I really love this...

, originally uploaded by 'Layka.

The internet is so full of wonderful things. Creativeness and debate and seemingly endless knowledge.

'when i quiet myself down and find the answer within myself, that’s the most important one.
it speaks louder than the voices outside my head and the anonymous voices on the internet.

it is to this voice you must listen, or you’re FUCKED.'

I'm glued to my laptop lately, trying to absorb it all but my unreliable memory is letting me down again.

This may seem a little out of the blue but I can explain.

Firstly, I am a pretty massive photoshop geek. I love it. So doing this was actually fun for me and yes, I realise that may sound insane to some people.

Secondly, It's all well and good being able to 'correctly' compose and expose a photograph but if that was all I could do I would be very limited in career options and being trained in some branch of the arts limits a person enough as it is.

So, with all my free time I have been reading many, many tutorials in an attempt to teach myself some new skills to add to my fairly solid PS know-how and here is the result...


The photo was a random find on DeviantArt, which I think was submitted for the purpose of practicing retouching but I downloaded it an age ago so I could be wrong. Either way, not my photo.

It's not perfect, obviously. The right eyebrow for example, could do with some help but I got bored with that and the background is so boring but I didn't know what I wanted to do with it so that stayed as it was.

Generally though, I'm happy with it.

I got help from HERE and HERE. The rest is either vague memories of other tutorials and just playing with various blending modes and cloning/healing.


And attempt No.2...

Flipped vision device

Flipped vision device, originally uploaded by Anatoly Zenkov.

'Can you imagine what you can see through this device?'

'we're so used to this dividing line. There are humans on one side and all the other animals on the other and we don't meet up'

Radio Lab

Beardy-guy, AKA: Apolo Anton Ohno, skating in circles really fast (Short Track Speed Skating).

If this sport didn't already exist and someone said 'Hey! Lets strap blades to our feet, dress in spandex jumpsuits and run in circles on a large sheet of ice!' they'd be called crazy.

Health and Safety would never allow it.

Tonight, I am very much enjoying...

...the work of David Maisel.

Library of Dust 87

I saw some images from The Library of Dust blogged somewhere else and bookmarked his site, meaning to go back to it (I always mean to, I usually forget). Turns out there's lots more worth looking at.

'I give away moments of my body or my heart each day.
And yet there are pieces of me I have never, ever let go.

It's the second realization, not the first, that makes me vulnerable.'

Originally uploaded by tracimatlock.

wind

wind, originally uploaded by Ana Lemes.

Vicki's Hair

Vicki's Hair, originally uploaded by LaurenEldekvist.

For the past week or so I thought the original, full size file of this image was lost forever in the ether. Today I found it.

Happy days.

I had a dream last night about flying machines and boats.

The flying machines were like the kind children invent. Large wing shaped things that move with your arms in a motion much like birds flying.

The boats, or should I say ships, were huge things made of wood with sails and riggings. Very long and narrow in shape and the operators of the flying machines, which were oddly similar in shape to the ships, took off from and landed on the deck.



This dream was followed by one about my rats. It turned out one of them was actually a girl rat and they had had baby rats which they had been hiding in their cage for a few week so they could walk and see by the time I found them. They escaped and were all over my room while I desperately tried to round them up and put them in cages but separate the boy rats from the girl rats as I didn't have space for any more.

I felt these images needed their own space somewhere...


A year living at The Tasty House (in pictures).

It was so poetic, and then...


'...I think there’s a beauty in blurring the line between reality and fantasy, allowing oneself to float within a world where what’s real and what’s imagined blend into one misty, sonic daydream. Because, like, the real world is really fucking boring.' Slutever.


I relate strongly to the first sentence at the moment.

It's probably a bad thing that I often feel sad I don't drink or take drugs.

Seen first at 'It's Nice That'.