I Take Liberties with Reality
In January of 2007 I was walking on the Esplanade in Portland Oregon. I took this photo of the Steel Bridge with a 3 mp cell phone. I liked the image but it was dull and flat. If you must know, the Steel Bridge is a through truss, double lift bridge across the Willamette River. It was built in 1912. The image below will show you why I needed to “shop” this image.
This image was originally taken with my cell phone at the Detour Cafe on Division St in Portland, OR. The mimosa was delicious.
There are places in Portland where you can buy photos. I’m not talking about art. I’m talking about dusty file cabinets full of random images. There are people’s family photos for sale. I was in one of these places and found this gem. My friend Michael S. identified the car for me. He says it is a 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV. He says you can see the shape of the hood ornament and the octagon shape of the hubcap, combined with the lack of spokes on the cap. Mike, you’re good. Thanks.
I have no clue who these people are or where this image was taken. (…and Mike if you can identify the people, you would be amazing) That is what makes it so much fun. The car is very likely in a junk heap somewhere, but this image preserves this moment. Our big haired lady is obviously very happy to have her new Continental.
The image was full of fuzz. The photo was certainly printed before the time of canned air. So whatever dust was on the negative at the time was also printed. Through the miracle of Photoshop I was able to bring this photo back. Click on the images for full size.
Sometimes I dwell on a little fantasy. I was thinking of what my dream kitchen would look like and I came up with a color scheme. Now I may change my mind tomorrow, but right now I am enamored with the color orange. Orange, White, Yellow and Red are hot kitchen colors. Click on the image to enlarge it.
I actually took the original image with my cell phone. On a rainy day it is good to drink something warm. I posted a blog about Prasad where I enjoyed my yerba mate.
On my birthday in December, I had lunch with a friend in Portland’s Chinatown. I didn’t go to this particular restaurant, but I could help but to photograph the sign. For those of you who don’t live in the area… yes, the sign is real. The sign was recently restored. In the native Cantonese Hung Far sounds like red flower, Low means restaurant or tower.
For this particular design I had fun with the background. I used the paintbrush to make the diagonal lines. Then I duplicated the layer and flipped it. One layer I blurred slightly and the other I embossed a bit. Of course I played around with Photoshop’s 3-d abilities for the PDX. It was a fun way to spend the last day of January while I waited for my kale chips to be finished.
It is amazing what Photoshop can do to an old image. I took this image in Buffalo, NY around 2005. I used a 3 or 4 megapixel camera. Originally it came out a mushy mess. I did some tweaking and sharpening in Photoshop and there is a huge difference. You can see much more detail in the terra cotta.
This is an image of the Sullivan Building in downtown Buffalo. If you want to know more about its history check out his link to Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudential_%28Guaranty%29_Building_%28Buffalo,_New_York%29
Back in 2009 I went to a weird and wonderful place called Marsh’s Free Museum. It is located in Long Beach, Washington. This place is full of all kinds ephemera, dead animals, and mechanical weirdness. I can’t really explain this place. You would have to look at it for yourself. http://www.marshsfreemuseum.com/ This is a postcard I created from a photo I took.
In 2008 I went to visit a friend’s farm in Champoeg, OR. The countryside was quite beautiful. On the way back we came across this tree. I couldn’t resist preserving it in my own special way.
I’ve always loved HDR photography. The intense contrast and bright colors appeal to me. Lately I have been uploading my photos to Flickr. I came across two photos I took on the coast of California. It was the same image with two different exposures. Normally you want more exposures, but I decided to give it a go anyway. Click on the image.
