Inspired - Again - to Make Changes

As some portion of my readers know, I took a little break from blogging for a few days.  Partially because I got pretty busy with the holiday rush of errands, family, parties, cooking, gift-wrapping, and eggnog-sipping.  But the primary reason I took a wee sojourn was because of the essay series I was pursuing - a research analyzing of how entitled American society has become.

It was inspired by a number of things, ranging from a few family events to the consistent garbage on my Facebook feed that spiraled the focus of a horrible tragedy taking 27 lives out of control. Instead of citizens investing their time, energy, and voices in the whole, the community, our nation, and it's safety, people were making it about them personally.  This angers me, and in the spirit of the holidays, I couldn't bear to be so weighted down by such negative energy, particularly after it was brought to my attention that so many citizens have even made the holiday time into a negative experience by being prejudiced about their well wishes.

Before I get on my soap box again I should stop myself.

I've spent this morning catching up on blogs and social media that I took a break from for the past week, and, admittedly, avoiding the next chapter in the essay series.  I scrolled into posts my favorite photography blogger, Scott Bourne with Photofocus.com, wrote last August.  If you're an artist, or even someone who is just aspiring to big, competitively heavy dreams, you should read it.  Because it has helped me refocus my energies, and cancel this essay series.

In the last two years, I've had to put a lot at stake for my career.  I've made decisions to end employment that provided a consistent income because it was challenging my dreams, my sanity, and sucking my life dry of quality time with my Nikon, walk away from long-term friendships because it was tossing heavy burdens toward my self-worth, I've even broken up with a guy for calling my career "an entertaining hobby."  And, I'm ashamed to say after all those efforts, I let a series of negative events pull me away from my determined optimism.

Again, following this post, I'm going to take a short sabbatical (wow, who knew it was spelled that way?), step off of my soap box, away from my own hypocrisy (another tricky word), and remind myself what I'm doing here.  In a tough economy, pursuing a tough profession, I have got to stay positive, continue my journey to becoming a better, more productive friend, girlfriend, daughter, sister, cousin, niece, citizen, photographer, and human being altogether.

The first of the year marks the first of a lot of big life-changing events for me, and I'm going to spend the next seven days preparing for them.  I'll let you know as they come to fruition - or don't, but I can tell you that I'm still as stubbornly persistent as ever in following my heart, working hard to get to where I want to go, and doing what I can to be a loving, caring person along the way.  No person or event is going to keep me from that.

This is, after all, My Shot.




Sources:
Photofocus post from 8.26.12 by Scott Bourne - How to Improve Your Photography Literally Overnight - Really

An Entitled America: The News Bug

First Read: An Entitled America: Introduction

*PRELIMINARY NOTE: This is called an "editorial."  Or, you could call it an "essay."  Although written by a journalist, my opinions are included in this blog post.  All sources are noted below, so you can check my facts if you'd like.  I just thought I'd say this in advance for those who disagree with me and try to take a stab at my theories. PERSONAL NOTE: If you would like to counter my theories, I'm open to hear them, as long as they are in a mature, conversational context.*

As I turn off the four-hour "news" cast The Today Show, and snuggle into this futon with curves like a Victoria Secret supermodel (concave abdomen, for those of you staring at your screen with a perplexed expression), listening to the techno-pop tunes of Pandora the construction workers off of Matt's patio are rockin' out to, I conduct a few dozen internet searches, trying to drown out "G6" on repeat and focus on the blogs, editorials, and historical timelines. When news breaks, particularly a tragedy, we all tune in to our favorite news entity, start following and liking a particular information page,  and stay glued to our mobile devices for updates on what the hell is happening elsewhere in the world, or more often, in our own beloved Land of the Brave.  Even when news isn't breaking, a significant portion of our society can't seem to part from our giant 800-inch flat screens, drinking in videos on a skateboarding bulldog which has become national news, tweeting "What a cute doggie!" along with the flavor of soda we had with lunch, and spending hours re-watching the video while passing time in the waiting room on our above averagely intelligent phones. With this constant connection to the 24-hour news casts, social media websites, and absorption in today's incredibly advanced technology, is it possible that our world has gotten hooked on a self-serving, patience-zapping obsession?


The All Day Every Day News Bug
The first American communication was based on word-of-mouth, couriers racing away across farmland on horseback with a letter or a memorized soliloquy, bringing the first news of a Boston Tea Party to a far away township.  With the courier's words, the 38 colony newspapers printed the stories in their weekly issue, generally a total of four pages, with a print quota of 600 copies.  Settlers on the outskirts of town or in the deep south plantations waited for visitors to bring the newspapers into town, sometimes weeks after the publication hit doorsteps, or more often street corners.  Due to the avenue of travel, however, facts tended to get obscured, so the stories were incomplete, and, frequently, not entirely on point.

"Newspapers, the only mass media of the day, may have moved more slowly than in our Twitter-happy age, but the reporting of events in the Revolutionary War was just as befuddled, partial, and contradictory as the early reports on Hurricane Sandy or Benghazi that ricocheted around the Internet in 2012...—in sum, a version of these famous events entirely unlike the neat stories we’re taught in class." (Andrlik and Bell, The Boston Globe)

Though political parties were discouraged in the British Empires, "biased" newspapers had more power in Colonial Times than the current information age.  The phrase "the media doesn't tell you what to think, they tell you what to think about," was so strong it was almost comical, since newspapers often printed one side of the story, leaving the other side out entirely, arming colonies with only one side from which to form an opinion. Since most colonies had only one paper, the only source of mass media at the time, they didn't have much choice but to be the uninformed masses.

Since then, through waves of inventions, news grew from the measly one newspaper town into a nation-wide network of competing bipartisan publications.  Broadcast news was born, flushing the world in awe as "the most trusted man in America" Walter Kronkite took over evening television, allowing families the opportunity to catch up on the world for thirty minutes without having to wait for the morning newspaper.  As technology tends to do, further developments answered the question of "What next?" with Ted Turner's Cable News Network, now more commonly known as CNN, gracing the air in 1980 with the world's first 24-hour news channel.  (Sundem, How Stuff Works)

Other stations soon followed suit with MSNBC, Fox News, HLN, and more.  Each channel was established with an "individual edge," but suddenly it became apparent that there was not enough news to fill a full day, in competition with other corporations no less.  What began to define the leader in network news was who broke the news, and with what kind of "spin."  Critics have since accused a number of various networks with "political preference" and reporting only portions of stories that favored a particular position.


Symptoms: Impatience, Confirmation Bias, and Self-Righteous Denial
The angle of "I want news now," has an obvious conclusion, and, to be honest, a weak support, since it's mostly based in my own meanderings, and none in scientific study or professional opinion (there, see? I told you I'd be honest).  A society borne from the immediate reward system, feeling as though we deserve the truth, the whole truth, nothin' but the truth just minutes after an occurrence breaks the waves of media attention, is in complete disregard for the humanity of journalism.  Competitive deadlines push media representatives to break the story ASAP - with or without a confirmation of "facts."  And with journalists on the chopping block, falling victim to budget cuts just as much as the next American, I doubt any journalist with a mouth to feed is in much of a position to do anything less than tweet half stories to a hungry and impatient audience.

"The news doesn't tell you what to think, it tells you what to think about."
A topic that frequented the "dinner table debate" of journalism classes in college was the phrase I referenced earlier.  Students were questioned how true (or false) the statement is.  As a media professional living in a cynical world, we are often thrown into the lion's den, caught in a friend or family member's scoff of some media conglomerate only reporting on this type of news or that type of news, and they only ask this guy his opinion or distribute those facts.  "They don't care about the news, they just care about ratings." Well who gives the ratings?  I'll give you a hint, it's not the CEO of Fox News.

A statistically representative sample of 25,000 American citizens provide these ratings, according to the Nielsen Company, which is responsible for the ratings most national networks reference.  So, its actually you (or someone like you anyway) who are giving those ratings.  So, its you that is encouraging news networks to report the way they do.  So, you must enjoy that particular "spin."

Whether or not the mass of available media is the chicken or the egg, psychology calls the population's network preference "confirmation bias."

"Confirmation bias is a phenomenon wherein decision makers have been shown to actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that confirms their hypothesis, and ignore or underweigh evidence that could disconfirm their hypothesis." (Science Daily)

Self-righteous denial: Entitlement
We live in a world where, if we don't like that one news network is publishing horrible rumors about our favorite politician, we can flip channels and find that it's not so horrible after all.  The competition of news conglomerates has created a fluffy, cotton candy filled world where no one ever has to be wrong.  Our opinions do not have to be challenged, we do not have to stand down or listen to the thoughts of others. We can stick our heads in the sand and deny that any view of ours was ever wrong.  We are ENTITLED to our own opinion, yes, but are we ENTITLED to continue living in denial that this opinion is uninformed, ignorant, and ultimately, biased by a self-chosen spin?  Are we breeding a society in which, when politics is mentioned, people become so angered (and I have been victim to this myself) simply because someone has presented an opposing argument?  Could it be that this is the foundation for a complete lack of compromise in our country - a severe lack of the "real world" concept that people who think differently from you may be, in fact, intelligent?


I'm not going to hash out the conclusion to who started the snowball fight first: the companies of 24-hour bipartisan news, or an audience that is never satisfied, because I don't think there is one.  And I do not blame the news for a society that has become violently consumed by confirmation bias. But I do think, particularly with the fiscal cliff and gun control topics of today, an enormous percentage of citizens have allowed themselves to become uninformed supporters of a one-sided cause.  We, as a nation, though perhaps always somewhat divided by politics, should fight for a more common ground, and less of a self-righteous split. 



Sources and Suggested Readings:
Breaking News of the Revolutionary War, Todd Andrlik and J. L. Bell. The Boston Globe. December 16, 2012.

How the Neilson TV Ratings Work..., Charlie Jane Anders.  Io9 Backgrounder. September 17, 2010.

"Confirmation Bias." The Science Daily.  

How have 24-hour news stations affected society?, Garth Sundem. How Stuff Works. Read: December 19, 2012.

24-hour News Coverage: A Waste of Everybody's Time, Becky Hayes. The Huffington Post. December 18, 2012.

The Story Behind the Story, Mark Bowden.  The Atlantic Magazine.  October 2009.

Entitled America: Introduction

During my run this afternoon, amidst bobbing to the beat of a strange selection ranging from 80's hip hop to "stick a boot in your ass" country patriotism, I thought about the massive stretch of blog topic brainstorms inspired by a weekend with family and last Friday's heart-breaking tragedy.  Then, after an epiphany probed by a friend's status update, I cursed my lazy cardio-free weekend, and started writing.

With the wake of New Town's losses still weighing fresh in our hearts and minds, everyone seems to be hot on the topic of "gun control."  Toss with the concerns over the fiscal cliff's "budget control," Arizona's "birth control," New Mexico's "border control," and Westboro's "hate control," every Jim, John, and Jonas brother seem to have hands heavy a dozen long-stemmed opinions on how to "control the world."  It's a revolving door that no one seems to know how to evacuate.  The world is a tough thing to control, and society has been growing more and more centered on the "I" of "United."  And yet, the "self," it seems, has lost control.

Education systems are leaving everyone behind, diets neither require exercise nor sacrifice, bosses give out raises to the best fruit basket over the best work ethic, government officials snub their noses and screech functions to a sickening halt in favor of putting down their lollipops and compromise, even the military's standards have been forced to loosen their belts.  Everyone believes they deserve everything without any effort.  I'm sure there are parties out and about that would argue that all of these systems are "working," and I'm sure in some sense, they would be correct.  It's working so efficiently we can barely see past our own noses enough to inquire: "Are we creating a country of the entitled?"

I don't have an answer to that question, but I have a lot of theories.  And I'm going to spend a few days looking into those theories, doing some research, and finding some answers. Here begins a series on Entitled America. 

Tomorrow, I'll start a three-day series of essays, each day focusing on another entity that may have contributed to the entitled.  But I will do something that Facebook, Twitter, biased news conglomerates, and political extremists won't. Wrong or right, in support or against, I'm a journalist with integrity, dammit. And I'll tell you the truth, the informed truth, so help me God.   United I stand.

As a Nation Mourns, Families Find Forgiveness

Fighting back tears with his voice cracking, Parker asked Saturday night that the tragedy "not turn into something that defines us, but something that inspires us to be better, to be more compassionate and more humble people."

“I’m not mad … If there’s anything I can do to help anyone anywhere, I’m willing to do that.”

“I don’t know how to get through something like this. My wife and I don’t understand how to process all of this. We find strength in our religion and in our faith and in our family. ”

“It’s a horrific tragedy and I want everyone to know our hearts and prayers go out to them. This includes the family of the shooter. I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you and I want you to know our family … love and support goes out to you as well.”

These are the words of Robbie Parker, a heartbroken father who lost his beloved eldest daughter, Emilie, in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre Friday morning.  Just hours after learning his six-year-old was among the dead, he told news reporters - and the public - to take strength and inspiration from the tragedy.  He spoke of his bright, artistic little girl as a compassionate and caring sister, daughter, and friend.

As a nation, the United States has been ridden with dozens of heart-wrenching events.  From Columbine to 9/11 to the Batman Premiere Shooting, citizens have mourned together, glued to their televisions, radios, and social media news updates to seek consolation, reason, and peace.

But never like this.

An elementary school.  Children who still had the halo of innocence, the joi de vive, the compassion and empathy to constantly doodle up a get well card from someone who was having a bad day.  Robbed of their lives, and their classmates, now bearing the heavy burden of witnessing such a horrific event.  No doubt it will be burned in our memories forever, but for now, we all try to find a way to "get past this."

 We all have our own ways to grieve, and though I can't even imagine what the families of those children are going through, or the horror the family of the shooter must be experiencing, my deepest sympathies are with them, and, as cliche as it sounds, my heart is plagued with it's own quest to find solace.

I'm not a particularly religious person, but I am a member of a large family - a family I happened to spend this past weekend with.   After an extended family holiday gift exchange, welcoming a couple new lives into our confused chaos, a few gathered around the dining table and talked for hours.  A large portion of the conversation was dedicated to "family" and "forgiveness," amidst reliving memories of my late aunt and godmother, the sweetest, most gentle woman you'd ever meet, Diane, who was taken from us by Pancreatic Cancer three years ago.  There were several events that we spoke of surrounding her passing, and a handful of events following, and they're personal details close to my family that won't be shared here, but they're events I've struggled with for years, trying to find a way to forgive these people, my family, for doing.  My own family members, despite recounting a series of events with anger, also showed their maturity, their compassion, and their forgiveness.

And here is this man, extending his sympathies to a family who bourne his daughter's murderer.

What incredible strength.  Both this man and his family, enduring a most impossible pain, but still a sense of compassion towards - to them - just another greiving family, and the women I sat with at a dining room table until 4am Sunday morning, extending forgiveness to family members who - in my opinion - don't deserve it, simply because "they're family, and sometimes you just have to find a way to let it be."

Like I said, I'm not a religious person, but I do have people in my life who inspire me.  Like the strength, acceptance, forgiveness, and sturdy loyalty of both the Parker family, and the women I am proud to call my blood.

Today, dear readers, I am humbled.

Sources providing the quotes for Robbie Parker:
CNN
ABC

My unbearably adorable cousin, Ava, 3, the granddaughter of my late aunt and godmother, Diane Cornwell.  Ava was born just a few months before Aunt Di passed away, and lit up the last few weeks of my aunt's life with her bright blue eyes and "wide open" personality.  After an afternoon of coloring with her, playing games with her, reading to her, and just listening to her talk, Robbie Parker's description of his daughter Emilie, reminded me of this bundle of laughter.

Brett, who I can't believe is 9 years old now, continued to battle with his competitive nature while playing a game of slaps with my cousin, Kyra.  Kyra was a champion softball pitcher in high school, and taught Brett, a budding baseball fanatic, a thing or two about reflexes.

Ava, 3, and Emma, 5, color while they wait for their lasagna plates to be finished. 

My mom and Ava made sugar cookies while Ava's parents went Christmas shopping for her.  After her eldest sister passed away, my mom, affectionately "Aunt EJ," took over as grandma to her niece's and nephews' little ones.

We didn't know until after Ava sampled the cookie dough that she's allergic to raw eggs.  The poor thing's eyes and mouth swelled up, but within a couple of hours post Benadryl and some mommy cuddle time, she was back at 200mph.

Ava sits in her dad's lap as they watch TV and momma snoozes in the recliner. Since birth, Ava has been a daddy's girl, but with the arrival of baby brother Kasen looming, family dynamics are sure to even out for parents Kasey and Stacey.

Frosty Phinizy Swamp

Did you know that Mother Nature is a slippery little minx when it comes to making deals?  She held off the rain and all, but icicles were not a part of the deal.  But to be quite frank, my patience has been rather short the last few days and I was beyond done with Mother Nature and her slippery crap.

So she taught me a thing or two about patience.



When I left the apartment at five after eight this morning, it was a brisk 41 degrees.  By the time I'd arrived at Phinizy Nature Park thirty minutes later, it had warmed up to a balmy 42 degrees... with a hefty breeze that made it feel about 34.  Huzzah, me, and my stubborn will to complete the mission at hand.



Anywho.





Phinizy Swamp is located just barely outside of Augusta's Olde Town, the region I conquered with the 35mm challenge a couple weeks ago.  It's also about a mile from Augusta's Utilities Department, a field full of pipes and tanks, puffing out smoke like an elderly man on a southern-style wrap-around porch toting a bb-gun and an avid interest in squirrel target practice.  Not that I have an poor attitude about it or anything.



When I pulled into the gravel drive, I was the only car in the parking lot.  Bits of trash from last weekend's 5k littered the ground, and as I stepped out of the car with my camera bag in tow, I couldn't help but flashback to the warning I'd gotten from Matt before departure - "Be careful."



It was only a fraction of a mile from the parking lot to the visitor's ... village.  But that fraction was an expanse of deserted boardwalk, creeping through an icy stretch of swamp, every step awaking a small collection of ducks, which launched off the rippling water and into the murky clouds with a chorus of protesting quacks.



With the daunting clouds, the frigid wind, the molding pools of water, the Spanish moss reaching down from the branches, and far too many hours veg'd out with horror flicks on the tube, I was on edge.





And walking into the empty horseshoe of yellow cabins, all facing a single, lonely American flag, it's snaps against itself in the wind echoing across the buildings... Well, if nothing else, it brought one of the cardinal rules of photography to the forefronts of my cortex - "Be aware of your surroundings." (TIP# 1: Be aware of your surroundings. Hyper-aware. Keep both eyes open when you can, even when focusing your camera. You never know what you're going to miss when you're so singly focused on something else.) You better believe it, I was aware.  It was 9AM, I was only twenty minutes away from the city, and I had my phone, with full signal, in my hoodie front pocket, but this place was creepy.

Less than twenty yards from the couple of herons I was stalking, I saw a pair of mossy logs floating in the water.  As it turns out, they are really logs.  But if it's any sign to my photographer's instinct, being about thirty yards from the logs, my immediate thought was "How cool would it be if I got a shot of a gator attacking that bird?"  You may be *facepalming,* but seriously, how cool would that have been?

I found lights in the research center, and poked my head in to "ask for a trail map" before I headed out. (I already had a map.  TIP #2 - Make sure someone on-site knows you're there.  Also, make sure someone who is expecting to see you later that same day is aware of where you're going.  You can never be too careful when it comes to venturing out on your own.) I'm no stranger to wildlife, having grown up as a member of a hike-friendly family, and the cold doesn't make me flee to the cozy hearth indoors (thanks to my dad's devotion to snow skiing).



I lasted just short of two hours, nixing my planned two-mile route around the wildlife reserve to settle for staying close to the visitor's center (and my car) and stalking a couple of white herons from one sector of the swamp to another.  (TIP #3: When shooting wildlife - or any subject from a distance - quickly guesstimate settings and composition and take a shot before you creep in closer and take time to perfect the photograph.  Better to take a chance and possibly catch the perfect moment than miss it hassling with stops.) Once the feeling in my fingers locked up and vacated the premises, my good sense got the better of me, and I hiked my frosty butt back to the warm safety of my car. (TIP #4: Being resistant to the elements is a necessary attribute for every photographer.  But numb fingers that are incapable of focusing or setting exposures are useless.  Keeping hand warmers in your pockets would be a plus, but once you've lost feeling, call it a day. Frostbite is a career-killer.)





Needless to say, the 3-foot perspective challenge was forgotten.  Instead, the challenge of keeping the 300mm steady while losing circulation in my hands and butt satisfied my need for advancement.



Considering I managed to stay out there for close to two hours, I'm considering it a successful trip.



And I'll plan my next trip to Phinizy when I can bring some muscle with me... Or at least some mittens.

Tutorial Times: Wish Listing Paper Effects Part 2

I have a confession to make.  I was not entirely productive for future blogging yesterday.  I even allowed myself an hour of eating tortilla chips straight out of the bag while I was sprawled out on the lumpy futon, watching trashy day-time television.  After allowing myself sixty minutes to enjoy a pity-party, I got myself up off my butt and went to the gym for a run... where I developed intense cramping in my left calf, that is still plaguing me this morning.  So I learned my lesson - no pity parties.  They tend to have bad snacks at those things anyway.  Moving on.

Today will be part two of last week's Tutorial Times: Wish Listing Paper Effects.  That post included instructions to produce a torn page from a spiral-ring notepad in Photoshop.  To complete the wish list, today I'll show you how to construct a corkboard background, and how to make your own brush to make text look like it was written with a pencil.  Next week, I'll give some 3D effect to your piece of paper through shadows, crumples, and curled corners, because this post took forever to document and write.  Here we go:

Pencil Writing
As always when manipulating text, an easy fix is to just download a text with that special cracked texture.  But there are other options.  It just takes time.  And layers.  And your left leg.  (Is it obvious that I prefer the easy download-fix?)  PS - You also either have to download a new brush set, or make your own. 

'Nother little hint - the graphic I provided in last week's blog was a half-assed Add Noise effect.  This one is the real deal.  Pinky Promise.

Open a new document.  It doesn't need to be big.  Fill the back with white and add a new layer, draw a perfect ellipse (hold down shift while you drag out the shape), and fill the ellipse with black.



In layer properties (right-click or cntrl-click on the layer), and bring down the opacity to about 50%.

Now, add a gradient stroke.  I'll show you my settings, but you might have to play with the sizes a bit. Use that ingenuity I know you've got somewhere in there!

It should look like this now, or something close to it.

Now go to Edit>Define Brush Preset.




You'll have to have the brush tool selected to edit the preset, but once you do, open your brushes window (I always have it on a toolbar to the right), make sure the brush you just created is selected (it'll be all the way at the bottom), and start editing your brush preset.



 There may be some variations from my settings, but the important parts are that you have Pen Pressure under Shape Dynamics on, that you have a texture selected (I used an inverted Textured Tile from Artist Surfaces), and a Dual Brush selected that has uneven edges (like charcoal or wax crayon).

I make my brush angled as a pro-active approach for if I ever try to draw free-hand with the brush.  Also, play with the spacing to find an overlap you feel comfortable with.

To randomize the effects, I put a touch of size jitter into the mix.  This means you're clicking and dragging the brush, the brush size will randomize ever so slightly to give you a more realistic, human-error effect.  Also, make sure the Control under Roundness Jitter and under Size Jitter is set to Pen Pressure. 

Adding texture is super important to give some depth.  I fished for a while the first time I created a Pencil Brush. Feel free to play and find something you feel presents that pencil-effect perfectly.  I picked a textured tile.

What the textured tile looks like without the dual brush.  Still pretty nice, right?

The Dual Brush gives the last kick you need to make the edges a little less predictable.  Plus that nice splotch in the middle will come in handy.

Once you have a look you like, make sure you save the brush so you don't have to redo this whole scenario if you ever want to use the pencil brush again.  (I'm not gonna tell you what to do, but save the damn thing. Trust me, time is money when it comes to Photoshop graphics.)  This can also be used as a chalk on a chalkboard.  (SAAAAVE IT!)

As you can see, I haven't converted all of the brushes I created on my other computer over here yet.

Now pop back over to the original paper file to add the brush to our text.  I referenced a tutorial from Designer Digitals to do this. Check it out.

The last step in the Designer Digitals tutorial is to paint in the brush (they called it "stamping" which I find confusing.) It's painting.  Since just the letters are selected, it act's as a sort of cut-out, and only the letters will be painted.



  You want to be careful with how you paint it in, since it's a pretty lightly colored brush.  Make sure your opacity is cranked all the way up, and downsize your brush so it's just barely bigger than the thickness of your font.  Since my font is cursive, I carefully brushed up and down, sort of roughly following the text as if I was writing it myself.


I thought it was a bit too light, so I duplicated the layer over the top to make it a touch darker.


There you are!

Corkboard Backdrop
Again, there's a million ways to do this, and I know several of them, but this one is the easiest and fastest.  Set your foreground to a medium brown, and fill the background layer with it.



With the background layer selected, go to Filter>Texture>Texturize. Now add some sandstone texture.  You're gonna have to eyeball the depth since it varies depending on how big the image is.  Here's mine.



This step gives Photoshop a little variance in shadowing to work with.  Go to Filter>Pixellate>Crystallize to make your differing cells.  Your size is going to differ, and it's up to you.  I used about 20.



Now go to Filter>Texture>Craqelure.  Same concept, differing effects.  Eyeball it. 


 Now you have the shadows and cracks that are natural in a corkboard.







That should be enough to keep you occupied until next week's Tutorial Times. Also, I have made a deal with Mother Nature to let me go frollicking in a swamp at sunrise tomorrow, so hopefully she'll keep her side of the deal and will take this rain and cloudy crap away by then. Fingers crossed!



Sources: Designer Digitals - Filling text with Brushes in Photoshop

Leading from the Front: Reaching for the State of Success

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. — General George Patton

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. —Brian Tracy

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. —Peter Drucker

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. —Abraham Lincoln

 A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops. —John J Pershing

I realize my last blog revolved around values we can learn from the military, but this past weekend, I received a package that has inspired a part two to the might of the military.

When I worked at Fort Knox for Cadet Command, I met a myriad of professionals, both military and civilian alike.  I witnessed the challenges that make leaders, the pride in cadre as a cadet terrified of heights made the plunge down a 40-ft zipline with an accomplished grin stretched ear-to-ear.  And if you need any proof for how much I loved it:

"I can’t say I much enjoy the tinkling bells of my alarm at 3am, or the rope burn the shoelaces of the combat boots leave on my fingers as I lace up every morning, but I do enjoy listening to a DS [Drill Sergeant] hardass explain the meaning of leadership, influence, fatherhood, and fondly recount a story of how they delicately shove a cadet or private’s face into a situation to teach them a hard-earned lesson, with a tone of godly authority, and the tug of an affectionate smile at the corner of their mouths... I’m looking forward to early pre-dawn mornings with them, seeing them grow physically and mentally tough, into soldiers of the US Army, independent, focused, passionate citizens of adulthood.  And on graduation day, when their families embrace this new stranger, blown away by the pride and strength in their loved one - that’s my favorite part." (Day 8-9: Let them Eat Cake!, June 15, 2011)


 "Lead from the front," was a consistently humming mantra throughout the course, and the barely-legal cadets were not the only ones impacted by the challenges tailor-made to slap you silly with "real-world" responsibilities.

Colleague and close friend Noelle Wiehe recently accepted a position at a small town newspaper in Texas.

As it just so happens, a large, carefully addressed white envelope was delivered to me on Friday, heavy with the proof of that very conclusion.  Three articles and two columns, in print, by the one-and-only Noelle Wiehe, Fort Knox colleague and close friend, littered my lap and Matt's coffee table Sunday afternoon, as I slowly read the statements of success by the natural light seeping in from the late afternoon Georgia sunset.



A big city girl from Cincinatti, Ohio, Noelle was ever-so-slightly timid when I met the energetic 5-foot-nothing blonde my first night at Fort Knox eighteen months ago.  In the next nine plus weeks, we shared a variety of "crazy little adventures," including a handful of typical early twenty girl problems, and topped off with a couple Army-specialized obstacles tossed in to the mix.  She and I both grew into brand new people at Fort Knox, and both returned to our respective homes to face friends who were still sheltered by the safety of college.  Working for the Army changed us, and by both of our marks - for the better.  Chasing our dreams with confidence, or, perhaps, with personal courage, and the concept of leadership that I have found could be the single-most unsung Army value that brings a company to happy success.

Our boss, Steve, held weekly "budget meetings" to keep his PAO team on track, but aside from the most basic nudging, and fairly in-depth editing sessions with writers, Steve gave us free reign to find our own sense of purpose and drive in the competitive field of journalism.  For myself and Noelle, it was the variety of leadership that pushed us toward a strong and pushing work ethic.  We respected him, both as a journalist and the head-honcho of our little under-air-conditioned office of the Cadet Command building.  His confidence and laissez-faire approach inspired us to reach for the highest expectation possible.  It also made us into the best journalists possible. 

Screenshot of a poll I stumbled across while job hunting on Monster.com this morning.

Now, specialists in the workplace industry blog about senior executives finding their own leadership style, encouraging the idea that the best workers arise from the best leaders.  And it's true.  In the Army world, a soldier who trusts and respects his commander will go to battle for him without question or doubt.  Now that's a pretty awesome power.  It's also a very heavy responsibility. 
One that not all head executives, presidents, CEOs, principals, or simply "bosses" are cut out for.  But when they are, watch out.  Speaking from personal experience, having been led by "bosses" that both inspire and perspire, I can say that I'd work myself to the bone for a leader that would go to bat for me.  Loyalty, perhaps, is the cornerstone of successful leadership.

Matt donned his Class Ring to attend the Army-Navy party last Saturday.  He rarely wears the bling that signifies being one of the thousand cadets that graduate from West Point each year, saying that his reputation as a leader should depend more on his capacity to command than it does on his Alma-Mater. 

But leadership, I believe, is the cornerstone of a successful business, or a successful career.  As long as they "lead from the front," that is.


Sources:
Forbes' 100 Best Quotes on Leadership
Forbes - Great Workplaces Arise from Great Leaders
This is My Shot: Let Them Eat Cake! 

Army-Navy Feud Teaches Tradition

Whatever powers that be is completely determined to prevent this whole three-foot perspective swamp shoot from happening.  And I did not have a second back-up plan.  So yesterday I guess I kind of cried wolf, and today... Well, today I'm staring into a pretty gruesome grin of canines.  Ya got some spinach right there, Wiley.

Speaking of spinach.  Since the swamp is nixxed for this afternoon, I will probably end up perusing a list of jobsearch sites before I hit the kitchen and trial-run a couple recipes in prep for Matt's Change of Command in February.  He's convinced himself that a Dunkin' Donuts breakfast spread will do the job, being a bachelor and all.  Boys are so cute.  Anywho, I will be trying out a couple recipes today and pawning them off on the Army-Navy game tomorrow afternoon, which, in the world of West Pointers, is a huge ordeal.

According to a documentary I watched on USMA West Point before I met Matt, the Cadets work, study, and train year-round, with the Army-Navy week being their one release - a seven-day party planned and executed by the "plebes" (the freshman).  According to Matt, however, that story wasn't entirely true.  That week, to the Cadets, was the most stressful week of the bunch.  Evidently the Cadets spent hours practicing the pre-game parade in endless bouts of marching, standing, saluting, marching, standing, saluting.  With more than 120 years of tradition piled up, both schools take the presentation of the game extremely seriously.  Go figure, the military, taking tradition seriously.

Cadets rush off a bus to the orders of a Drill Sergeant on their first day of the Leader's Training Course at Fort Knox in Kentucky.  For the first three days of LTC, Drill Sergeants take the reigns to give Cadets a taste of Basic Combat Training, and teach them how to take orders, so the Cadets may be better prepared to give them.

The rival-football game traditions of our Alma-Maters is just one of the dozen or so stories we've swapped, and I won't bore you with the details of birthday condiments, but Matt's reminscing got me curious.  I conducted a bit of research about the "friendly" rivalry that stretches over the majority of American Military History.  And the editorials I read got me thinking.

Civilian papers report on the longest football tradition in the world with - what is this? - a cynical tone?  Referencing the long-lived kidnapping custom of West Point Cadets abducting the goat mascot of Annapolis, the writer of one particular article from The Bleacher Report scoffed, "Leave it to the Army to create an entire operation just to get back at Navy, and leave it to military programs to get the Pentagon involved in a couple of missing goats."  Based on the wildly successful goat-nappings beginning in 1995, the writer's attitude is directed toward a series of alleged letters written by military officials ordering the return of Bill (the goat) to Annapolis Midshipman, going up as far as The Pentagon.



God forbid the men and women who sacrifice so much for the well-being of Old Glory have a little fun. Shame on them.

I'm fluent in Sarcasm, by the way.

What ever happened to taking joy in the little things?  In the professional world, are we no longer allowed to find pleasure in our work? Or in creating situations that can contribute to an environment of comradery and friendship, like a friendly scuffle over a mascot? Is it no longer a concern to just have fun anymore?

After hours of safety briefings and practice, LTC Cadets load into Kodaks and learn the value of efficiency in trust and teamwork as squads flip their flotation devices in a lake and depend on procedure to quickly climb back in and race to shore.

The article continues to summarize a number of other traditions, including the discipline and precision in the parade succession previous to kick-off, when members of each school file onto the field and present an example of Drill and Ceremony, the tone altering to one of respect and pride.  The final page finishes the article with the deeply-touching tribute of mutual respect between the rivals, when they honor the fallen with singing the opposing team's school song.  It's a sign that the future officers understand they are still brothers at arms, "It is a reminder that, while the rivalry is as deep as any other in the nation, these two programs are ultimately on the same team. Away from the field of collegiate competition, they serve side-by-side in the deadliest game of them all: national defense."

A newly graduated Pvt clings to the hand of her four-year-old daughter directly after a tearful reunion. Three months of separation from family and friends makes Graduation a valued tradition of Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson, SC. 

Four years ago began my slow but sure introduction to the military world.  At first, it was too different for me to understand.

Drill Sergeants supervise daily Physical Training of Cadets at LTC.  Early morning physical fitness training enhances a servicemember's capacity to wake and immediately act, preparing a mental state for deployment in the case of an emergency.

Then, over the nights I spent with individuals who dedicated their lives to the defense of freedom, and the early mornings I observed committed professionals training the youth through dawn, the teenagers I witnessed becoming confident and efficient adults, I began to understand the life of camo.  And now, I can't wrap my mind around the civilian one.

Cadets split into ten-member squads to practice a one-rope bridge over moving water.  Precision and efficiency are constantly emphasized in races between Cadets at LTC.

Honor, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Personal Courage, Integrity, and Loyalty. What kind of world would exist if every human being accepted these values into their professional  and personal goals?

A LTC Cadet waits to be issued his weapon on the first day of Basic Rifle Maneuvers.

I'm not sure. But I sure hope there are professionals out there willing to find out.

**Note: None of the above images are of USMA Cadets.  All of "my Charlies," as I affectionately dubbed them, came to Fort Knox from ROTC programs across the nation, largely populated from New Mexico and Georgia's military institutions.  The single photo from Fort Jackson was taken in my week conducting a photo essay on Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson as a project for my Military & the Media course in college.