Photoshop "Filters"

Almost everyday I am off work, I'm creating some new pictures out of old pictures. This is kind of like it might be when I truly retire. I'm using the array of filters in my new version of Photoshop Elements and finding out that there are more of them I can artistically use on my photos.

This one below was a combination of filters. One of them sharpened up the background and then the poster edges filter really appears to add detail and texture. I particularly like the wood grain enhancement on this Idaho bridge to the wilderness.

I used the ink outlines filter to single out each individual mapleleaf. It also lightened the leaves closer to what it looked like in person. I think this very bright and hopeful picture would go good in a frame on someone's wall.

In sharpening this next picture, the background seemed to flatten out and come alive. The lighting on this old growth dogwood bark creates a scene where the dogwood is doing a solo on the forest stage.

This photo of Feather Falls was cropped out of a much larger picture and then "multi-filtered" into this "feathery" intricate image that sure makes me stare. This one has prospects for gallery display, methinks!

This favorite Zion photo benefitted from the "Ink Outlines" filter that enhanced all those individual branches. To me, it really has a classic look to it.

The Tubes in concert!

While I was in Oroville, the Tubes, one of my all-time favorite bands was playing a free casino show on Halloween Night. They've always been visually and musically appealing but, the big stage shows, props and dancers are now gone, as well as some extra musicians. The Tubes remain as potent as ever, with their songs still as vicious in social commentary as ever. I challenged myself to get some good concert shots in that small and uncrowded venue. Some exposures used a slow shutter speed in order to keep the flash turned off (as required by house rules).

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Fee Waybill, their lead singer, has always played different roles in the different songs that they play. Maybe since it was Halloween, they wanted to play "Mr Hate" and dress the part of a real-life Frisco killer, in this picture below.

On a lighter note, in one of the Tubes' greatest hits, Fee comes out dressed as his "hawker" character, singing the praises of the "One in a Million Girl" adult peepshow.

In one of my own favorite songs, Fee is a TV Game Show host on "What Do You Want From Life". He actually did produce an "autographed picture of Randy Mantooth", one of the objects you might want from life being given away in the mythical show. The performed song has lost a little punch, without all the stage props and dancing girls but, it is still a great song and they do it so well.

(Randy Mantooth was the dark-haired teenage heart throb TV star of "Emergency!", back in the 70's)

One of Fee's characters is a British Glam-Rock star, Quay Lewd, who is boozed and drugged, and who now is made more believable with Fee getting older. Spandex, big hair and even bigger heels showcase their showstopper number in "White Punks on Dope". Again, the Tubes pulled it off without the dancers and stage props.

Here's a view of "Quay" that doesn't show where he stuck that second microphone! You can also see how freakin' big those heels are, too. Luckily for you, I'm not going to post the "Mondo Bondage" pictures!