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Hugs and blessings,

Friday, June 6, 2008

Haiku Friday #45 - Photoshop Collages & Women's Semi-Finals Tennis Update

I apologize
Blogger let me down and did
not publish this post

as I scheduled
it for 12:04am ...
Dunno what went wrong!

The 'link' I left last
night at A Mommy Story
should work okay now.

I have used a few
Quarter Final photos I
collaged yesterday

(made with Picasa)
here with Photoshop. I've learned
lots of new techniques

using various
tools in PSE 6 that
give me more control

over the finished
'look' ... instead of collages
that have to be squares

all of the same size.
2 by 2 or 3 by 3
4 x 4 ... you get

the drift. Picasa
generated easily
automatic squares.

Notice these photos
have been 'cropped' and placed as I
choose ... the edges seeem

'fuzzy' as if 'torn'
an effect I purposely
opted to employ.
~ ~ ~

Women's Semi-Finals Update

Thursday four women
played Semi-Final matches
two Russians, two Serbs.

Kuznetsova seemed
'tight' from the beginning and
never found her game

against Safina ...
playing 'fired-up' from the
first serve in their match

while the Serbians
fought each other brilliantly
and it looked as if

Jankovic might be
the one to come out on top,
but Ivanovic

managed to raise her
game in the 3rd set and break
Jankovic on serve!

Photo Source: Yahoo Sports

Thursday's Results

Dinara Safina won in two sets 6-3, 6-2
Ana Ivanovic won in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

They'll play their Championship Match
on Saturday
~ ~ ~

For a Mr. Linky to other Haiku Fridays
go to A Mommy Story or
Playgroups are no Place for Children.

To see more previous Haikus,
click on the Haiku Friday label below this post
or in the sidebar under About Me.

Thought for Today
"If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks, and that means you're not going anywhere. They key is to make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more changes to learn and win." John W. Holt, Jr.

16 comments:

Kat said...

I am impressed again! Another tennis haiku but this time with photoshop collages! Wow! Great job as always!

Karen said...

The collages are so cool! That is definitely something I need to learn!

Karen Coutu said...

Blogger let me down too. I scheduled my haiku to post at 12:01am and nothing!!! Good thing I was still awake and could publish it manually.

Great haiku and photo collages!!!

storyteller said...

Kathryn – You know how I love haiku (and tennis) … so combining them is a ‘natural’ for me when Friday rolls around. I sometimes use the form other days too, but also write in other ‘rhythmic’ and ‘rhyming’ patterns instead because 'poetry' is my ‘default’ when the expository form fails me.

Karen (Stagwoman) – I’m sure you’d enjoy learning about these things, but be advised that all of this is ‘time-intensive’ and a bit addictive. Picasa’s collages are much quicker to create, but I enjoyed the ‘freedom’ of using photos of different sizes and shapes in these three collages after I took a ‘leap of faith’ and installed PSE 6 late yesterday afternoon. Of course I spent HOURS making these 3 collages … causing me to fall even farther behind on everything, but hopefully as I gain skill and experience … things will go faster in creating these. With what I’ve learned, I realize I can make the Picasa collages better simply by ‘cropping’ the photos before inserting them, but it’s frustrating moving between the two programs with the limited memory in my Dell slowing things down to a turtle’s pace. I need a new computer soon!

Karen of Sillymonkeez – I’m relieved to know it wasn’t something I did (or didn’t do) with Blogger and knowing that, perhaps I’ll try using the scheduling feature again one of these days. I’m seldom awake after 10pm, but I awaken early without an alarm (have since I was a child) … usually by 4am or so. I love the morning hours!

I appreciate your feedback this morning and hope you’re all having a fantastic Friday! I’ll drop by your blogs in a little while as time permits, but Molly is bugging me for some exercise … so I guess I’m headed outside right now.
Hugs and blessings,

Melissa said...

Awesome PS work! I'm inspired now!

And Blogger let you down? Blogger? Say it isn't so! ;)

Ivanhoe said...

Ohhh, busy Saturday for you ;o) I just love all that new stuff you are learning in your class!
Same old here, waiting for our carpenter to stop doing OT so he has a time to come and help us with our house. The replacement windows, slider and new floor have been waiting in the garage for a few weeks now *sigh*. I told Mark to start the fence - instead of just waiting around (I think we can manage the fence on our own :o)
Have a great weekend!

Storytellin' Mama said...

Great work with the photos. I like the torn edge effect.

Thanks for the recap on tennis, I haven't watched much because of my little ones... my husband has been out of town for seven days.

Great Haiku!

Anonymous said...

I like your collages. And how fun to narrate it all with haiku.

Happy Friday.

Momisodes said...

Very nice! I am so impressed with all the things photoshop can do. And to THINK!!! It took me f.o.r.e.v.e.r to do my 1 collage in powerpoint *sigh*

Ari_1965 said...

I've noticed that if I save the post as a draft or publish it, and then change my mind and decide to schedule it, the scheduling won't work.

Anonymous said...

Awesome haiku. Love the photo collages, too!

Anonymous said...

Very nice! I need to learn more about doing things with images. It's on my list :)

Akelamalu said...

Blogger let me down yesterday on my scheduled post too!

Love your Haiku Storyteller.

storyteller said...

Melissa – I’m loving the PSE tools and learned even more in my Special Saturday Scrapbooking class … (as illustrated in my OSI Week 14 post at Sacred Ruminations). One could spend a lifetime on this stuph! Say what we will about Blogger … it’s worked for me pretty well as I’ve gotten my ‘virtual’ feet on the ground in the Blogosphere and it’s FREE, so a bit of frustration now and then is tolerable. Apparently it was at ‘glitch’ for that day because my Saturday scheduled post worked fine.

Ivanhoe – Me too! The only downside is how much seems to be ‘falling through the cracks’ as I try to juggle everything. Heck … it’s MONDAY and I’m just now getting around to responding to these comments. I’ve not yet posted for today and I’m meeting friends for ‘Retired Gals Lunch’ in just about 4 hours … Molly needs a walk … goodness knows how many unread messages there will be in Google Reader and Gmail. It’s always something, right? Right! Hope the carpenter shows up and that the windows get installed soon ;--)

Laura (Storytellin’Mama) – I’m amazed at what Photoshop lets one do … and 6 is so much simpler than 3 was. As for tennis, I’m glad to oblige … though it was sad to see Roger lose the final to Rafa in straight sets again on Sunday … especially after he’d just won a match against Rafa on clay in Hamburg in similar conditions. I’ve got two weeks to get caught up before Wimbledon ;--)

Vixen – Thanks … I enjoy sharing in this manner and it’s fun to know others appreciate my efforts.

Sandy – It took much longer to make these Photoshop collages than it does to make them in Picasa … and I see how cropping photos before using the Picasa collage tool would make it better. I suppose I’m happy to have options … and I’ve always enjoyed learning new things.

Ari – Thanks for the tip … I’ll keep that in mind.

Dana – Your comment makes me smile … Thanks ;--)

Maggie – I’m delighted to be learning these things and highly recommend taking a class to assist if at all possible because the help menus are overwhelming at first.

Akelamalu – I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one. The scheduling worked fine for me on Saturday.

I’m sorry to take so long to respond to your comments and appreciate each of you stopping by to share. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that Monday is marvelous too!
Hugs and blessings,

Tina Coruth said...

Storyteller,

You are doing a great job on these collages! Thank you for sharing them with us!

hugs,
Tina

storyteller said...

Tina – How nice to find your comment today as I’m thinking about what to ‘ku about this week! I appreciate your supportive comments always and it was fun to revisit these early ‘collages’ created with Photoshop 6. It’s hard to believe that first class is over (after 5 weeks of meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays), but the Intermediate Class begins next Tuesday … so I’ll be learning how to do even more things in the next 5 weeks. It’s all very nifty! Hope all’s well with you and yours ;--)
Hugs and blessings,

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