242/365 Scorpion's apprentice

I yoinked Scorpion's mask from Mortal Kombat. I've been staring at this so long now that I can't tell if I blended it well enough or not. I gotta keep practicing if I'm going to get it right.

I got the best compliment the other day. A wonderful friend of mine said that from the beginning of this 365, he could see the progression of my use of photoshop. He said I have gotten much better with my skills and that it's like day and night from the beginning of the project.
It was the whole idea on setting out on completing this project was to learn this program and photography as well.
I know I have a lot to learn still and practice with PS, but at least my friend has noticed that I've made some improvement. Any is great!!

Sorry I talk about that so much. It's just that this is a project I've actually started and have stuck to. 

241/365 Celestial child

 I decided to test and see if I could take an existing image and put it on myself and make it look like I'm actually wearing a headdress. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I have to practice more with the burn and dodge tool to create shadows and highlights that would make it look more real. But, for a first time, I'm alright with the overall outcome.

My favorite thing ever that's totally obvious? Textures. They make everything better.

TRF: I'm in love with 1960's images involving native american, gypsy, or hippie-esque clothing and/or paraphernalia. 

240/365 I got nothin'

Sorry. Nothing came out of me yesterday or today that would constitute as creative.
I saw Iron Man 2 last night and Robert Downey Jr and Jon Favreau both showed up. Not in a million years did I ever expect to see RDJr in person. It was kind of mind blowing. My mind is still trying to piece back together.
I also have been working non stop and found some nice work pants for Japan.
So, sorry for the lack of something for today. I know. excuses. excuses. excuses.

239/365

I messed with various things, but I kept coming back to this final image. I like it the best. :)

238/365 Underwater Ballet

 got my new camera today and i'm in love with it. It's crazy that my lovely other half and I decided to test out his underwater case with it. I know, kinda dumb, but we have been wanting to try it out for a while. The water is still freezing but we had a couple of good luck shots. Next time we try, we know exactly what we need to do.

237/365 Heaven's on Fire

God gave rock n' roll to you. This is for the My Face is My Canvas challenge for a KISS inspired photo. So, I had to do Gene. Had to. I took some shots with my uber gross long tongue out, but it's rather ugly.

236/365

Sleepy time. Goodnight.

235/365 busy busy

work. work. work. Get ready for Japan. work. work. work.
This is my life for the next few weeks. Or month. So, right now the creativity or "interestingness" of my picture will probably lack. I don't even know if they had that before.
It's cool. Japan awaits! :P

234/365 Comptine D'Un Autre: L'Apres Midi

I went to see Yann Tiersen play tonight. It was absolutely amazing. If you don't know who he is, I recommend researching him out. I'm sure you have heard him before if you love Amelie or Goodbye, Lenin! (films). 

He did the soundtrack for both and he is an incredible french musician. He plays every instrument under the sun, including a toy piano.

watch: Comptine D'Un Autre: L'Apres Midi

233/365 butterflies

I just wanted something simple and pretty for today. My bathroom wall is filled with butterflies and so I wanted to use a light background for once.

Update: I got my placement information tonight! I will be going to the Osaka area to begin training. My official placement will not be until 2 or 3 weeks before departure. That's all fine and dandy with me! I'm so excited to finally get a date (July 7th) and know that I will be in the Kinki region. It makes me breathe a sigh of relief and now I can focus on getting things worked out. I have to arrive 4-6 days before the 7th, so that means I should leave about the 1st or so.  

I'm just very happy right now.

232/365

View On Black

Haha. I'm just enjoying this set and each picture makes me want to laugh. Madonna's Vogue kept playing through my mind. It's actually inspired by an alt model named Apnea and the crazy poses she gets herself into. She also uses places you don't really expect a picture to be taken. Of course, her photographers are all professional and she has makeup and wardrobe. But, this was stupid fun.

231/365 crumbling

I just felt like farting around with photoshop tonight. Not much went into this. Sorry for it's lackluster feeling and execution.

230/365 I'm going to pump you up

This was taken a few days ago at Daytona Beach. It's not literally today, but I'm exhausted. I got off the plane, got to unpack and sleep. And then I got started into a straight 6 day work week. Then I get a day off, then begin anew with another 6 days and repeat. Yep, for the next 3 weeks. I need it considering I just bought a new camera I wasn't anticipating on buying.

I might be doing this rehashing photos for the next week or so. My camera has officially decided to say goodbye. I had the auto focus problem fixed in November. Then, when I was trying to take a picture the other night for 228/365, the auto focus again would not work. On top of that, the censor would not react at all. The pictures have less clarity and I think after a good 3+ year run and being in 3 different countries and as much as I use it, it's time to say goodbye. I bought a T2i body and it should be here within "7-10" business days.

I'll be trying to use it by just manually focusing it and praying for a good picture, but I may be relying on my little camera to hold me until I can play with my new one. :( I love my rebel xt. It was my first real prosumer camera. Ah, the life of electronics. I'm now more scared than ever that my Macbook is going to die. I've had this for about 5 years. If this dies, I'm up shit creek.

229/365

228/365 Don't go chasing waterfalls/tweaked

I experimented with a tutorial, but did it my own way. So, please go easy on me. It's a bit awkward, but I'm trying and learning as I go.
A lot of people seem so schooled in photoshop it's ridiculous the things they can do. I should have learned this in college, but never did. So, I'm learning at my own pace. It's fun and difficult at the same time.
I'm somewhat satisfied because it halfway came out what I had in my mind. That's all I ask for.
:)

I took some suggestions from my friend who graduated from SCAD. He's an amazing artist. I probably could do a lot better with him physically suggesting things and showing me tricks of the trade, but I attempted what I'm capable of right now. Thank you Jonathan!

227/365

So, I did the creepy bathroom thing. I hope it's effective enough. 

I spent the last hour at my layover in Atlanta updating everything. I got so mixed up in Florida that I almost lost track of what day I was on in my 365. I shouldn't let my blog fall behind like I did. Updating it was a bit much since I was having to look at my flickr and facebook to see where I was at. I got mixed up in my flickr, so my facebook made things make sense. Oh well. 

Hopefully things will be back to normal when I get home. 

I hope I will hear soon from ECC about placement. It's so hard to wait so long. I'm ready. Really ready for it. Here's hoping and crossing all fingers and toes for a good one. 

226/365

Last night we went to a thing for the festival that was giving out free wine and cheese. Let's just say it was parmesan and bread with church wine. It wasn't exactly tasty.

This festival so far has been more of a let down, but I think it might have to do with the extreme spoiling by SXSW, AFF, and Fantastic Fest. Today was spent sneaking into The Bounty Hunter. Eeeegad that was bad.

So, tonight I'll be using the bathroom to try to take a creepy "hotel" bathroom shot. A night in Florida. Wooot.

225/365

Le French Fry. To be uttered Le Fraawwnch Friiee.

224/365

First time Disney world go-er. The Magic Kingdom was Awesome. I love that they stayed with the old animatronics for all the cool old rides. I want to go through the haunted mansion over and over again. 

223/365

We took the opportunity to use the outside of our hotel today to just fart around and take pictures of the florida foliage. Mossy nests and crazy giant ferns were abundant.

222/365

Our lovely accommodations at the Days Inn Orlando Florida. 

221/365

Regal Cinema Bathroom in Orlando Florida. Fancy.

220/365

I messed around with preset actions tonight. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy those and started fidgeting and making my own. This image was all over the place. After two hours of just farting around with the look of the image, I settled on this one because I'm too tired to go on playing around. Yawn!
So, I apologize for it's lack in enthusiasm. Especially in my face. I just kind of wanted to play around tonight.

I'm off to Florida early Friday morning. My lovely other half has been making the rounds on the festival circuit with his short film. He just got accepted into the Cannes Independent Film Fest in France. I don't think he'll be going, but he's been going to all the U.S. festivals.
I get to accompany him this time and I'm using the opportunity to go to Disneyworld for the first time in my life.
So, my 365 will probably be late and most likely just a lot of candid shots. I like those. Life at it's most "real."

Ok, bed time! 

219/365 Exposed Bones

I have a dream/nightmare constantly that my teeth fall out. I wake up swearing that it's all real and that I have lost all of my teeth. I can even feel them fall out and taste the blood when it happens in my dreams. It really is a disturbing dream I never look forward to having.

For the group Theme Of the Week -Dream On.

218/365 Fail

I spent a good hour trying to get a picture. This dress has so much flow to it that I was trying to jump and get it to move mid air. But, my camera was not cooperating at all.
It would never take the shot when I would hit the remote. I'm hoping nothing is wrong with the censor. Or it would delay and take the shot seconds after I had hit the button on my remote. I dunno. So this one is actually a picture I didn't even know I had taken. I got so frustrated.
So, the best "in air" shot I got was the out take and I'm all the way to the side of the image. Most of the pictures are of me on the ground after jumping and looking super pissed. It's kind of funny.
Moving on. Today = fail.

217/365 Sunsets on the Farm

My family has a house that was built around 1899 or so. It was built by my great great great grandparents and is a place I go to escape. My german heritage keeps me coming back to learn more about my German roots.

216/365

I got an awesome sunburn today at the farm:

It's awesome you can see my necklace outline and deep V neck tee I had on. It's gonna be awkward wearing normal tshirts. Sigh. 

It was a fun day at the farm though. I saw family I haven't seen in forever and my brother and I farted around a lot out there flying kites and taking pictures. All in all, it was a good day. 

Except for the sunburn. :P

215/365

For the group TOTW "Up against the wall."
I'm heading out to my great grandparents farm for a family gathering. I love going out there. It always brings me some sort of peace. I also think I can find plenty of interesting walls to contribute to the Up against the wall theme of the week.

I'm throwing this in early because I have to leave in a bit and won't have any internet to throw it up out there. Another reason for the peace and quiet. Nothing from the world to distract you from the fresh air and sunset. I was born in the city, but I feel like I might be a country girl at heart. 

214/365 Green Eyed Geisha

This is for a challenge in the Flickr group My Face is My Canvas. It was a challenge to do a kabuki/geisha mask. So, I pulled out my yukata and had fun with this one. I love you land of the rising sun. Texture by playing with brushes

365 rainbow

I didn't have much patience by the time I was done with this and cropped it badly. You can tell by the blue and purple. Oh well.

213/365

All I had was acrylic paint for purple. I watered it down and applied it. By the time I was done shooting, it was peeling off. And, done. No more color series for me. Is it sad by the 6th one, I was getting bored?

212/365 Blue

It's blue time today and I could not resist. Being an uber movie nerd, I had to do Braveheart. So, I guess this could be part of my color series and movie series.
Mel Gibson was a beautiful man back in the day. And Braveheart is a great movie. Oh, and BLUE! 

out take:

211/365 Green

out take: