I, on the other hand am finishing up something I started this afternoon. I went over to a friends house to show her a few things about Photoshop and she mentioned that she needed to Photoshop a 'Flat Stanley' sort of dude into some typical Texas places for her Grandson's project at school.
I begged her to let me do it! I REALLY like playing in Photoshop and this sounded fun - plus I had some places that were 'typically Texas'. It is so nice to have friends that put up with me and my obsessions! I took a few shots of the little guy on a background that would make cutting out the background easier and headed home with my new 'school project'.
Here, I sandwiched him between two photos of Blue Bonnets - with the hopes that he looked like he was in them:
Here, the brave young man decided to balance on the back of an alligator! The fun here was getting the reflection in the lake (swamp), complete with some ripples for effect (I was going for realistic, but Gary says it doesn't look real ...):
I had a blast, as Gary was typing up the miles between cities over on his laptop ...
He's there, just keep looking ...
This could be the theoretical demise of my buddy ...
... but maybe I need to get me another buddy. I like the gnome! I could set him up in all my old travel photos ... sort of catch him up - get him up to speed, then start toting him along for the ride ...
So - Gary and I are off tomorrow. Looking through the bundles of maps provided, the roads closed for the bikers exclusive use, and the fact that over 10,000 of these crazy people are descending upon a town with a population of 2,645 - my ENTIRE goal for the day is to find MY crazy cyclist and get him to the hotel we are staying at that night. Other than that, I will be taking wildflower photographs (if the weather is good - which is not the prediction) and see if I can snap a few shots of the cyclists somewhere along the way (difficult since we will be using separate roads - but maybe somewhere we get close ...).
The next day we will do the same thing except, near as we can tell - ExxonMobil (Gary's team) has not provided any information on a particular meeting point at the end - so now in a city with a population of 757,688 and a finish line marked on a map I will be looking for a very tired man ... somewhere.
It is going to be ... well ... interesting.
Don't know if I will have Internet - but rest assured - as soon as I am home - you are bound to get a complete update - including a photo of his teams neon spandex bike outfit. I will caution you now - it may cause damage to your retinas if you look directly at it ...
... until then:
I will pray for good weather, a safe ride to all involved
I will wish for that perfect Wildflower shot with a shot of Gary crossing the finish line in Austin thrown in cause I'm just nuts
And I will be dreaming of where to take my (theoretical) travel gnome next ...
5 comments:
Lori, I was working with a woman from San Antonio, who showed me some pictures of a road that I think is near Wimberley Texas. The name of the road was Purgatory road and all you could see were miles and miles of Blue Bonnets, I thought of you when I saw them. It's located between Austin and New Braunfels. So if things get a little slow at the races.... it's west of San Marcos, and east of Canyon Lake. At least I think that's the road!
Hope you have a good weekend.
Talk to you later.AJ
Good luck to Gary! I admire those crazy folks that can do that race. I hope you are able to find him in a timely fashion. Did you bring a bullhorn? You could just wander the streets yelling, "Gary!! Gary!! Where are you?"
Here's to good weather, good cycling for him, and masses of beautiful, photogenic wildflowers for you!
Where were you when my kids had to do crazy school assignments? Good luck Gary, and may you be found at the end of the day. (I'm assuming a cell phone can't be put in some little bag under the seat because it would cause too much air drag or weight or some such thing)
Two years ago when we were visiting Kim, we did a Flat Stanley project for a friend of hers. We didn't think about photoshopping - we just took pictures. It was pretty fun!
You could do a "where's flat Stanley book". :-)
I love your pictures! Especially the Flat Stanley ones! So cute! When we get into the age where my kids have to do something like that, I'll talk to you.
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