Saturday, June 13, 2009

Vivid Gloom


(2nd photo is a revision: per TallTchr's suggestion. I think it works. See comments.)

One thing I can say for June Gloom: it makes colors vivid. The only adjustment I made to this photo was to crop out some driveway.
I spent almost all day yesterday trying to learn how to sort photos in iPhoto. I made no progress. Wheeee! I don't know where my photos are, or where to put new ones. I'm sure I have a say in the matter, but I haven't figured out how to get iPhoto to listen to me. I got yer vivid gloom right here.

The bright side: there's not a single virus on this little Mac. And there's no spam in my inbox. Ha!

Plus I have a genius for a husband. He helped me figure out how to sort my photos without iPhoto, so there.

Most days I learn something. Yesterday I learned what I already knew.

24 comments:

Hilda said...

Fabulous colors!

I wish flowers in Manila were as vivid, but between the heat and humidity, and the pollution, our flowers tend to look so washed out.

I just set up my cute Mac Mini (to match my itsy bitsy camera) yesterday too. Yesterday's photo and blog post made on it already. Don't you just love Macs? :D

Petrea Burchard said...

I may be a slow convert, Hilda. I like the Mac for a lot of reasons, though, and I'll never buy another Microsoft product if I don't have to.

TallTchr said...

Petrea, I think you should crop it some more. Get rid of the car and the third house, and the lowest part of the stone wall. Lower the sky a touch, too. Right now, the sidewalk is a bland barrier between the viewer and the subject. But if you trim it from the bottom, it becomes an inviting walkway into the yard and home. IMHO. (Richard Lavin...remember me?)

Ibarionex R. Perello said...

You may want to check out Picasa, a free photo editing and organizational software. Here is a link to a video about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDKFjc3_wrk

Try this out and see if this works better for you.

Shell Sherree said...

Gloriously colourful and happy. Those are magnificent bushes! Good on you for taking on a big change like that, Petrea. I'm sure it will start falling into place any time now. {And what a wonderful hubby you have, too!}

Unknown said...

Isn't that the truth! During June gloom, all of Pasadena is a giant soft box. I love your work, Petrea. I may not always comment but I always view and appreciate ;-)

Vanda said...

For some unknown reason I don't like roses much, and those pink ones don't do anything for me, but that champaign colored one in the middle is fetching.

My favorite image sorting software is Adobe Bridge, but I'm afraid, like all Adobe products, it's pricey.

Me said...

Yes Petrea, once you go Mac you never go back!

I've had mine for 1.5 years now and love not having to worry about viruses, or slow start up because of virus programs and updates to same!

Maria said...

P- did you get a chance to smell those peach roses? they are very fragrant - i use to have some. i love the color of the house....yellow is such a happy color. bon weekend!

USelaine said...

I've never figured out iPhoto either, and this thing called Bridge pops up whenever I load my photos off my camera (it came with the camera, I think). My pictures go straight to my "Photos" list in the Finder directory, and they sort themselves into files by date. I just go there and edit them with Photoshop Elements (also came with my camera).

USelaine said...

I meant to note that Bridge seems like an unnecessary intermediate step, and I wish I could skip it.

Frank said...

Funny isn't it. We can travel across the entire US only to find the exact photograph was just taken in Pasedena. The older neighborhoods of Tampa, FL were built in the 1920s. There are so many bungalows just like this one in the Historic Districts of Hyde Park and Seminole Heights you would swear you were in your town.

Virginia said...

Got a new MAC? OMG you will love it when you get the hang. GO RIGHT NOW TO THE APPLE STORE AND PAY THEM $99 FOR A YEAR OF ONE TO ONE LESSONS> Best money you will ever spend. email me and we'll talk! HA I love IPHOTO too. If I can do it so can you.
Sorry I"m not as frequent . I'm in the countryside now so should have time for more blogging and less shopping and walking!
V

Petrea Burchard said...

Hi Richard! I remember you. I have no idea when or where we last met, but I know we did. How goes it? Thanks for the suggestion. I updated the photo. I think it works.

Thanks, Ibarionex, I'll take a look. I have a Picasa account I haven't used, because the (I hate to say it) simple filing system I was using on the PC was fine. I used a free download called Irfanview for editing. There's no Irfanview for the Mac, but I can still file the same way.
Mac's Preview isn't as smooth as the Microsoft viewer. I'll bet Picasa will do the job.

Shell, you're right, and I must stop complaining! I knew it would be a huge deal. I didn't realize how much I rely on the computer to keep me feeling organized. Right now I feel discombobulated, but I bobulate a little at a time.

JT, did you know I do the same? Your comment means so much to me. Thank you.

Vanda, I have a system for finding things, cross-referenced for the blog. Can you say OCD? Just borderline. I want to sort it my way. Dammit and everything.

That's all true, Medium.

Maria, I didn't smell the roses. That explains what's wrong with me these days.

Elaine, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who hasn't figured out iPhoto.

Three blogs, Frank? Are you insane, or just insanely talented?
The Craftsman craze was all over the country and in England, I gather. There are bungalows in Chicago.

Virginia, I'll go to the Apple store and pay the 99 bucks if you get off the computer and enjoy the French countryside! For heaven's sake, woman! Get out and have too much vin et fromage! Joue les boules avec a bunch of handsome hommes! Have you lost your senses? No? Then what's stopping you?

toast said...

I love how saturated the dark purple ones look. The colors on the house are incredible! Good luck in figuring out the Mac. I've been a PC user for years, but used a Mac for work. I can't say I've ever had to do anything with sorting photos on one, though. :/

John Sandel said...

Those stacked photos gave me the vertygoo, 'til I was distracted by a sudden memory of the day, forty years ago now, when I figured something out, but never told nobody. I was standing in the hallway of our old house in Illinois, staring at a mirror and wondering why the glass reversed the image L-to-R. Why does it do that? Because (I realized, with a tingle of preadolescent insight) our eyes are aligned horizontally. If one eye were above the other, like your photos, we'd see our image reversed up-&-down instead. I was thrilled! I would've told my mom, or my sisters, but everybody was at the store. And then I guess I forgot … so I've saved it up for now.

That'll be $25, please.

Ms M said...

The roses are beautiful, even if the skies are gloomy.
I'm sure you'll get the hang of the Mac quickly. They can be a lot of fun, especially with graphics. If I wasn't stuck to MS PC (because of my job), I'd use a Mac.

magiceye said...

this is lovely!


Have started a new meme Pet Pride where you can display your or your friends' pets every week beginning every Sunday! Do join in and share your pet pride with the world!

marley said...

The gloom really does make the colours sing! I liked the re-cropped crop (if you know what I mean!)

Petrea Burchard said...

Toast, the dark purple ones are bougainvillea. They're all over the place here.

J, your story gives me the vertygoo. Come to my office and I'll give you your $25.

Ms M, each day gets a little better. When J. comes in for his $25, I'll make him teach me something else. If he won't, I'll keep the $25 and put it toward classes at the Apple store.

I'll check it out, magiceye, thanks.

I agree, Marley. You know we're so nice to each other on these blogs, we never critique. But Richard's suggestion improved the picture. I'm happy to learn from my fellows, especially when they're nice about it. Selim at Izmir gave me some useful lessons when I was starting, and I've always been grateful.

TallTchr said...

:-)

Kim said...

I love the roses! Sorry that I pulled all your sunny skies north where our end of May and beginning of June have been more like July for us. :-)

I just went back to a Mac after 12 years on a Dell. I too am looking for my little lost sheep photos from time to time. Fear not, BoPeep. They shall come home.

And, Ibarionex Perello is commenting on your blog!!!!????? I'm going to a photo summit and photowalk with him next month here in Seattle, and I'm really stoked. He's right about Picasa, which, since I don't use Photoshop yet, I used for 3 years. Then it went ditzy in it's filing on me on my external hard drives where I store my photos. then Flickr (where I upload a lot of photos, some of which make it to the blog) added this nifty free editor called Picnic. It was more sophisticated than Picasa, yet just as intuitive to use. I purchased a subscription to their full features, and it has served it's purpose well. So, I recommend both to you. I think I will be purchasing Photoshop for myself (my husband's laptop has CS2 installed) or maybe Lightroom. Maybe I'll ask Ibarionex what he suggests.
-Kim

Petrea Burchard said...

Kim, you're going to love Ibarionex. I met him at a blogger's picnic in Altadena where he lives, and he's such a great guy! Amazing photographer. I take it you've seen his blog. I know he gets tons of hits, and he does a podcast.
http://lafotoboy.blogspot.com/

whitesandslippers said...

That's soooo beautiful!!!Perfect combination...