Friday, April 29, 2011

Click on the Photos

In case you didn't know, if you click on a photo, you will be able to see the original size picture.  I don't know why, but the resized pictures on Blogger don't look as good as the original, they look too contrasty and not sharp.  This also goes for the video, double click on the video and you should be redirected automatically to YouTube where you will see a larger screen and have the option to full size the video.  I do put the time in to try to get the photos as good looking as possible so I felt the need to explain this feature.

Also, if you like what you see, or don't, make a comment and let me know.  Click on the word "Comments" below each blog entry next to the pencil.  Comment section is now open to anyone.

If you want email notifications of when the blog is updated, become a follower (at the bottom of the blog).  You will need to have registered in some common providers like Google, Yahoo, etc, just follow the instructions.

Thanks.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Egg Hunt

Do not try and bend the spoon.  That is impossible.  Instead only try to realize the truth.

There is no spoon.




Easter egg hunt at the grand parents.  More money than sugar was found.  

When we were kids we had real hard boiled eggs that we painted ourselves.  Yum, we got to eat 8 hard boiled eggs, what a cholesterol treat!  Hard boiled egg after hard boiled egg.  But before that, you had to decorate them yourself using funky water colors that don't stain your clothes but didn't color the eggs very well either.  So you had vaguely pink, yellow, and blue egg treats to proudly break open and eat.

I like the new way, cash is king.

Top caption is a reference to the Matrix movie, sorry, couldn't help myself.  Maybe we can nickname S Neo.  Or maybe, J and I can become Comic-Con parents when the boys get older, say around teenagers.  And we can walk around in costumes, make our kids proud.

All images are © 2011 Vladimir Valdes All Rights Reserved use without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Hear Me, I Hear.


S wants to be heard, he has important things to say.  Sometimes we get several minutes of talk, talk, talk, talk, it's cute and extra fun when it's in the car.

All images are © 2011 Vladimir Valdes All Rights Reserved use without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Santa Barbara Zoo




Safely keeping my toes where I can see 'em


We drove up to the Santa Barbara Zoo today.  Everyone had a good time.  It's a small zoo but had a surprising range of animals on display.  It was nice to just get out and walk around.

All images are © 2011 Vladimir Valdes All Rights Reserved use without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Old Fashion Museum



G they're moving!  Run!




Indiana Gones

S was sick, again, with another flu so I took G down to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles yesterday.  NHM is an old fashion, stuff them animals, and placed 'em in an artificial diorama.  It was great!  Huge dark halls with windows to various exhibits, like a look into the past.  The museum has some updated exhibits and is more interactive that I would have expected but the appeal of large dark halls with examples of amazing taxidermy work is something you don't see too often.  G is a dino freak so he loved the T Rex vs Triceratops bones in the lobby, got scared with the huge ceiling hung whale bones, and seemed reserved about the stuffed animals.
As I said, this place is dark and I had my old digital camera cranked up to 1250 ISO. That means a ton of noise reduction out of camera.  For small pictures like these, no big deal, but there was also a ton of cross gamma issues with the lighting.  So in Photoshop I switched the images from RGB to CMYK and keeping in mind that for human skin, the M and Y colors should be pretty close in value, so adjusted as needed and also cut some of curves short.  Almost got the colors right.

All images are © 2011 Vladimir Valdes All Rights Reserved use without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Yummy Lemon!



Dec 2010, we all do some of our learning from experience, like how yummy lemon can be.

All images are © 2011 Vladimir Valdes All Rights Reserved use without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Bubble Fun





All images are © 2011 Vladimir Valdes All Rights Reserved use without written permission is strictly prohibited.