philo!

I used Nik Software's U-Point Technology in Nikon's Capture NX2 to lighten the lady's face and the hollow of the right eye. I also got rid of some noise to smooth out her face. I did not smooth out by cloning the deeper folds on her face, hence the darker shadows between her nose and left eye.

Hope it helps!

Be well! Happy New Year! Ed

(Download)

[quote=jerryc41]I've gotten hooked on those cheap sci-fi disaster movies on YouTube. They tend to be unintentionally amusing. "Fiction" definitely belongs in the description. They seem to ignore actual science completely...."

One of my favorite sci-fi movies is "Lifeforce" from 1985, a not-so-cheap ($25 million) film from Cannon Group and Tri-Star Films that has become a cult classic. Directed by Tobe Hooper with a musical score by Henry Mancini and starring some famed British actors of that time including Patrick Stewart!

"Lifeforce" is currently showing for free on Tubitv.com and features a nude human-formed alien called the "Spacegirl" played by Matilda May, a French actress who's still around and attractive at 58!

A retrospective review is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKHB-_pDeM4

The film for that time had pretty good special effects and acting and has been nicely remastered.

Be well all! Happy New Year. Ed

(Download)

"Art Director"

Nice images, why the criticism about Maternity Shoots? I've done 4 of them and the images were loved by the mothers and fathers-to-be!

Be well! Happy New Year! Ed

Retired CPO!

You're right! All kinds of things show up when the water levels drop, even cars with people in them! Some missing person cases have been solved when their car showed up or were found with the latest advanced technologies.

A very interesting YouTube channel with 23 solved cold cases of missing people: https://www.youtube.com/@AdventuresWithPurpose

Speaking of bicycles: a few years ago the PRC (mainland China) had an unbridled and unregulated bicycle-sharing program that saw so many companies involved that the riders abused and misused the bicycles which led to many graveyards of them that they were stored by color:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Vy4wi-H88

Be well! Happy New Year! Ed

sablynnn!

Lovely set! Best wishes for the New Year! Ed

Bank of America had humble roots in San Francisco, back in the days of the 1906 earthquake there!

See: https://www.occ.treas.gov/about/who-we-are/history/1866-1913/1866-1913-bank-of-america.html

The bank's founder was A. P. Giannini, an American of Italian heritage so "Bank of Italy" seemed like a good idea at the time! Eventually, for marketing and goodwill, the bank's name was changed to "Bank of America." According to the above article: "On November 1, 1930, the Bank of Italy in San Francisco changed its name to Bank of America. The bank today has the same national bank charter number as Giannini's old bank— #13044.

When A.P. Giannini died in 1949, the former single-teller office in North Beach claimed more than 500 branches and $6 billion in assets. It was then the largest bank in the world.

A postage stamp in his honor was issued in 1974!

I have had an account at B of A for a decade and have always been treated fine. I have a number of other bank and credit union accounts here in NY and have seen beaucoup mergers and takeovers through the years; most recently Citizens Bank of R.I. taking over a dozen branches of HSBC.

Be well! Happy holidays! Ed

Hi all!

According to Wikipedia, the actors who played Honolulu-based Charlie Chan (in order of appearance) were George Kuwa (1885-1931), Sojin Kamiyama (1884-1954), E. L. Park (1876-1948), Warner Oland (1879-1938), Manuel Arbo (1898-1973), Sidney Toler (1874-1947), Roland Winters (1904-1989), Ross Martin (1920-1981), and Peter Ustinov (1921-2004).

I've seen episodes with Warner Oland and Sidney Toler as mentioned by other Hoggers.

Be well! Happy Holidays. Ed

Just Fred!

I hate to be a Killjoy but check out this short video:

https://www.amazon.com/live/video/06122d4090004168bd59683e76796300?ref_=asvh_vdp

I fell for a similar scam a few years ago when 512GB was considered a deal! Worked fine until files started approaching the one-third to one-half mark and then the files began to get corrupted and/or disappeared.
This sounds too good to be true, similar to my case in the past, as similar San Disk drives are three times the cost.
I've seen such warnings on YouTube but these scams continue.

Be well! Ed

freediver808!

Some very nice maternity images! Very creative. Be well! Ed

Throughout the history of photography, the path has always led to the simplification of the photographic process whether it was George Eastman and his first Kodak camera producing round images (during the time of glass plates) to "Brownies," Polaroids, Dianas, Lomography, Fuji mini-labs, Canon copiers and now cell phone cameras. The one underlying fact is that all these cameras were good enough. Cell phone images exist to be shared with other phones and social media, so the images are good enough! A different process than us serious photographers! :-) LOL

Be well!! Ed

Jeffcs!

I was also the President of Park West Camera Club, Manhattan, NYC for 6-1/2 years and we have around 80 members but in our club, the average age is 60+ with one lady in her late 90s. Photography as a hobby is relatively expensive and ongoing. Being retired and drawing a pension sure helps as well as having leisure time, for trips and vacations.

Nowadays, there are so many avocations that compete with photography. And with business as it is, photography is not that attractive as a vocation!

Be well! Ed

rmbennett30!

I have been following your posts. Of all the free alternative editing software programs out there, Dark Table is good but not necessarily the easiest to learn. Recently I bought the latest version of Photoshop Elements 2024 via "Black Friday" sales for only $59.99 plus tax through Amazon. With the latest versions of the last few years, Adobe has offered only the box with the download link and activation code. This version as well as the last few offers 3 editing "Views:" Quick, Guided and Expert which will assist you with editing regardless if you're a new, an intermediate or an expert user!

There will be more sales this holiday season so PSE can be picked up for a lot less than $100!

If you don't want to spring for the cost of PSE, Fastone Image Viewer, despite its name offers all the editing basics and more that a newbie might need. I use it often to do "quick and dirty" editing.

Be well! Ed

Jesu S!

To get a first-hand opinion about Mixbooks, send a PM to "Hip Coyote", another Hogger here. He is retired and travels extensively with his family and friends and uses Mixbooks to print and share his memories.

He gave a book-making presentation to our camera club, Park West CC, a while back. If you are interested, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4SPqD_QBoQ

Be well! Ed

Bohica!

As Spirit Vision said, the film is terrible and should be thrown away. It was advertised in the old photo magazines and was re-spooled motion picture film which required a cine film processor to remove the jet-black protective coating. I believe it was given away for free and a shooter would get prints and transparencies for a fee. By now, it's probably many decades out of date!

Be well! Ed

madpaddler!

I made this offer to another Hogger earlier this year at no charge! See Page 2 of this thread:

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-784081-1.html

As I still have 5 or 6 Activation codes, one is yours if you would like to recover your data. I have been using the previous Version 4 successfully for several years to recover images from some of my old hard drives from the late 90s and 00s (from my business). This new version is only a 1-year subscription while V.4 is forever! I did try RescuePro Deluxe once to make sure that it worked!

I can email you the Activation Code to enter. Google "RescuePro Deluxe" to download the software.

Be well! Ed