Category: Design Work

Today’s Haiku

Carl Setzer3 Comments
haiku text: clouds dancing, moving to the north, healing spring rains.

This is a photo I took a few weeks ago on my Google Pixel, and the post below (Instagram) inspired me to write something today:

(third photo on the carousel)

It’s funny to me how I feel compelled to justify my work, my writing, photography, poetry. Really, I’m supposed to monetize EVERYTHING! If it’s not generating income, or promoting my business, then I shouldn’t do it. However, I know, in my heart, that I need to create stuff.

I feel compelled to post daily, but I’m hamstrung by the needs above, as well as the larger issues of imposter syndrome and all that.

So, I took the photo above and added the haiku in Canva. I do enjoy that, but I think I need to explore other tools besides Canva. Heck, maybe I need to start doing these in Photoshop again. Get those skills back up.

Ever been tempted to replace your Adobe Apps? Check this video out!

Carl Setzer

Some time ago, I created a list of alternatives to Adobe’s and Microsoft’s key software offerings. A filmmaker by the name of Joris Hermans created a video featuring a nice list of Adobe alternatives.

I’ve explored a few of these, but most are unfamiliar to me. I want to explore them, but it will be challenging to do so in the near future.

Have any of you explored any of these tools? Oh, and Joris closes with a request for Acrobat alternatives. Do you have any suggestions? I’d love to hear them, and I’m sure Joris would, too.

Some video work today

Carl Setzer

I spent some time this morning trimming this video out of Trinity’s service last Sunday. A local choir, the Evergreen Ensemble, performed with us; their music was stunning. As I was watching (I was running media that service), I thought “I want to pull this out and post it on our socials”. So, I whipped open Premier Pro and made this little piece to share (posted on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok).

I am always pleased when I get to create fun projects, even small ones like this. Though I’m no master of Adobe stuff, I enjoy getting in with this stuff. For a bit of creative diversity I used Canva to create the thumbnail. I’ve come to deeply appreciate Canva’s simplicity. It makes creating something like this fast and clean.

I do love creating content and managing websites and social media. I find this work delightful and fulfilling. I guess I should find ways to get more of this in my life.

Today’s Morning Haiku

Carl Setzer1 Comment 
with my morning tea
the gentlest of breezes
sunlight through the clouds

I love calm mornings. Today, Seattle’s weather seems to be pivoting from rain to partially cloudy. Blue skies punctuated with white clouds. Summer’s heat abated, whether temporarily or for the rest of the year is uncertain, but I’ll take the respite.

Autumn Approaches

Carl Setzer2 Comments
Today's haiku
orange and red leaves
as i gaze out my window
glories of autumn

The maple just outside my office window already shows autumn colors. Of course, September approaches quickly. Less than a week (Sunday) brings the new month. As tempting as it might be to make some reference to the passing of time, it doesn’t feel very creative.

Some Photoshop Work

Carl Setzer

This week I needed to create a basic image based on a quote for a presentation. The team selected this one:

We can choose courage, or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.

Brené Brown 

I like and admire Brene Brown, so I this made me happy. Now, I have tons of options (ie: Canva and Adobe Express). I opted, in the end, for Photoshop. I haven’t used it in a few weeks, so this was a good way to keep my skills…it not “sharp”, at least “unrusty”. It took only a few minutes to whip this one up:

Then I thought “you know, it would be cool to post this to Instagram”. Always a good thing to make sure people know what I can do, right? Anyway, an Instagram post is square. As you might have noticed, this above is not. A benefit of doing this kind of work in Canva is their “Resize” tool (it is a Premium feature). Though not perfect, it does a create job of guesstimating. Tweaking the image then is pretty easy. Photoshop doesn’t have a slick little tool like that. Changing the canvas size is pretty straightforward, though. Then one needs to do a bit more tweaking than what would be needed with Canva’s tool. Re-sizing the image and text, mostly. And making sure you remember all the elements that are hidden by the new canvas size.

This was clear cut, so it was pretty easy to readjust the elements and create an Instagram styled image.

Yeah, I enjoy these sorts of projects, so it was fun.