Warm Days; Burning Brush; Digital Photography

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Yesterday Jeff came home in the afternoon to feed and shape a brush pile, a pile which the kids and I had started burning in the late morning. He had worked all weekend (at his job), so we think that was a good trade. He still was on the phone off and on all afternoon, but at least he could eat his lunch and enjoy the sunshine and move sticks around while taking calls. We hope he’ll do the same today, come home early, I mean. Let’s see, it is almost noon now; I am expecting the call that he is on the way any time now…

Here’s a little diversion, but it does relate. Even though I know I’ll never be a great photographer, I do enjoy reading about it. A site I really enjoy is Digital-Photography-School.com. I don’t participate in the site or its community, but I do read almost every word of the daily emails that come via an email subscription. The tutorials offered are super and easily adaptable to GIMP (from Photoshop). Today, a tutorial arrived called “Creating Depth of Field With Filters and Masks.” I know it will be very useful in the food photos I take — I’ve always wondered how food photographers make the food focused and the background blurred. I decided to try out the technique first on a photo of Haniya from yesterday. She was taking a much needed drink on a hot (okay, warm) day. The original photo:

The photo, when filters and masks were added:

Definitely not as eye-popping as I imagined, but we all are laughing at how she looks like she’s floating now! Haniya helped me go through the tutorial; I know she’s going to use the technique on photos very soon! The girl is a sponge for anything technical or technological. If only I’d started this stuff when I was 11, as she is. Ah, well… I didn’t send an email or get on the internet until I was 20. And that was only occasionally.