fun with picasa

so, after turning my back on myspace and starting another blog on blogger, i discovered this great tool called picasa. it's totally free and has helped me do wicked-cool things with some of my pictures. have some half-assed photo software that came with my computer, but in order to really do anything with my photos, they wanted me to buy an upgrade.
granted, this isn't quite as much fun as if i had photoshop, but i'm still doing some really cool work...and it is FREE. and it interfaces with my google on-line photo album so i can immediately upload my masterpieces and share them with you!

so without further ado, here is my first study. i'm quite proud of it. i took these fun pictures of people dancing at winfield last september. there was this great celtic folkish band called the david munnelly band. they were wonderful and there was this guy....

From RANDOM PHOTOS

who was not david munnelly, but he was in the band and he was beautiful and made all of the women swoon. seriously. well, in this shot he was singing some heart-breakingly lovely song about his homeland or a dead woman or something (you know how the irish are) and many people got up and started waltzing. it was...magical. it was a cool evening after a hot day and the warm kansas wind had died down to a gentle breeze. there was this lovely music and then...dancing. magical.

so i took these cool photos that, though i knew they were too dark, i also knew they had potential to be worked into something very special. so here is one of the originals....

from there, i had a little fun this afternoon. check it out.


this is after i cropped the random guy out of the right side and had some fun with the contrast and light.


this one has focal color/black and white.


this is with the filtered black and white.


sepia, of course.


and this is the soft focus and some more warming of the color. i really love this one because it looks to me like the couple is dancing as though the entire world has disappeared and it's just the two of them...as the jilted cowboy lover looks on.

you gotta love a dark, jilted cowboy lover.

so i hope you enjoyed this little bit of fun with me. i'm sure there will be more hot photos to come...

me and drew barrymore...we're SO hot right now.

see for yourself!



i think maybe i'm spending too much time online.

we now join our regular programming already in progress...

welcome to my new blog home!

after twelve-too-many disappearing blog posts on myspace, i've decided to venture over here to blogger. i've toyed with the idea for awhile now, but to be honest, it's a bit intimidating on two counts. number one: all my friends on blogger are way cooler and wittier than i could dream of being these days. number two: the naming of the blog. all of you have such lovely and fitting names for your blog. so dashing. so sexy. so...you. so i thought, whatever will i come up with? but tonight i had an epiphany and sha-zam! a blog was born!

i still remember remember learning the term in medias res. for those of you who don't know, it is a latin term that means in the middle of things. i first learned about it in mr. cappello's sophomore honors english class, back in the day when i was a very good, very promising creative writer. when cappello introduced this idea of in medias res and how so many of the great classical works put this technique into action, my life was changed. i wanted to start every writing assignment in medias res--i loved the idea that the stories we were reading (or writing) had gone on for infinite time before and would continue indefinitely thereafter. we were just getting in on a snapshot--a season in the lives of the characters.

and so i apply the term to this blog in a number of ways. for starters, my blog is already in progress over at myspace. also, in the grander scheme of things, i try to keep the perspective that we are all works in progress. it might not always be cheeky or poetic, but i'll do what i can to share some snapshots from the journey.

"...i am confident of this: that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion in Christ Jesus..."
philippians 1:6