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| New baby doll. |
This pretty baby appeared during a search of my iPhoto files today. An angel faced sweetie for my granddaughters to play with when they come to visit.
I remember the day I bought her. It took nearly two hours to select the perfect doll. This one had very realistic features—especially the fingers and toes.
I looked forward to sharing her with my granddaughters. It joined another doll that I had purchased months before. But that one did not compare to this beauty. It had molded hair and lacked detail. There was some concern that the girls would not want to play with the old doll after being introduced to the new one with the sparkling blue eyes and blonde tresses.
But I soon discovered there was little reason for concern. As I proudly handed the new baby to Elyse, she gently held its lifelike fingers in her own and softly sighed. It was love at first sight—or so I thought.
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| Old baby doll. |
Within minutes, Elyse was back to playing with "old baby." She had no interest in the new one, and Samantha felt the same way. When I teasingly suggested that we get rid of the doll weeks later because they didn't want to play with her, both agreed that it was the right thing to do. I later found the doll in the bedroom trash.
Fortunately, my eldest granddaughter, Lydia, liked the doll and played with it whenever she visited. "Old baby" continued to be Elyse and Samantha's favorite.
There is little explanation as to why children favor one toy over another. They simply do. Elyse, for instance, had Pinky Pig, who was one of her all time favorite toys. To further understand her commitment to this odd little fellow, check out The Demise of Pinky Pig.
Lydia, who quickly adopted the new baby doll—rolling her around in a stroller for hours on end—actually has somewhat unusual tastes in toys. She absolutely loves scary things.A favorite birthday gift of hers a couple years ago was a motion-activated head. Flashing eyes and eerie sounds made Lydia giggle as she opened the surprise package. I'm fairly certain that Lydia has her favorite of gifts still tucked away somewhere in her room—along with a variety of other scary entities. Your shrunken head and ghoul collection expands fairly quickly when you celebrate your birthday right before Halloween.
Oh, yes, this sounds familiar (the old vs. new doll!) And my grandchildren - to my puzzlement- like Lydia, also adore the 'super creepy.'
ReplyDeletep.s. Loved your note on my blog about the hawk's tail and wings tipping the snow. . . Great image!
Well, I'm not into dolls, but my daughters were...I think they still have their Barbies from years ago!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your nice words. I have been a photographer for some time, and yes, Photoshop is used extensively.
I see a photo as a work of art. The picture of the people waiting for the doctor was originally in color and I intended to post both versions, but I thought this was the best one as it captured a bit of the boredom and dreariness of sitting in an office waiting for a nurse to come and get you.
If you're shooting JPEG, you're camera automatically makes several adjustments as soon as you take the picture - contrast, sharpening, etc. So, the photo has already been altered by the time you first see it. Which is fine because a photograph is not reality but simply the photographer's vision of a moment in time - which would have been quite different for another photographer - and will never be replicated.
But I use Photoshop and other editing programs ...
almost every photo needs a little sharpening. Most need the contrast bumped up. They need to be cropped. I've got a number of effects and I can use also - filters and actions. It's great fun.
For years I developed my own film and printed all of our pictures. What a job! I'd spend hours in the darkroom, cropping, dodging and burning. I was too stubborn to let a machine do it.
That's another thing, if you have an outside source print your pictures, they will also manipulate contrast, color, sharpness, etc.
I do the following with almost every photo: Check the levels and make adjustments as needed; bump up the contrast; sharpen as needed; and crop it, of course. Special effects are used if I think they will enhance the purpose of the shot or just for fun!
An example of fun is a photo I posted a couple of days ago of the entrance area to Stone Creek (where we live in Ocala)...I put an ape (gabon) in the picture behind a rock.
Have a great weekend!
Oops, I made a mistake. The "fun" photo mentioned was post 3 days ago on our Images blog! Sorry 'bout that!
ReplyDeleteRe the gabon. I called it that because that is how it was titled in the photo I used, although I believe it's probably an ape from Gabon. I don't know much about them...
ReplyDeleteRe RAW: I've shot in RAW on occasion and am getting back into it now. But I can't tell a heck of a lot of difference between photos I worked in RAW and my JPEG shots.
The waiting room shot was done in available light. I probably used my Canon S95, doubtless the finest point-and-shoot on the market (well, the S100 is out but I don't like it as much.)
I don't know if you're using Photoshop but if you are, check out Scott Kelby's books. He's great. And I'd highly recommend you spend a lot of time of Ken Rockwell's website. He's been an immense help to me. http://www.kenrockwell.com. You won't believe the huge amount of resources you will find there to make you a better photographer!
Have a great weekend.