A Presentation using Google Docs

This presentation is about a typical day at work.



I had never used Google Docs before creating this presentation, but have made a slide show using Power Point before.  I found it to be very similar. One difficulty I had at first was getting my photos into the presentation. I couldn't seem to upload them from my computer (I assume because they were too large) and also couldn't load them from a URL after putting them on Flickr. I found out that I could drag them in from another window, so I got them into the presentation that way. Then I found that they weren't as clear as I'd like, so I deleted them and used the medium sized photos from Flickr so they looked better, although at the size it is here it wouldn't matter.
My typical day is somewhat routine and probably boring to people. I work at two part time jobs on the Health Science campus. The only thing out of the ordinary that happened is that a wall in the middle of the room got taken down. Sometimes weekends are more interesting, especially if I go to one of my walks.
If I had more time maybe I could have made a more interesting presentation, but I didn't have time to wait for inspiration before starting. Anyway, I know how to use Google Docs after creating this and it isn't hard at all.

Making a video with Animoto

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

This week I used a program called Animoto to make a short video. My video features the song Down on the Corner by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I chose this song because I like the group and have it on my computer in iTunes. I also thought the idea of being on a corner could work with the urban landscape photos I took. First I had to make a MP3 version of the song since I only had it in the default AAC version. My first attempt at making a video showed I had way too many photos for the 30 seconds allowed for a free video, so I had to eliminate some. It isn't easy to decide what to cut of your own photos. The first version I made didn't have the right part of the song in it and I didn't like the result. So I used the sliders while listening to the song to get it to start where I wanted it to. I couldn't get it to end up exactly right. Then I didn't like how the pictures fit, so I moved them around some. In my final version I have the courthouse showing at the time when the lyrics say "over by the courthouse" and some kids in a picture when the lyrics say "four kids on the corner", only my kids are down the alley and the timing isn't quite as good there. After that the lyrics really don't match the pictures much. I think it would be easier to take pictures to fit a song than try to pick a song to fit the pictures, especially since there isn't a way to control what is showing when except by the order of the pictures. I also thought the Tarta station and the bus pulling away would make good ending shots. It would be nice to play with something with more features to adjust the timing on the photos to fit the music better and cut it off at exactly the right spot.

Urban Landscape

During the past couple weeks, I took some photos in downtown Toledo on the subject of Urban Landscape. I also edited them using an online application available directly from Flickr called Picnik. Although this is a good program to edit photos without having to spend a lot of money and can be used from any computer, it will no longer be available after April.
Here is a photo that I took in the Vistula Historic District that I edited with Picnik


I took this photo and others that can be seen at my flickr page using my Kodak EasyShare C813 camera. This camera has 8.2 megapixels and  a 3x optical zoom. After reading the class content for this past week, I decided to check that I was photographing at the highest resolution my camera is capable of. The dimensions of the photos I checked were 2472 X 3296 pixels. Multiplying these together gives 8,147,712 pixels or 8.14 megapixels which is close to the advertised amount of 8.2 megapixels and therefore I know I am shooting at this camera's best resolution. In editing this photo from the original I used the straighten function in Picnik and cropped it to eliminate the light pole to the right and street in the foreground. Although the exposure seemed correct to me, I hit the auto exposure button, which I felt had very little effect. I also used the sharpness tool on this photo. I tend to like my photos to appear natural so only apply a small amount of sharpness so they don't appear oversharpened. I also feel that the contrast and saturation appear natural as is, so I did not apply any correction to those. On a number of the photos I edited a made them slightly cooler in temperature so that the sky would appear more blue rather than the January overcast grey. A lot of the time when I edit photos, I use the histogram and adjust that so that the picture doesn't look over or under exposed. On the picture that was most underexposed of this set, which I named Bar for Lease, I tried this, but was not satisfied with the results. It was too underexposed for this to work well and has color artifacts in it like a picture that was increased in resolution and shows the effects of interpolation.
What attracted me to this particular building is the boarded up windows, fire escape and graffiti, which all fit with my idea of what a photo showing urban landscape is.

First Post

Since I'm planning for this blog to be about art and photography, I decided to write this post about a sculpture I like that is in Perrysburg, OH on the grounds of the old Commodore School buidling. It's called "The Old Town Pump"and was created by Ralph Kleeberger who passed away just this December. He was an educator at Northwood schools and lived in Perryburg. He was involved in the Toledo Area Sculptor's Guild.  He dedicated this sculpture to the children of Perrysburg.
I'm not old enough to have experienced town pumps, but one reason I like this sculpture is that it reminds me of my childhood. We went picnicking out at a roadside rest where there was a water pump that my sisters, brother and I played with when we went there.
For more information about the creation of this sculpture visit http://www.perrysburgarts.org/Kleeberger.html.