I'll Be Gone

I will be away from La Crosse for the next 6 or 7 days and may not be able to respond to you while on the road. I'll try to get back to anyone who e-mails or calls as soon as I return.
Byron

Extreme Photoshop Retouching

Here is a YouTube video of an extreme makeover done in Photoshop. This is just one of a gazillion available. I am reluctant to post any of them because of some may object to the concept and others including me have a problem with the concept of designating beauty and ugliness. Before you get you knickers in a twist please understand that the "before" in this video is NOT a person but a piece of sculpture. I very much hope that no one will be offended, but I do want to show what can be done at the extremes. Please read these comments by the artist in response to some carping criticism if you are uncomfortable:

I never meant to hurt anyone with this work. I just wanted to know how young I could make that old lady look using photoshop tools. By the way, that woman is not a real person. That is a sculpture made by Angela Talbot, a very talented artist that has a beautiful personality. I think that the real beauty is inside us all, in our soul. And that beauty can be cultivated by any one of us. It's just a matter of wanting. Thanks for watching! :)

Byron

Our Yurt

For anyone who is interested here are some recent phots of our yurt. We have finally completed furnishing it. The table in the center of the yurt and the chest on the left side back wall were hand made from wood milled from a cherry tree harvested on the property. We hope to be able to entertain members of the WWIG at our land in Crawford County later this summer.
Byron

Digital Challenge: Portrait 4

Theresa Smerud kindly sent this image to be used as an exercise in retouching. This very pleasant looking gentleman's appearance is marred by an obvious dental flaw. I suspect that most subjects with a similar problem would attempt to keep their mouth closed which would eliminate his smile which is wonderful and reveals much about his personality. For some doing the dental repair in Photoshop may be a piece-of-cake, but I don't think that I am going to be able to bring it off. On the other hand it will be interesting to try.

Theresa sent a JPG and I cropped away a great deal of the original so that the resulting image is a fairly small file but I think that it will be adaquate for this exercise.
Byron
Byron

Digital Challenge: Portrait 3

This woman is the owner of a small shop located in a alley made up of artsy businesses in Madrid NM. She reluctantly allowed me to take a few photos and because we were already at the limit of her tolerance I didn' think that I could get away with asking her to move into a location that wouldn't have such awful lighting conditions. This image may be beyond the magical powers of Photoshop but I included it because if offers an opportunity to see what one can do with very advanced wrinkles.
Byron

Internet Courtesy

This photo was taken in our garden several years ago by my son Charles Annis and back in my avid gardening days I used it a lot in various presentations. In my opinion what makes this a great shot the fact that Charlie was exactly in the right place at the right time. See Rule # 1 of Photography: Always have your camera with you! Another interesting aspect of the picture is this. If you look carefully just above the giant garden rat (that would be the deer for the nature lovers among you) you can see a thin white horizontal line. That is my electric deer fence. Really effective, isn't it? All of this is beside the point. Here is the point:  Years ago I submitted this image to a website called Subdivision Wildlife. Yesterday I received this e-mail message--

Byron, 
I am working on a website for an electronic deer repellant. (deershieldtech.com)
Would you allow us to use this image on our site and in some of our promotional material?
Thank you,
Rick

Here is my reply--

> Yes you may, and thank you for the courtesy of asking! I hope that you will give credit to the photographer who is my son Charles Annis. He did a great job getting this capture.

This is the way things should work when decent  people deal with each other in the electronic commons.

Byron

Digital Challenge: Portrait 2

I took this photograph of Dr. John Hayden at our last meeting and he very graciously gave me permission to use it for this months exercise in retouching. Dr. Hayden had a long and distinguished career as an Orthopedic Surgeon at the Gundersen Clinic and is an accomplished photographer. He is 88 years old and his skin certainly is that of a substantially younger man. Nonetheless, there are some blemishes that can be eliminated and wrinkles lessened. I'm not one to give retouching advice, but I will caution those who haven't done this sort of work, resist the temptation to overdo. This is especially true with the wrinkles.

I'll make separate entries for the remaining 2 images tomorrow and send the whole packet of 4 JPGs tomorrow by e-mail.
Byron