#I know art with more detailed backgrounds don't seem to be favored-

[thealphabard]

Alright kiddos, Daddy Jace is going to sit you all down for a long post. With twitter (and probably tumblr?) implementing genai i decided to take it upon myself to test both Nightshade and Glaze so you don't have to. Or to maybe clear some stuff up regarding both programs bc i myself was not able to find info on the quality in relation to stylized art! I'm risking my own butt for this lol

lets start with Glaze since that's just what i opened first. for clarity sake, this is what I'm chucking into it. i decided to go with 3 levels of images, starting with a basic no background fairly simplistic piece, a more detailed subject, and a full background piece from a long abandoned wip in favor of redoing it in a sense.

now there are 3 main settings I've noticed for glaze, its a default medium and high setting (there's render times too, but for this test I'm staying on the default render time which is medium and takes about 2 minutes per image)

For the most part it hasn't crazily distorted my images but you can still see some discoloration in the art. not a big deal for me personally, as you can still make out what's going on just fine. it gets pretty rough in some of the background on the big image, but thats probably the worst of it for this setting. next we will do medium!

haha ooookay just for your knowledge, I'm writing this in real time. OKAY yeah so, medium is where you will see the diminishing return it seems, while it probably really fucks with ai, unfortunately at this point my images look pretty distorted especially in backgrounds and high detail areas. but i will do high just in case anyway

Yeah so this is where the full distortion happens in all 3. again, you can still see the subject and key details, but its a bit unsavory isn't it?

now i want to make something clear. the program itself will give you feedback if the protection is enough, and for all of these tests it was fine so unless you aren't too worried about how the pictures look on social media (ie, if you share a full version in patreon/send the raw com to the owner) you can most likely choose default without any issues.

we are moving onto nightshade! in nightshade it has roughly the same UI, with the option to select a poison tag. we will come back to this later ass you can only use it on 1 image at a time. its settings are low, default, and high with similar rendering times and i will be using the same images to test them out :D starting with the low setting!

Now, i don't know if its just because I'm fresh out of the high settings from glaze, but i personally prefer this setting on my artwork. it doesn't have as much of the "oilspill" look that glaze has and is harder to notice the distortion at a glance. onto the default setting though!

Once again, prefer this over the medium for my style in particular. a lot less muddling and color distortion . obviously still there, but not effecting the details as much. High next!

This is definitely the too much gene lol however i would compare it to the medium of the glaze. Though, and this is important, please choose based off what you feel fits your needs. for me, nightshade is what i will use but it wont be the same for everyone. i just hope this gives a good comprehension on what each program does! now, to explain the tagging. in batches it will automatically tag, but it seems this is just to make an invisible coded footprint if you will in everything you do. you can overwrite them in your results, or if you do image by image (ie, if you make a new image, and put it through nightshade) you can tag it there. i will personally just be using my username as my tag going forward. and to show how that looks on an image with standard settings just to show that's its not effecting your image any extra on a visual front.

and that concludes Jace's decent into madness.

the biggest stipulation, is these are both windows/macos based applications for now

HOWEVER while I am able (given I'm not swarmed) i am more than happy to help those who would like to protect themselves and do not have the means to and i encourage others to do the same if they are comfortable. please reach out. FUCK AI ART

[aspiringtrashpanda]

(CONTINUED AGAIN HELP) Can't blame tumblr for putting word limits at this point. Someone @/Ash: "You're a pure-hearted trainer." Cue flashback to other-world!Leaf throwing breadcrumbs at Latios/Latias in Kanto when Steven comes by looking for them and they're like *nudge nudge chirp* *looks at Steven* "ok, he seems like a pure-hearted trainer. if that's really the one you're choosing...protect your new friend too." *Steven gets killed a month later* WAIT NO- (a bit jokish than what fully happened, she also kinda stole his wallet but sshh details) She hates those words, "they're like a curse." It's what got Ash in this Chosen One mess with Arceus and Ho-Oh.

I sometimes wonder if I should convert Pokeverse education to some type of Magnet Program/Technical school sometimes. Just to cut down on time/specialized education. Go on a Journey, speed through classes online at the PokeCenter, have a panic attack because Steven accidentally woke up Groudon and Kyogre because a suspicious man said he could help him find the famed giant rainbow rock. ("Why is it that every time I open the news, you're making headlines for almost dying?! Why is it always Hoenn???!") Fun fun. (No but genuinely, Hoenn really gets put through the wringer with the Titans, the Meteor, the many dark secrets in the region, etc.)

Throw in some real-world influenced mythological trivia about Legendaries and coffee-reliant study sessions in Libraries with Cynthia. Alola vacation? You're discussing lore and having a mental breakdown as Cynthia drops something you've never heard of before (yay for our resident Hisui expert but also ???! WHAT-) that changes everything you ever knew about reality as Steven comes in excited about the field trip to Akala Island because it has rocks and special rock ice-cream and he wants to know what kind of flavors they have in mind for his favorite minerals. ("Oh...is this a bad time?" "Nope. Just Cynthia casually shattering everything I ever knew about the world." "Ah. So the usual.") Every time Steven does something shifty and clever with that smirk on his face from the anime, you know the one, she's like, "did you learn that from business school." Other times it's like, "Do me a favor and maybe don't scream bloody murder at 6 in the morning?" It's 10am, and poor Steven found a Sableye eating his rock collection. A moment of silence please. Really thought someone was attacking him for a sec *insert nobody likes the Kalos Crisis.* You're in your 20s, hypothetically older than Leon by a few months or a year but still get mistaken for a 15 y/o (eyy just like me lol.) He tries to give you an autograph and has to kneel down to your height as Ash and Goh are laughing in the background. #MaybeIShouldWearHeels.

Will Steven ever stop finding himself in hot water? No, but he's too nice to stay mad at. All you can do is cry because you thought he was gonna get himself killed. Can anyone match Cynthia's level of nonchalance? "I didn't take Galactic seriously because of how they dressed, oh cool let's go visit the Distortion World-" Thank god Diantha is normal and best aunt- oh righto, history with Lysandre and Malva...we can keep that hush hush, you fit right in with the rest of these chaotic people. Lance is capable of being just as bad as them but got stuck with "responsible team dad" by default and necessity as nobody else can do it. (He's a wannabe superhero, he def got stabbed by a knife from a Rocket member at some point.)

Heh, whoops. I talked more than I intended, I just couldn’t help myself keeping this story inside for years 👉👈 Hope I didn’t bother you coming into your ask box with all this. Thank you very much but also I’m so sorry omg if you read all this. May Dawn Stones Light Your Days 💎✨

CYNTHIA DESTROYING EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER KNOWN JUMP SCARE. Love it. Okay, for real, the love that you have for this story is evident in even these messages. I can tell it's a passion project and a work of art, of love. The characterization of your Champions are amazing, and if you ever feel comfortable going off anon (literally NO PRESSURE), I would love to pick your brain about personalities and dynamics for an upcoming fic. If you do consider posting, just try to remember that a) you can't please everyone, but b) you will please someone. Try not to worry too much about what is considered commonplace in fanon and such, because if you build your world and story up the way you think it should work, then it will make sense to most readers. Leaf makes perfect sense to me, for example, just because of the little you've told me about the story. If someone tells you it "should" be May, they aren't reading the same story, and again, that's on them.

I think you're on to something great here, and I would love to take this deep dive into found family and friendship in the world of Pokemon with you. My DMs (and askbox for anon) are always open <3 Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your beautiful thoughts with me <3

[cheapbourbon]

Strangely, having the creature hovering nearby felt almost reassuring, like it was watching over him protectively...

silence of the lamb by the insanely talented @askellie 

[kisilinramblings]

If you don't mind me asking ( and you really don't have to answer if it makes uncomfortable or would bring up pointless discourse in your blog ) a lot of people call thomas islamphobic , but like when did that even happen ? Like him not being able to add Muslim characters in the show because he isn't allowed to , isn't islamphobic .

Hi! I don't mind, but I don't think I am the best person to talk about this matter. I'll try to explain, but if my followers have more informations, please feel free to join the conversation.

Thomas has explained on Twitter that no, they cannot put religion of any kind in Miraculous. It is one of the 9 kids show taboos, which are summarized in this illustration. Plus, France has secular laws. One of which voted in the early 2000s notably states it is forbidden to wear visible religious signs inside schools and said law affects the students. So you could imagine the reaction of France if a French kids show -- on a tv channel which probably receives some public funding from the French government -- was showing teenagers wearing a religious symbol inside the collège. That's one reality they are dealing with unfortunately.

Some people respond that is it hypocrite because we have seen the Notre-Dame Cathedral in the show and we did got episodes celebrating Christmas or the Saint-Valentin.

Except, in the show, we have never seen any close-ups of the Cathedral aside of a gargoyle when LB is first testing her yoyo during Origins, nor did we got a scene on or inside Notre-Dame. The closer of the Cathedral was in the background was during Sandboy, and notice how many details are missing.

No statues of angels nor saint patrons. Notre-Dame is visually there because it is huge monument in the landscape of Paris, but the model is reduced to its basic shape with minimal ornaments (archs, columns, and stained glass). You won't find any cross on it (or anywhere in ML Paris) either.

As for the Christmas special, there were no mention to the nativity either. They keep the celebration to its pagan origins. "Yule logs", "peace and thruce", “decorated trees”, "presents" and "time and dinner with family" along with favoring the commercially red and white representation of Santa Claus over any bible character.

And Valentine's Day, despite being called Saint Valentin in French, is nowadays not consider a holy day in France at all. There is no prayer nor mass for that particular day. School and commercial activities still are open. People just send letters or buy heart shaped products. However, Dark Cupid is of course based on Cupid, the roman deitity of desire and attraction. Mythological deities as inspiration seems to pass. The Old Egyptian gods, Sapotis, Anansi and Oni-Chan along with some of the superheroes like King Monkey are also based on mythic figures. I guess so long no one is using them as holy idol, they fall more under the "folklore" category which appears more acceptable.

Heck, if we see a wedding, it's a civil marriage in the Mayor's office instead of a religious ceremony.

We have Jeanne D'Arc as historical figure who battled to free France and Thomas depicted her as a previous Ladybug Holder, thus removing the religious elements of her "adventures" who get rewritten to fit the Miraculous Lore.

We got Nathaniel whose familly name is a hommage to Jacob Kurtzberg (AKA Jake Kirby) and since Jake Kirby is a jew, they made Nathaniel's heritage be jew by extension. Thus why we don't see Nate in the xmas episode. And Evillustrator's beret subtly ressembles a kippa in its shape. But those are really small details that can easily be missed.

And we do have Prince Ali's Chaperonne who do have her hair wrapped inside some cloth but it appears to be aesthetic more than anything else. Also, both Ali and his chaperonne come from an invented country.

So we can rise the question : without the religious symbols and beliefs, without the prayers and other religious aspects put behind celebrations, can they still be able to put characters to which people can still identify as Muslim or Hindu for example? After all, someone's culture doesn't revolve around just religion.

Food, language, arts, clothing, gestures, habits and customs.

Those do give some representation. It would be a start but would it be satisfying? Or will something appear to be missing?

That I don't know.

Anyway, context wise, there are way more factors than just creator's decisions to take into account. People really need to stop thinking that everything in the production of a TV show or movie falls on the shoulders of one sole individual. It isn't a self publish novel or comic. It's a product supervised by powerful people from different corporations. As a creator, Thomas can propose and push some ideas, but if there is no support from the higher ups, he is powerless too and must propose something else. Even within his own TV show.

[famous-aces]

Alfredo Guttero

Who: Alfredo Guttero

What: Artist and Art Promoter

Where: Argentinian (active in Argentina and throughout Western Europe) 

When: May 26, 1882 - December 1, 1932

(Image Description: Retrato del pintor, Victorica, 1929 [a self portrait]. It shows Guttero in his apartment. Outside is a very geometric skyline of smokestacks, steep roofs, and a brown sky. His room is slate colored and he sits in a chair in the foreground. He has a jacket thrown over the back of his chair. His pose is casual and he looks as if we [the viewer] have just distracted him from painting. He sits with his legs to one side, turned almost unnaturally toward the viewer. One leg is lifted slightly and one hand is on the chair's seat as if he is in the middle of turning completely to the viewer. He is a man with a receding hairline and a high forehead. He has a dark mustache and dark hair and low eyebrows. He is wearing a white shirt and bowtie and has his sleeves rolled up to the elbow and his collar is ruffled and loosened. The whole thing hangs very loose but you can still see some of his body's lines of musculature. His tie undone and hanging around his neck. His pants are ordinary and green/brown. His expression is calm but confident and he looks directly at the viewer. The colors are bold but not really bright. The style blends geometry and flatness and realism in a way I am explaining very poorly. End ID)

Guttero is not terribly well remembered today, which is too bad. Looking through his oeuvre I quite like his work. Maybe it is because he lacked the bombastic personality of many modernist artists, maybe it is due to his diversity of styles without one that seems to define his work, or maybe it is because he was one of so many talented artists of his generation. He was well renown in his era, however, and used his popularity and skill to foster the next generation of Argentinian artists.

Guttero's life began mundanely enough. He always loved art, appreciating it and creating it, but pursued a legal career instead. But he was unhappy with his life as a lawyer, so Guttero left it to become a painter. He pursued his dream and passion, inspired and pushed by other Argentine artists. In 1904 his reputation was good enough that the Argentinian government sponsored his move to Paris, then the epicenter of the truly exciting and revolutionary art world, its influence expanding outward. He studied there for a few years under Maurice Denis before appearing in the Salon.

He remained in Paris until 1916 when he began to travel extensively across Western Europe for more than a decade, first to Spain, then Germany, Austria, and beyond. He traveled to nearly every country in the area between the years of 1916 and 1927.  His work was shown in various exhibitions around the continent from being featured in the Salon in Paris to a major solo exhibition in Genoa.

After that he returned to Argentina for the first time since his initial departure in 1904. Guttero remained active in his native country including creating free art classes called, aptly enough, Cursos Libres de Arte Plástico, with other Argentine artists. During this time he focused on his work as an art promotor, perhaps even more than his own art. During this time he introduced and showed new Argentinian artists to a wider audience. Indeed he created an organization for this purpose: the Hall of Modern Painters. He was dedicated to promoting and preserving modern art in the face of a world growing increasingly dark and reactionary. He died young and without much warning.

His art is undeniably modernist but trickier to pin to a specific movement. He has many different styles he utilizes with different degrees of naturalism and curves vs geometry. His scenes are by and large mundane and human, he uses bright colors, often huge central subjects, kinetic poses and positions, modern settings, and by and large human or urban subjects. He often painted on plaster using a "cooked plaster" technique of his own devising.

(Image Description: Martigues for Charles Jacques [1909], a brightly colored painting showing a scene in a Martigues canal. It is not completely realistic nor completely geometric and abstract. He favors color over outlines. In the background is a bright blue sky interrupted by yellow buildings with tile roofs, maybe houses, lit by the unseen sun. One of the building's lower doors is open. There is a small tree to the far right. In the foreground in the sparkling water of the canal are several small work boats, probably fishing boats judging by the silvery nets lying over the hulls. On the right a boat is coming in, there is a pale skinned, dark haired man working on one of the nets. His sail is red and white. On the left is a pale man in an orange hat and yellow shirt. He is stooped and just by his pose appears older, both of the men are too far away for many identifying details. End ID)

Possible Orientation: Mspec ace, gay ace, or aroace with an aesthetic attraction to multiple genders. (I am so unsure I have changed "probable" to "possible.")

I admit this one is a stretch on my part.

I am classifying Guttero based largely on absence, i.e. the absence of a remembered/recorded spouse, sexual/romantic partner, or liasian. I have no quotes or historical documents to prove my point. I have none of his personal philosophy or writings to draw from. Just the fact that he dedicated his life to art more than human relationshipa. That this is something I have seen before: Cause and its role in the life of many aros/aces/aroaces (outlined in Weil's entry the other day) and the fact that he had no recorded romantic/sexual partners that I can find in hours of research.

This illustrates why it is so, so difficult to find aspecs in history. We are not, as aphobes believe, impossible to locate, there is externally visible evidence, but it is less obvious than most other orientations. And cishets would rather we didn't exist so we are often buried under excuses. The easiest ways to find them are 1) if they were notably "married to their job" in their lifetimes (e.g. Jeanette Rankin and Carter Woodson), they talked/wrote about it in some capacity (e.g. T.E. Lawrence or Frédéric Chopin), they were distrusted because of it (John Ruskin and James Barrie), they made it part of their persona (Nikola Tesla and Florence Nightingale), aside from that I really need to search deep into their personal lives. Information not always available.

And often even when people essentially say "I am aromantic and/or asexual" the general population will not accept that. After all Newton is often remembered as allo and gay, despite never expressing interest in men. Chopin is often listed as allo and bi. Rankin is often considered cishet but too deeply concerned with her work. Barrie gets called a pedophile despite showing no interest in children. For eccentric aspecs like Weil/Tesla/etc. their being aspec becomes part of their oddness. If they weren't Like That they would be allo. Their being aspec becomes a symptom of their weirdness and would be unacceptable in a "normal" person.

History with a capital H does not want to acknowledge aspecs and, as with other queer identities, will go to insane measures to erase them. But even other queer historians will do this to aspecs. I am shocked how many people do exactly to Newton/Lewis/and the like what cishet historians do to Alexander the Great. In the case of Alexander the cishets ignore the obvious accounts that he loved Hephestian in nearly every way possible and queer historians and history buffs call them out, then often the non-aspec ones look at Newton and Lewis who had no interest in men and say they must have been gay. And it isn't really just history, Tim Gunn is by his own admission both gay and ace and the second part of that statement is either erased or, even crazier, I have seen aphobes say that he is mistaken about his own identity.

Anyway the root cause of this lack of nuance in the discussion of sexual orientation is a long sidebar that this is not the place to explore. I have left Guttero behind paragraphs ago. I have written a lot about how aces and aros end up getting erased from history and this isn't about that.

This is about Guttero and the difficulty of finding aros and aces. The presence of something is so much easier to find than the alternative, obviously, like if Historical Figure X exclusively slept with/courted men and was a man we can say he was (most likely) gay. But if Historical Figure Y didn't sleep with anyone/court anyone it is harder to prove. This is obviously severely simplifying identity but for the purposes of this example I beg your apology.

Long Story Short: the absence of evidence of something is not proof of the absence of something. A lot of aphobes will point this out and utterly ignore the fact that sometimes it is.

So, Guttero. The only thing I can say conclusively is that he never married and he was romantically or sexually tied to anyone as far as I can find. He was, in his time, very active in the art world. If he had been involved someone would probably have taken note. Especially considering his art is often very appreciative of the human form, especially the male one, it would not be hard to believe he was allo and gay or mspec.

I am going to take his art another way putting some dusty analysis/critique/art history skills to good use. Here's the thing, those who follow me on my personal blog or even here know I find the Death of the Author extremely important but it is also extremely complicated (it was actually the topic of my senior thesis). I don't want to use an artist's work to talk about their personal lives because art is often not reflective of life, but there is always some cross contamination in one way or another. I am going to explain what I mean on a superficial level, using myself as an example so I can say this is 100% accurate. I love the found family trope, and I think those relationships are the best in the world. So whenever I write something you can be damned sure if I can get some found family goodness in there I will. What I am saying is, I don't love or even approve of everything I write about, but I do write about some things because I love them and want to explore them and experience them on some level. The same may be true for Guttero and the subjects he painted.

Guttero often pays a lot of attention to human form. Look at his work The Market (I couldn't find a large enough image to put it in this post) and you will see his appreciation for amab musculature and on the other side of the male spectrum...

(image description: Retrato de Lucien Cavarry [1911] It shows a thin, lanky, and well dressed young man reclining on a green floral patterned couch and a black pillow. He is pale with neat, dark hair. He has a shadow of 5 o'clock shadow on his super hero jaw. His suit is white, his slightly rumpled tie is black, as are his socks and polished shoes. One arm is across the back of the couch and a red and gold pillow the other is dangling. This style is very different from the other portraits I showed/referenced. Still a modern but more realistic style, more flowing, less geometric. The man is drop dead gorgeous by Western beauty standards. End ID)

As for women...he seems to find them colder, more distant, but there is still a physical appreciation there. (Linking Mujeres Indolentes so I don't get flagged for "female presenting nipples" or whatever Tumblr's BS is. [The name alone tells you a lot]). Or the somewhat judgemental gaze of the woman below:

(Image Description: Georgelina. It shows a portrait of a pretty young woman sitting in front of a field. She is pale and long and beautiful. She has red hair, sharp eyes, a long flowing white dress with a gold sash around her waist, and a white hat with a black bow that is blowing in the wind. She takes up most of the frame and her expression is challenging and she holds eye contact with the viewer. The colors are bright and she is almost porciline in color. The background is mostly flat planes of color. In style it is somewhere between the self portrait and the portrait of Cavarry. End ID.)

Not all of his portraits of women have them so sour/distant but they all have a sort of challenging look. Beauty tinged with something dangerous, while the men always seem more innocent.

So here is why I say aspec rather than allo using his work alone, none of his work is particularly sexually inviting even with the sexiness/physical European attractiveness. The men are bashful or unaware of the viewer, the women are certainly not interested.

And back to the self portrait at the top: Guttero is in a fairly sexy pose, but it is sexy without being sexual. He is rumpled but the thing he was doing was painting, there is a sexless explanation. He is looking at the viewer, but you are distracting him from working. At first glance I thought his legs were spread, but they are simply in motion so he can face his guest more comfortably. This all could mean nothing, but I found it striking that this is how he chose to depict himself, at first he appears to be inviting the viewer in for a more physical interaction, but then it seems he is doing exactly the opposite, his passionate energy has been instead put into painting.

And in reality toward the end of his life that was what he did. He dedicated himself to his own art and the art of others.

So again, this could mean nothing. But...it could mean he is aspec.

And that is how the person I am least sure about got the longest entry.

(image description: Elevadores [1928]. A painting showing a factory complex. There is a raised platform running around it and several buildings in bright colors. There is a tree to the right side and a green hill. The building in the near-center [lightly left] is red. The sky is yellow and blue, perhaps the unseen sun is rising up behind the right-hand buildings. In style it is mostly geometric and flat color. End ID.)

[clownkiwi]

OH SHIT how could i forget??? my pokemon scarlet/violet predictions from earlier this year!!! i wrote a post detailing my predictions about the announcements throughout this year!!!

anyways, here's what i got right And wrong!!!

(im talking about this post i made back in march btw)

what i got definitively right:

ok, so i was right that we'd get the next pokemon "direct" in early june, which is generally a couple weeks before when e3 would've taken place

we got a look at the box art legends

we got a few new pokemon!!! (ummm. idk which one is the internets fave rn, as all of them are, but as of now. people really seem to be taking a liking to lachonk. so i will say the internets current fave is lachonk)

I GOT THE RELEASE DATE RIGHT HOLY SHIT. I JUST NOTICED THAT AS I WAS WRITING THIS. I WAS RIGHT ON THE BALL WITH NOVEMBER 18TH OMG HOW DIDNT I EVEN NOTICE THAT TIL NOW

also, i was right that your "rival" in this game is more like your friend

what i got wrong:

there was no e3 this year. oops.

we really didn't get too much actual info on the region, besides like. what we've seen from the gameplay. we don't even have a name yet, afaik

we really didn't get much of a look at this game's gym leaders as of now. there seems to be alot more emphasis on the open world gameplay than like. what the main narrative of this game is, so i can easily say we don't even know what the gym leaders for this game are (or even if they'll return at all. maybe scarlet/violet's gonna take a wildly different approach like legends arceus or sumo)

we didn't get a stoic, emotions-holding back rival. as of now

what i might get right (eventually):

ok, so they didn't show any gameplay or even mention a name, but they are foreshadowing a new battle gimmick for this game in the last 5 seconds of the trailer, with the crystalline background and the pokeball flying through it. hell, this might not even be a new dumb battle gimmick exclusive to this game like i initially thought, but it sure feels like it, and i really wanna get this right so badly you have no idea

like i mentioned, we might not even get an evil team in this one. again, we're only two trailers in, this could change at any time, but if we're to follow game freaks trend with how their villainous teams have been utilized lately (from team flare having a main presence in xy, to team skull not really being the main baddies in sumo, down to team yell being more like supporters to one of your main rivals), i think they're really gonna retire the old tradition of evil "teams" in favor of more unique and original antagonists, which im really excited for. even if gym leaders do make a return, i feel safe to say that we won't get a team wild or a team techno in these games

[insectoid5]

Good evening everyone... did you all have a nice day yesterday?

I had a very tiring day.  I was out in the 90°F+ heat for 7 hours setting up, running, and tearing down the Uncle Sam booth at our local Fourth of July festival, which I may have mentioned before. 😉  I am Uncle Sam’s (dad’s) deputy photographer and sign-maker.  (Well... most of them.)  I know I can settle with just the Tumblr captions, but I’m going to write more details under a read more.

[1]  A selfie of said deputy photographer, wilting from the heat only halfway through the day.  Also, unintended photobomb of our friend who’s visiting for the week, whose sole contributions to the booth were sitting around, helping with signs, and occasionally encouraging small children to look at the camera.

[2]  As promised, I touched up the ink on these large foamcore signs, though I’m already thinking of making new ones for next year.  Considering how long I waited to work on these for today (down to the last day AND running out of metallic paint marker), the sooner the better.

[3]  My station at the booth.  It’s a good thing we had two tables, because there needs to be space for not just the equipment, but for the hats and signs as well.  The system works like this:  The camera is oriented with a pan-tilt camera mount, controlled with the little black box next to the cardboard shroud.  The computer has remote-shooting software, which with this camera allows pictures to be taken and sent to the computer wirelessly.  The pictures are then processed on the computer by a script my dad wrote, which 1) generates a Web key, which can be used to access the picture on the Internet, 2) combines the photo with some text on the side of it: a message and the Web address, and 3) spools the combined image to the printer.  With the faster printer (see [7]), this whole process takes less than a minute, around 35-40 seconds.  (Dad says he can improve it a little, but we’ll see.)

[4]  The computer is an HP Mini, an Intel Atom-based netbook running Windows XP.  It’s great for portability, weighing very little compared all the other stuff.  We don’t have a newer or faster machine because we want to be sure that it can run the remote shooting software for the Canon SD430 Wireless camera.  It’s hard to see the screen even with the cardboard shade, so I wind up hunched over it, which after 6 hours did not help my neck any; when I got home my fingers were going numb.  (They got better.)  Maybe next year I can convince my dad that it needs to be closer to eye level.  (More space for signs! 😂)

[5]  As mentioned, I tend to go a little sign crazy; my dad thinks it’s silly, but he doesn’t realize how many repeated questions I have to field from patrons of our booth.  They were made on Canson art board, using several sizes of Sharpie felt-tip and metallic paint markers.  This year, I had the foresight to bring markers and extra pieces of art board, because I wound up making several signs on-the-fly (the “extra prints” and “CAMERA” ones).  Another impromptu creation was making wedges of foamcore to prop the small signs up so they’re more visible—difficult to do with such a busy workload!  (The “more information” sign has been blurred out for privacy reasons, but if you’re one of my mutuals and are interested, I can PM it to you.)

[6]  Our setup is a bit different this year.  The biggest change was abandoning the use of the old, slow, sometimes failure-prone HP inkjet photo printers in favor of a dye-sublimation photo printer (the kind you find in photo kiosks or special events/conventions/etc.).  Which, given how the day went, was an excellent investment on my dad’s part: despite taking less than 300 photos (and printing almost that many), the print media should be good for at least another Fourth of July’s worth of photos before running out.  Oh, and it prints them at least 8 times faster than the inkjets—no more than about 15 seconds.

[7] The other new addition to the booth this year was these hand-held signs, which were actually my dad’s idea.  They’re squares of foamcore stuck with double-sided tape to wooden paint-stirring sticks (or whatever they’re called).  We do have quite a few veterans here, and have a Veteran’s Park adjacent to the park this festival is held at, so it seemed only logical.  They proved to be pretty popular!  Besides the various armed forces, there is a sign with a “☮” and “PEACE”, and another with “MILITARY FAMILY”.