Saw this good advice, which was painted over really quickly by the building owner.

I'm doing some Photoshop practicing*, and this is one of the results I rather liked. Maybe someone here can use it, but I also just wanted to share it, even though you may be able to tell quite easily where it's somewhat overworked.

The original version is resourced below. (I'd forgotten I'd uploaded that here!)

Any advice or suggestions?

*Mostly, I've decided that I'll run all my photos through Photoshop, since I don't know what I'm doing with my camera and the picture quality can usually be improved - generally just with "auto levels," but sometimes I feel inspired to try more dramatic changes as well. I might be overly fond of contrast, though.

In the Russell industrial complex, Hamtramck, MI.

Not really. Well, how would I know how ants see flowers?

This building, the administrative headquarters of the Oakland Public School district, is one of my favorite buildings in Oakland CA. I think because it's poured concrete (as so many buildings here are—concrete is pretty good in earthquakes I guess), it reminds me of an old factory or something. In Detroit, we use poured concrete construction mostly for the purpose for which Albert Kahn brought it to the US (to Detroit, specifically) from Germany: building factories. (Factories tend to be one-story buildings now, but in the early 1900s they were multi-story, even if they were making cars!)

Anyway, I love this building, with its flaking and peeling once-white paint. And the position of the sun on this beautiful, partly-cloudy day (Tues April 5) caught me as I was walking past.

FWIW

Taken at night.

Really. It's just a commuter train rail.

Rain and litter.

I promised Inky I would light a candle for her friend. I'm so sorry to hear of his passing. I lit this candle for him, his family, for Inked Canvas, and for everyone affected by the Christchurch quake; I'm uploading it now in continued prayer for all. <3

Not really

With so much of the country (US) currently having such nasty winter weather, I feel a little guilty that we're actually having record highs here in the San Francisco Bay area. This is Lake Merritt (Oakland) tonight.

My friend fostered, then adopted, this cat from a no-kill shelter, but they kept an important detail from her. He had FIV (feline AIDS), which turned out to be the reason he was always coughing and sneezing. He was such a sweetie, would jump in your lap and purr, and sneeze all over you... and as you can see, he knew how to pose! I think here he looks downright professorial.

Happily, none of my friend's other cats contracted the disease.

At the bus stop this morning, in San Francisco. I had assumed I'd rotate this to the right, but turns* out I like it better this way!

*no pun intended

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

OK, more of the chains.

These beautiful leaves, lit up by a street light, seemed to be glowing from within. A little blurry, thanks to my unsteady hand.

From my Thanksgiving walk home. A branch up above me. I liked it in isolation against the sky.

Oakland, CA

I uploaded this before I had Photoshop on my computer. If you care to use it, feel free to make it better in Photoshop or whatever other program you might have. I'll leave that to you instead of uploading a second version. I suspect it could benefit from some tweaking of the levels/colors or whatever.

I have some photos & video to sort through, but this one seemed worth posting right away. Someone used a flash just as I took this, so we get a shadow too! I'm sure someone, if they want to use this for anything, can manipulate / improve the image quality.

Fun show tonight! Thanks to everyone who worked hard to put it together!

Here's another that seems OK enough. During "Eleventeeth."

Globe Trading Company building, Detroit.

Globe Trading Company building, Detroit.

Globe Trading Company building, Detroit.

Probably some gang member's tag, but oh well.

Sitting up straight and more saturated. And cropped. I also burned in the street a bit, well, a lot. Making the Warhol comment on the last version made me think this needed to be done: more geometric, more symmetrical, more colorful.

In case this might be a useful element for anyone.

This was taken through a window at the cathedral where I work. About a half hour later I saw a little girl playing with it on the plaza. (She was with a man, probably her father or grandfather.) I can't imagine how they retrieved the balloon! He must be a good fisherman.

And yes, I went back to look out this window to make sure it was the same balloon - and there was no more balloon here, so I concluded it was.

The lost heart was found!

Those of us from the Rust Belt (Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, etc.) know that the day before Ash Wednesday isn't Mardi Gras, it's PACZKI DAY!!!

Well, in Poland, I'm told, they eat these on "fat Thursday," which is today/tomorrow (depending on your time zone). I tried making some for the very first time ever, 'cause I can't find them out here in the San Francisco area. I still have some tweaking to do to get them right, but I thought I'd post my first attempt! Not sure what people here can use it for...

But happy "Fat Thursday"!

Paczki or paczke is the plural; a single one is a paczek. AIUI, not being Polish myself, it's pronounced something like "poonch-kee" or "pohnch-kee", and "poon-check" or "pohn-check" respectively.

Paczki are a Polish donut, usually filled with fruit or custard/cream. The most traditional is prune. I used a mixed-berry pie filling, and glazed them with a mixture of honey and Grand Marnier, then dusted with granulated sugar. They'll do.

Market Street around the Montgomery BART station in San Francisco.

Market Street, San Francisco

Matthei Botanical Gardens, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, June 2011.

This was made from a photo I took last November of a rotting jack-o-lantern I passed on a walk.

The veins in the leaves remind me of the surface texture of an old oil painting.

Oh dear, it's a bit rough around the edges. Sorry about that! It's a png file. If you use it, I suppose you'll need to clean it up a tiny bit.

You can desaturate or clone-stamp/spot-heal that plant bit if you want. (It's not a leaf, it's a seed pod of some type.)

I like to think he's being pensive. More likely, he's in pain with that broken wing and skull. Maybe we should call him Jack (as in, "...fell down and broke his crown...").

CRAP! I just can't seem to get these things clean. Sorry....

It's the recommended 2200 pixels across. I might try uploading it a bit larger if anyone wants.

That's actually not the sky, with the exception of the bits that look like stars. Add your own stars, or whatever else you like!

We're not going in chronological order here. This is a thick cloud cover over Michigan (11/2/12).

En route from DTW to SFO, from home (Detroit) back home (Oakland), this shot was somewhere over Utah or Nevada. There's frost on the window.