Sand to the Stars

This is probably one of my favorite pictures I've edited since I got Adobe Photoshop. 

Here's the original.

I originally wanted to edit this picture so that there would be some silhouette of trees on the side. I tried that for some time, played with the lighting of the picture, and instead got it to like it was taken at night. From here, I decided to have a starry sky above. To do this I...

1). Inserted a lens flare on the upper left corner to create a "sun" and made it glow pink

2). Put some texture onto the "sun" to make it look more realistic

3). Created a brush to draw in stars and filled in the sky 

4). Made more sand bits in the sky by copying and altering them

5). Drew in more sand streaks into the air to emphasize that sand is being thrown

 And voila! It is unrealistic because... how can you see a sun this big and stars right next to it, but it's pretty cool to look at don't you think?

White out in New Orleans

These pictures were taken in New Orleans. Now I like all of these because of the white wash on all of them which brings a uniformity over them that didn't exist before. All I did was bring up the brightness and contrast and blast the highlights. 

These are some street performers and an audience sitting around. 

I saw a man take a picture of this tree, so I was like, hey I should take a picture of this too. And voila!

Don't worry, I didn't cross at the wrong time. 

Typical french buildings in New Orleans.

Pizza on Pi Day

Pi day this year was visited by storm Stella, which meant that we were snowed in. What better way to spend the day home than to make a pizza on pi day? Here's to a veggie pizza!

Fun fact: pizza can take a minimum of 4 hours including preparing and cooking time.

Fun fact: the most number of digits of pi memorized is 100,000

Fun fact: the world's largest circular pizza was 112 feet 8 inches across. 

Fun fact: more pizza is eaten during the week of Super Bowl than any other week of the year. 

NYC Taxi

This was taken in NYC of course. What you're seeing is Broadway, and right behind me was the Charging Bull. The Charging Bull, also known as the Wall Street Bull, is a famous bronze sculpture in the middle of the road (not literally... it's sitting on a platform and stuff). People are crazy about taking picture with the bull. There's always a crowd around where people climb up and around to take pictures. 

Taxis are one of the most symbolic things of NYC. When I think of a taxi, my mind automatically shifts gears to NYC. I mean, every NYC show and movie has someone catching a taxi. There's even a website for NYC taxis. And I've heard that "you aren't a true New Yorker until you've stolen a cab from someone who needs it more than you do." So here's a classic representation of the yellow taxi cab. 

Aspen

Aspen, Colorado; the town of skiing and snowboarding. I tell you this little town lives and breathes on the sports. I'm not sure what they do during the summer, but I've heard these slopes are the best place in the country. Which means all the famous people and athletes invest into these grounds. 

We had lunch at this New York Style pizzeria in Aspen, and then we heard about these gondola rides and sprinted to them since they were about to close. So the gondola rides, which are these closed lifts that ride up the mountain, are free and run morning to evening. And thank goodness we made it just on time. So riding up the mountain took like ten minutes; yea it was a long ride. But ahhh it was amazing cause the view was stunning and we were so unbelievably steep. 

So as we were going up, we could see the skii lifts too. I love skiing but I can't even imagine going down these steep slopes. So steep I tell ya.

These are some the slopes at the top of the mountain. The slopes weren't open that day, not sure why. Probably not enough snow? 

Once we got to the top of the mountain, you could see the entire valley of Aspen to your right as well as mountains to your left. I guess these views are why Aspen is so popular among the celebrities. It's so beautiful and quite perfect for professional snowboarders/skiers. 

There's even a lodge at the top where we had some hot chocolate cause it was freezing cold outside. And the views at the top were stunnnnnning.

Anyway, hope ya'll make a trip one day  to Aspen, Colorado one day and find your inner peace in these mountains :). 

Artist's POV

Some photos are just meant to be crafted into a new piece of art...

 When it's too cold so you have to zipper up, but the zipper is being more stubborn than the weather. 

You know those people just making it on the streets? Those who pester you to buy one of their paintings or ask if they can tell your future? Well kudos to them and their artwork on the fence because it makes this picture look awesome. 

Because we all need a little mystery, warmth, and satisfaction. 

An Anachronism

Woahh big word... Anachronism means something that is misplaced in time, or something that is out of place. An example of this would be of someone wearing Lincoln's top-hat today. Historical movies and documentaries also use anachronisms when they accidentally show a phone or laptop that didn't exist back in the day. Another example would be- 

 A tall sailboat on the Hudson River. Yea crazy right? A boat, which resembles an old, antique, 17th century sailboat, looks odd sailing in front of NYC. See why it's an anachronism? We're so used to seeing jet skis and private yachts and cruise ships, a sailboat no longer mentally fits on the surface. 

 In literature, anachronisms are used artistically to bring attention to a detail, and it can be used rhetorically or comedically.  And since I'm really into artistic photo effects now, I applied an art filter to bring attention to the ship and background.