The Continuing Series of Celebrities & Background Changes...and Other Comments, As Always.

When changing the backgrounds I attempted to pick backgrounds that the person might have been to, or at least might enjoy visiting...although I'm most likely wrong.  The backgrounds, though, do put more emphasis on the subject.  

The following photo of pianist Van Cliburn was shot in the Green Room by the concert hall at college.  Normally, when shooting Black & White films, I processed the films with chemistry I mixed.  However, after shooting the photos of Van Cliburn it was late, so I used chemistry that someone else had mixed.  The results were disastrous.  After years of having a terrible B&W image, digital scanning and software came to the rescue.  It's still not the best it could have been but it's not bad.  I tried to get someone else to photograph Van Cliburn because I didn't care for classical piano but could not find anyone, so I went to the concert...and he was so amazing that I couldn't leave.  I met him during the intermission and it was like meeting an old friend.  Anyway, here is the one photo I have with hopefully a proper background added.

Because I often visited Cathy Moriarty, I have more photos of her than any other celebrity.  She was wonderful, beautiful, and easy to photograph.  Here are several more photos of her, all shot on the postponed Oscar night at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and all with this background wallpaper.  The nice thing is that once the subject is isolated from the original background, each background change takes only a minute or two.

Not every photo needs to have the background changed.  The ones below of Cathy were exactly as shot.  Unfortunately, before scanning them, the images had deteriorated over time, so still had to process to repair that.

And now for the commentary part of this blog post.  It seems that every time I get ready to publish a post, I find an article or comment elsewhere that summarizes what I'm about to say...and says it better or adds to it.  This is one such comment by Dr. Sabine Hazan, M.D.  As with all my posts, I strongly recommend TheHighwire.com/watch.  

I've been studying health, nutrition, and supplements for 47 years.  Ten years ago I started studying vakses.  I've owned and worked in retail health food stores and have gotten feedback from over 30,000 people.  Along the way, I received an MS degree in Holistic Nutrition and took all the courses for the PhD degree.  One thing I learned is that everyone has different body chemistry,  so if you take a supplement that helps you, that doesn't mean it will help me.  If you get a vaks and have no side effects, that doesn't mean it won't kill someone else.  Some drugs will be almost harmless to some and fatal to others.  So when I hear someone say, "I got the shot and I'm fine (which may or may not be true as it may have caused undetectable long-term damage) so you should get it, too," that may be a dangerous thing to assume.  

I've learned a lot in the past 3 1/2 years.  I've learned that health agencies (CDC, FDA, NIH, NIAID, etc.) lie incessantly, as well as drug companies and media (the real misinformers).  Based on what I've been observing, more people are realizing this.  I hope you are one of them.  As I always say, your health and your life may depend on it.

The only way to find the truth is to research everything, whether it's politics, "global warming," health, or everything else in the news.  Especially when it's coming from the Rachel Maddows of the world or the so-called experts on the news.  

Photography, Backgrounds, and Celebrities

 Many years ago when the IFC Awards first came to Santa Monica by the beach and hardly anyone knew about it, I shot some great photos of those attending.  However, the backgrounds were distracting.  Changing them with Photoshop would have been too time-consuming.  Recently some new photo software made changing the background easier and faster.

In addition to the IFC awards, I ran into Sidney Poitier at Kennedy Airport in NY the day I was discharged from the Air Force and asked if I might get a photo of him.  He agreed and I shot one exposure.  That was all I needed.  Years later, I met Wilt Chamberlain while a photographer for the Jockey Club in MDR, CA.  His photo is below.  I met Cathy Moriarty (Nominated for an Oscar for Raging Bull) through a mutual friend and used to hang out with them in Marina Del Rey.  We visited her on what was supposed to be Oscar night (March 30, 1981) but the Oscars were postponed 24 hours because President Reagan had gotten shot.  So we spent the evening with her at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, shooting photos and having dinner.

More celebrity photos on my next blog post, including pianist Van Cliburn.

Below are the photos of the people mentioned above with the original and new backgrounds.  Hope you enjoy them.

Sidney Poitier at the baggage claim area, as photographed.  Below is the same shot with only him.

Wilt Chamberlain as shot at the Jockey Club in Marina Del Rey, CA.  The guy next to him was about 6 ft tall.

And with changed backgrounds

The changed background was done without the new software, so the edges could be better.

The photos of Cathy Moriarty (in her Oscar gown) were shot at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.  It was not a planned session so we had to work with the background wallpaper.  

I tried a few different backgrounds with this photo:

The bottom two changes were before the new software, although they were pretty nice.

As for other subjects this week you can follow the latest health-related news at The Highwire.  The focus this week is on contrails or chemtrails.  Fascinating discussion.  There is also the CHD (Children's Health Defense) site, although it is more than only children.  And NVIC (National Vaccine Information Center).  

On a personal note, I've added a couple of new supplements to my diet:  Pterostilbene & Fisetin.  They are too new to determine if I'll notice any benefits.  Time will tell - you may want to research them, especially if you are over age 50.

And that's a wrap for this post.