Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Captioning Methodology
A few readers have inquired into the process that I have for finding pictures and making captions. If that doesn't interest you (and I can't really blame you...), then this post isn't for you.
Anyway, when I have some free time, I (like a lot of you, I suspect) like to prowl around the web finding pictures that ... um ... catch my attention. Sometimes I'll see a specific picture that I like and I'll save it to my downloads directory. Other times, I find a whole series of pictures. Those I download usually to a folder named with the day's date. I've got a looooooot of photos in those sorts of folders.
Other times, rather than searching for new pictures, I'll spend my time looking through the pictures that I've downloaded, finding ones that I want to keep -- either because I just like the picture or because I might want to use it for a caption. Those pictures get moved into a permanent folder (and sub-folders). The other original downloads that don't get moved into a permanent folder get deleted (hey, I've only got so much disk space). When I come across a series of linked images, I'll often put those into a sub-folder together to be used for a longer caption (or not).
Then, when I'm feeling creative, I'll start going through these permanent folders, just looking at the photos one by one by one. My usual process is to look at the photos until one grabs my attention or suggests a caption. Rarely do I have a caption in mind for which I need to find an image, though it does happen sometimes (and when I think of a caption without an associated image, I usually make an effort to either write the caption out or at least put a few notes down so that I'll remember my idea).
When I find a photo that triggers the idea for a caption (or when I find an image to go with a caption that I've thought of), I load the photo into my graphics program. I've been using Plasq's Comic Life for Windows. I'm thinking about upgrading to Comic Life 2. It looks like the new version has some cool new features (especially with word balloons); but it also look like it adds a lot of complexity, too.
Anyway, I find that once I get into a creative mood, I am often able to create 5 or 6 captions at a sitting. But I've also discovered that I need to just "go" and not stop and proofread or tweak too much. When I do, I find myself getting bogged down and don't wind up creating too much. Lose the mood, so to speak. So I create the captions, knowing that they may be slightly flawed but keep going.
When I've worn out my ability to create new captions I quit. Sometimes for a few hours; sometimes for a day or two; sometimes for several weeks. It all depends on time and mood.
Then when I next get a chance, I go back through the captions that I've made. I use Photoshop Elements to crop them. I also try to do a quick proofread (I should do a better job, but hey...). When the captions are "ready" I put them into a my "to be posted" folder.
As you've seen, I try to post one caption each day. When I finally load a caption into Blogger to post, I give a final proofread. And unfortunately, at that stage I tend to find lots of little errors that I missed before. When that happens, I skip posting that caption and move on to the next one. The captions that I skip are put into my "to be fixed" folder for next time I get some time. Unfortunately (I'm using that word a lot, aren't I?) it often takes me a while to get back to those captions that need to be fixed. Hence the delay in posting the second part of "Boys Heart Me" (and it was finding a typo that needed to be fixed in "Fertility Treatment's Unexpected Results 2" that prompted me to write this post...).
Anyway, when I have some free time, I (like a lot of you, I suspect) like to prowl around the web finding pictures that ... um ... catch my attention. Sometimes I'll see a specific picture that I like and I'll save it to my downloads directory. Other times, I find a whole series of pictures. Those I download usually to a folder named with the day's date. I've got a looooooot of photos in those sorts of folders.
Other times, rather than searching for new pictures, I'll spend my time looking through the pictures that I've downloaded, finding ones that I want to keep -- either because I just like the picture or because I might want to use it for a caption. Those pictures get moved into a permanent folder (and sub-folders). The other original downloads that don't get moved into a permanent folder get deleted (hey, I've only got so much disk space). When I come across a series of linked images, I'll often put those into a sub-folder together to be used for a longer caption (or not).
Then, when I'm feeling creative, I'll start going through these permanent folders, just looking at the photos one by one by one. My usual process is to look at the photos until one grabs my attention or suggests a caption. Rarely do I have a caption in mind for which I need to find an image, though it does happen sometimes (and when I think of a caption without an associated image, I usually make an effort to either write the caption out or at least put a few notes down so that I'll remember my idea).
When I find a photo that triggers the idea for a caption (or when I find an image to go with a caption that I've thought of), I load the photo into my graphics program. I've been using Plasq's Comic Life for Windows. I'm thinking about upgrading to Comic Life 2. It looks like the new version has some cool new features (especially with word balloons); but it also look like it adds a lot of complexity, too.
Anyway, I find that once I get into a creative mood, I am often able to create 5 or 6 captions at a sitting. But I've also discovered that I need to just "go" and not stop and proofread or tweak too much. When I do, I find myself getting bogged down and don't wind up creating too much. Lose the mood, so to speak. So I create the captions, knowing that they may be slightly flawed but keep going.
When I've worn out my ability to create new captions I quit. Sometimes for a few hours; sometimes for a day or two; sometimes for several weeks. It all depends on time and mood.
Then when I next get a chance, I go back through the captions that I've made. I use Photoshop Elements to crop them. I also try to do a quick proofread (I should do a better job, but hey...). When the captions are "ready" I put them into a my "to be posted" folder.
As you've seen, I try to post one caption each day. When I finally load a caption into Blogger to post, I give a final proofread. And unfortunately, at that stage I tend to find lots of little errors that I missed before. When that happens, I skip posting that caption and move on to the next one. The captions that I skip are put into my "to be fixed" folder for next time I get some time. Unfortunately (I'm using that word a lot, aren't I?) it often takes me a while to get back to those captions that need to be fixed. Hence the delay in posting the second part of "Boys Heart Me" (and it was finding a typo that needed to be fixed in "Fertility Treatment's Unexpected Results 2" that prompted me to write this post...).
So that pretty much sums up my methods. Any questions?
And now back to our regularly scheduled captioning...
Fertility Treatment's Unexpected Results 1
Fertility Treatment's Unexpected Results 2 (coming soon)
Fertility Treatment's Unexpected Results 3 (coming soon)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Scheduled Posting Not Working
As I try to have one caption posted each day, my usual pattern is to upload a post sometime during the evening and schedule that post to go live sometime just after midnight (don't ask ... it's just the pattern I started a while back). Anyway, right now Blogger seems to be having some problems posting scheduled posts. That's why a few of my recent posts haven't shown up until fairly late. Oh, well.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Raspberry and Dark Chocolate M&M's
So I had to run out to the store for a few errands this morning. While out, I came across a new product: Raspberry and Dark Chocolate M&M's. Oh, my. Like, um, wow! Really. I think ... no! ... I know I'm in love. Seriously. This is not going to be good for the ongoing and everlasting diet. Nope.
Sorry for the commercial interruption. But just seriously, wow!
Sorry for the commercial interruption. But just seriously, wow!
Friday, April 20, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Good News and (Not Very) Bad News
The good news is that I've been on something of a creative tear the last week or so. If I've counted correctly (and presuming that I stick to my plan of posting mutli-page captions, one image per day), then I should have enough captions right now to last me through mid- to late June. And I have no intention of stopping my capping efforts any time soon.
The bad news?
Well, you'll just have to wait for those new captions to show up, including titles such as "Chivalry or Big Tits" and "Body Calibration". So just keep checking back...
The bad news?
Well, you'll just have to wait for those new captions to show up, including titles such as "Chivalry or Big Tits" and "Body Calibration". So just keep checking back...
Friday, April 13, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Multi-Page Captions
I've decided that for the foreseeable future, when I create multi-page captions, I'm going to post them separately. This should help me keep to my one caption per day schedule by allowing me to spread mutli-page captions out over a day or four (and I've created a number of multi-page captions in the last few weeks). I decided to do this last night as I was completed the second of two 4-page captions. If I post them all at once, I've got two days' worth of posts; if I spread them out, I've got over a week's worth. Easy math.
I'll be sure (I hope) to include the part number in the title so that you'll know that the caption is part of a series and, when I remember, I'll go back and add links in previous entries to the newest posts.
I'll be sure (I hope) to include the part number in the title so that you'll know that the caption is part of a series and, when I remember, I'll go back and add links in previous entries to the newest posts.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Golddigger
Don't be surprised if you see this image again; after I wrote this caption a few other ideas came to mind. So I may recycle a bit in the weeks to come.
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