Farron McAdams

[farron]

Okay Doug,

I played with "green" today. Was thinking about the symbolism of green this morning. Didn't have the foggiest idea what I was going to do as an image.

Let's see, green is fertility, spring, plants, nature, prosperity, money, it is jealously or inexperience...and so on and so on. No image really came to mind. A garden? A dollar bill? A jealous woman?

THEN, I received an email from my mother talking about how cold it was today on Prince Edward Island (a Canadian maritime province). She is not normally there in the winter. They pack up, fill the pipes with anti-freeze and leave. But not this year.

My only visits to the island have been in the summer. The place is extremely green and lush for a short time. It is also, in many sections, like stepping back 100 years or more in time. Rolling farmland, brightly painted gingerbread farmhouses and churches, with a view of the sea only a breath away. It is the home of "Anne of Green Gables."

My green idea was born. Memories of PEI...I headed over to open PSP7.

First, I riffled through some of my photos and found and scanned one of a cove with small houses on the far shore. Removed some dark shadows (of a person?) that marred the foreground with the clone tool. I adjusted the colors and brightness up above what would be normal using the photo correction tools color balance, contrast enhancement and saturation enhancement. I adjusted the gamma to be a bit brighter as well. Then I ran the clarify filter.

In order to make the picture take on the look of a painting (here she goes AGAIN...LOL), I used the jpeg artifact removal tool at high setting. (Note: I have not found this tool to be terribly useful for its named purpose, but it makes a nice "paint" filter. ) I then applied an overall small scratch removal which, when not used in a tight selection, tends to act like short brush strokes.

Layer was duplicated twice. The first was given a blend mode of multiply. The second had a small amount of noise added and then a very light blur. It was set in a blend mode of saturation. Opacity levels of both were set around 35%.

I then grabbed the face of an old fashioned girl from the archives. (page 2, title is around_1915, I believe) I loosely selected a portion of her face and added it as a new layer. Positioned it to the left and sized and cropped to fit. Softened the edges of my selection with the eraser at low opacity and the soften brush. Duplicated layer three times. First set at luminance 55% (this was moved UNDER the second landscape layer), next overlay 61% and last multiply 34%. Her eyes were selected, promoted to their own layer and tinted green with the variations filter. Varying low opacity levels were used. Was planning on tinting her lips as well, but the flowers did that for me. :-)

I then found a photo with a small yellow farmhouse on the island. Scanned it. Selected out part of the house, desaturated it, removed some power wires with the clone tool and added as a new layer. Positioned in upper right. Removed a bit more of the lower portion to get it to blend in, & softened edges with the soften brush at low opacity and hardiness. Added noise and softened slightly. Moved layer under the landscape and set in luminosity blend mode 45% opacity. Duplicated twice. Moved layers above landscape and set one at multiply 34% and one at overlay 61%.

Merged all layers. Duplicated. Added noise then a very light blur. Lowered opacity. Merged layers again. Clarified, adjusted histogram and gamma. Applied unsharp mask. Added a small green border with slight texture.

Saved as jpg at 40% compression.

That's how I ended up with the painting/collage of a girl remembering green summers on Prince Edward Island in Canada.

_^..^_

Farron

[DJ Dubovsky]

Congratulations Farron for being the first to take up this challenge and it looks like you set the stage for a tough act to follow. Excellent creation. I love the ghostly images. Her eyes are so mesmerizing, I can't stop staring at it.
DJ

[Ed_L]

Very nice Farron. I think you got your message across very well. The feeling I have when I look at it is exactly as you described. By the way, the young lady was actually from northern Vermont, but her parents were from Canada.

Ed

[farron]

Is she one of your relatives, Ed?

I thought she was lovely! Hope she doesn't mind green eyes. ;^)

_^..^_
Farron

[Ed_L]

Yes, she was one of my aunts. She died at around 17 years of age, and about 20 or more years before I was born.

Ed

[Doug Nelson]

I couldn't ask for a better entry to launch the "Green" Challenge.

Very satisfyingly Green (capital "G"). I see at least three references to green in it.

And such a description!

[Hankster65]

Farron,

A really nice composition. I love the way the green in the eyes immediately draws the attention of the viewer even though her image is semi transparent. I stared at the image for some time before I even noticed the superimposed house.

The image is especially poignant after reading Ed's note that she had died at such an early age.

Great job and an interesting description.

[thomasgeorge]

Very cool and great description. Tom

[Sharon]

Farron, your green manipulation is really well done.

The superimposed lady and house give it a dreamy look. I like your use of the jpeg artifact removal and scratch removal tools to simulate the painted look.

Sharon

[LidoBlu]

Beautiful....everyone else has said it all. If I was seeing this photo without description I would think wistful, nostalgic, hope.

Blu

[calabash]

Just a word to let you know that a beautiful soul, great talent and my friend Farron, has left us and passed from her pain this past Sunday.

[doug jenkins]

Hello calabash,
I am an old college friend of farron's, and I am saddened to learn of her passing. Can you share more with me about her?

doug

[bigmack]

Hi everyone,
My name is Rob McAdams, Farron was my big sister. We all have felt a very deep loss at the passing of Farron, but, all of the doctors, surgeons and health care people have told us this was the BEST way Farron could have left. She was facing a tremendously painful and debilitating situation, and, they had no real solution where Farron could have enjoyed a long and pain free life. For those of you that didn't know, Farron was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, and, it had started to spread throughout all of her body.

Personally, I try to keep the images I had of Farron in my mind when she was oblivious to anything going on. I have been in the technology and computer world for almost thirty years, and, when Farron came to me and asked me what I thought about getting into computers, I thought to myself, oh great, another relative I was going to have to support whenever her printer quit working. Farron was just the opposite of that. She loved working on the more artistic sides of computing ( that is the side that always drove me crazy because I just cannot seem to figure out what shirt goes with what pants in my normal life).. She was very independent and was never scared to try anything. Her latest trip to the computer store netted her a brand new Power Mac laptop which she immediately had a ruby red cover attached to it. I had warned her that if she went apple, I would not be able to help her as I am a PC type person. She just laughed and said 'watch me!'... That was Farron, fearless in the face of the unknown...

For those of you that would like to 'see' Farron, you can go to http://www.mem.com/Story.aspx?ID=2156822 ..

Words can't describe the loss we feel, it is comforting to know that in the end she suffered very little pain, and is now in a better place.

good luck and happiness to all of you,
-- Robert (Rob) McAdams