New Photoshop User

When Furman University sent out their Continuing Education brochure, this time I was ready! I signed up for a class in improving photos with Photoshop.

My instructor is an old-time photographer, with years in the darkroom, but who went digital about the time Photoshop 2 came out (that's what? Seven versions ago?). His emphasis in the class was correcting poor exposures and perhaps cropping for better impact, but I wanted to learn how to do things you can't do with a camera.

I never was an artist (my career was in chemical engineering) and may never be, but I am enjoying playing with images, So here are a couple of my efforts.

"Daffodils Giving Up Their Essence"

"Hunter at Panthertown Falls"
(NOT taken in Fall!)

Family Portrait Update

This brings us up to date.

Gosh! Some of us are getting old!

Journey to the Manger

One activity that rolls around every year at Christmas is the production of "Journey to the Manger" by our church (Simpsonville United Methodist Church, www. sumcweb.org). This is an outdoor, drive-through chronology of the Christmas story, from Isaiah's prophecy to the birth of Jesus. After a series of silent tableaus, cars turn through a set of rustic town gates and encounter Bethlehem in all its noise and clamor, and rumors of the appearances of angels and a very special event taking place. We typically play to 4,000 people in the three evenings of the presentation.

Here are Hunter and Mark in their garb for roles as a rabbi and his student. Brenda joined the kitchen crew, which restored the actors after their stints outdoors in 30-degree weather.

Santa's Volunteer

Titanius has his eye on a new job. (Click on the picture.)

Catching Christmas Spirit

Brenda and Mark just finished performing in the Christmas cantata. You'll notice that Mark is getting a grey beard ready for a role as "Rabbi" in the outdoor Bethlehem the church is presenting this weekend.

It's December! So, it's time to break out Christmas pictures. Since we don't have decorations up yet, we'll have to dip in the archives.

Here's the whole family last New Year's Day. We take an annual portrait in front of the tree.

Whoops! Almost forgot the furriest member of the family! He's always hogging the show!

"Point Break"









"Phoenix-Peacock"









"Amazonian Waterfall"









Ah, the beauty of recursive mathematical functions! The pictures above are representations of the solution sets of a series of equations. I created them with "Apophysis", a freeware program.

Our Backyard in Fall

Chiefs of the TechSmith Clan

Springtime in our backyard

April 11: We open our doors as a new site on the Web!