Thursday, July 24, 2014

Photo montage credits for One Family Together Forever, part 1

(Updated Dec. 3, 2014 when the second "Rebecca Rapp" drawing was switched with a new photo of Brenda and Buddy Wayne, that replaced an extra picture of the doppelganger of Belinda.)

(Updated again Apr. 18, 2015 when I finally learned who Belinda really is.)

This is the first post in which I give the source material for all photo montages seen in the new book One Family Together Forever, which I published on Monday. (You can buy the book by clicking on the icon on the top right of this page.)

For montages of the 13 Barefoot Family Farm residents throughout the book:
  • Upper limbs: From the Facebook page of Brittany Barefoot, a real person in Greenwood, SC.  She graduated from high school in 2008 and the University of South Carolina in 2012; as of 2014, she sold Mary Kay cosmetics while hoping to gain a job in nursing.  (Her younger sister Danielle graduated from USC in 2014.)  However, in most cases, the arms are from Bailey Miller, a school classmate who went to Erskine College in Due West, SC and also played on the "Flying Fleet" soccer team.  Both were in the same "senior day" photograph, as was a third student named Mariam Nasrollahi.  (Here's what the original picture looks like.)
  • Lower limbs: From an unidentified model on the blog In Wonderland with Alice.  It was closed to public access in 2014, but I was able to get the picture on my hard drive before that occurred, and I've placed it here as well.  The picture was taken in Pennsylvania.
  • Solo portraits of family members: Porch picture from the Honest Abe blog, sky changed from slate blue to light blue via new layer and light-blue brush colors
For "covers" of Down Home magazine: These are Microsoft Word adaptations of stationery I made up with the Greeting Card Factory software, made by Nova Development of Riverside, CA.  Names of "artists" (Rebecca Rapp on pages 4 and 29, Bonnie Mae Brookshire on page 37, and Laura Faye Beavers on page 49) were created using various fonts that resemble signatures that artists would use.

For specific farm residents:
Buddy Wayne (page 10)
  • Face: John "Bubba" Britton, former contestant on reality game show Beg, Borrow & Deal which aired on ESPN in 2002. He has worked at a computer-parts wholesale company for many years.
  • Shirt: The shirt itself was retrieved from a website called Smart Casual Dress Code. The picture of a bluebird came from a site called Wet Canvas; when I imported the file, I renamed it “bluebird and rainbows.”
  • Pants: Picture of Arizona Jeans, a brand owned by JCPenney, from an eBay page.
Brenda (page 14)
  • Face: Kim Blitchington, former teacher at the Montessori School in Columbus, OH.  (The current staff directory can be found here.)
  • Shirt: Denver Broncos T-shirt for women, retrieved from NFL Shop, with the color changed from orange to light blue via hue and saturation changes and the logo removed through the clone stamp tool. The wording was self-created with bold Arial font. Benson Mule Days is an actual event that takes place each fall in Benson, NC. The photo of the mule is actually cut off from a two-mule picture I found at the event’s official site.
  • Pants: Arizona Jeans, as mentioned earlier.
Bobby Ray (page 18)
  • Face: Travis Sampson. Originally from eastern Tennessee, he was a cast member on Survivor: Vanuatu in 2005. Before that, he was on My Life is a Sitcom, which was on ABC Family in 2003. Sampson is also a former professional wrestler.
  • Shirt: Generic gray T-shirt from Ibiley. Logo was originally created at says-it.com, a humorous graphics design site based in Texas, and later modified to represent the family business. (The original logo was a crest with the bottom inscription “INNOCENT AND FREE.”)
  • Pants: Again from Arizona Jeans.
Jennifer (page 22)
  • Face: Brandy Barefoot, resident of Opp, AL. Brandy is not to be confused with the Brandy Barefoot character I have contrived, to be introduced later. My first word of her was a local news story about her receiving a kidney transplant from a fellow church member. (Unfortunately, this is now a dead link.) The face is a composite of the hair from the Facebook page, and the lower face from the WSFA page; I removed Brandy’s glasses by way of the clone stamp tool.
  • Shirt: Recolored Broncos top with family farm logo replacing the original.
  • Pants: From Brady Poirier’s file, originally from a woman who was walking her dog. 
Belinda (page 26)
  • Face and clothes: Emily Brannon, daughter of a cousin of Deb Holmes of Chesapeake, VA.  Holmes first got my attention when an Internet search I did came up with Buddy Wayne’s name (the original real person) on a site with a collection of obituaries. (The original, that of Randall Carrington Lee of Benson, NC, can be found at http://www.wemightbekin.com/Raynor.pdf). We have since communicated by e-mail and have even become Facebook friends! Picking Emily made it easier for me since I did not have to add clothes or arms to the original as I had to do with everyone else. All I had to do was add the legs.
Bryson (page 30)
  • Face: Unknown male, photographed by Thomas McCabe. I attempted to reconnect to the source website that I visited early in 2012, but the search was unsuccessful.
  • Clothing: Coverall as seen on the Discovery Channel program Moonshiners. I took a still capture of Tim Smith, who is part of the cast, wearing it. 
Alonzo "Popeye" (page 34)
  • Face: Brack Maggard, co-owner of RAB Racing with Brack Maggard in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. This is based on a picture taken when he was a driver in the ARCA Racing Series. I then used Photoshop to "airbrush" away the logos and the blur tool to get rid of pixels that had lots of what could be called either noise or static.
  • Cap: The original ARCA logo was painted out and the Bass Pro Shops logo put in its place.
  • Body: A professional model (retrieved from polyvore.com) was used with his face removed and replaced by Popeye’s. No new arms or legs were needed, and only the foot from “Alice” was used. The original color of the coveralls was a darker blue than shown here; the settings were reduced by taking down the hue and saturation settings. 
Gillie Ann "Annie" (page 38)
  • Face: Emily Barefoot, marketing agent at C&D Insurance Services in Angier, NC. She is also a former real estate agent with Ellis Barbour and Company in Dunn, NC; I got the picture from the agency's website when she worked there.
  • Top and pants: Same file, uploaded by Poirier, originally of the woman walking the dog. 
Ralph (page 42)
  • Hat: Same as that found on Popeye, but with an overlay of camouflage. The camo comes from what Mariam Nasrullahi wears in the Greenwood High School photo.
  • Face: Brett Barefoot, who has worked for the last 10 years at the University of Mississippi. As of early 2014, his latest assignment was in the child-care department; earlier, he had been the head of training and compliance in its financial-aid department. He is a 2004 graduate of “Ole Miss.”
  • Shirt: Gray t-shirt mentioned earlier, recolored a kelly green commonly found in the American outdoors. I came up with the slogan “BOW TO THE BOW,” which is an example of homonyms (two words spelled the same, but with different pronunciations).  The first “bow” (pronounced like wow) indicates submission or superiority, while the second “bow” (pronounced like go) is a common hunting instrument. The depiction of a buck comes from the grave of Burness Dean “Bubba” Brister of Vidor, TX. I used the brush tool to make a clearer outline and the erase tool to “hollow out” the illustrated design.  I wrote the slogan using the Birch Standard font.
  • Pants: Arizona Jeans copy, recolored light brown due to hue/saturation and curves adjustment layers.
Harvey (page 46)
  • Face: Justin Barefoot was a star baseball player at South Johnston High School (Banner, NC) in the first decade of the 21st century. He was good enough to play in a state all-star game, then won a scholarship to Clemson University. However, Justin never played a game for the Tigers, instead transferring to the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. His last game there was played in 2008. Two years later, he opened Barefoot Outdoors in Smithfield. The store, still open today, sells bows, arrows, and related equipment.
  • Shirt: Carolina Panthers authentic jersey, which fans can buy at the NFL Shop. The number “53” is a reference to Billy Bob Ribble, another one of my characters of whom I explain fully later in this book. The NFL shield on the original jersey was brushed out. 
Reba Pearl "Hambone" (page 50)
  • Face: Alyssa Barefoot. As of late 2010, she was a senior at South Johnston High School, where she was a cheerleader. She had also launched a career as a model and a photo gallery on her Facebook page has a two-picture portfolio she had planned to send to local agencies. However, that page has not changed since that time, and it is unclear what has become of her over the last four years.
  • Top: Broncos female top with logo removed and recolored pink (not only the family color for patriarch “Pink” Barefoot but also Hambone’s personal favorite color) via hue and saturation adjustments. The Barefoot Family Farm logo was then attached.
  • Bottom: The Arizona Jeans shorts were given a lighter shade by having some of the saturation removed.

I have also included this background information:
Hambone performance video by Steve Hickman
Her dumb beliefs
My favorite incorrect answers
Books by Richard Benson in a similar vein: F In Exams, F For Effort, and F This Test

Brandy (page 56)
  • Face: Amanda Barefoot, who attends UNC Wilmington with a major of elementary education, and also volunteers at a local school in Benson. In 2010, she won Miss Benson at Benson Mule Days - the local festival mentioned earlier - and got print and video features in The Wall Street Journal. (Here is the video feature.)
  • Shirt: Same white T-shirt that Buddy Wayne wears. Although it is more suitable for men than for women, both genders wear shirts like these for golf outings. Given the Hurricanes’ logo patch on her left side, this is definitely from a corporate event when she worked for the team. I retrieved the logo from Wikipedia.
Britton "Bunky" (page 60)
  • Face: Brandon Davidson, model and reality television contestant. On season 5 of The Amazing Race, which aired on CBS in 2006, Davidson and his partner Nicole O’Brian finished in third place. (Coincidentally, Nicole is Brandy’s middle name.) I took the picture from CBS’ official page for that season, which has since been torn down. Because Davidson’s original publicity photo was taken in bright sunlight that reflected straight on his hair, I had to use the clone stamp tool to fill in the space.
  • Shirt: Original white T-shirt with the new Barefoot Family Farm logo.
  • Pants: Through reduction of hue and saturation, were made a lighter shade.

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