9/17/08

Embarrassed explanations


So....for many months now, I've been working on a dinosaur of a computer. It was an old iMac, the kind with a bulbous base and a flat screen. I got it in the early years of the century (boy, does that make me feel old!) and have had a hard time letting go. I loved that computer. And I'm also not much of a techie, so the lifespan of a computer still seems ludicrously short to me. I wasn't willing to trade it in, even though it was slow as a lame cart mule, and in the last couple of years I've had to tiptoe around various applications because they were constantly crashing (not least of all photoshop).
It was with a combination of giddy excitement and nostalgic reluctance that I accompanied QiuQiu and Mike to the Apple store at the mall today to blow my wad on a brand new, shiny Mac. Since it's the centerpiece of my home office, Mike suggested that I go all out...and I did. I got the huge one. This is just how much of a techie I am NOT...I don't even know what it's called. But it is plainly huge. And amazing. And about a googleplex more faster than my old, beloved one with all the dust and stickers on it.
The one glaring thing that made me realize just how tardy I am in getting myself a new computer is the fact that, for at least a couple of years now, I have been seeing the photos on my blog as pallid and colorless. They looked fine in photoshop, and in iPhoto, but the minute I post them on the blog they looked washed out as an overused dishrag. So for nearly as long as I've had a blog, I've been violently oversaturating my photos.
I thought I was doing the right thing. I really did. So it is with horror that I at last see the photos on my blog as everyone else sees them - garish, glaring and lurid.
People, I am so, so embarrassed.
I can only say that, now, equipped with a screen the size of Los Angeles and an equally massive hard drive, I will from now on post my photos in a reasonable color spectrum.
For my very first unmanipulated photo, I give you this snapshot of Flynn QiuQiu that I took the other day while I was doing some housecleaning. I'd set her down in my studio to indulge in some crawling practice (read: exploring). When I returned, I found her avidly reading this copy of Vanity Fair featuring Bobby Kennedy on the cover.
It cracks me up so much to see the "caught red-handed" look on her face. Like I'd object to finding her reading Vanity Fair. As a magazine writer, a literary junkie, and a product of the Kennedy era, it makes me nothing but proud.
btw, during this particular exploratory mission, she also found (somewhere, I'm still not sure where) my old Swiss Army watch. This was a great blessing for me since my last good watch died on our trip to China, and the knockoff Chanel watch with which I replaced it in Beijing has since disappeared. The Swiss Army watch was, of course, still running accurate to the second some two and a half years after I lost it.
Thanks to Flynn, I now know the time of day again. And my colors are back in the realistic range.

5 comments:

Vivian M said...

Congratulations on finding your watch and on the purchase of your new computer! And by the way, your pictures have always looked stunning on my computer, but I have one of those newer laptops, so maybe it has something to do with resolution?
Keep the pictures of pretty Miss Flynn coming!

M said...

Oh geez - I kind of like your oversaturated photos. They made your blog look... special?

Mamacita said...

I'm glad she found your watch for you! I have always loved the light and bright quality of your photos. They were vivid, but I just thought that was because the sun shined a little brighter that usual on your world. That sounds dumb, I know, but I truly thought it was your eye that sought out such vivid beauty and color! Don't dull 'em down too much!

Anonymous said...

I'm with Maia and Mamacita! Though you make my blog look pretty dull. But I will live with it. Keep up those colours! They feed my eyes. xox

Maia said...

Thanks guys! That makes me feel better. Well, a little better. It still makes me cringe to look at the blog now.
But I like what Christie said, about the sun shining a little brighter in our world...because it does feel that way to me. I think the sun DOES shine a little brighter in our world. And how lucky we are for that.