It's a photoshopped world

I've shared plenty of trainwreck photoshopped images on this blog - I see this as a chance to experiment and learn not only photography techniques but photo editing skills. This means that you get to see some kinda wacky things here that might not fit into conventional photography. I guess my only goal is to NOT make it on the photoshop disasters blog (awesome site).

Believe it or not, but when I take pictures for my 9-5 job, I don't often do the fantastical photo art I tend to do here on Carlson Chronicles. I do more mundane edits, like removing glare from faces, fixing skin tone, correcting for color, recropping and sharpening the shots. However, every now and then I get to apply some cool photoshop techniques to images for work.

This was from yesterday - a cool airbrushing technique.

Take this shot of Lori Garver, the Deputy Administrator for NASA, I took yesterday. Looks pretty simple right?

Take a closer look at the podium we had - and scroll over to see how dingy it actually was!

Something about these before-after shots get me EVERY TIME.

HEINZ

Today's picture brought to you by Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

I am SO SORRY

For posting this unflattering picture of a very special cousin of mine. Tuesdays mean Glee (yeah!) and extra-good news today that I'm going to Connecticut next weekend to visit PSF Schumacher.

That is, if she'll still have me.



I'm sorry! Just a compulsive sharer.

Cathedral towers

Rehearsal for The Washington Chorus started up again last week, bringing me into the District now every Monday night as we prepare for our first concert of the season: The Essential Rachmaninoff.



This means I'll be spending more time at the National Cathedral and National Presbyterian Church. Does this mean I'll become more pious? I think that pre-rehearsal margaritas and other post-rehearsal libations will be ample cure.

Spot the construction worker

Can you see the construction worker on the Capitol dome?



See him? (Sexist, I know)



Looks like he's taking a break and just chilling...

Peepers

Pointless weekend photoshop project:



Gold star to anyone who can identify who these eyes belong to!

Friday Follies

Happy Friday y'all! This weekend is set to be slam-packed with adventure: Easy A (again), Clarendon Day, Corn Maze, Viva Mexico, and whatever other trouble I can get myself into!


Texas: I swear she could be on the cast of Gossip Girl...

Miss Thing gets a bigger head

You know my sister, Miss Thing? She just started her second year in law school, so she decided to up and go famous on our asses.

She was invited to Obama's town hall meeting earlier this week, and because shaking the President's hand wasn't enough for her, she goes and gets herself seated in the second row behind the President. Which means every single picture and video of him speaking will feature her.

Ego exploding in 3... 2.... 1...

I jest, I jest. But here she is, live on CNBC, in the Wall Street Journal, on the White House "photo of the day" page and then on the Daily Show.




Miss Thing was also on the View, but we won't hold that against her.

National Aerospace Week Winners!

We finally have winners for ALL our National Aerospace Week contests. We're giving away basically the entire Apple product line (iPads, iPod nanos and iPod touches). Here they are:

Aerospace in Action picture contest winner:


Design a Future Aerospace Vehicle Contest K-5th grade winner:


Design a Future Aerospace Vehicle Contest 6-8th grade winner:


Design a Future Aerospace Vehicle Contest 9-12th grade winner:

Watson my dear

Thanks for encouraging me to take pictures, and sticking through with me when I try the same shot 37 times on my camera. As payment, I'm going to give a cute picture of you a ghoulish edit.

Love,
Patrick

Baby Sophie/Gabby

I spent part of last weekend with Empress Chantal and baby Sophie/Gabby. EC is deciding whether to call her daughter Sophia Gabriella by Sophie or Gabby. Thoughts? I like both...

When I popped into their apartment, as soon as S/G saw me, she burst out crying. I tend to have that effect on the ladies...



She has the most gorj gorj eyes ever - this gunmetal steely gray - I really hope the color stays as she gets older.



S/G and I eventually called a ceasefire and she stopped crying every time I came into sight. But you can still tell, she's not too sure whether she should trust me...

Abstract Monday

Its Monday morning, and this is what the world looks like to me:



I was actually testing my camera after it hit the floor (note to self: treat camera better) and didn't realize I was on shutter-priority which was set for a longer exposure.

Thus the blurry image. It is actually of the floor (you can see my left foot kind of clearly) - but I thought it looked kinda neat so it stays!

Princess Stain @ Cactus Cantina

Before I was a workin' joe - I worked at the Student Book Store all the way through school. I became a skillful T-shirt folder and textbook alphabetizer, mastered the art of ringing customers up and could answer even the most ignorant tourist questions:

"Could you give me directions to Mont-ih-sell-oh?"

 or

"Where are your Virginia Tech T-shirts?"

The nice thing about working at the Student Book Store for four years was becoming such good friends with my co-workers. Two years after graduating, Princess Stain and I have managed to keep in touch.

Princess Stain could decorate a display window like no one's business.

Doesn't she have the most amazing blue eyes?



Don't let the innocent look fool you - PS has some of the best stories of weekends gone bad. (Or would it be gone good?)

We grabbed swirly frozen margs at Cactus Cantina and shot the shit on the patio. We have to get in as much outdoor hanging out now that it isn't crotch-humid and before it gets bitter cold!



Illuminated by her iPhone

Viva Mexico

Two weeks ago, one of my good high school friend returned to DC after living in Oaxaca, Mexico for the last two years. She is now renting a room in what was her childhood home:



Crystal chandelier? check. Vintage sofa? check. We're in business here.

To celebrate her triumphant return from across the border, the house threw a Viva Mexico party - chock full of Mexico-aficionados.

It was just your typical house party, with the addition of homemade tamales; everyone milling around, beer in hand.

Then things got FREAKY!


We heard a ruckus in the dining room, and discovered a Mexico dance party! Not your typical DP, the music was provided by singing, clapping, a cow jawbone, and guitars (ukuleles?).

See those shoes? Them be dancin' shoes - the footwork was as percussive as anything else in the music. Watching the spectacle unfold, it was easy to forget we were nestled in NW DC, instead of some warmer clime.

Empress Chantal

Taken on the scene of yesterday's Senate Aerospace Luncheon - Chantal owns the stairway outside the Kennedy Caucus Room.



Dayum can you believe she has a one-year-old baby?

This week is running me down!

So I haven't been active over here this week because National Aerospace Week is all-consuming. This morning I was up at 5:45 - and left for my first event when it was still dark. I'm just now getting back a little after 8:00pm - I was scheduled to cover SIX events today!

Phew!

Snapped this picture walking from Russell Senate Building to Air and Space Museum where my colleague parked.



I have a whole lotta stuff to share with you once I start regaining my sanity!

National Aerospace Week: Gravelly Point

This week (September 12-18) is National Aerospace Week. Check out the link - that site is my baby - I've been developing it for the last 4 months, and this week it'll be put through its paces.

Since I'm running around DC taking pictures for work, thought I'd share a couple plane pictures from when the Swiss Family Robinson visited last week. We went to Gravelly Point - which is an excellent lookout for planes arriving and departing from Reagan National Airport.

Plane crashing through Elmar's head



That's a little better...



Happy National Aerospace Week!

I'd rather be at Lake Monticello

Arlington is great... but right now I'd rather be at Lake Monticello

The view from our dock



And up to the house



Sorry I messed up your faces guys - the shadows made you unintelligible, and I got a little Photoshop-happy trying to fix you.



Taking one of the canoes out for a spin...

Fuego

One of the favorite pasttimes at Lake Monticello is a good old fashioned bonfire. While it is fun to toast s'mores, tell stories, and enjoy the sound of frogs on the lake, you run a high risk of being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Trees illuminated by the fire, sky illuminated by WAY more stars than we see in Arlington.



Beautiful flames. I love clicking the large version of this and just staring at the tongues of fire. Kind of hypnotic.



The gang: Elmar, JR, Adam and Ryan



Sparks fly



There are only a few more weekends in 2010 that'll be warm enough to do these outdoor fires, until it is time to hunker down for winter.

Dreamboat

I know I've had pictures of Lemar back from 2007 in Singapore, but since he came to visit DC and Virginia, I was reminded what a total dreamboat he is. Below, the photographic evidence:

"You don't think I can canoe? Bitch puhlease..."

Gotta protect yourself from the sun.

"This risotto is cooked PERFECTLY!" (And yes, that is my mother standing behind him)

Oh HERE is the dreamy Lemar you all recognize. Is it still evil to post 3 fluke-y pictures if I post 1 hot one? The ethics of photography are still gray to me...

Swiss Invasion

Seeing central Virginia through Swiss eyes was kinda neat. We made a grand tour through the highlights and lowlights of Virginia culture.


We started off the day right with a lunch stop at Michie Tavern. I was so excited to show them some American history - a 200-year-old tavern just downslope from Monticello. Well - Elmar lives in an apartment building 400+ years old, and all of this quaint historical entertainment is just real life in Switzerland.

Or so they say...




Even if they weren't blown away by the historical significance of Michie Tavern, we agreed the southern cooking was amazing. Fried chicken, black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes, green beans, collard greens, biscuits - and beers in pewter mugs.



JR particularly liked the "deffert" menu. I guess in Ye Merry Olden Dayes - "s's" looked like "f's"? Therefore, you could order ice cream with "chocolate fauce" or an "old fafhioned ice cream fandwich."

Not funny? I guess you had to be there...



High on the list of Swiss demands were a visit to a Wal-Mart Supercenter. I got a little afraid when we spent 30 minutes in the children's toy section - but we blazed through the rest of the store in another half hour.



This got us to the vinyard 5 minutes after closing time. No wine tastings, no buying a bottle of local red and no sitting on the veranda looking at the rolling hills of the Shennendoah. I hope they liked the Wal-Mart!



I took them through UVa, and we walked into the Chapel...



...to the Student Book Store (my employer for four years - w00t w00t!)...



...and to the Lawn.



Elmar trying to give good face. This was the most rural place in the States either Elmar or JR had visited - so I was glad to play tour guide - if only for one day of the year.

Reunion at Lake Monticello

The Swiss Family Robinson and I spent the holiday weekend at Lake Monticello, and were treated to an assortment of old friends stopping by.

The weather was PERFECT for swimming, canoeing, lounging, drinking, lighting bonfires, skinny-dipping, being eaten by mosquitoes and generally enjoying lake life.



First on the docket, the newly-engaged Sam and Brianne, of marching band and a cappella fame. You'd never know looking at these two what nerds they were in undergrad. Its OK for me to say that, right?



Probably the real star attraction was Riku, the pug-beagle mix that calls Sam and Brianne daddy and mommy. Riku was so energetic; when he wasn't nearly-drowning in his comical attempt at dog paddling, he was challenging the neighbor's labrador retriever and chasing deer.



And getting completely filthy. He was not too happy when he had to get hosed clean.




Adam made it back from India and Nepal two weeks ago and look - still smiling! Also - he is a renowned-expert in cookie-dough-done-ness. If it isn't raw on the inside, you're doing it wrong. (Ahem...)



We also got free consultations with ER doctor Austin. He had the day off from his residency at UVa hospital.



Not pictured: Ryan, Elmar, JR, Ryan's parents, the Stoopmans. Sorry I didn't get your mugshots!