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I have had this picture for several years and have always loved it, but never really knew how to process it into something sharable. It was the occasion of my retirement luncheon in May of ’02, in a room full of my friends at the Red, Hot & Blue on Wilson Blvd., Roslyn, Virginia, walking distance from the building I worked in over the Roslyn Metro Station. What a happy day that was, to celebrate the end of forty some years of work, the last twelve in a job that I loved, and to enjoy this wonderful gathering in my favorite eatery; gosh, how I miss those bbq ribs, that potato salad … and they did this fabulous thing with fried onion rings … mashed them into a loaf pan and baked it and served the onion loaf by the slice, mmmm.
This is one of the many shots I snapped that day with my very first digital camera, a Sony Mavica, which took snapshot-sized pictures at 72dpi on a 3.5" floppy disk; I really loved that camera. Given that the pixel count of this picture was quite low, I could not enlarge it without sacrificing a lot of detail so, instead, I decided to treat it to look entirely different, something like a cross between a grainy newspaper photo and a vintage snapshot.
Many layers later, with a different treatment to each one, and the opacity adjusted to blend them into a coherent whole, I finally have what I consider a worthy tribute to the Girls at Lunch. Cheers, Monica, Jennifer, Linda … I’m sorry, the one with your back turned, I’ve forgotten your name. Mea culpa. Senior moment.
My bio can be found on my profile page, where it’s always been.
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Comments
Nice work … I think you accomplished you mission quite well. Hope you are enjoying retirement. So many places to go, and people to see and things to do, I’’m sure. * Coy *
Thanks very much for your comment, Coy; I am happy finally to have done justice to this particular picture. Regarding retirement, I am sure it would be all that, if I did not wind up whiling my days away on RB.
– Ginny Schmidt
Awesome! Thank you so much.
– Ginny Schmidt
this is a wonderful photo and memory for you. i love the photo~!
Jamie, thank you so much.
– Ginny Schmidt
One of the reasons I am drawn to this picture so much is that the attitude and expressions of the women has always reminded me of some French impressionist painting, and I am not sure which one specifically, so possibly it is the genre. I found this just now on www.freewarefiles.com
but the offered the image for use as a screensaver under the heading of “French impressionist paintings” without attributing the title or the artist whose work it is. The girl whose face I enlarged may have been a popular model of the time, because I seem to recall her from yet a different painting. If anyone can help me research the title and artist of this painting, or point me to other paintings with this face in it, I would be appreciative. Thanks.
Very well done Ginny; beautiful treatment… JD
So glad you like it Joyce, thank you.
– Ginny Schmidt
Great save on this terrific ‘slice of life’ capture Ginny .. I too have images from my first digi 2mp camera which I hope to re-edit at some point .. the lesson here is never delete until you’re sure it isn’t worth saving! susie
Oh gosh, Susie, I have so many “trash” images on my hard drive I could delete a thousand and not miss them. I must be a hoarder at heart, though … you can never tell when some small piece of even the worst image can be salvaged to incorporate into another composition.
– Ginny Schmidt
I agree .. I have thousands of unedited images on 4 external harddrives ~ there must be at least a few gems there but it’s finding the time to go through them.. especially when I want to work on the latest ones ~ lol! The only ones I immediately delete are those out-of-focus absolutely no good ones and the rest get filed in folders! susie
I LOVE the way you’ve processed this. Such a great story and image!!! :)
Thank you so much … I feel I have finally done justice to this picture.
– Ginny Schmidt
Congratulations on a well-deserved Feature!
Your Host: CRose 12-11-11
Thank you very much for the feature! I have a mounted print of this on my wall, and I love it. Reminds me of when I had a job, how much I liked it, and how happy I was to retire.
– Ginny Schmidt