Mystery Turkey Tracks Snow onto Website

Here is the new desktop calendar for December 2008. I incorporated three personal photos into this image.

The first is the calendar background. It is a early spring 2007 photo of Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills, South Dakota. If you look closely, you can see there still was quite a bit of snow on the ground!

The second is the main background image. I took a photo of turkey tracks December 2007, also in the Black Hills.

The third photo is the red star. It is the tree topper on my parents' Christmas tree. It is not the tree topper we had when I was growing up. As a child, our tree topper was a finial style, similar in shape to the first photo on this webpage, except the point didn't twist and we didn't have people or snowmen.

I used two text treatments. First, on "Winter Wonderland," I removed the fill color and using an inner shadow and outer glow, simulating a depression in the snow, like the turkey tracks. It isn't exact because I had already treated the text with some rough shading and erasing. Second, on "December 2008," I also removed the fill, and added a stroke around the letters. It felt too crisp, and I wanted to have a hand-stamped effect, so I added a very slight motion blur.

If you would like to use this wallpaper on your computer, you may do so. Click on the photo to open a full-size version. This wallpaper is for personal use only. Please do not remove the copyright notice.

Missing Consultant Found Under Pile of Work

This is me. Or rather, this is what I'm doing - working night and day on client projects. I'm having a lot of fun, and spending a lot of time, on my clients' websites, Flash videos, and DVDs.

The background of this photo composite was actually taken on a sunny day, but I manipulated this country scene* into a night view with a fantasy moon. You can see the actual time of day and lighting in the "window."

The composite is entitled, A Brand New Day, inspired by the song title from Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog.

There are times when we work so much we "don't know if it's day or night." We are so focused on our tasks, we don't take time to look outside and see the beautiful world around us. Not many of us have a pine-laden view outside our office windows, but stepping away from our work for a moment, taking a minute to feel the sun on our faces, breathe, and relax can help bring our tasks into a more realistic perspective. It also may help us break through some mental blocks to better complete our work.

So, don't spend all your time in the fluorescent lights, head down, hunched over a computer screen or printout. Step into the sun, stretch, take a couple of deep breaths, and smile. You will go back to work refreshed and your mind will be clearer.


*Trees photo taken by me in 2007, Black Hills, South Dakota