Yesterday was Wednesday, and if you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know that’s meeting day at my new job. Some weeks (like last week) the meetings get cancelled, but yesterday I got nearly the full complement. I was definitely dragging by 5:30 when I headed out the door from work. As a result, I didn’t get out to take some new pictures like I’d planned, so this morning I went digging in the archives.
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| Basilica of St. Mary |
| 1400x1400(603k) |
| 640x640(82k) |
The result is the large stained glass at the Basilica. This was shot off from the side and below, so I did some tweaking to get the perspective looking (nearly) right. The Camera Lens filter in Photoshop was not my friend this morning, but I managed to get pretty close by just doing a free transform. And a minor bump to the both the lightness and saturation of the reds, and here you are. The sharpness isn’t quite what I’d like, but I think the effort to correct the perspective was worth it.
I’m finding out about more of the tools available in Photoshop over time, and some of the ones I never would have touched a year ago are turning out to be pretty darned handy. Hue/Sat was very imposing, but once I’d seen examples of it in use, I felt confident enough to give it a try. I recommend Bruce Fraser’s Real World Photoshop CS2 if you’re in the same boat I was in. There’s an awful lot of good information in there.
On the other hand, I’d prefer not to need to do extensive edits in order to have a photo I want to post here. I’d rather just get it right in the camera in the first place, and that’s one of the reasons I wish there was a perspective correction lens that would work with my camera. As it is, I find myself tempted to get a Nikon D-200 just so I can use the PC-Nikkor 28 and Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8 PC lenses. Of course the price tag for that camera-bag full of stuff means that it’s just a dream for now, but maybe one of these years…
Which brings me to the last bit of the update for the day. The surveyors were out yesterday, and there are new markers on the corners of my lot. The reason I didn’t find the old ones was that I was looking on the street side of the sidewalk, not the house side. Oops. But hey, they’ve been found, which means that as soon as the weight restrictions come off the roads, the landscaping work is ready to go.
- Yesterday, the Twins score[d an] easy House victory, with only one small setback. If the team is sold, 18% of the revenue from a sale goes back to the public. And the Twins continue to insist that if a referendum is required, they’re done trying for a new stadium. Interesting how they’re sure they would lose if the people who will have to pay the tax actually got a chance to vote on it, but they’re happy to have 86 other counties vote to raise taxes on Hennepin County taxpayers. And I know that three cents on $20 is no big deal. And yet somehow it adds up to over half a billion dollars. That’s a big deal, indeed. [press-patch]
- Scott posts about an Awesome triple play that could just as easily have been a couple runs due to poor “situational awareness” by both the catcher and third baseman. Luckily, the pitcher was paying attention and got a strikeout and two assists. With Saints training camp opening this Saturday, I’m looking forward to seeing some goofy plays myself. [scottk]