’d dearly love to see. I will return to Skye some day, and I want to see the other islands. And again, is this really the right trip, unless I take a sleeper train ($$$), killing days of my trip coming and going. I’ve also pondered getting a Britrail just for the south and maybe hugging the southern coast for a few days before back into London. I know I could spend all the rest of my time in London and just see the sights there and take in some day trips as well, but this is the 4th time I’ve been to London. As much as I know there is to do and that I’ve yet to do, I feel like I need to get out a bit.
Where does ADD come into this? I swear, I must have it if nothing else for travel. No sooner than I sat down to do research on my options, I found myself looking at Latin American options for New Years this year. I haven’t finished this trip yet and I’m already down the road on the next one! Just sad!
And then to further compound the momentary distraction, I wrote this post!
23
Apr
2006
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing….
Long day…
This morning, I managed to crunch my universal remote control. Mind you, this wasn’t a cheapy one, but one that I had bought a few years ago that could learn from other remotes and could record macros so that I didn’t have to hit a thousand buttons to power up the TV, cable box, receiver, etc. I accidentally knelled on it and the LCD cracked. WAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
or maybe…
KAHHHHHHHNNNNN!!!!!!!
Anyway, I digress…
This prompted an unplanned purchase. I did a little online research and then went to Fry’s. I found a good deal there on a remote that seems to be better than the old one. Actually, I could have replaced the old one with another remote with similar functions for only about $40. But of course, I can never be quite that clever. I ended up opting for a Logitech Harmony 676 – which has “activity buttons” which are along the same lines as my macros but a little more intelligent. It also has a USB connection and web interface for programming it. All pretty slick. It took a little monkeying to get the inputs on the TV to switch through it, but all seems to be well now. Wooohoo!!
Ironically, this comes after I had all but convinced myself to splurge on the upgrade from PS elements to Photoshop CS2. I’ve started getting a little more creative in my work with photos and over and over I hit things that I know CS2 will do that I can’t quite get with Elements… GRRRR… Of course, now having spent $100 on a remote control, I’m back to the undecided mode. It’s not like I have to do it today or anything of course.
I spent the rest of the afternoon doing yard work. I put plants in most of my pots and planted a few in the beds. Still more to do but I’d reached my limit in the madhouse that was the lawn and garden dept at Home Depot this afternoon. I spent the rest of my energy on doing some trimming to my shrubbery. I filled up three bags before I decided to stop. Well, I was out of bags, but I was also tired.
I spent a little time surfing airfares last week, first for AZ next month. No good fares right now, but I also ended up looking at London (yes, forgive me), Paris, and Dublin. Nothing particularly good right ow, but it got me to thinking of perhaps a road trip (not that gas makes that cheap), but I’ve been wanting to go to Jamestowne, VA, for awhile. The first of my Euro ancestors landed there in the early 1600’s. So, some history both in general and personal is there. Hmmm…
