Drive Thru Redwood Tree

There are three drive thru redwood trees. They are located at:
1. Klamath Tour Thru Tree: 430 Hwy 169, Klamath, CA 95548. (Take the Tewer Valley off-ramp from highway 101, drive east for a quarter mile on route 169). Map link here.

2. Shrine Tree: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2043. It is in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Myers Flat, 4 miles south of the visitor's center. Map link here.

2. Chandelier Tree: Take the Leggett exit where 101 juctions with highway 1, after exiting the freeway, turn south immediately to the frontage road. (67420 Drive Thru Tree Road, Leggett, CA 95585

Great alternating back colors for rows in a data grid

I was building a data grid on a website and came across these two colors. I think they make great alternating back colors for rows in a data grid. So in case I forget them, I decided to record them here for future uses.

The color code for the grayish row: #E3E4FA
The color code for the greenish row: #C7E2DB

Which state is this lake located?

We have been doing lake searching and came across the Possum Kingdom Lake. Such a gorgeous lake is not what I expected to see in Texas! What made it even better is not many people live around it or come to it, which made it a very clean, peaceful resort.





A side note: unfortunately I took these photos with Kodak EasyShare Z1012, which I don't think is as good as equivalent Canon cameras. The specs are good but the quality is not to my satisfaction. So I don't recommend it.

Photoshop Watercolor Effects

Before:



After:


You can learn this technique from Katrin's book "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching" - one of the best photoshop books in the market.

The original photo was taken by Jim from Lexington, KY, USA. See licensing info at here.

Free Old English Text Font?

"Pain Killer - FDA Approved"

The font for "Pain Killer" is supposed to be "Old English Text" or something more intimidating than what I used. I couldn't find a free-download of "Old English Text". It looks like I have to buy it in order to own it now. :)

Photoshop Made Chocolate Bar

Enjoy the chocolate bar created by Photoshop! Happy Holidays!





You can find the recipe in the book "Photoshop Type Effects Gong Wild". Of course, make all the tweaks you want. (I did and I found that being bold is good!)

Forte - A Bloated Script-Style Font (free download included)

This "whimsical" font appeals to children. The author of "Photoshop Type Effects Gong Wild" says it would make a good candidate for prints on kids products such as cereal boxes. You can find a free download from here.

Old Melody

I accidentally heard this old Chinese song on a website. I still can't remember its name, but it struck me like the bright mid-autumn moon did when i was in the country of China. Tonight, I sat down on the couch in my little office at home, turned off the lights, and let the melody start to flow. Slowly, like an old story-telling friend, this old melody brought up all the old memory to me. I don't know whether it is the beautiful music or the old memory, whatever it is, inch by inch, it filled up the whole room, it embraced me, it melted me...

Old Melody

By Steven Taylor

Hello again old melody,
please play for me today….
bring back those
special magic times
my mind keeps packed away

Sing to my soul, old
friend of mine….
your song is my desire..
so nice of you to visit me,…
your style I so admire

Your music paints my past so well,….
old smiles and tears return,
play on Old Melody my friend,
for times gone by
I yearn

Your last refrain, you slowly fade
into obscurity
Old Melody, my dear old friend,
return to me real soon

Book Reading Project

I know if I don't at least sign in and write a few words, I will forget my login id and password to enter my blog. So here I am.

I am still working on my photoshop skills. I am immensely enjoying the book "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching" By Katrin Eismann. I made a promise to read the book (and practice the techniques) for at least 3 times. Now I am less than half way on the first round. Check back to see if I can keep my promise. I really need some pressure on this. Yell at me, chastise me, despise me when you see me trying to back out!

Shampoo Bottle Design (failed versions)

Where is the successful version? I don't know. I may never be able to make one...

The bottle: drawn with photoshop.
The flower: derived from the original image "Tibouchina urvilleana" by photographer Kristine from St. Augustine, USA

For John

Every so often I get this urge of trying new things. It comes and goes. I forget about it pretty quickly. But John remembers it everytime. Over a year ago, I happpened to see an article on the Internet that says digital SLR cameras were hot and professional photographers did wonders with them. One night I mentioned it at the dinner table and expressed my admiration towards these SLRs. A few weeks later John bought me a Cannon SLR camera. I screamed - how wonderful! But it must be expensive (he wouldn't tell me how much it cost)! I was estatic but in the meantime I kicked myself for saying my wishes too easily because John always tries to make them come true! He is always happy to see me joyfully surprised. The fact is each time I AM truely amazed by him and I AM speechless at his loving attention. Again and again I thank God for giving John to me - not because the things he buys or does for me, but for his forever gentle caring heart!

Back to the SLR. Life has been so busy that I never fully utilized this advanced equipment as of today. This afternoon we took our duaghter and her friend to the Fort Worth garden for a walk. We did some blind photo shooting there. Suddenly I realized how little I knew about my camera - I still don't know how to set the f-stop, the exposure offset, etc. Most of the time I had to do what I always do, which is setting it to "automatic" and just point and shoot. What a waste to have such a nice camera! John kept telling me it was ok and this was a good start. He even picked out a couple of photos to prove his point. I knew he tried to make me feel better, but I couldn't stop feeling sorry because I should have been good at using this camera by now. I felt I didn't treat John's gift right, I didn't treat John right.

John suggested me to put these pictures up as some sort of self-encouragement. I know they are very so-so pictures, but I will do as he wishes...






As for the previous post "Shampoo Bottle Desgin", I am stilling working on it. There is a long way to go yet.

Shampoo Bottle Design (Phase 1)

Not completed yet, but I will finish it soon.
The bottle: drawn with photoshop.
The flower: derived from the original image "Tibouchina urvilleana" by photographer Kristine from St. Augustine, USA

Bottle makeover with photoshop

Before:



After:

Professional U-Turn

I am learning about myself - still. Last December, I was still with a tiny compay working really hard for myself, and for the company. I was always afraid if I didn't work hard enough, the company would have difficulty to pay us on time, or, pay us at all. Later I realized how childish I was - I had been with that company for two years by then and it didn't really miss any of our paychecks even though there were a few incidents that signaled some financial trouble. Finally, in January, everyone's hard work paid off - our 20 people company got bought by a huge corporation, a corporation that is top 20 in the nation and has around 180,000 employees. We cheered - we are "rich" now, we are safe now.

I thought I would "work" happily ever after the bought-out. What I didn't realize was that I just entered into the nightmare of big corporation's bureaucracy, mind-buggling controling policies and the new manager's power struggles. Suddenly, a different kind of pressure was mouting. It sufficated me to the point that I finally could't take it anymore.

Now I am back to a small company. I feel like I just went on a long waited journey and quickly took a U-turn and came back home. Now work is as harder as ever again but I couldn't appreciate it more.

Poster Design - Protect Our Forests

Trick 1: See my previous post.
Trick 2: Added a black layer and then I used the dodge tool to enhance the torn look of the page.