Oh that sly mother fucker.
Drowning me in this river.
My red flows down stream.
Head covered with cold water.
My body never saw this day.
The day the devil lost his daughter.
The day I saw the world as water.

We swam and we sang.
Chanted some might say.
Drinking blood, and eating skin.
Tattooed our wrists with sixes.
We bathed in fucking sin.

Our faces red and violent.
We fought through ourselves perceived.
It was so beautiful.
We wanted more.
We neglected the words of wisdom’s seeds,
and began to boast and soar.
Standing next to flesh itself.
The blood begins to boil.
Sitting within this small package.
It’s easy to see outside.
Flipping through the pages of past, present, future.
To feel, to run, to hide.
We danced and sang.
We ate too much of this little thing.

Oh that sly mother fucker.
We eat, we dance, we sing.

it fades in
it fades out
there are so many fucking people
to many to count
I can see the particles floating
it’s nice to visualize philosophy
metaphysical after effects
ha…

it’s comforting to wander
wondering if and how
pausing only briefly
forming a place
a child like place
like a house in a tree
floating at sea

then we return
the clowns are coming
with their wide smiles
and their big blue teeth
Tim Burton would be proud
they carry their “nice” costumes
and are paid for their services
we are all paid for our services
we are all clowns
personified circus animals
pretending to “be”
pretending to “see”

sometimes I don’t exist
it’s pretty fuckin’ cool

J.F. (JAKE) REINHARDT JR.
Your Collectors Store
1015–9th Wichita Falls, Texas

I’m guessing it’s was where Bundy Young Sims & Potter is now.

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swimming stationary
and loving it,
little feet
little shoes
big influence,
it’s nice to be.

f’sho
and sho nuff
we all breathe together
it’s what we have to do,
no choice
always a choice.

justified mountain range
elevated consciousness
and sticking to it.

playful accordion attitude
tiny fingers on the keys.

we grow up way too fast.

slipping away from what makes us
dripping into “reality”,
I found an old frame
with a lovely picture.

inquisitive grunts
pressing play on past recordings
we see ourselves daily
invisible on occasion
but always here
always nowhere
always.

The truth is, filters are very useful when used at the right time and in moderation. Let me show you some of my most used filters. Also, when and why I use them.

Gaussian Blur

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur

My number one most used filter. I’ve even created a keyboard short cut for this one. It’s got it’s own gang sign and everything. Control + Shift + Command + B Muthah Fuckah! Ha!

Most Common Uses:

1. Drop shadows
   (I normally set the opacity of my blurred layer to 30%)
2. Depth of field/Tilt shift photos
   (Cut out the object you want in focus, placing it in a layer above your background. Duplicate the background. Blur the top bg and create a mask to define which parts are blurry and which are clear.)

Displace

Filter > Distort > Displace

Displace takes a little bit of work to set up. It uses Photoshop maps. Most of my maps are just photos of textures I’ve taken converted to black and white and saved as a psd. Displace, in my experience, works best in grungy situations.

Most Common Uses:

1. Making objects appear to be on a textured background.
   (PhotoshopCafe.com has a very nice tutorial on the subject)
2. Creating a nice grungy edge.
   (I used 2 on the Horizontal and Vertical Scale, here is what the map I used looks like.)

Highpass

Filter > Other > Highpass

The only thing I ever use highpass for is touching up a photo. Highpass can add a little extra sharpness to a photo. Allow me to show you.

Here are the Steps:

1. Choose your photo and duplicate the layer.
2. With your newly created layer go to Filter > Other > Highpass
   (I normally try to keep the radius around 2.5, but play with it a little)
3. Set the blending mode of the “Highpassed” layer to Overlay. Enjoy!

Notice how it made the edges pop. Gives the photo just an extra bit of sharpness. It also adds somewhat of an HDR effect with the small glow it gives around the edges.

who would do that
really?
who would be that kind of asshole?

TiltShiftGen

This has got to be the best image editing app I’ve ran across. The interface is awesome. It’s very simple and does wonders with your images. It’s made by the guys over at Art&Mobile.

There are options for blur (radial and linear), color (saturation, brightness, and contrast), vignetting, and saving (save to library and exporting). Make your photos look like miniatures. Add some depth of field to some close up shots.

Cost: $0.99
Awesome app, get it here.

PS Mobile

Photoshop Mobile has a nice list of capabilities. I myself use PS Mobile mostly for touching up my photos. I use exposure kind of as a ghetto levels. Once to lighten, once to darken.

This app is packed full of features. It also has crop, rotate, flip, saturation, tint, contrast, sharpen, and many more including some presets like Vibrant and Warm Vintage. It allows you to add effects and then undo them, nice for trying new things just to see how it looks. After all is done you choose to save it. PS Mobile also connects to Photoshop.com and upload your photos.

Cost: FREE
Get the app here.

Symmetrix

Symmetrix is a fun app. It allows you to mirror your photos vertically or horizontally. You can rotate and move your photo while the “mirror” stays in it’s place (you’ll just have to play with it). It’s a neat little app to have. It’s nice in combination with other apps when you are feeling creative and have some down time.

Cost: $0.99
Get the app here.

BlendCam

BlendCam lets you blend two or more photos together. You choose a photo (via your library or camera). You then choose and blend style and another photo.

BlendCam can get you some nice effects. It’s fun to play with.

There’s only one thing I don’t like about BlendCam. It doesn’t ask if you want to save your blended photos. It just does. Would be nice to test blend modes and photos before it saves them to my library.

Cost: FREE
Get the app here.

Though I’ve learned to stop the looping (somewhat), there are still times when I just can’t stop that inner conversation with myself. What happened during the day. What do I need to do tomorrow. Sometimes it’s philosophical. I normally let that slide, let it spiral out. When it gets bad is when it’s negative thoughts. We all have them, some can just turn them off easier. Bad thoughts can be good in some circumstances. We do learn from our mistakes. Most of the time it’s just trivial crap you could totally live without.

In college I ran across a book in a thrift store. The Way of Zen by Alan Watts. The book opened up a new way of thinking for me. It also pointed me in a direction I am glad I’ve traveled. Alan does a particularly well job of arranging his words to explain eastern philosophies. I’ve read most of his books. Awesome stuff.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
– Alan Watts -

From my new way of thinking I learned to slow and sometimes stop the constant chatter of my voiceless voice through a little thing called meditation. At least this is my understanding of what meditation is about. To free the mind of everything. Sometimes to free it of all but one thing. The one thing being a positive thought or for Buddhists a kōan.

Free the mind.

The technique I use to achieve this “blank slate” is to picture myself sitting in what I can only compare to as space. Darkness surrounds me with the exception of a light above me. As thoughts appear I create a visual representation of them. Be it actual words or a physical form. I imagine it floating toward me out from the darkness. I then allow it to keep floating in the direction it was traveling and pass me. Right back into the darkness, into the nothing, from which it came. Sometimes I can get to the point where thoughts no longer appear. My mind is clear, it’s free.

I also use this technique to go to sleep. In this case I try to just imagine pictures or still images. Eventually these images turn into animations and float right into dreams. Try it. You may like what you find.

1. Getting Started

Choose a photo to work with. I shot this one of my wife. As you can see, it’s a little flat, it needs a little contrast.

2. Levels

To open the levels dialog goto Image > Adjustments > Levels (command + L). From here you have your images histogram. Below that are three little triangles one black, one grey, and one white. You want to grab the white one and slide it towards the center. While sliding you want to pay attention to the lighter areas of your image. Stop the triangle just before you start losing detail in the lighter areas of your image.

Now grab the middle triangle, the grey one. Start sliding it towards the white triangle. This time pay attention to the darkest areas of your image. You want to slide it untill you start losing detail within these areas. Hit OK, you’re done!

3. Enjoy

The difference is subtle, but worth it.