What beautiful flowers growing in the dry sand of the beach. I captured this picture on a stormy day in South Carolina. We were racing against a storm in attempt to see the lighthouse off shore. As thunder rolled in, I could not resist photographing the eerie atmosphere. As we walked down the tattered trail of sand and beach grass, this flower trickled into the path.

I used a app called “photo splash smart” on my Mac for this picture. I actual wrote a tutorial for using this app http://livegraced.com/2012/09/photosplashing-for-macs/ .

I am big into color changing, so I was excited when I came across another assignment that involved taking ordinary things and giving them different colors. I randomly came across this assignment, so I didn’t have any idea of what object I wanted to do. I am also having a lazy day, so I didn’t really want to move far. I then realized that I till had my sunglasses on top of my head from when I wore them to class. Perfect! So I went ahead and took my picture with my phone and uploaded it onto my computer. I have become quite fond of Pixlr and decided to use that website again. I started trying to crop the back ground out and try some effects, but none really looked that exciting and changed the colors. I then started playing with hue and saturation, but again it didn’t satisfy me. I came across a “wand” type tool that highlighted shadow areas. I had no idea what it was/what it did. So I left one spot highlighted and used a paint brush tool and figured out that when the wand tool highlighted a spot, the brush tool would only paint in that spot too! It was exactly what I wanted. So I played around with these tools, the shadowing, along with a variety of colors until I came up with the perfect mix of all three.

^^Before the Color Changes

^^BAM, Color changes

“Is that a… GHOST?!” …No its just me! This is visual assignment 426 (3 stars). The instructions were as follows:

“Take a photo in which there is a ghost like subject by either using a long exposure or 2 different pictures in a photo editing software.”

I chose to use two separate photos. And for an even stranger effect, both photos are of myself.

These are the two photos I chose to use:

I used GIMP to edit my photos. I didn’t have to research any to complete this project, I think that means I am getting comfortable using GIMP (or maybe this was just an easy project)

This was a somewhat simple project (and lots of fun!) First I added the 2 photos as layers in GIMP. Then I “flipped” the worried faced photo. I made sure that the photo I wanted to turn into a ghost was on the top layer. Then I decreased the opacity of my top photo (the worried face). Next, I moved the photos so I was happy with the angle and my final product!

I know this is a little creepy, but for some reason I really like it! Once I saw the finished product, I thought it looked like my conscious was looking shocked and disapprovingly at the dumb face I was making. I really like how it looks like the ghost is starring right at that weird girl! (oh wait, that’s me)  I originally created this as the funny faced photo being the ghost, but for some reason I just did not like it as much as this version!

I know I’m strange, but I hope you found this somewhat entertaining at least! You can laugh at me, I completely deserve it! 

So I was clicking the good old “random” button on the Week 5 assignments and came across, “Draw It.” I figured, “Hey, I used to use Photoshop in school all the time and I remember there being a filter to just change it! Too easy!” Well, turns out, GIMP does not have that feature.(Or at least I couldn’t find it) I wish I knew where my Photoshop CS2 CD is…even though it is majorly obsolete by now! But I used the tools that GIMP gives and from what I remembered, and a little prodding on GIMP Forums, I was able to create this:

Okay, so he isn’t actually MY dog, but I was watching him while my old suite-mate’s family came to visit him. (Odd how this was almost exactly a year ago!)

So of course I wanted to see how other people’s pictures turned out. And first on the list was Kiersten Pyrtle’s How to draw a horse! I also noticed that she had made a tutorial of what she did…after I did my own! SMH. Anyways, gotta love the fact that you can use different techniques to get a similar end result! I think I may post again with my own tutorial about how to create this because it was basic use of GIMP and anyone can do it!

4/10

endlessly clicking assignments.ds106.us/randomvisual and making a list of fun ones I plan to do! #ds106 #favoriteclass #betterthanspanish

— Rob Skoczylas (@sgtsocks) September 26, 2012

— Rob Skoczylas (@sgtsocks) September 26, 2012

Well here is one I couldn’t resist! This assignment is “Your very own Spubble“! As soon as I read it, I knew the exact picture I was going to use:

After some weekend training and PROPER use of equipment, us rescue folks like to have a little fun. What I’m wearing is a Stryker Speed-Sheet. We ordered a bunch to test them out. They are used to ease patient transfer from our stretchers to a hospital bed or such. It’s a one time use and well…after we used it in training, I decided to use it some more!

This was a quick create. Open photo in paint, click rectangular callout, change the colors of the callout, add some text, save! BUT remember to save it with a different name so you don’t lose your original files!

2/10

I look like an alien. But I overedited myself, I made my hair blonder, my eyes are originally blue, and I gave myself a tan.

I really liked the assignment for Normal to Extraordinary. It creates normal pictures (of extraordinary people) into something different. I knew I immediately wanted to do my best friend, so I went through the pictures I have of her and came across one she sent me when she was bored one day (accompanied by pictures with “I” and “you”). I really liked this picture because it describes her. She is such a sweetheart. I used Pixlr again and started playing around with effects. I came across the “pointize” effect and thought it looked like an old pop culture painting. I took the background out and added the pointize effect in purple. But, I didn’t like the way it was just one color, but I didn’t want to add to much since it was already quite a busy picture. So I decided to change some of the white dots into pink ones. I also highlighted the heart and made that pink too. At the end, I randomly added in a swirl effect which made everything much more smooth instead of so harsh cut. It was just a few simple adjustments but I think the combination of the effects and the colors really turned out cool!

Adds 3 more stars: 5 stars down, 5 more to go