Thursday, May 28, 2009


Our town has a wonderful program for the school kids; it's called UpBeat. On the elementary level, it sponsors family fun nights; for the middle school, there are Friday evening drop-ins where the kids can hang out in a safe environment. The program really takes off in the high school: about 300 kids are involved in social service projects, leadership training and basically being given the tools to make good decisions. Except for the director's part-time salary, the program gets no financial support from the town. That means we have to raise the money to support our activities. Our biggest fund-raiser is the annual picnic. We invite the entire town for FREE hot dogs, popcorn and soda. We collect donations, have a silent auction, and there are things like pony rides, face painting, and games for which we charge a small fee. Last year, we gave out over 6000 hot dogs!
Here's a photo of someone dressing a dog at this year's picnic tonight. I liked the weathered look of his hands. I converted the photo to B&W, then reduced the opacity and applied a touch of the Watercolor filter to bring out the seams and veins in his hands.

5 comments:

  1. UpBeat sounds like a wonderful town project! And your weathered hands are a great way to show it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are right, this is a great program (and I am sure the kids love it)! That hotdog sure looks wonderful - you captured the image wonderfully!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sound like good old fashion clean fun. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful work...6000 hot dogs? Can't even imagine that many!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like a really worthy project! I LOVE the effect of making these hands even more weathered. Excellent choice of processing.

    ReplyDelete