PB&...P?

No, I'm not talking about the sandwich, of which thankfully I have never bitten into. The thought of peanut butter mingling with jelly between two layers of thick - or thin - bread, is disgusting to me. As is peanut butter itself as of late. Give me a ham, cheese and salami sandwich please!

When you start rhyming words within sentences, you know it's time to start a different topic. But first, let me apologize for not posting a new blog post in what, two weeks has it been? It's simply a matter of schoolwork getting in the way, not having an opportune moment...or a lack of inspiration. One of them still plagues me now, the latter, but yet here I sit, intent on writing a blog post for Wednesday, Sept. 28th. Speaking of the date, it seems crazy that September is almost over, let the "burr months" begin! *Insert unenthusiastic wave here*.

So, back to the title of today's blog post. You're probably thinking, the last time I checked PB&P wasn't any sandwich I've heard of, and maybe you'd be right. But it could be something like peanut butter and pickles, or peanut butter and pretzels. Okay,  now I'm just having too much fun with it. The real meaning behind the title is an abbreviation - not the real name I know, I'll be damned if I remember it though! - of my three favorite photo-editing sites: Picnik.com, Befunky.com and Photobucket.com. Just like everyone else, I go through 'fads' in life, some are temporary - like my obsession with the Christian-pop group Jump5 in middle school - and some, it seems, are intent on lingering longer even as I look on in puzzlement - like my summertime transition to listening to strictly 80's rock music on my iPod, almost exclusively, turning my back on the 80's and 90's country music that was there long before the other genre was, while still even more fads have settled in comfortably amongst the packed recesses of the rooms where I house my myriad passions, and have found amicable conversation with them all, finding a common ground...I'll end the metaphor here, since I realize this has been one rambling sentence since the word "just".

It seems the "fad" I developed thanks to my fellow photosnapper - I couldn't help but pen that phrase, it just popped into my mind like delicately browned toast awaiting a thick blanket of butter on a Sunday morning - and cousin, Kelly, is here to stay, and I don't mind! Photo eiditing seems like a natural extension to my photography passion, and also an excuse for me to exercise my graphic-artist ambitions - damn, I hate settling for a lesser word! There was a word I was going to place there instead of "ambitions" but I can't think of it. But what, you ask, is so 'addicting' about embellishing photos?

This rhetorical question, humorously enough, makes me think back to one of my favorite - and I don't normally like/watch them - sitcom shows, Reba, where Barbara Jean - the classic blonde, in every way - goes nuts with a bejewler and a sewing machine and totally buries a once modest denim jacket in jewels and sparkles. It also brings to mind the bedazzler for jeans, what a crazy idea. Now I feel like one of my favorite characters I've created, Lorraine Lansing, where I single-handedly steer my thoughts off course, or find myself sitting back and silently laughing at the humor of my wayward thoughts. Now I know for sure that in every character I create, there is certainly some part of myself reflected in each of them.

But to answer my own question, I guess I just like seeing the extra potential in each photo. Or what different effects can add to it when I'm on one of the three websites I listed above. Also, like I said before, it gives me a chance to exercise my graphic-design muscle. And obviously I love just plain photos, and sometimes there's nothing I can add to a photo, but sometimes when I snap a picture my mind excitedly leaps forward, way ahead of me, thinking how I can edit that photo, what certain phrase I can add to it, what effect I can apply to it to make it a trifle better than what it is.

Adding text to my edited photos is my new favorite thing. And if any of you, my fellow blog readers and posters!, know me...it just can't be any saying, or word. It has to be strategically thought through, until not just the letters themselves settle perfectly into the picture...but phrase - or simply a sentence - does as well.

I really do have a lot to owe to my cousin. This past summer I took dozens upon dozens of pictures, and I was inspired to get back into photography because of the photographs she was regularly posting. And albeit she doesn't share my passion for old/abandoned houses and such, she does love the countryside, small town life, and walking amongst the woods and silence. In my life I have met very few who share so many of my passions, and unfortunately most of the people I have met that do...live far away, like my cousin the U.P. Perhaps then, that's another reason I write, so I can connect with people - albeit only in my mind - who share my passions, and whom I can 'converse' with about the things I love, and my reasons for loving them.

To end this week's blog post, I'll share a photo I have edited on one of the three sites I mentioned. It's an old house I found while trolling the streets of one of my favorite small towns, Calumet, Michigan. It's an old copper mining town that literally has dozens of either abandoned or derelict historic houses, and let me tell you when I discovered these troves of such houses, I was estatic! Well...only on the inside of course. If I were to start shouting and jumping in my seat, and my roommates came running...only to discover that I was all excited over street after street of shoddy-faced houses in a U.P town I've only been to once - sad fact, let me tell you! - they would probably cock an eyebrow, an awkward silence would follow, and I'd be left fumbling to explain why I'm so excited. But what would be even more awkward, would be if they caught me holding my camera up to the computer screen, positioning it just so, so I can capture one of those said houses in Calumet, and then edit it on either P, B or P and then post it to my Facebook albums.

Yes, you read that right, I take pictures of old houses on Google Maps because I don't know if I'll ever get to see them in person. God knows I wish I could! Maybe someday I'll be that traveling photographer and then I'll have the perfect excuse! How scrumptous that would be! Such is the case with the photo I'm posting along with this week's blog post. Who knew Google Maps could be so delightful?

(Okay, so I failed to upload an edited Calumet house picture, so the next best thing is a favorite spot of my cousin's in the U.P called "Powerlines", and from the photo it's so secret why it's called that. And after visiting the spot - photo was taken from a rock named "Baldy", I can understand why she loves it so much! Amazing views! Plus, so many telephone poles! This photo's patina was created layering several different effects. It always makes me think of perfectly aged wine. And the song "Dust on the Bottle".)

Oh, by the way, the U.P is my favorite Google Maps exploring spot, especially Calumet and Ishpeming. :) For some reason, exploring Wisconsin just seems boring.