You can fool the fans - but not the players.... John Cage

Going to gocco this weekend

What is this you say? What is this gocco thing? Well, if all works out it is the solution to the rest of the invitation dilemma. I spent last evening googling gocco invitations since a. I have one, and b. I have already taken a little workshop and know the basics of gocco printing. Oh, and at only 65 or so invitations it isn't an impossible task.

We live in a small town and for procrastinators like me it isn't easy to run out and find last minute supplies. As you know, the images for the invitations were printed by the very talented Lori Michelon last weekend. Since then I've been pondering the best way to include the text of the invitation, along with the response card and an info card. I haven't ordered paper so there was that, too. And we're on a budget.

Google gocco and you'll find a lot of information, including a priceless video tutorial on YouTube with some rockin' music and incredible acting (oh, and valuable how-to). You'll also find testimonials from other crazy DIYer brides who elected to go this route, like this one here.

 

One of my favorites, and one with THE most helpful hints, is here.

 

This is what a gocco setup looks like and I don't think this particular model is being made anymore (and mine looks a bit different)... like polaroids it has gone the way of the dinosaurs and there are just a few dedicated gocco-lovers out there keepin' it alive. I understand supplies are hard to find and so my gocco printing experience may be limited, but there are websites like this one - Save Gocco -working to keep users in touch and able to find the last of the special flash bulbs on ebay and etsy.

Although I'm not an avid gocco user (yet), nor do I follow the blogs about the difficulty in finding supplies, I've read enough to realize that there is a new player out there in the world of personal printing, and that is the Yudu. The gocco uses a flash system and heat to react with carbon-based masters to produce a screen, and the Yudu uses light to create the screens, much like traditional silk-screening. It might the the way to go in the future if I decide that I just have to keep printing out invitations. Unlikely, since after this wedding we'll go back to our old ways of just calling people on the phone to invite them over.

So... Photoshop is open and the drafts of the invitation text, response card and info card are up. Paper needs to be torn. I think I'm going to use hot-press watercolor paper and tear it down myself, again because I have a stash of paper, I don't have time to order and this needs to get done NOW. This weekend. I'll take lots of photos and you can share my printing experience - whoo hoo!

 

One more nice image to get me fired up (and it has a mountain on it!) from here.

Cha-Cha-Cha Changes and Photoshop

Recently I took a big step towards cutting back on the workload I've managed over the last year or so and although I'm happy about it I've been thinking about what to do to replace the income that work generated. I have some ideas, of course, and the thing to do is just dive in and see what pans out.

One of the things I love to do is Photoshop. I teach Photoshop, I use Photoshop, I find Photoshop to be so versatile, flexible, remarkable and fun. I've been using PS since the early '90s and while I don't claim to have mastered it I do have a good understanding of what it can do and how to do it.

PS can take a photo like this:

and turn it into this:

 

With a little repair work to make that extension cord disappear and then adding a frame overlay for fun.

There are many PS tutorials out there on the web - and great sources for learning like lynda.com and our own Digital Media Arts department at Cerro Coso. But maybe, just maybe, there's a niche for bloggers like me. Who just want to learn fun things to do with their photos.

Just bump it up a little. From this:

 

to this:

 

Or maybe I'll just go lay on that hammock again, nibble on a few bon bons and keep thinking....

Was it the milkman?

The calves are running around in all their baby cuteness and on our walk the other day I noticed a few creamy blonds with their coal black moms.... now how does that happen?

 

The dogs have learned to steer clear of the cows but the calves are sometimes so inquisitive that I have to work hard to keep them apart. The size issue makes the calves appear more dog-like too. These blond ones were shy, though, and stayed on mom's far side most of the time we were passing by.

 

Cows are so opaque - they just don't seem to much thought or expression. They stand and stare but it is a pretty blank stare most of the time until you enter that flight zone and they begin to move away. The calves have some life in 'em and we love to watch them play with each other and run after their moms. And they are so dang cute.

 

Mom tolerated just a couple of photos.

I struggled with these photos trying to bump up the color of the brush a little without completely losing all the highlights and detail on the mama cow and found that duplicating the background layer, changing the blending mode to multiply, and then applying a mask and painting out the cow worked pretty well. Here's an untouched photo (well, I adjusted the histogram a little):

 

There were a lot of particulates in the air from the wind and the light was difficult. And the cow was very black - like a silouhette. Interesting problem.

(and that was your Photoshop tip of the day!)

 

Once the dogs were safely on the far side of them, mom started moving baby off to put some distance between us.

 

Buh bye, baby.... hope you don't turn into a plain black cow but keep that incredible creamy blond color....

Photoshop overlays

I created a couple of videos for my class on digital photo retouching and thought I would share them here. They are on using overlays in Photoshop to add texture and depth to your digital photos. It is such an easy technique and the overlays are widely available OR you can make your own.

These videos were made with me using Photoshop CS3 and a variety of overlays both purchased and free.

Photo Overlays Part 1:

Photo Overlays Part 2:

I hope you enjoy them!