My design ‘roots’ are in gig poster design.  I never actually had a band as a client, but that did not stop me from designing gig posters for groups that I admired and some that existed only in my mind. I have actually done quite a few custom gig inspired wedding posters, but my contracts stated I could not share with the world. That’s just my luck. Whenever I am working on a design project that has me feeling like I have no more design juice left in me I go back to what I know I can do, the ol’ gig poster. This isn’t one per se, but if left to my own devices it could easily translate into a mixed CD cover. Those are going the way of the Dodo, first the mixed tape, then the mixed CD, sigh.  I am happy with this edit, it’s not perfect, but a million times better than the ‘before’. I wanted to do something special to mark my 60th edit. 60, that’s quite a lot of time spent away from doing things I should be doing. I am going to chalk this project up to creative rejuvenation. I am serious, I learn so much with each edit (and we all know I am a Photoshop Ninja), I feel the pull to be more innovative and try new techniques with each upload. That’s a gift to someone that was feeling a little stunted creatively. Maybe you should consider trying this out alongside me?

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.

P.S. The beautiful (and quite rock n’ roll) quote is courtesy of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I realized on Saturday that I had neglected to contact the winner of the Luxe Correspondence Set.  When I did she exclaimed that had never won anything, I love a surprised winner. Trust me, it is always difficult choosing a winner because I love reading everyone’s answer. I do indeed, that is why when we finally find the place we will be re-locating to I promise to do the Besotted Brand giveaways on a more regular basis. Congrats dear Julianna! I am thrilled to be sending you one of my favorite sets!

P.S. I recently discovered Julianna’s work and had pinned it, it soon became one of my most popular pins (deservedly so). I just love the vintage + ethereal style she has going on.

My husband and I visited my Mom today.  It is always an experience seeing her, she’s just different. Not weird, not mean, not anything you can quite articulate, or put your finger on, she’s just different. She’s so many things, basically an enigma wrapped up in a puzzle, with a dash of constant contrary. Whenever Ace and I leave her we are baffled and exhausted, but we file away many future stories to re-hash at a later date. My Mom’s English is suspect, she speaks with a very, very heavy Spanish accent which she doesn’t hear. The thing is, my mother was born in the United States, she was here a good long time before her family decided to move out of the country. They were only away for a nominal amount of time before they returned, but she kept a very thick Spanish accent as a souvenir of her travels. It reminds me a lot of Madonna and her now infamous English accent. The only thing is, my mom seemingly really lost her handle of the English language when she was away, so much so that she gets things all wrong.  Today after lunch she announced that she ate like a ‘bottomless pig’. I have to admit her interpretation still works, maybe even better than the original version and I think I may just add it to my own vernacular, I think you should too.

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.

Since we have been back I have worked and worked and worked some more.  After all this work, all I have energy for is to sit in front of the television and make my poor husband watch episodes of ‘My Strange Addiction’ and now the amped up version ‘My Crazy Obsession’.  You think your life is rough? Well, what if you had an insatiable urge to drink nail polish or eat toilet paper?  Now, that’s a rough life.  This edition is about my 3 lb. dog George, she has a seriously strange obsession–tennis balls.  I know what you are thinking, you are thinking that it’s not so strange a lot of dogs are obsessed with tennis balls. Yes, but George is obsessed with pulling the felt off of her tennis balls and eating it.  She knows she is not supposed to, so she’ll go to such great measures as to pretend she wants to play ball and then charges it, swoops it up and takes it into some dark and dank opium den, felt eating spot. No amount of scolding can get her to stop.  She will even go off it for a while and when we feel like we can re-introduce tennis balls into her life she will play with them like a ‘normal’ dog and then when our guard is down she’s back to her bad habits. 

On my way to the laundry room today I looked down and noticed what she was doing.  I took her ball away and placed it on top of the glass coffee table (since I had my arms full of dirty clothes).  I came back to witness the top photo.  She was under the table trying to get at it. She was doing it for so long and such vigor I actually had time to go into my studio, get my camera out of its bag, set the dials and shoot.  Obsessed I tell you.

Just when you thought I abandoned my editing project, I am back… I have been doing the edits every day, just not uploading them.  It started with no internet and then sort of waned with my having to catch up with the shop when I got back from our road trip. It does take me a little while to get the images numbered, loaded to Flickr, linked and I do have quite a few to go through! I hope this edit makes you think twice about tossing out a photograph or hitting delete before you had a chance to experiment in the digital darkroom.  I think most photographers would have thrown the ‘before’ away, I almost did, but something made me stop and I went to work.  I am very happy with the result.  I have been working on black & white conversion Photoshop actions for years now.  I have a deep espresso one I love, but this dark chocolate one was perfect for this edit. I do hope one day to release them to the world, but I am such a perfectionist that it may never happen.  I do plan on releasing a set of Foto Rx Photoshop actions, these are actions I use with every edit to get the photograph to a place where the real fun can begin. I have been giving away some free beta copies to my Souvenir Foto School class and will be doing so for the next session as well!

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.