Picture 294 | 4th of July 2014

So, it was the 4th of July week last week.
America is 238 years old.
I would have done a picture, but I was in the middle of a series.
And if I wanted to make a picture on the actual day of the 4th, it would be uploaded a week later anyways.
Unless it was so simple that I could upload it that day.
Moving on, I didn't know what to do for this year.

I have done three pictures for the 4th.
Pictures 33, 88, and 191.
I totally forgot to make on last year.
Here's what I had to say about in a Facebook post...
'forgot to do a Fourth of July picture again... — feeling ashamed.'
:-\ .............yeah............
I almost did this year too.
I didn't know what to do this year.
I missed doing a picture on the actual day because I was busy.
Things were just a mess.
But, I sat down on Sunday and thought..."I have to do something!"
So, I looked around for ideas.
I went outside and saw it....
A flag on a pole, just floating in the wind.
I thought..."I'll stand next to it!"
And that was that.
It was more complicated than I thought...
I couldn't possibly stand run down there in ten seconds.
I had to Photoshop me in there.
It's not the first time I had too.
It was simple...one of the flag...

And one of me...

Then, put them together!
But...it wasn't that simple.
There were power lines going in front of the flag!!!
So, I took on the difficult task of removing them.
It took almost an hour.
I used many different techniques.
In the end, if you don't zoom into the picture, you won't see the bloopers.
I tried my hardest.
I'm not an expert in that field. :-P
Once I got it all done, I went to colorize it.
I didn't want to go crazy.
I just added a little saturation and contrast.
That also helped hide the rough spots from removing the power lines.
A lot of work for just a little picture.
But, after all that, I was done.
OH! LET'S COMPARE!

Hover your mouse (the computer one :-P) over the original picture to see the after editing one.
If you're on a touchscreen device, just tap on the picture. You may have to tap more than once.

Now, let's look at each step.
Step one was putting me in the picture and also taking out the power lines.

And the next step was colorizing it.

AMAZING!!
There were some good differences in all of those.
The last step was the cropping, but I don't like comparing that.
Overall, this picture kind of didn't capture the 4th of July spirit.
It's a little dull.
I'll try to do better next year.
ANYWAYS! On to the BTS video.
It's 5 minutes 45 seconds long.
Short and to the point.
There are some extra tid-bits in there.
You can CLICK HERE to see the video or watch it below. 

That was fun!
I had boat loads of fun with fireworks and stuff.
I'll have to upload the video sometime.
OK! ALL DONE!
COME BACK NEXT WEEK FOR THE CONTINUATION OF THE MIRROR PROJECT!!!