In my ongoing question to make Nicole be something she’s not.. here is my latest. In this particular process I wanted to transform into a twilight looking character. This is my before and after.
Several years ago I shot Craig and Stephany’s wedding here in Geneseo. As with all photo shoots, I make my way through the shots, checking for problems, making corrections, etc. A lot of times I find myself chuckling as I browse, remembering some of the funny moments that occurred during the day. As I made my way through Craig’s wedding photos, I came across the photo below. I remembered this one in particular because initially they were all going to “punch” him in the face at the same time. Craig played this up as well as seen by his expression. There was something about this photo that I had seen before. In Craig’s face….. for years I couldn’t quite place it. Well earlier in 2009 I finally made the connection!
The original photo by Ron hartman
You be the judge 
Photograph by Robert H. Jackson
My edited original
2009 has been a year of soul-searching for me. Over the past 4 years, I have lost MUCH. This Christmas, the Christmas of 2009, will forever hold a very special place in my heart, for reasons few will know. And as I have been reflecting on various things this past week, I began to ask myself, “what does Christmas mean – REALLY”?
As we head in to the busyness of Christmas, I want to share with you, from my life and heart, what Christmas means to me.
C=Christ:
It is the birth of Jesus Christ which we celebrate on December 25. Jesus was sent to earth, lived a sinless life and died upon a cross so that you and I may have eternal life in Heaven.
H=Hope:
Hope is something we all take for granted. I know. In March of 2009, I found myself just a short 3 months past the deaths of two of my family members and freshly divorced – I quickly lost hope. As the months of 2009 rolled on I find myself deeper and deeper in my hopeless pit. A man (man or woman) without hope needs unconditional love and help. I was loved and helped by a dear friend – I have found my hope again – Jesus Christ. Look around you, read the news, MANY live without hope.
R=Rejoice!
Rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ – because without Him, we are without hope.
I=Immanuel
In Hebrew, “Immanuel” simply means: God is WITH us. This is not past tense, nor meant to happen at some point in the future. It is NOW. I have encountered first hand, God WITH ME in 2009. It is amazing. It is real.
S=Sing!
One of the things we do during the holiday season is SING! We sing songs, lots and lots of songs! Take a minute to look up and reflect on the words of some of these great songs: “Mary Did You Know”, “Oh Come Emmanuel”, “Hark The Herold Angels Sing”, “Come All Ye Faithful”, “Do You Hear What I Hear”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, “Away In The Manger”, “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”, “JOY TO THE WORLD!”, “O Holy Night!”. POWERFUL POWERFUL SONGS!
T=Trust
All it takes is trust. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior – and you will be saved. It’s really that simple! What a fantastic gift!
M=Mercy
I have received sooo much of this in recent years. I have wronged many and in return have been shown mercy – time after time. For this I am thankful. Might we all learn how to show just a BIT more mercy.
A=Alive
God IS Alive. He is not a figment of mine, or millions of others, imagination. He is alive and working in the lives of people all around the globe – including me. It was God who brought me out of my hopeless pit and who continues to work in very interesting and REAL ways in my life and in the lives of those close to me.
S=Saved
I have made the decision to trust Jesus Christ as my savior – I am therefore – SAVED. For this I am thankful.
May you have a merry and blessed Christmas, giving thanks for all that you HAVE, remembering those you have LOST and looking forward to what will come! I would like to encourage you to remember WHY we celebrate this day.
~ Ron
You’ll see in the following images that less is indeed better. My oldest daughter, performing a leap during her floor routine looks MUCH better once we got rid of the people and the chairs in the background. This conversion was early on in the development of my photoshop skills. This one just took a lot of time, patience and a steady MOUSE! Enjoy. Please comment if you like.
First is the original capture:
Next is the final edited version. This cleaned up version presents a much more dramatic leap than the original. The focus can only be in one spot! Technically speaking, if you look closely, you will see some flaws in my editing.
And as an added bonus, I used the above photo as the background for a composite.
I was born and raised in Geneseo Illinois. Love the town, love the people. This post will be dedicated to showing you some of my favorite views of “my town”. I hope you enjoy!! For more information on Geneseo Illinois, please visit some of our city links:
Enjoy!
Taken in Victorian Geneseo Illinois back in 2004, this photo has remained one of my personal favorites. What you see is what you get in this photo. There’s nothing artificial. The colors are real, the setting is real. The photo was taken at the city park in Geneseo. The park is as pretty as you might think! Nowadays, the city crew is quick to get the leaves picked up as they fall. I feel fortunate to have captured this moment. I have a framed copy at my house that looks very nice on my wall. If you’re interested, I would be willing to sell copies of this particular photo. Just let me know.
Having not left the couch the entire day today I found time to do some Photoshop experimenting. I started doing some reading on textures and looking for ways manipulate photos and such with them. I followed in the footsteps of some of the samples from the articles I read and tried some of what they were teaching. In this example, I started with the photo of Nicole, and the photo of the chipped paint. The third image is my final result.
