Santiago de Chile

For those of you who don’t know me, I’ll let you in on a little secret.

I’m enchanted, fascinated, awe-struck and nosy when it comes to people in the public eye. Is it just me or are you like that too?

Santiago de Chile, 2006

While living in the United States I was probably the very FIRST subscriber of “People Magazine” when the first issue came out. (I might be dating myself here.)

Remember when the Enquirer Magazine was a newspaper that you didn’t tell anyone you read much less bought?

But, I, I stood proudly in the supermarket line with my Enquirer face-up, looking defensively at those around me, as the paper glided on the conveyor belt toward the cashier. (For those who are not familiar with the Enquirer or People Magazine, they are “gossip or rag” magazines of and about anyone famous, like Star Magazine in Europe.)

So you can imagine how I felt when I saw this fellow. He appeared invincible, manly, and sexy. Maybe you can’t imagine so I will tell you that I stopped dead in my tracks. Literally!

He was dark and handsome, just like the famous Sean Connery of the movies. I hope I don’t have to tell you movies are “real life”. No?

Folks, I’d like you to meet Santiago of Chile and what a wonderful, kind character he was and just a little bit leery of my companion and me. (Hmm .. I can’t figure out why).

One interesting tidbit he told us. He was living in Barcelona with a British woman. He could not speak English and she could not speak Castellano.

Interesting, I thought … maybe that’s the secret to lasting relationships.

You learn a lot walking the streets.

View Santiago and others in barcalunacy's People of Interest FLCKR photoset.

A Shadow of the Man He is: Redux

The past day or so has been a lot of fun learning how to transform a picture from color to an acceptable (at least to my taste) b&w photo.

I've been using the adobe photoshop channel mixer and love it to death.

If you want to feel like your back in kindergarten, just play with any imaging software.

An ipernity member, named Pappion, again suggested making the photo b&w and deepening the shadow on the wall.

So ... I did just that and voila!

A Shadow of the Man He Is: Redux, 2009

This is how the photo originally looked below.

A Shadow of the Man He Is, 2008

See any difference?

When you really think about it, the photo and the story is of a shadow and shadows as the eye see it has no color. No?

Anyway, the story was originally posted and I think you might like it so you can click HERE.

I think you really don't want to miss creative writing at its worst.

Enjoy!

Innocent Sultriness Redux

I belong to two (2) photo storage sites, one flickr and the other ipernity and for the past 6 months, I've been spending a lot of time on ipernity.

A recent ipernity contact, named pappion, whose photos I like very much, for their color, composition and interest suggested that I redo this photo.

Pappion said:

Personally I very much like the composition and lighting. If the photo were mine though here's what I would change ..... I would desaturate the reds a bit ( many of your pics have very saturated reds for my tastes) I would also go in and clone out whatever the little gold/silver spot is between her lips.

While I can appreciate ... To read the rest of his comment, click here.

So, I've redone the photo and I think it looks much better.

What do you think?

Innocent Sultriness Redux, 2009

I cloned out the bright spot on her left side, took out what looked like bubbles between her lips (only g-d knows), used curves and levels removing the reds and making her more bright.

Pappion was right about the red tones in my earlier photos as you can see here.

Innocent Sultriness, 2006

My camera then was a konica minolta Z2, known for overly exaggerated red tones. In those days, I did not have photo imaging software.

For those of you who wish to read the original post about her, click here.

She still generates interest and I am pleased.