Author: julesprichards

Anchoring in the shire, with family, friends, coffee and cheese… always looking…

Categories
Uncategorized

Enhance

JPRPortraitXeyesEnhance: increase, add to, intensify, magnify, amplify, inflate, strengthen, build up, raise…

I posted a quick study in adding dynamic depth to a portrait see right> ; ‘A quick study in dynamics’.

Here’s another quick example that I’ve worked on: a quick retouch study, this time focusing on brightening and enhancing the image.

AJRPortrait04161000

AJRPortraitoAgain I’ve used a simple portrait shot, and I’ve worked with adjustment layers using a combination of curves, dodge and burn, selective colour adjust, painting, etc

If you’d like me to work on any pics of yours
just give me a shout!

It’s what I do.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Dynamics

A quick study in dynamics.

You’ll have seen that – after 16 years editing and manipulating imagery for advertising – this is what I do.

Here’s a quick example where I’ve worked on a dramatic feel with this simple portrait to add and enhance character.

JPRPortrait04161000

DSC_0011oUsing a simple portrait shot,
I’ve worked with adjustment layers using a combination of
HDR, curves, sharpening, selective colour adjust, painting, etc

If you’d like me to work on any pics of yours
just give me a shout!

It’s what I do.

JPRPortraitXeyes

Categories
Uncategorized

Artwork in situ #Pentecost

I recently posted about the Pentecost artwork that I’d been working on here.

And I’m pleased to say, that it’s now on display at Syston’s Hub Café on and around the run-up to the season of Pentecost.

PenticostInSitu

TheHubCafeSign420x594A2SYClogo-04There’s a wrote up about it here:  Fifty days later… #pentecost

But if you’re passing the Hub Café in Syston,
pop in the coffee’s strong and good,
the tea’s multiflavoured,
the hot chocolate is sweet as a nut,
and the cake we’ll if you’re lucky it’s mighty fine!

The Hub Café in Syston is a Syston Methodist Church Community Project.

Also based here is Syston’s Youth Café, which is open of Friday nights –

Open for all, the Youth Café is available as a safe, fun, comfortable space be for young people in Syston. It’s run by trained volunteers (go-getta). Find out more here Youth Café,

Penticost2 

PenetcostSign

 

Categories
Uncategorized

The simplest fruit cake

MixingBecause occasionally it just has to be done!

P’s homework was to follow and recipe etc and so any excuse to bake and we’re on it!

  • 350 g mixed fruit, raisins, currants, cherries, whatever’s in the cupboard
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • A teaspoon(to you liking) of mixed spice.
  • 100 g butter or margarine (we use 50/50 you can’t beat a bit of butter!)
  • 150 ml water
  • A squeeze of lemon.
  • 1 egg
  • 225 g of SR Flour

FruitCake

  1. Simply out oven at 150ºC and line a small cake tin with greased baking paper.
  2. Put fruit, sugar, marg/butter, mixed spice, lemon and water in a saucepan, and simmer lightly for 20 min – lid on!
  3. Allow to cool. Beat an egg and add to fruit mix then stir in the flour.
  4. Put mix into readied cake tin and bake for about 1 to 1.5 hours – depends on oven and shape of tin.
  5. Check with a sharp knife or skewer of it comes put clean it’s probably ready.
  6. Leave in tin for 15mins.
  7. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
  8. EAT!

Because occasionally it just has to be done!

Categories
Uncategorized

Templates in Gmail…

Now I missed this one – it’s so simple… Have you ever needed a template in gmail?
Do you go and copy and edit an old one like i used to do?

I’m a Gmail/Gdrive user even though I primarily use Apple devices. But, it’s taken me years to discover gmail’s template feature (called “Canned Responses”).

To enable templates, or “Canned Responses”, in Gmail:

Click the Settings in Gmail’s toolbar, select Settings from the menu and go to the ‘Labs’ tab.
Make sure Enable is selected for Canned Responses.
and remember to Save Changes.

To save a template email in Gmail:
(Make sure “Canned Responses” is enabled.)

Compose the message in Gmail.
Leave both the Subject & To fields can be left empty.
Then the HIDDEN BIT!
Click the down triangle ▾ (more options) in the message toolbar bottom right.
Select Canned responses and ‘New canned response’ and give it a name.

CR

Now to use and send a canned message

Start a new email and then… Click the down triangle ▾ (more options) in the message toolbar bottom right.
Select Canned responses and insert your chosen saved canned response, (yes I agree horrible name) or template as it could be called!

(Another feature is you could you use Gmail’s message filters and have Gmail reply with a canned response.)

“Kinda cool!” as our buddy Jeff Witchel would say.

Enjoy!

Categories
Uncategorized

Fountain of…

FountainLeicCity678

#scribbles

As pavement seated gargoyles fear the cave of need; a place of want and sloth; a fountain is where people gather.

People meet, sit and soak up the sun, and curse, sleep and dream. At a simple piano a young lady sits and plays a most beautiful sound, delicate yet aged with the weight of memories.

Dragons, griffins, turrets with portholes, oversee cartwheels and daisies, beer and baguettes; and children throw coins in the fountain, while scarred stricken adults ask “a little change please sir?”.  And the sun burns my skin as it did in Mount’s Bay, another, and another, most significant day…

 

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Something borrowed…

You know I’ve worked with Public Libraries for 16 years, but yes… I use them too!

We use the libraries with the kids but significantly I use them myself. Both registered at Leicestershire and Leicester City (could save money there Councillor!) I frequently borrow books, saving money and shelf space, creating social activity, exercise and interaction, and keeping my #tsundoku in check.

heyraedingisgood4you1For example: The book ‘Life after Life’ by Kate Atkinson* was recently recommended to me and after the default kneejerk action of a quick Amazon/Hive check I thought again… as I try to do…
An equally easy two-click search of my local County library showed a few copies but none currently available locally (It is easy to reserve a copy). Another check of the City Library (could save money and time there Councillor!) and bingo there it was! – I was passing the city library the following day so I picked it up. It’s FREE remember!

A library book… borrowed; not owned, not consumed and captured to be shelved withyour tsundoku. Borrowed, tasted, to be shared. There’s so much more to a library book to me the touch, feel, smell etc are bigger and deeper then a hot off the warehouse virgin copy. Coincidentally, I found another friend was reading the same title – I asked: “Just curious, ebook or real book?” She replied “Real. They smell better”. They do!

Yes, I am still an eBook fan and love the medium (you can get them from the library too) but the real book and the fact that you can borrow a shared copy easily from your library is just magic. You can then give it back for someone else to read.

When you’ve visited a library…
after first 10 minutes… Sights, sounds and yes smells; an abundance of knowledge, a wealth…
After 30 minutes… You’ve discovered or perhaps passed by catalogued doors to new worlds…
After 60 minutes… You have or perhaps are consumed, you can’t hope for anymore. Time to flee…
After days and weeks… You’ve found new worlds. You’ve found new ideas…
After years… The sights, sounds and yes smells linger. Knowledge, stories, memories and projections…

#LoveLibraries. Use them, don’t lose them.

*incidentally, ‘Life after Life‘ by Kate Atkinson – A great read!

Categories
Uncategorized

Fifty days later… #pentecost

I have been working on a large artwork on the theme of ‘Pentecost‘.

Tradition tells us that fifty days later (after Easter), a group perhaps numbering about a hundred and twenty were all together in one place…

Penticost2

Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

The word pentecost comes from the Greek word meaning fifty.  In the New Testament account, at Pentecost, the disciples of Jesus were gathered together, they heard a great wind and spoke in different languages as tongues of fire, the ‘Spirit of God’, settled upon them.

PentecostSectionSome scholars view the account of Pentecost as a powerful metaphor for the outpouring of a Holy Spirit on the early church, they do question the historical trustworthiness of the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ writings.  However, many believe that the author of Acts is the same “Luke” who wrote the third gospel; a reliable historian.

Whether it’s accurate or not, this and other biblical imagery and ideas are irrefutably powerful.  Spread the word through a shared belief…  Go into the world… unconditional love…  There is no doubt that the essential spirit of that message has lived and has remained strong through many trials.  Many have tried to quench the good news of unconditional love.  Many have tried to subvert and claim authority over the spirit of righteousness.  But it’s bigger than us. As a friend recently said, “It is of god.”

‘Then he said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the message …good news to one and all.”‘ Mark 16:15 The Message

“Go into the world and do well.  But more importantly, go into the world and do good.” Dr. Minor Myers, Jr.

“Dismantle the fences you have erected around family, tribe, and nation… expand your vision until you see everyone as part of the extended family…” Craig Greenfield

“Blessed are the peacemakers” Matthew 5:9  (I also like cheese, I’m sure the cheesemakers… are blessed also!)

“Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach; good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.”
“Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.”
Proverbs 18

Personally, I’d rather fall back on a collective wisdom, strength and spirit than the confused deceptive witterings that our cultures sometimes mediate.  Here’s to a bigger spirit!

 

The artwork in situ:  https://julesprichards.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/artwork-in-situ-pentecost/

 

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Night and Day.

NightMarch2016
Night.

And then, in the night, starts an underlying bass note,
not cello, nor violin, not instruments of any kind…
a sub-earthy roar in the air, distant yet looming.
Voices, animal, primal? No, bigger than that,
an otherworldly drone, multi-tonal yet singularly monstrous,
distant yet personally present, calling your names like it knows your fear.
Then the darkness cries and the drone is broken
by screaming tears of falling fingers.
Streams and running watery sounds hiss
and wash away the roar into a thousand fragments.
Whispers remain, a distant threat retreats into hollows unseen
and space remains in the emptiness.
Dark colourless sound almost silent
but the farthest hum can be felt
if you hold your breath, swallow, and listen…

.

DayMarch2016
Day.

A dawning… A cleansing breath
of the lightest strings and piano notes
lift a mist to reveal another breath, another breath,
and… another… the absence of noise, the presence of rhythm.
A hint of light seeps through, enlightening hope…
Direction, ambition, fresh hope and unity…
Knowledge, inspiration, spirit. Wide, wide possibility,
horizon, touch and sensation… chorus…
Glassy eyes widen and know acceptance.
Blended inclusion. Minutiae blossoms.
The joy of process, the chance of encounter,
and tastes of the treasured.
Percolating outward steps, towards the reception of sustained community.
Breeze, more than sound, graceful movement,
like the sound of the sea… breaths…

Categories
Uncategorized

Peace Like a river…

After a few days, nay weeks, where everything seemed to be yet more dry stones turned over to find yet more lifeless dust, life goes on.

Conversations with some individuals and the dearth of hope seemed darker then Dolcoath.
Thankfully eventually, a few more conversations with some other choice people and life truly goes on.

“The interaction between things is what makes things fecund”! (a favourite idea from Wallace Stevens)
Keep going! It can take more than one spark of the flint to get a fire going. Don’t let the bar stewards get you down.

From a dearth and emptiness can eventually come a peace like a river… I think we cannot create it we can only accept it.

Thanks people; you know who you are.

From the most barren of dry thirsts, and the dustiest emptiness can come peace, growth, and refreshing hope. This is usually engendered by people and a desire to realise Love…
Isaiah 66:12 , I extend peace to her like a river… As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you…

PeaceLikeARiver

I felt the stream in a desert, and had to sketch together an image…