In loving Memory

I haven't blogged in awhile, and I think it's because something big happened in my life. It's something that I truly don't want to talk about, here, on my blog... but I think what I'm realizing is that I can't really move forward with my day to day without talking about it first, even if it's just for a little. It's simply too big to just pass over.

The days prior to losing my father and the days since losing my father have been by far the hardest days of my life. When you lose someone who has been a part of you for your entire life, you lose a piece of yourself with them. There is a void in my world that will never be filled. There is an ache in my heart that most definitely will never go away.  

I snapped this photo of my dad during our family trip to Disneyland this last Christmas. He smiled all the way through his battle, despite the terrible pain he was in.

When I began writing my blog in May of last year, I asked my family if it was OK if I mentioned some of them once in awhile in my blog posts... when my dad responded to my email he said, "sure, just keep it light." So, for my dad, I won't go on any longer about the pain of losing him, but there are a few more things I would like to say about him.

Nobody in this world is perfect... and that includes my father. BUT, I will say that when it came to being a husband, a father and a friend, my dad got pretty darn close. He loved his family unconditionally - he worked hard everyday to provide for us. He gave me opportunities and a life that I feel incredibly grateful for. His loyalty, love and support for my mother was exemplary. He would give the shirt off his back to help those close to him. He NEVER asked for anything in return - seeing his family happy, smiling, successful, that's all he ever wanted. Selfless, ya, I'd say so... and then some. And he had jokes, jokes for everything. He made people laugh, one of the best perks of life - laughter - and he gave that to us. The world needs more people like my dad, but instead, on February 13th 2011, we lost him. It doesn't seem fair.

Life is hard. Life is uncertain. Life is scary. Life ISN'T fair. And life just plain hurts sometimes. But, it is also a gift that is full of beauty, LOVE, laughter, hugs, family, friends, fun, silliness, giggles... wondrous, wondrous things that should not be taken for granted.

I've vowed to myself that I will continue to live my life everyday in a way that will make my dad proud. He may be gone but everything he has ever taught me is in my heart. I will be the best person I can be because my dad showed me how.

As I said in my eulogy at my fathers funeral: Life isn't about living forever, we know that no one can... It's about making the most of the time we have here; smiling, laughing, loving and cherishing all the LITTLE moments that make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. I believe that in life, that's all that matters.

I'm going to keep on trucking... It's the best option. I will miss my daddy everyday, but I will be OK.

A Crane Clan Photomerge

This past weekend my family and I were lucky enough to all be together for Fathers Day. See that adorable beautiful family, those are my peeps, The OG's (Original Gangsta's). As my dad would say, "yup, that's the whole fam damnly." My dad likes to make jokes, always.



So, anywho, the family pic above, how does it look? Anything out of the ordinary? Besides my brothers face? Just kidding bro. ;)

Well, the truth is, it's a lie. I wasn't going to say anything because I figured I could get away with it but it's been eating at me. I didn't sleep at all last night and this morning, I swear my alphabet cereal spelled out the letters f-r-a-u-d. I can't take it anymore... so here it is.

That's not the original photo.

On fathers day, we took a couple family pics but one in particular was my favorite. Everyone looked great but unfortunately, Tiff (oldest sister, far right) was the only one who got caught in an awkward mid-smile (see below). There was another pic taken where my sister has a perfect beautiful smile (see below the one below) but unfortunately you can't see my sisters full one-piece denim jumpsuit, which is obviously unacceptable. So, in order to fix this family portrait faux pas, I cut off my sisters face. Wait, that sounded bad. What I meant was I performed a face swap. It's kind-of like that show Wife Swap but way less disturbing and more practical.

Below are the two pictures I merged to get the final picture which is shown above. It's not perfect but I'm pretty happy with it considering I taught myself how to do it. (Sidenote: I may have an unusually small head, but head size does not correlate with brain size. I know because I asked a doctor.)






How I did it:

In Photoshop...

First, I cut out Tiff's smiley face with the lasso tool feathered at 5. Then I copied and pasted it onto my preferred photo.

Next I adjusted the size of her face to fit appropriately only to find that the color tones didn't match.

I adjusted this by adding 2 adjustment layers to my face layer. One for hue and saturation and another for brightness and contrast. I tinkered around with those two settings for a bit until I found a color that matched the original.

I finished it off by using the eraser tool to fix the places where the face didn't quite match up perfectly and then voila, I gave my sister a gift that only doctors and Gods can give, a new face. (If you're wondering, yes, I did just compare myself to both doctors and Gods.)

So, there you have it. The Crane Clan Photomerge. If anyone has any other tips or tricks for performing a face swap, send 'em my way, I'd love to hear them!