Week 3

For this project, I used three different fonts that I downloaded through a website. I just typed this simple phrase for our class. 

This was a more personal project that we did. We took 5 of the most important aspects of our life and set percentages for all of them. I used the Magic Wand tool to select the pictures and then the eraser to erase the backgrounds. I also used the rectangle marquee and text tool to make the bars and then write the text. For the background I used a gradient effect. 

We created this project in a group. We all were in charge of the different parts of this project. I wrote the font in this, another person selected shapes and added them to make the background, and then others added color and different contrast to the shapes.

Week 2 Projects

This was the first project we did this week. We worked with shapes and the ruler tools to make this symmetrical. I also learned how to change the color of individual shapes. This was very simple to do and took me only a few minutes. 

I used an organic background for this project. I took a close up of the flowers in the Richland garden and then set it as my background. I used the elliptical tool and held control to connect circles and make this shape. I'm not sure what it is. I then used pink and purple to color it in and then used a lot of different brushes to blend them together. I then took sharpening tool to make the colors look sharp and neat.

For these next two projects, I took a picture of the pond bubbles and also a brick flooring outside. For the top one I used the polygonal lasso to cut out the brick layer and then changed the hue to red and put the saturation up. For the water, I made the hue purple and turned saturation up to make it darker.

I used the same exact two pictures for this one. Instead  of making strips of lines, I took the elliptical tool and held control to make these individual circles of the brick floor. I made the hue of the brick blue and then the water orange to have this sort of contrast.

This was a neat project that I took too much time on, but came out well. I inserted a picture from the internet of a symmetrical ceiling of a mosque, I cropped the picture so that I just had the upper left piece, then I started coloring the shapes of it. I then duplicated that three other times, rotated and flipped them, and brought them together to make this.

I used Michelle's phone for this picture. It was a fun and frustrating project. I used the polygonal tool to select individual parts of this picture and used the eye dropper tool to get the exact color of them to color over it in paint. 

The hardest part of this project was figuring out what words  I was going to put. The first thing I did was set the background to this gradient pink and blue effect. I then took a photo that I had of myself and cropped it using the quick selector. I dragged it to this background, changed the contrast of it to make it stand out, and then added the words with the text tool.

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Special Effects- Superhero

In class we were asked to make a special effects edit. This special effects/super hero project was really fun. I went the classic route and just did a simple flying edit.

For this, I edited the pictures similarly to how I edited my appropriation photo. I used all the same tools, except this project pushed me to get a little more creative. When the class was excused to go outside and take photos to PhotoShop, I rushed to the smoking area of the school and laid across an ash tray. We took several bursts to get the right shots. I wanted my hair to look like it was flowing in the wind, so I flipped my hair in the photos.

I started out by editing these until I completely cropped the background out. 

I then put the separate layers onto this background of a city. I changed the color of my shirt to red for the picture on the right to make it look like a different person from the picture of the left and I made it look as if I was looking up at myself while flying.

Although I'm not the best, after doing the appropriation project PLUS this project, I think I am really getting better at it. 

Appropriation Photo

For my appropriation photo, I chose a picture of Barney and his friends to PhotoShop myself into it. I chose this picture because it's an older show that has been around for a while and a show I grew up watching.

I used three different layers to create this photo. I first took a photo of Barney and his Friends off of the internet and opened it in Photoshop. The background was just plain white.

I then was given the opportunity to go outside during class to take pictures. I stood in front of a large bush in the Richland garden because that's where the best lighting was.

I went inside and opened PhotoShop on my laptop. I set the Barney picture as my first layer, and this photo of myself as my second layer to go over it. I used the quick selection tool to crop myself out of the bush background. I then placed myself in the center of the barney picture. The picture looked a bit dull with just the white background, so I added another layer on the bottom of everything to set as my background. I chose this star background.

In order to set the stars as my background, I had to use the Magic Wand Tool and crop Barney and his Friends out from the white. I erased the white part of the picture and placed them and myself onto this picture.

I had a lot of fun with this project. I didn't know how to use any of the tools I used in this before I started the appropriation project  and I am happy I was able to learn all about them through it. 

Photo Retouching on PhotoShop

I learned how to properly use Photo Shop to retouch pictures. I used tools like blender, spot healing brush, dodge, burn, blur, sharpen, smudge, clone stamp, and the eye dropper tool. I also was able to change contrast, hue, and saturation of my pictures.

Neutral light: Before and after

In this photo, I broke out the day before and had acne that I covered with the eye dropper tool and cloning stamp. With the eyedropper, I was able to pick a color off of my skin, and use the cloning stamp to put that color onto the top of my acne. 

I also sharpened the different features on my face. I used burn to go across my eyeliner, and I used the sharpener tool to go over eyebrows, eyelashes, the edges of my nose, and my hair and lips. I then used blur and smudge tool to go over the slight bags under my eyes because I took these pictures early in the morning.

Shadow: Before and after

This picture was the easiest one to edit. I didn't do much except for use the clone tool to paint over my bags. I also sharpened my jaw, the edge of my nose, eyebrows, lashes, and hair. I then changed the contrast of the photo to make it seem more clear. 

Direct sunlight: Before and after

This photo was the trickiest because it was in direct sunlight. The shadows over my lashes were intense and didn't know how to brighten the areas up a bit without making it seem unreal. In this picture I used dodge to dodge the shadows above my lip and under my eyebrows. I obviously have changed the coloring of this photo. Instead of the photo giving off a lot of red hues, it gives off a lot of yellow hues. The color change looks great on this laptop that I photo shopped it on, but when I transferred it onto my phone, the colors looked a little odd, but I kept it anyway. Also, the highlight under my eye and on my cheek bone is makeup. I intentionally left it there without toning it down with the photo shop tools because I'm poppin'. Thanks. 

Summer of 2016

This summer I had the opportunity to go on a seven day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, Grand Cayman Islands, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica with my parents and three little sisters. There were many things to do off and on the ship and I met so many wonderful people there. Getting tanner was sadly but honestly my ultimate goal this summer. Happy to say I have achieved that.

Early morning on July 23, my family left my house all packed and ready for the cruise. We started the five hour drive to Galveston, Texas, where the cruise ships port was. We got stuck in traffic by the time we drove into Houston, so the drive was a lot longer than expected. The cruise ship was going to leave around 4:00 and we were supposed to check in at 2:00. It was 3:00 pm, so I felt a little nervous that we wouldn't make it in time. Fortunately, for my family, and for the sake of writing anything in this blog, my family ended up being able to enter the check in area right before the gates closed and we were able to board the cruise ship.

The first and second days were "Fun at Sea" days where we spend our days eating, attending and watching shows; whether it was people singing and dancing to music dressed in odd costumes, a game show, or a simple comedy show. We swam and tanned at the pool at the top deck and I also ate a bunch of food. Mostly pizza. I am obsessed with pizza so it's crazy for me to say that I was kinda sick of pizza by the last day of the cruise. 

In the evenings, we would go inside a formal restaurant to eat dinner. It was nice eating at these compared to restaurants I eat at when I'm not on a cruise because nothing on the cruise had a price. Everything was free on the menu because it came with the price of the entire cruise so it was great. Food is great. 

The 70's Dance Show

Baby sister posing in front of the sunset.

"Fancy evening" where we dressed up and went to eat dinner.

After the two Fun at Sea days, we were finally able to get off the ship at a port in Cozumel, Mexico. We had 5 hours until we had to be back on the ship.

We spent that third day at a beach called Playa Mia. We enjoyed the blue, clear ocean and made mermaid tails in the sand. My mother is from Mexico, so it was neat being back in the country even if it wasn't the area in which my family lives. Mexico is Mexico. Towards the last few hours of being in there, I went to a Starbucks that was right by the beach for free wifi. I was able to send a couple pictures to my friends, say hello, and say goodbye until I reached shore in Galveston that next Saturday. 

Mom relaxing out in the sun at Playa Mia.

Walking to where we find a good taxi cab driver to get to the beach.

Sand Mermaids.

The fourth day on the cruise, we arrived at Grand Cayman Islands. I would say this country was the most beautiful country I was at during the cruise. We spent that day at the beach again. The waters were even more beautiful than the waters at Cozumel. They were more clear and more blue. There was so much coral on the floors of the ocean and the sand was a lot softer at your feet. You can submerge yourself completely, open your eyes, and see thousands of different fish all around you. I spent most of that day underneath the water just exploring the ocean. It was so beautiful. Even the temperature outside was great. The skies were clouded with gray clouds, but not to where it looked miserable... It just looked kinda cool.

                                                      

The fifth day we had arrived at Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This was the most enjoyable country for me. We found the most perfect tour guide/taxi driver for my family. His name is Alphanso Aarons and he was the most loving guy to us. I was so happy to have been with him the entire five hours we were there. He was completely honest and so kind. He called us his family and really made us feel at home. 

My sister, Alphanso, and I 

Alphanso took us first to the top of a hill to see what Jamaica and the waters and beach looked like from up above. We posed for pictures and enjoyed the view. 

After looking at the view, we made our way back down the hill. We drove to a beautiful river in a very scetchy area. It smelled like weed. We got on a water raft, handmade by one of the Jamaican locals. We sat on the  back, three at a time, as a man stood on the other end and used a bamboo stick to push it against the river floor and get the raft moving along the stream. I asked him if I could try to do it and it really was a lot of work. I asked him how much he was paid to take one raft up the shore and back where we came from, and he told me he only got paid $15 per ride. I suddenly had so much respect for him. $15 dollars is close to nothing in Jamaica, especially when everything there is so expensive. A gallon of gas for them there costs about $8, and a gallon of milk costs about $20. 

After the raft ride, Alphanso took us to watch the dolphins and then took us to a beach. This beach was very small, and I only went in thigh deep. The cool thing about the beach was the black tiny rocks by the shore. We only stayed for about 20 minutes and then sadly had to head back to our cruise ship.

The sixth and seventh days were other Fun at Shore days. I was sad that it was coming to an end and that the next destination and port we would be left at was Galveston. I made the best out of my days though.I started to make friends the last day. I should've made friends sooner, I just didn't really put myself out there until the last day. I knew them for such a short amount of time but felt so close to them.. That's just how it works when I barely begin to speak or be around someone. I bond quickly. Just give me about ten minutes.

My new friends and I bonded at playing card games in the game room, attending a music show in the theater, playing mini golf outdoors on the top deck, and sitting in a circle exchanging social media accounts and numbers. At the very end of the day, at 11:55, we all walked down 13 floors of the cruise ship as a group just dropping people off at their rooms. We said our good bye's and nice to meet you's.

I went to bed and it took me a couple of hours to fall asleep. I was upset and excited about getting home. It was bitter sweet.

I woke up and we were in Galveston. I finally had service on my phone and was quickly able to reconnect with my friends.

Being without service was tragic, but not actually tragic. There are WAY more better things to  do on a cruise than just sitting on your phone, texting and scrolling through your different feeds on social media. I really did miss all of my friends like crazy, though, but I had a lot of fun and made new ones. The cruise was so amazing and I am so thankful for the experience and thankful to have learned so much about different cultures through the countries we visited. 

Snakes: A Poem

Snakes.
Snakes everywhere.
Thank you.