My GPS Camera Phone

Back in October, I posted a photo of my lawn, or lack thereof. It was a black-and-white photo of what I now know to be called sour grass (thanks to Debo Hobo), but it wasn’t anything spectacular to look at. While I’ve seen it bloom before, I haven’t seen it look so robust and hearty.

The sour grass in the photo here is from my friend’s yard about a mile away. What strikes me is how much more attractive the variety he has growing is over the variety I have. The stuff in my yard is thin and flimsy, while the sour grass in his yard is dark green and dense. In spite of this, however, the blooms are identical.

While photographing this afternoon, my daughter told me that some kids at school eat the flowers. Of course, she knew more about the plant than me, and proceeded to make sure that I was aware of this. Once my inferior intellect was established, she picked a bunch of them for mom and off we went. Gotta love the kids.

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Ah, the smell of a new blog design.

In an attempt to package many ideas that have been brewing, I decided to go with Mimbo, a theme recommended to me by Opal about two months ago. It’s a magazine-style layout that offers up a lot of space for blog content in an easy-to-absorb format. The theme itself is insanely customizable, but hardly a simple undertaking, especially if you are afraid to dig into the code. I’m particularly fond of the latest post box and the category-based sections. While there are a few quirks with this theme, it is an incredible piece of work.

Being faced with a nice vacation, I decided now was the time. So after spending way too much time in front of the screen, here’s the nearly finished product.

Things to note:

• The “your gps camera phone” category is exactly that – a new section for guest blogging where you get to submit your photos and stories in return for a super-deluxe link back to your site. This should be rolled out in the next day or so. Stay tuned.
• I’ll be geo-tagging some (not all) photos in Google Earth and then posting the .KML/.KMZ file for you to download. It’s primarily going to be a log of all the user-submitted photos and some of my photos from around the area. This is also coming soon, hopefully in the next two or so days.
• Tutorials – they are coming. I’ll probably host them on Revver or somewhere and then embed them in the site to save bandwidth, but I’m not so sure yet. Anyone have experience with hosted video sites?
• The blogroll is on a separate page now, so if you see a link from my site drop off due to the theme switch, it should re-appear soon.
• The top commenter widget is no more, unless I can find a place to put it. Sorry, Joe.

If there’s more, I’ll be sure to let you know. Thanks to everyone for visiting and providing plentiful, sensible comments. It’s been fun so far, but the next year is going to be a blast. And you’re going to be a part of it.

Image credit: Geotrac, via Dreamstime.com.

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As of yesterday, I’ve officially started my vacation. The workday on Friday seemed endless, so I walked the perimeter of the building and took the camera phone along for the ride. What I found was a tall fence with barbed wire (no, I don’t work at a prison) and this dandelion, getting ready to send it’s children off to start their new lives.

The photo was a bit too green for me that day, so I did a few things to it:

• Open the photo in Photoshop CS
• Select the white highlights
• feather 2px, then copy to new layer
• Desaturate the original layer, then adjust contrast via curves
• Adjust hue/saturation on new layer
• Voila!

What you get is a desaturated photo with a bit of color, in this case the light-colored highlights. Something different. Maybe a video tutorial is in order?

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I’ll get to posting photos and such again soon, I promise. In the meantime, here’s a few recommended links to get your photo fix:

• Take a peek at Gale Rainwater’s nature photography. It’s an incredible showcase of photos that easily rivals those of National Geographic quality. Don’t miss the amazing panoramic shots in the gallery.
• Snow getting you down? Susanne has the cure for you.
• I’ve been away for awhile, but my recent visit to jungl’s Photos from Northern Norway reminded me of why I went there in the first place. He’s also started an interesting project called Musings from a Male Knitter. I want a pair of those socks.
• Photography by KML has loads of photos on every genre, but some of my favorites are the textures. How can you not like this worn-out basketball?
• Suwat’s site header says, “If one photo can change a person life, that’s good enough.” How can you argue with that? Digital Shutter Mania has a great collection of digital photos and easy-to-use and effective tricks. My favorite trick ever: the pop-up flash diffuser. How incredibly simple.

I’ve got some video tutorial topics lined up, but I’m interested in hearing what you might want to see. Is there a particular program you prefer? Is there any particular thing you would like to see explained? I could guess, but I’m more interested in addressing the need, rather than spout on about how much I know (or don’t know) about Photoshop. The tutorials are not intended for professionals, so don’t be shy to ask for even the simplest thing to be explained. It’s a no-pressure environment here.

Another quick reminder: the next tutorial is in Picasa2. If you need it, you can download from the following link. Thanks!

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This was the weekend of building the winter wonderland in my front yard. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of work. To mark the occasion, I decided that a photo was appropriate. Enjoy.

News and Stuff

I’m stoked that the video tutorial went over so well. Thanks for all of the positive comments. Next up is an easy way to achieve an aged photo look by applying a few simple effects in Picasa2. I hope to have this posted by the end of the week, but paying gigs take priority. Of course, if someone wants it posted tomorrow, I can always give you my Paypal address…

Special thanks to Opal Tribble at Vegan Momma for making me her guest RSS feed last week. I haven’t looked at the incoming traffic yet, but I’m sure I’ve gained some new readers from it. Thanks, Opal!

If you haven’t seen Dan’s totally cool Lucy in the Sky with Dragons image yet, you should. It rawks.

If you’re into street fighting, sullicom is now accepting votes for the final round of the Food Network Battle Royale. It is bound to be explosive, with cold and calculating Alton Brown facing off against the “Everyday Italian,” Giada De Laurentiis. If Alton is not lured into complacency by her hotness, he will destroy her. It will be an uphill battle, for sure. Cast your votes (Alton Brown) now!

Featured MGPSCP (My GPS Camera Phone) blogger, Shiera, is finally going for a custom domain name! On the flip-side, she really misses her kid. I couldn’t imagine working so far away from my kids. Go visit and say hello.

I finally took the Monetizer’s advice and made my first Squidoo lens. It’s easy and could potentially send traffic my way. Check it out if you want, then set one up yourself. It only took me about 45 minutes and it’s free.

Finally, voice-talent mega-star Heather Dugan is back from a computer failure with audio blog posts. It’s like listening to NPR or a television commercial without being sold anything. Totally awesome.

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Here’s the finished product from yesterday’s Photoshop tutorial, How-to Prepare a Photo for the Web.

Thanks for all of your comments on the tutorial. The next one will probably be working in Google’s free photo editing software, Picasa2, so don’t feel left out if you aren’t a Photoshop user. You can get it by downloading and installing Google Pack by using the link below. Stay tuned!