The View Through the Arch
New Journal 45 – The Beard is Back
Eight weeks after leaving the UK, freshly shaven and excited about the adventures to come, I caught sight of myself today in a shop window in downtown Portland. The bushy-bearded hobo that haunted the streets of Valencia 4 months ago has returned.
I start out with the best intentions on each new trip. The road seems to have a terrible influence over my personal appearance. In a matter of weeks I age 10 years. Rachel looks younger each day.
Our attitudes vary greatly towards health and diet. Rachel went for a run around a park in Portland the other day. I sat in the same park, drank a coffee and did some planning.
Even today, our reactions to the same environment differed hugely. We arrived at our lodgings in Seattle this afternoon. We have our own bar. This is not a mini-bar, it’s an actual bar. I said ‘Now that’s what I’m talking about’. Rachel shrugged. Then she saw the treadmill in the spare room and her eyes lit up.
It wasn’t always that way. I used to take extreme care of myself. When we arrive back in the UK next week, we’ll be spending 2 days in London and then heading back up North. That’s when I’ll be get my fitness back on track. It’s going to be an extremely productive two months in which I will shave regularly and begin to look like a normal human.
I have about 10 pounds to lose, 2 pounds of that may be just beard.
The Cool Bits – Technical Info
Processing Time: 2 hours
Processing method: Photoshop
No. of Exposures: 2
EV Range: -2, 0
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 160
Focal Length: 12mm
Lens: Sigma 10-20mm
Camera: Canon 60d
Plugins: Nik Color Efex for contrast adjustments, colour correction, vignetting & detail enhancement
Luminance Masks: Used for exposure blending
Photomatix Settings: N/A
Join Me on Facebook or Google+
Today’s Photo – The View Through the Arch
I wish I could have held this spot long enough to see the sun rise above the hills. Sadly, once the hoards of photographers turned up, competition became somewhat fierce.
Instead, I made the potential sunrise position significantly brighter using a Photoshop plugin called Knoll Light Factory. I made sure to lighten up the underside of the arch on the right to reflect the added strength of the sun. Simply adding a Levels adjustment layer and slid the Highlights (on the right) to the left, which lifted the highlights but maintained the shadows in the area.
Reminder – Download Luminance Mask Actions
You can download my 18 point luminance mask actions for Photoshop completely free – [wpdm_file id=1]
Before the Joys of Post-Processing
Share this:
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 18th, 2013 at 6:49 am
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Far better to blend in with the locals Jimmy than a grocle (tourist). One tip here. Our neighbor walked past a man in the street the other day looking as if he’d been dressed by a charity shop. She took pity on him and put 50p in his hat as it was empty. To her surprise he handed back the 50p and explained he didn’t need it. It turned out he was just taking a rest on the bench and took his hat off to cool down for a while. It’s a good job she could explain her red face as being a little sun burnt 🙂
The moral here I guess is if you look more like one of the locals, you may end up with some nice surprises and more doors open up to you, rather than having to barter as a tourist! 🙂
Lovely picture as always. Talking about sun rise’s. Don’t wait too long to get back to the UK or you will miss this glorious summer we are having at last!
Best regards,
Chris aka CJS Photography
Thanks Chris! I wish I blended in with the locals. I look more like a young Santa Claus 🙂
I’ve heard the weather is amazing in the UK right now. I really hope it stays like that when we get back. It’s not often Newcastle sees the sun.