STOP! Redux

STOP! Redux
Stop! Redux

“STOP!” taken 4/29/2007 near Victor, CO
A small sporty Saturn Sky dwarfed by a nearly three-story high dump truck carrying a load of ore to be processed at the Victor, Colorado gold mine.

Another go at this old favorite. Reprocessed the mediocre relatively low res jpg that was all I had for an original and used a 16×9 crop which really helped increase the juxtaposition of the small car and huge dump truck by filling most of the image with the truck. I also applied some vignette. Don’t know why, but I like that darker, faded look 9 times out of 10 it seems. Yeah, I know it used to be created by poor lenses, and maybe it’s an overdone affectation… Still, I usually find I like a photo better with it applied than without.

Flying South Redux

Flying South Redux
Flying South Redux


“Flying South” taken 12/31/2014 Denver, CO
Another reprocessing of an old favorite. This was an accidental quick shot that came out a little better than I expected, considering. I was trying to take a closeup of the bird on the wire directly out the apartment window when I noticed geese flying up in the background, swung and tried to widen the angle a little as I shot with no chance to play with aperture or shutter speeds. The result is of course that the geese are out of focus and blurry, but I think it adds to the shot and feel of one bird watching others leave for the winter.

Pretty much identical composition and cropping from my old first attempt, just cleaner and more pop using Lightroom, and a little more dramatic with some added vignette.

No Entry Redux

No Entry Redux
The “Do Not Enter” sign makes me want to do the opposite,
and explore the tunnel-like alley beyond.

“No Entry” taken 8/21/2006 Boston, MA
Another new look at an old favorite. I completely reprocessed this one, starting from only a relatively low res JPG I took in June 2006 on an old Nikon of a photogenic alley I stumbled across while walking Boston’s Freedom Trail. My original attempt at this was very similar, but this time I did a single exposure monochrome tonemap instead of just desaturating my original exposure, added some lightroom magic, then cutout & pasted the unaltered street sign. I also made an even narrower 16×9 ratio vertical crop, and a 5×7 ratio horizontal crop, having trouble deciding which I liked. Ended up coming back around to the original composition with just a little bit of cropping to emphasize the framing of the street light at the top.

Desert Rust Redux

Desert Rust Redux

“Found this abandoned and shot up car in the desert when ATVing in Tucson.”

“Desert Rust” taken 11/21/2005 Tucson, AZ
original “cutout” post-processing 8/21/2006
Decided to go through and collect and retouch some of my old favorite pics. Here’s the first to receive some Lightroom TLC originally taken on an old lower res Nikon, and processed with an ancient Paint Shop Pro app, but still not too bad.

Alien Squid Lady?

Squid Lady 3
The Creature from the Colorado Springs Lagoon?

A huge, strange metal sculpture that is part mermaid, creature from the black lagoon, alien xenomorph and squid or octopus that sits on the top of a an old brick warehouse building on the border of downtown Colorado Springs, CO and Old Colorado City. It’s in a location that makes it hard to see and appreciate, being up on a building surrounded by railroad tracks, a major interstate highway and a major road overpass, underpass intersection. Have driven by many times I decided to walk by and see if I could capture some images, but most of the angles except for one side are blocked when you’re on foot.

The sculpture’s placement makes it seem a strange part of the billboard in front and below it.
Squid Lady 2
Looking out from the top of the building like a strange aquatic version of a gargoyle.

What D&D Character Am I?

I’ve seen these kind of surveys or discussions before, but never really looked into them much until today. I used this Alignment Survey once before to kind of pin down the alignment of a character I had envisioned, answering the wide range of questions as I thought the character might answer them. On a whim I recently answered the questions as I would answer them, and the result I thought pretty much “nailed” my world view in terms of a D&D Alignment spectrum. Suddenly curious, I decided to take their long survey which attempts to build a D&D character complete with statistics that match your answers.

According to the results, I would be a fairly average multi-class Halfling Druid/Ranger. I like the idea a lot. The Halfling (aka Hobbit) seems to fit me (mostly in just the mentality, but some in the physicality). The rare multi-class and average “jack of all trades, specialist in none” statistics, combined with an emphasis on preferring nature to the big cities, preferring solitude to large crowds, belief in an underlying caring yet impersonal divinity in nature and fascination with the science of how nature works more for the sake of knowing than using the knowledge towards some huge technological goal, though finding the pursuit of those tech goals fascinating as long as they don’t destroy the Nature I love. Continue reading What D&D Character Am I?