Art by Wade

I have worked at Cree, Inc (makers of LEDs and SiC devices) for the past 24 years. Over that time, I had many roles, mostly software and database development but also IT Manager, Web Master, and Materials Coordinator to name a few. I truly enjoy solving problems and helping people with their data needs. I was laid off from Cree on May 13, 2019 and was given a very generous severance package. Recently, I have started to become restless and have started looking for a new adventure. I'm not in a hurry to land a new career, so I'll be taking my time to find the right place. Cheers, Wade

With rays of warmth, he embraces her soul. Arms, iron strong, surround their love. Sunshine reaching, fills the room. With feathered whispers, they embrace the day. Poetry and picture by me.Picture taken in 2017 and re-edited today for this post. Cheers, Wade

One of my favorite submissions for the 25th round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt was for the word Pencil. My final image is shown below, but I didn’t actually draw this. I used several Topaz plugins, which I’ll detail for you after the final image. Final Pencil Image Here is the image that I started with, which is a simple macro shot with the pencil balanced on the Hot Wheels car. Initial Photograph The first thing I did was clean up the image in Lightroom. Then I sent it to Topaz’s Glow plugin, where I used the liquid lines filter to make the car look more smooth and give it a little pop. I masked out the pencil, so it would always look real. Here’s that image Second Edited Image Next, I used Topaz Texture plugin to give the whole car a sketched look. I masked out the pencil again. Third Image with the Sketched look applied After that, I sent the image back to Topaz’s Texture plugin and used the black and white sketch filter on just part of the image and masked out the parts I want...