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    July 6th, 2010

    June 2010 Logo Contest Winner

    Let’s all give Carolyn a big CONGRATS for guessing last month’s logo correctly – Wells Fargo!

    As summer head’s into full force, make sure you take time out to guess whose logo this is:

    July 2010 logo
    (Please do not guess in the comments area)

    June 16th, 2010

    Running and running and running…

    Here is a video of Joe and Lana chasing each other on the beach at Fort Funston. Joe doesn’t go very far into the water, and Lana just keeps chasing after him, wherever he goes. They play so well together!

    June 7th, 2010

    May Logo Contest Winner

    And the winner is… Afi! Come on down to “The Logo is Right”, Afi, and collect your prize for getting last month’s logo right – Barnes & Noble.

    Now we move on to the new June 2010 logo, what could it be Bob? Who will get it right… and be the lucky randomly chosen one?

    June 2010 logo
    (Please do not guess in the comments area)

    May 27th, 2010

    365 Days – the book!

    of Self Portraits
    By Nicole Hanusek

    I finally finished the task of turning my 365 days of self portraits into a photo book. After looking at several book publishing sites that print on demand, I ended up going with Blurb. You have to download their software, but it was worth it. The app allowed me to connect to my Flickr account and the photos on my computer. The templates were easy to work with too. I could easily create my own and edit individual templates. And in the end they don’t charge a buttload for a finished book full of color photos. If you’re trying to make your own book, I would recommend trying out Blurb.

    Oh yeah, and take a look at the book I made! It was fun to go through each day from a whole year. I only got sick twice, went on two wine vacations and two trips to different countries (Italy and Japan). What a fun and exciting year that was!

    March 26th, 2010

    365 Finale

    I actually made it through three hundred and sixty-five days worth of self portraits. There were so many times when I wanted to give up. In the beginning around 80-100 days and again in the early 300′s. But at that point I had gone too far to give up.

    The hardest part was when I already got into bed and then remembered, “shit, my self portrait for today!” Then drag myself out of bed and take a half-assed, not-so-creative self portrait.

    There were some really good ones in the mix too though. Here are some of my favorites from the project.
    Day 4/365 - Somewhere in Between Day 159/365 - Two Better Halves Day 120/365 - Red Magic Day 184/365 - Where's the spy cam? Day 138/365 - She Sees Right Through Me Day 249/365 - Bouquet of Me Day 309/365 - If I had a Na'vi Avatar Day 317/365 - Wall Art Day 319/365 - Haunted

    The 365th picture (below) involved having a bunch of friends over to take a picture of me from their very own unique angle at the same time. I then gathered all of the pictures and composed a (somewhat) Picasso-like montage of a last self portrait. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

    It was hard to make the mental switch to stop worrying about taking a picture every day. I kind of miss it. There were still some cool ideas on my list that I didn’t get to, so I’ll probably still do them… some day.

    Day 365/365 - The Finale
    (Take a look at the picture on Flickr to see who took what)

    March 26th, 2010

    Extremely Late Logo – Again

    My apologies for the late March logo. Last month Chrystal Warman took home the prize by guessing Wendy’s. And now for the late March logo, get your guesses in before its too late!

    February 6th, 2010

    January Logo Winner

    Cindy Driver! You have won last month’s logo contest by correctly guessing… Disney!!! And what’s in store for us this month? A shiny new logo, well, its not really shiny. Its actually kind of flat. Anyway, the guessing is on!

    January 13th, 2010

    How I Made My Avatar

    Here is a brief overview of all the layers involved in manipulating myself into an Avatar in Photoshop.

    The original photo.
    avatar1

    Removing my eyebrows. First I tried to use the Clone Stamp Tool, but I wasn’t happy with the results.
    avatar2

    Then I just used a brush at 30% opacity, sampling my skin tone and gradually giving my brow shape while hiding the eyebrow. I also flattened out the bridge of my nose.
    avatar3

    I darkened my lips. The layer is set to “Multiply”.
    avatar4

    I enlarged my eyes. First, I cut out the eyes, then reduced the rest of my face (so that I wouldn’t lose quality in the eyes).
    avatar5

    Then I made my eyes a light, brighter green. The layer is set to “Vivid Light”.
    avatar6

    I gave the image more contrast with a “Levels” adjustment layer.
    avatar7

    With a soft, thick brush I added highlights to my eyes to brighten them.
    avatar8

    Now for the exciting part, blue! I changed my skin color by adding a solid block of blue, with the layer set to “Hard Light”.
    avatar9

    With a similar technique, I darkened my hair to black with a tint of blue. This layer is also wet to “Hard Light”. Oh yeah, the nose shadow is added here too.
    avatar10

    And now for the second most fun part, my animal stripes! I drew them with the Lasso Tool, filled them in with a darker blue, blurred the edges and set the layer to “Overlay”.
    avatar11

    No Avatar is complete without some big eyelashes. Here I made them much bigger.
    avatar12

    Time for some ears (the only thing I borrowed from a real Avatar).
    avatar13

    Some fanciful, glowing white dots.
    avatar14

    Finally the background, which I chose for mood and lack of light source to match my head. The only thing I did was blur it some. And this completes my Avatar.
    avatar-final

    January 6th, 2010

    Day 309/365 – If I had a Na’vi Avatar

    Day 309/365 - If I had an Avatar

    The original picture, the background, the inspiration.