Joseph Ferreira

The GroupShot App

Have you ever taken a group shot or a series of shots where not everyone is cooperating? I do all the time, and it mainly involves my children.

I was told about this app, called GroupShot, that can fix a group image by replacing the desired details from one image to another’s, so I downloaded it. At first I thought it was going to be a joke, but when I tried it I was impressed.

Here are two images where my children were cooperating at different times:

My daughter has a great expression while my son is not paying attention in the first image, and they switched roles in the second. Before my daughter started cooperating again, my son got up and moved towards me.

Enter GroupShot

Select the images you want to use in the app. I chose the image I wanted changed first and then the one with the best feature of my son.

You can use multiple images to select from, but you don’t want to overload the program. It tends to crash. After you select the images, press Done.

As you can see, the first image is in the field of manipulation.

I select my son’s face with my finger, and it automatically selects the area of the other image to replace it. I select the desired image and the magic begins.

After the magic is performed, I can now post it to Instagram and Facebook. Give it a try. I know you will not be disappointed.

working on a new site.

How To Use A Drop Shadow

First, select your object, and then go to the Effect drop down menu. Select the Stylize option and then Drop Shadow.

Once you have selected the Drop Shadow, a box will appear with option variables. Play with the variables to find the desired effect.

Non-Photography Post

There is a word going around that I refuse to use, and I cringe just thinking of using it in this article. It is very popular with Teens and Tweens, but this concept is not new among youths.

Generations of teenagers have taken common words and ‘reinvented’ them with their own meaning and use. Words like ‘boss’, ‘righteous’ , ‘cool’, and ‘bad’ come to mind, but this one, in particular, is different. I had never heard it before (and really hoped it would die faster than it was thought up) and had no clue what it meant. I thought it was unique until today. That word is Swag (I just threw up in my mouth to get rid of the bad taste).

This word, for lack of better words, is an insult to my intelligence, and I have been fortunate not to have people use it in my presence. That was until today when it was used by a 59 year old man.

I was shocked! But, I had to hear his explanation. He was getting ready to dig around my telephone and fiber cables, and we were talking about engineers and how things on paper don’t always line up in the field. There was an approximate number of feet that needed to be dug for the job to be completed, and Mike said that they use to call ‘approximations’, SWAG in the old days.

I asked him what it meant, and he said it stood for: Scientific Wild Ass Guess

I laughed. He probably thought I was nuts, but I told him he made my day. All I could think about was that swag was synonymous with an oxymoron and how it was not an original word. I told him that kids were using it today, and that I has no idea what it meant.

I take words and their meanings seriously. These word trends come and go, but we will have to suffer through it. I know there will be other worthless use of syllables that will spew from the mouths of our youth, but I really hope this one will soon be forgotten.