My GPS Camera Phone

After about a half hour of driving on Interstate 95, a little gecko appeared on the windshield, just behind the wiper blade. For some reason, the little guy was trying to find somewhere else to go, which was a bad idea since there was plenty of protection behind the wiper blade.

After a few futile attempts to walk to the other wiper, he finally made it, only to be blown away due to excessive and reckless celebration. I mean this guy was doing back flips and high-fiving himself, forgetting that the car was flying down the highway. While I admired the amazing wiper blade crossing, I had to admit that the partying should have been saved for the exit ramp.

If he had only waited another half-mile, then the party would have been on. But pride got the best of him, leaving him stranded on a four-lane highway.

A gecko without a cause, living life on the edge.

A few days ago, a terrible crime occurred on a different part of this trail. A 36-year-old woman was brutally beaten and then raped while on her morning jog around 6:30 am.

The crime occurred in an affluent neighborhood with a normally low crime rate. I’d be surprised if there were any crimes there, to be honest. But here we are, three days beyond something that isn’t supposed to happen in such a neighborhood. It isn’t supposed to happen in anyone’s neighborhood.

The photo itself is textbook, with the trail fading off into obscurity, bordered by young oaks on each side. How quickly a picture of serenity can become a crime scene photograph.

There were more patrol cars there than I had ever seen. This guy is at-large and there’s little to go on. The newspaper reported that he casually got in a car and drove away. That’s it.

Stay vigilant. Violent crime has no boundaries.

Is it me or does this water look like crystals flying through the air? Regardless, I didn’t think a camera phone would stop motion like this.

The water fountain in the image was taken last week at the University of Florida. The day was warm and the kids were looking for something exciting to do. We had to pick up Nancy, who always manages to find the cool things that nobody else seems to find.

After a few loops around campus to find her, we park and walk to this new fountain that is ground-level and barrier-free. The jets of water turn on and off at predictable intervals, but the kids got fooled many times. They were soaked and their fountain antics drew smiles from passing students and faculty.

About 30 minutes later, we packed up the kids and went home to dry clothes and Nintendo DS. I was lucky enough to get to return to work for a few more hours. But at least I got this cool photo. More to come, possibly a big set.

One last thing: Can you locate the angel? Free linkage to the first one to clearly point it out in the comments. “Yes, I can see it,” is not an acceptable response. Chuck at D is for Dad! (Awesome site, BTW. Go check it out.)

Rate this photo!
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

Your GPS Camera Phone: guest post by Melinda at Funny Dog Picture.

I was at work a couple months ago and I saw an employee of mine at work on his day off walking out of the store with a large bulge in the front of his zip-up hoodie. It was apparent that there was something in his jacket and thinking that the only reason to do that is to steal, I went after him. Turns out he came in to try to get someone to switch shifts with him and did not want to leave his new puppy at home! When he pulled down the zipper and showed my the dog I had to pull out my cell phone and take a picture!

Taken with a Nokia 6133.

Edit your own photos! Get professional-grade software here!

Yesterday was my 21st Wordless Wednesday post and, in my humble opinion, the best one to date. In this post I’ll answer the big question of how I did it.

First, a bit of back story: I had a doctor’s appointment to get my back evaluated to see if I’d need surgery to repair a blown disk (L5/S2 for all my chiro/neuro peeps). The appointment was at Shands Hospital directly across from the local Veterans Administration hospital. Being a vet, I go to the VA for annual check ups. Being a civilian, I do NOT go there for much of anything else.

Considering that the parking-to-patient/visitor ratio is somewhere around 1:683, I decided to be sneaky and avoid paying the $3.00 to park in the Shands garage. You could say I’m a master of elusive parking, but you probably won’t.

Motorcycle parking at the VA is free and always open. I own a motorcycle. On top of all that, I can be a pretty smart guy sometimes. Taking this into consideration, I decided to park at the VA and then stealthily walk to Shands via the sooper-seekrit underground tunnel that only people of my caliber would know about.

Which brings us to the photograph. This tunnel is ultra-sterile and feels like a bomb shelter. I mean, you could probably perform open-heart surgery in there – it’s that clean. Anyway, it offered a neat perspective, so I snapped two shots from different angles (as seen in this post) and was on my way.

I had planned on posting one, but both of them were overexposed from all of the reflections and fluorescent lighting. I sat there and thought of how I would weasel my way around another Wordless Wednesday, when suddenly it hit me; combine them into one.

Here’s how I did it, in bullets, because I’ve already wasted enough of your time (and it’s easier to comprehend):

• Open both images in Photoshop (I use CS2, but you can probably adapt this to any program)
• Drag one of the images onto the other, which then gives you an image with two layers.
• Save the new image as something else and close the source images.
• After adjusting levels, tweak the top layer’s opacity until the desired result is achieved. You want to go for a blended image that looks like the two were taken as one.
• As part of the above step, adjust the opacity of the bottom layer as well. Try playing with blending modes also. I think I used “multiply” or “overlay” on the top layer.
• Create a new layer below the image layers and paint it white. This will lend a light and ethereal feeling after reducing the opacity of both image layers.
• Select both image layers and create copies. Then select the two original ones and merge them together.
• Rotate the merged image layer 180 degrees. This layer should be the bottom layer with the two copies above it.
• The copied layers are probably at 100% opacity, so you’ll need to adjust them as before. Once you get a decent result, you’re good to go.
• Merge all layers into one and then save the image for the web.

I’m happy with the result and I’m glad to see that at least 19 visitors were as well. If you’re still confused, drop me a line in the comments section and I’ll confuse you even more.

Rate this photo!
(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

Visit the Wordless Wednesday headquarters for more.

First, I’m going to ask for your help in winning the Joeprah referral contest. Look to the right side there and you’ll see a cute kid with some self-aggrandizing text. No, not my previous post, the orange badge thing. Do me a favor and click on it. When you get to the site, stay there, because Joe is friggin’ awesome. He will definitely crack you up at least once. Twice if you’re lucky. Many times if you have a twisted sense of humor. Be sure to repeat this process at least seventy-two times each hour for the next month and a half. Rinse, repeat.

Don’t do it for me, do it for the cute bunny.

There are other competitors who have a serious chance at beating me down, but I am refusing to go down without a fight. Check out the current standings.

Second, I’d like to thank everyone who checked out the Dog and Bunny show. I’m at about 10,000 views, which is pretty cool considering I only posted it so my sister-in-law could watch it. Given the enormous success, Episode 2 is now out and this time with an awesome soundtrack. Dan was thinking the same thing when it came to audio, as the first one was just a rough cut with a lot of background noise. Episode 2 has an intro and background music, courtesy Bronco. Go see it, you won’t be sorry. Tell all of you animal behavior friends about it.

And don’t forgete, i can be found on Twitter now, so follow me!

Thanks for watching!