Some of my Favorite People, Part 2

D'is is my Momma with her oldest Great Grand Daughter Amy. I didn't catch mom with her eyes open but you can be sure that she isn't caught not knowing what is going on.

This is my oldest sister Myrna Sue. She was the temporary owner of the Jayhawk's hat at the Christmas party. She has been having a slightly rough path with her health and we sure worry about her. Myrna is the mother of Janet.

This is Janet, Myrna's oldest daughter and her daughters, Amanda and Amy. Amanda just moved to KC from Idaho and is in the process of finding herself for now. Mostly she is working and living with my last post, Jenn. Amy is living in Birmingham, Alabama and this last year married Kieth. Amy is working and going to school and....


and at out last family get together shared that she and her husband are going to add to the population of this world. Kieth is the part owner in a Construction Company and the guy that does the bidding. Amy's job for now is to book golfers on golf tours for a company that can have you play from Birmingham to Louisiana. Don't you just know that these two will have the cutest baby(s).

Tribute to Warmer Places and Times!

This is a fern that Barb shot. I couldn't get anyone to confirm that it was a fiddle head fern and people eat them but hey, it is a beautiful shot.

This red flower is another shot that Barb made. She sees things in ways I am not capable. She captured the flower and blurred out the background. She shot the NIKON N90 and shot a really good slide film by Fuji film.

This is outside of the Tabasco plant on Avery Island. They make some of the hottest stuff you ever shook out of a bottle. Their new Garlic sauce is a lot milder and adds a richness to food that it should be illegal. They weren't running the assembly line the Friday we were there but you could still smell the vinegar. They run two 10 hour shifts four days a week. Down on the end of the line they apply a different label for each country they ship to and the sign said something like 103 Countries.

Just two good old boys a fishin' in the lake right outside the swamp. What a life. I may darken this down and use the highlights as a screen saver later. The trees on the left will really help the icons show up.

Man o' man does this new lens reach out and grab a picture. This was shot inside the bus and as we were moving. The anti vibration feature on the 200 mm lens is just super. No, you do not want to know what the lens cost or how fast it ate batteries.

I swear this roseate spoonbill was shot off hand while moving in a boat. All I did was crop it down a little.


All this editing makes me wonder if I enjoyed the trip or the photography. One day I used the telephoto lens so long that I killed my batteries. Yes, the spare was in the Motel. I just walked along in the greenhouse and tried to enjoy the time spent there. Barb's photos will remind me of the pretty things we saw there. Would I have had more fun shooting than I did just looking? I probably would have some of my photo's to remind me but I might have been too busy to really see the flowers. Kind of like a driving trip. You see a lot but mostly the hood of the car. When you are the passenger you see more. Oh well, Just thinkin'
MUD

Where did That Feeling Go?

As I took out the trash to the curb this morning, I noticed a few tiny flakes in the air. When I mentioned it to Barb, we looked out the window and it was snowing big time flakes and busy covering the porch rail with white. Not long ago, we were delighted to see the flakes falling and we were like little kids in the delight. Now that we are on our 21st episode of snow it is not nearly as fascinating. I look out and wonder just how far down in the mud the gravel is sinking with each freeze and thaw. Just how many dollars worth of gravel is it going to take to brign them back up to grade? Bah Humbug! Snow is for kids! MUD

Naomi Again

This is what Mom saw with her camera. She put her subject in the middle of the picture and included the feet and fingers.

I moved the subject to the left of center and lightened it up a bit. I also cropped out the toes and fingers. What do you think? Too light? I think Naomi grabs me because she reminds me of our niece Amanda when she was about the same age.
This is for Jenni.
MUD

What the Gator's Saw

Dat big ole fat man in the photo is yours truly. The clothes are baggy but a lot of that photo is me. I am shooting photos on Avery Island using the monopod and our new telephoto lens. The lens cost more than the camera and the clothes came from a sale or Tractor Supply. Yes, Barb took it and I hadn't seen it until just now. She shot a lot of slides on some real great film. I did lighten it up a bit but the composition is pretty much as she shot it.
Just so you know, my doctor said I am as healthy as a 40 year old man, just trapped in a body that has a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 33 and should be down to 25. My blood pressure (treated) was 120 and my EKG heart rate was 61. The one really health thing is my appetite and I will have to work on that or get arms long enough to push me away from the table.
MUD

Some of my Favorite People, Part 1

I wish the whole world could meet my niece, Coach Jenn. She spent a lot of years learning how to row and is now sharing that information with the juniors on a rowing team. Her good spirits and love of life just shine through in to the things she does.
In her real life, she is a serious Fireman and a person that shines in helping others.
JJ or Jenn as we know her is an aunt to several nephews and nieces. She coaches the little guys in a basketball league in the winter and coaches rowers in the spring and summer.
Jenn has dedicated to changing her life right now and being more conscious of her carbon footprint and the impact she has on our world. Don't think she is an environmental wacko by any standard. She leaves the light on for her dog that is getting old and not able to see in the dark.
The picture above is so typical of Jenn. In addition to coaching the juniors, she also drives the truck that hauls the boats to the regatta. About once a year for the last 10 years or so, I have been able to go over to the lake nearby and watch her team row.
If Jenn was a guy, we would describe her as being a man for all seasons. She is as talented a person as I know. We love her and enjoy her love in return.
MUD & Bobwa

What is that White thing?

As we were going by in a boat, an egret landed in the tree and settled on a nest. It was a pretty sight and I wanted to catch her as she turned to sit on the eggs.

A liitle cropping and an enhancement or two brought this picture home. In a later picture she was all settled down in the nest and you could onl see a small layer of white.

MUD

Naomi, Before and After

This young lady was photographed by her mother. Mom didn't like the fact that she was so dark and that there was so much detail in the background. I took this photo past Adobe Photoshop Elements Version 6 and the following is the result.

I brightened up the picture and put a blur on the background. It isn't perfect, but it is a start. What do you think?
To Jenni, MUD

Mo' Gators

This big old Bull Gator was more in the shade than the sun. He was about 15 feet from the road and not very active. I'll bet most of our class shot his picture and he stayed through the noise and commotion almost to the end. After about 10 minutes he finally and slowly slipped off into the deep grass in the swamp. The instructor said he would estimate the gator at over 12 feet and nearer to 20 years old. He was a big old guy and not one I would want to meet on his turf.

Photo Tip of the Day

The one thing that our instructor stressed and that I had never been aware of is that you should never open and then just hit save on a JPEG photo. If you work on one in Photoshop or just open one to look at it always save it as .1 or .2 or .3. He has a standard that he uses and the first copy is .1 and if it is cropped it is .1c The photo of Barb in the following post is .1c.
MUD

Why I went to Louisiana

This is Barb walking under a wisteria trellis made of pipes. The wisteria must have been there for a lot of years. The vine by Barb's left foot was over 10 inches in diameter.

MUD

Honorary Cajuns

Our Elderhostel Host Patti made us all honorary Cajuns. We had to swear elegance to the Cajun way and "Bite the Boudin" (a sausage made out of rice and meat with a nice spicy flavor) This is two of our new friends Phyllis and Kiva in the ceremony.

This morning I saw that my horoscope said to listen to the other person if I want to argue today. That's a great point that I read earlier. If you want to really be successful in negotiations, restate the other person's point until you get feedback that you understand their point prior to making your point. You may not agree, but you will have a better understanding of their point and they will appreciate that you took the time to try to understand theirs.
MUD

Lookin' at a Cajun Sky

In Kansas we spend a lot of time looing at the only scenery we have and that is almost always the sky. The day we went out to Lake Martin we had a cloudy day early and when we went out on the water it was crystal clear. My attention was drawn to the trees with the sky as a background. This picture is right out of the camera and was not photoshopped.

This is my current screen saver. I took any green out of the picture on the version on my desktop. Again even the raw photo is pretty darned good. Just watched the Hawks on Senior night and man were they impressive.
MUD

The Future Becomes What You Make It!

• Watch your thoughts; they become your words.

• Watch your words; they become your actions.

• Watch your actions; they become your habits.

• Watch your habits; they become your character.

• Watch your character; for it will become your Destiny

Hillel the Elder, Jewish Rabbi and Teacher

Transition of a Picture

When I first shot this photo of a momma gator and her baby, I looked at the histogram on the camera and saw that I had an average photo and I wasn't too unhappy with the distribution. I did not see a large spike at either end of the histogram and not flat top on the spikes. It had a lot of promise and I could work with the results. Once in Adobe Photoshop Elements I made a layer and left the first layer locked.





I opened the adjustments and in the histogram there I selected the darkest part of the photo with the dark Pic and the lightest item with the right pic. (Pics look like little eyedroppers) I clicked on the middle spike in the histogram and with the alt button pressed I moved it a little.
The color was almost good at that point but,





I copied a few pixtels and cloned the white rock out by the baby gators rear leg. Icropped it down a little and then flattened the layers back. I think this is a great shot now and I could have just cropped out the momma's head and left the baby gator. I like the transition from the original to my final copy.

Chumps to Champs (Again)

Well, Texas let down their guard for a moment and snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory. They have let the Jay Hawks back in to the race and now it looks like we may get a chance to share the Big 12 season championship. Now if we can just play the last two like the first two. Can you imagine if 8 wins were stacked together now it would mean the NCAA Championship? We did 20 in a row. Wow did I forget the Big 12 Conference Playoffs? That means they need 12 wins not 8. They probably can lose either of the next two but need to be there for the other 10.

Note to Mr Beasley at K-State. Do not say "Never" or " Always". There is someone out there that will turn stupid quotes to Bulletin Board copy. You will be making big bucks soon enough. Shut up and play basketball. It is the money stupid!
MUD

How Can You Tell?

The ways you can tell if you have had a good vacation:

• The one you went with came home with you and makes you biscuits the first morning back.
• Your camera card or your computer has a lot of pictures and you haven't had the time to edit them all.
• You came home with money or clean underwear. They are interchangeable (at WalMart).
• You escaped Louisiana and didn't have to file an Environmental Impact Statement over all the shrimps you ate. Or, go to the Emergency Room for gall bladder surgery immediately upon your return.
• None of the animals in your menagerie died while you were gone. The dogs were out of water and I haven't seen the cat but nothing fatal. He'll turn up in a day or so once he learns that we are back and he can get a little dry food and a taste of the canned dog food.
• Stop/starting the mail and newspaper worked. Your mailbox will be full the day you get back but the driveway isn't full of newspapers.
  
• The house is basically the way you left it. Did you expect the cleaning fairies would come and get rid of the dust bunnies? Get Real!

Somewhere out in the future I will get an updated Adobe Photoshop Elements Vr.6 and do some editing on the three or four hundred pictures I have. At least now I have an idea what I don't know. We were fairly good at composition of the pictures but now we can really edit the color/hue and darkness.
MUD

Is this Close Enough?

Most of the photos posted below were just as they were shot and needed some editing. This is just as the camera saw the gator. It is not cropped, enhanced or edited. Is it close enough for ya'?
MUD

Pictures from the Swamp

Momma Gator watching her little baby who is catchin' some rays. Don't think we wanted to mess with her babies.

This is the view of the swamp from our view. Lots of big old cypress trees and water.

What the gators saw from their view. Looks like a bunch of humanoids with crunchy parts.

Nesting egret she just turned her beak into the sun to make this picture.

This isn't a baby gator, just an 8 footer in the sun warming up.

This was the egrets coming back in to roost as the day ended. They had been out eating crawdads and we aren't far behind.
MUD

Mo' Photos

This is one of the last of the old ice cream stores left. Just one of the highlights our instructor pointed out.

This is the third largest "Live Oak" tree in the US. The trick here was to try to get some of the leaf detail and show the actual trunk detail. A little photoshop work is needed but not bad.

This is my girl friend again. Still didn't know her name but the face looking like a "wookei" just cracked me up. Perhaps she is a pug/schnauser cross?

Did hear is da' capt'n of da boat. He spent a lot of time making sure he didn't run into da tree and the bridge in the nex pic'ure. He tod a story about a cajun that had been married fo a couple of years and didn't hab no child'ns. Dey went to the local parish priest and as'd fo some guidance. Da priest said he was goin to Rome and wold lite a big ole candle fo dem. About 10 years later the priest was a passn' thru da parrish and met fodoes wife. He axed abotut da kids and she said they now have about 10. When the priest asked where fodoe was, da wife said that he was in rome looking to blow out damn candle.

This is a short part of an 18 mile ong bridge that crosses the Afalatchia swamp west out of Baton Rouge. The next longer bridge is the one that crosses lake Ponchitrain north out of New Orleans.

Dis hear id one of them little startr homes on the swamp. You have to be caeful in the summr because dem damn gators will come right up on the porch and eat chillins.

We ber hab'n fun down here.
MUD