Yesterday afternoon I did a lot of sewing and running around to the point I so tired of the house and machines and tasks that the best thing to do was run away.
I do that a lot.
At about 5 p.m. I decided to snag the Canon G7X Mark II as all I wanted was a point and shoot and a brisk hike along a trail with trees and rocks and bugs and poison oak. It was perfect! The hills beyond the little canyon where the trail is were still covered with golds and lavender from this past winter’s rain, and alongside the trail was a profusion of mustard, monkey flower, salvia, penstemon, sunflowers and a number of flowers I don’t know. For two hours I ran around, ignoring my wifely duties of dinner (we had leftovers, so J. was fine!) and getting my mind elsewhere.
Too easy to forget about the natural world when the unnatural one demands so much time. The shade, light, sun, shadows, were not simple to get in a photo, and the colors just got burnt out in the glare or lost in the dark. In the end, a black and white with lots of subtlety seemed the best way to express the beauty of the hike.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
Sir Walter Scott, 1808
We keep hearing how AI can create some rather disturbing images, much like the removal of people from days of yore to create propaganda or beauty, such as in a fashion spread. Above is a sad day, below is a lucky lady who got a gift from the friendly, neighborhood pirate.
You can see the originals below, before doctoring.
This is really a result of the road trip – more of that in other postings! – a lot of slides being scanned by yours truly in two different systems, with two different results. These slides are from ca. 1951-1960 and were taken in Illinois, in Chicago and the rural area where I grew up. For some reason after that the only family pictures we have are school pictures, and they are not really exciting to look at.
My sister and me
The slides were taken with both Kodachrome and Ansochrome. Both have deteriorated, lost color, collected dust and threads. Cleaning them up is not easy, but software – the right software – helps in that regard. Above is a slide I cleaned up and cropped using the Epson V600 flatbed scanner, Lightroom, Photoshop, and On1 Photo Raw. Dust removal with the Epson software was not really great so I spent a lot of time erasing the debris on the slide. You can see the original slide below.
Dirty slide . . . dust and schmutz everywhere!
I have no idea what kind of camera my parents used in those days, but I am sure it is a 35mm camera as this is a Kodachrome. This next image is from an Ansochrome slide of yours truly and our dog Siwy (pronounced shee-veh, or as we said, shee-vee). I used SilverFast 8.8 and my PrimeFilm XA Super Edition to scan the slide.
Siwy and Me
Silverfast has a really good dust and dirt removal in its SE software – you can get this for free with a lot of new scanners. A lot of people think it is hard to use – maybe if you don’t want to play a bit – but I have been really pleased with it. There were still areas after the dust / dirt removal I needed to clean up, such as areas where the slide had deteriorated. Sharpness, too, was difficult to work with. Below is the original scan of the slide so you can see the difference.
Epson V600 Scan
The combo of SilverFast and PrimeFilm scanner create a relatively clean scan – I wanted you to see all the dirt! Finally, I did the color upgrade / modification in On1 Photo Raw using a preset I made.
Our family doesn’t have a lot of photos and little knowledge of family history. My mother’s family were immigrants and their family vanished after WW2. We never had much contact with my father’s family for all sorts of reasons. When we go, our branch of the family tree disappears. Editing and recording these slides is for my pleasure and that of my sibs – if they think it is of any interest.
Am I living in the past and not looking to the present and future? Am I getting mawkish and sentimental? It’s hard to tell. History has always fascinated me, so perhaps our little bit of history and that of the world is impetus enough. Of course, editing photos is a bit of fun, too, so why not?
These past 8 weeks or so have been very, very busy. I have been taking an art class online which is very demanding and equally fulfilling. A sewing class, too, which is also demanding and fulfilling. At times I have had to make choices between the two, and the art class won out, as it always does.
I don’t know about you, but for me focusing on one thing for a long period of time becomes overwhelming and I feel trapped. It’s not like I spend an hour or two doing something, but sometimes a whole day just doing one thing. When this happens, it is really hard to get back to a normal perspective of life. That is when everything has to simply stop and a determined moving toward other activities has to be done.
One way I do this is to get out and move. Going for a walk, watching a movie, gardening, cooking, socializing. Getting out of the house, away from the studio or fabric, pulls me out of the singular focus of the moment. Being singularly focused gets a lot done, but the feeling of being trapped is not a good feeling. It is suffocating and in many ways crippling. Anything beyond the focal point becomes unimportant.
Obviously, that doesn’t work too well!
The other day, I decided to take a camera I had loaded up with film out and take a long, long walk. Up hills and down, near creeks and on rather scary heights. I went alone. I took my phone for safety, and I let my husband know where I was. I just needed solitude and movement and being out in a world welcoming spring. And then I played with the post processing, sometimes with color, sometimes with silly extremes, and sometimes just to enhance a pretty place.
The world feels a bit more normal now! And given the current craziness, it is something to be cherished and appreciated. Nature gives us something far beyond our comprehension.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 