This.

Today i ran hungover, today i would like to see Erasure make a serious comeback, and today i believe feathers are the new black.

I know, it’s super random, but i’ve been suffering with writer’s block, you see… which sucks REALLY bad when you’re not even actually a writer.  I was thinking to myself, “Damn AC, it would be one thing to have writer’s block if you were a writer.  i mean that would be super depressing.  But you’ve even got a worse issue, you’re NOT a writer and you don’t know what to write.  you are LAME.”

So i took my lameness and went on a run.  Hungover.

And somewhere around mile 5.2, that first sentence came into my head.  Just “ploop!”  Fuck, that was a dumb word.  Ploop.  seriously.

But i can run.  I’m not sick.  i have a body that by the grace of someone out there allows me to put one foot in front of the other and sing a song of relentless pavement pounding that leads to random thoughts in my head that somehow leads to a blog that makes no sense, often, to even me.  I thank my body every day for being healthy and allowing it to do what it let’s me do.

Maybe in some alternate universe, it makes perfect sense.  To you, the reader, who ohmygod WHY are you reading this… i think i am so beyond lucky.

To my second point, and to lighten the mood for just a second, i believe in the re-birth of Erasure.  Any of you born after probably 1978 will have no fucking clue what i’m talking about.  i am in what unexpectedly and initially appears to be my favorite age-decade thus far (the 40’s, holy shit, why didn’t anybody TELL me how awesome it is!!!), and i’m out on my aforementioned run, and on comes “A Little Respect.”

HOLEEEEEEEE shit.

Here’s where my mind goes:  Bates College, Freshman Year.  Playing quarters on a really really reallyreallyreally dirty off-white cheezy linoleum floor, in Smith dorms, 4th floor.

Other memories, Draakar Noir.  aaaaaaaand GO.

Here’s the point.

Memories, they are attached to things.

For my husband, it’s the smell of cut grass.  Goes straight to Poway High School (his record still un-broken, i believe) and UCLA track meets.  Gets the nervous feeling in his stomach, a visceral feeling of wanting to puke his brains out.  But it’s a good feeling.  nostalgic.

So what if we could capture this, with photos?

A snapshot, in and of itself, is something that is meaningful to you.  If not, then why would you take the photo in the first place?  But now, unlike 1990 when digital photography didn’t even exist, we can capture those meaningful moments and use really simple editing software to make them give you that same feeling of Erasure, cut grass, Draakar Noir, or, on a sadder note for me, Kraft American Singles (ate an entire package summer after 7th grade and to this day can’t even smell that plastic-y scent).

So hopefully there is a portion of you out there that is using CameraBag.  I love CameraBag.  It was truly my first foray into photo adjustment.  I could edit my photos on my mac, transfer them over to CamerBag and let Colorcross do it’s thing (if this makes no sense, then take 3 min, 32 seconds to read my “Ass-of-the-Bag” post).

However.

However.

Now i have discovered Lightroom.

Oh you blessed beast of a program, how i love you.

It’s the new black.  Well, if photo editing were fashion, i would declare it the new black.  But alas, it is not.  I’ll tell you what IS the new black, though.

FEATHERS.

Not peacock.  noooooo.. and not Eagle either.  But chicken.  Chicken feathers.

It’s all the rage amongst females “i think are hip” and therefore, in my effort to be hip too, i got some this weekend.

I get it, now, having some in my hair.  There is something about a feather that is really damn special.  Does it symbolize the gift of flight (not that chickens fly)?  Does it unleash your inner desire to say, “fuck it, i’m flying?”  I don’t know, but feathers are it.

So, let’s combine Lightroom and Feathers, shall we?

Here’s what you do:

1) Download your 30 day free trial of Lightroom.  See?  you don’t even have to spend a dime.  for 30 days.  after that, if you get addicted to it like i have, it’s going to cost you.  but for a little nostalgia, i ask… isn’t it worth it?

2) import your photos.  i find it easiest to put the photos i want to play with on my desktop, then import from there.  But i’m sure there are other options, just find the best for you.

3) the imported photos go into your “Library.”

4) click on the photo in your Library that you want to edit.  It comes up on the big screen.

5) on the top right, click “develop”.  That will bring up a whole new menu on your left side of screen that are your “presets.”

6) if you drag your mouse down the “presets,” you’ll see your photo change as you scroll over the option.  it’s amazing!

7) pick the option you think you want to start with, then just tinker away with the dials on the right hand side to get your photo exactly as you want to see it!

If you go to my “Corradiniphoto” Facebook Page, you’ll see a TON of before and after examples of Lightroom magic (and if you “like” my page, i’ll like you baaaack).  I also just posted an entire album of an event i covered this weekend with NIKE SB, Children’s Cancer Association, and Above Coping. All photos were edited with Lightroom features.

A couple examples.  Let’s use our feather, shall we?

First, my daughter… she of course got blue.  When you have eyes like hers, you do everything to accentuate them.

ta-freakin’-da.

amazing, right?

And what do you do when you have brown eyes and brown hair?  Let my daughter’s photography show you MY choice, as i couldn’t very well take a photo of my own damn ponytail, now could i:

(the heart art, btw, is Rochelle Carr, http://www.rochellecarr.com, and she is amazing).

And one more example, of my dear friend Sarah, who got me inspired to try this thing and where i started loving the Chicken, the gallus gallus domesticus:

Let me digress for a moment.

A friend of mine, a very close friend of mine, just got inked.  She was in Brasil over the holidays, and had a spiritual awakening of sorts.  On that journey, she added a feather to her wings.  With permission, i am posting the photo below, and then showing what a little dose of Lightroom can add to her feather (starting with original):

Go download Lightroom.  That’s my point.  Play within it, it’s free for a minute.

Don’t let hipstamatic or instagram or any of those easy-way-out apps do it for you.  take the time.  make it nostalgic for you, and you alone, because trust me, we’ll all feel it.

Take a breath.

Show your feathers.

Peace,

AC