I was thrilled to learn that the MTA has finally put some useful laws into effect:
- Coffee cups must have lids on them.
(I feel safer already)
- No crossing from one car to the other.
(Catch me if you can.)
- No taking up more than one seat.
(This is critical to New Yorkers' safety. But there are a couple of New Yorkers that are going to have trouble with this. I believe they should paint yellow strips on the seats so you know exactly how much space your butt can occupy.)
And on top of that - there may be a subway strike. I'm glad to see that the MTA has its' priorities straight.
The only problem I have with these laws is that the other day, a big fat guy taking up two seats was drinking a huge cup of coffee with no lid and bits were sprinkling on me - so I decided to get away from him and went into another car. So if someone is endangering your life by drinking coffee near you - or taking up too many seats - under those circumstances - is it okay to move between cars. What if while you are moving between cars you fall through. Will they ticket what's left of you?
12/05/2005
Photoshop Learning Curve
There are points in the Photoshop Learning Curve - that you can point back to and say: Oh - that's how you use that. Wow.
I can remember these points:
1) Adjustment Layers as opposed to working on the background layer
2) Related to that, getting a real feel for various blending modes, and going beyond that to only blending within a certain range
3) And during the last week: Layer Masks have really kicked in.
It probably came out of working with PhotoKit - especially in what they call the Creative Sharpener step - where they'd set up a black mask for you and let you paint the parts in that you wanted to reveal.
There were a number of times that I wanted certain areas to be sharped - but not others. And I began to get a feel for layer masks. Soon the adjustment layers - whether levels, curves - whatever - had their masks nicely feathered. Feathered, feathered, feathered. How much do you feather? Even that began to kick in when thinking in terms of the dpi of the print. If I feather this much I'm talking about 1/4 inch on the final print.
So you sit there and say, oh it would be nice if the foreground wasn't quite as sharped up as the background. In fact, that would look more natural.
Or I'd love to just make some area less contrasty. The layer mask power is incredible.
I don't think that everyone hits the various Learning Signposts in the same order. But when you do - you remember the moment.
I suppose that I should have taken a course in PS and could have compressed the learning curve - but that idea never dawned on me. On the other hand, I do get the "rush" when one of these signposts hit me over the head.
I can remember these points:
1) Adjustment Layers as opposed to working on the background layer
2) Related to that, getting a real feel for various blending modes, and going beyond that to only blending within a certain range
3) And during the last week: Layer Masks have really kicked in.
It probably came out of working with PhotoKit - especially in what they call the Creative Sharpener step - where they'd set up a black mask for you and let you paint the parts in that you wanted to reveal.
There were a number of times that I wanted certain areas to be sharped - but not others. And I began to get a feel for layer masks. Soon the adjustment layers - whether levels, curves - whatever - had their masks nicely feathered. Feathered, feathered, feathered. How much do you feather? Even that began to kick in when thinking in terms of the dpi of the print. If I feather this much I'm talking about 1/4 inch on the final print.
So you sit there and say, oh it would be nice if the foreground wasn't quite as sharped up as the background. In fact, that would look more natural.
Or I'd love to just make some area less contrasty. The layer mask power is incredible.
I don't think that everyone hits the various Learning Signposts in the same order. But when you do - you remember the moment.
I suppose that I should have taken a course in PS and could have compressed the learning curve - but that idea never dawned on me. On the other hand, I do get the "rush" when one of these signposts hit me over the head.
Last Prints for Sale
My friend Paul read the lines: "Last Prints for Sale" on the home page and told me he thought it meant I was throwing in the towel. I'd better change that to "Recent Prints Added for Sale Even though They Are Old Negatives; More to Come"
No towel to throw in unless I go to the hamper. Nothing left to wear. While I'm hooking up the new scanner orders continue to arrive. Someone is coming by to pick one up. I woke up at the last moment and quickly matted it and swept the floor and tried to tidy up a bit - but place needs a major cleaning.
Paul also told me, why don't you put some of your own prints - nicely framed and all that - on the walls?
Good idea. Meant to do that about ten years ago.
As far as the 1600 goes: I'm going to hold on to it as a backup scanner. I don't think it's worth very much in the marketplace.
No towel to throw in unless I go to the hamper. Nothing left to wear. While I'm hooking up the new scanner orders continue to arrive. Someone is coming by to pick one up. I woke up at the last moment and quickly matted it and swept the floor and tried to tidy up a bit - but place needs a major cleaning.
Paul also told me, why don't you put some of your own prints - nicely framed and all that - on the walls?
Good idea. Meant to do that about ten years ago.
As far as the 1600 goes: I'm going to hold on to it as a backup scanner. I don't think it's worth very much in the marketplace.
Time
Someday - I keep telling myself - I want to write about time.
Someday - I say I want to describe the refracted paths that time takes through the mind, soul and body.
And to sing about the ratio of each individual day lived to total days lived. This is my explanation for why the time sense of a child is so much slower and longer than for an adult.
The child who has only seen one summer. The adult who has seen 50. One-to-one. One-to-fifty.
It speeds by now like a - like a what? Like speeding simile. Like a smile. Like a mile.
And someday - to draw a picture of the relationship between time and intensity of purpose.
The watched pot that never boils. The watched day that never ends. The wait for the weekend. The vacation. The trip. The retirement. You can slow time down and counteract the speeding life ratio if you make sure to remove all meaning from your daily life.
The weekend - you say - goes so fast. The rest of the week is just a long bore.
Combine your own fascination with life - combine that with your time ratio here - and you can't get any grip on the flow. Faster than a speeding bullet and just as deadly.
Someday - when I get the time - I'd like to write about such things. But not now. Too much to do.
Someday - I say I want to describe the refracted paths that time takes through the mind, soul and body.
And to sing about the ratio of each individual day lived to total days lived. This is my explanation for why the time sense of a child is so much slower and longer than for an adult.
The child who has only seen one summer. The adult who has seen 50. One-to-one. One-to-fifty.
It speeds by now like a - like a what? Like speeding simile. Like a smile. Like a mile.
And someday - to draw a picture of the relationship between time and intensity of purpose.
The watched pot that never boils. The watched day that never ends. The wait for the weekend. The vacation. The trip. The retirement. You can slow time down and counteract the speeding life ratio if you make sure to remove all meaning from your daily life.
The weekend - you say - goes so fast. The rest of the week is just a long bore.
Combine your own fascination with life - combine that with your time ratio here - and you can't get any grip on the flow. Faster than a speeding bullet and just as deadly.
Someday - when I get the time - I'd like to write about such things. But not now. Too much to do.
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