A look inside the Barefoot reunion

Merry belated Christmas and happy Boxing Day and New Year to all.

For this post, probably the last of 2015, I had intended to convert another of the A&E Duck Dynasty photographs into a Barefoot family edition.  The original picture - shown below - is that of a reunion of Robertson family members organized for an episode called "Stand By Mia" that aired on Mar. 26, 2014.  It was the idea of Mia Robertson, daughter of show co-star Jase, who was born with a cleft lip and palate and wanted to have something special before a major bone-graft surgery to help correct the condition.  In all, 85 people showed up.

The version I had intended would have featured the 13 farm residents, as well as many others, in the Robertson roles.  This would have "commemorated" the reunion I have documented in an earlier post in which I shared two of the document files.

However, I have found the work to be daunting and, although I am continuing to work on it, the Barefoot/Robertson project is far from done.  But I felt I needed to do a replacement I could share with you right away.  So what you're seeing now is a picture of Buddy Wayne, Bobby Ray, and Brenda at the reunion modeling the T-shirts that were made for the event.

The shirts themselves were designed at the Custom Ink website for the color choice and the text and at Photoshop for the addition of the graphic, which was selected from another design.

Hambone the hunter: Part deux

Earlier this year, I placed Hambone on the set of Duck Dynasty, a real A&E television series starring the Robertson family of West Monroe, LA.  I placed her in camouflage as she prepared to go on the set as a special guest star.

This time, I have created another photo montage related to Hambone's "appearance" on that episode, in which she joins the male stars of the series in an actual duck hunt on the family's expansive property.

I began by uploading the appropriate picture found on one of the photo albums maintained on the show's official website into Photoshop.  Then I replaced some blank space on the right side by duplicating Jep's image, then placing Hambone's face on top of it.  On her face, she wears the same camouflage makeup that Jep does; I used the clone stamp tool to spread it all the way through.  Her cap is the same as worn by Brittany Barefoot of Greenwood, SC in a picture I've used a lot; it looked dark in the original picture, so I increased both brightness and contrast so it would look more like the head coverings worn by the Robertsons.  Lake D'Arbonne is an artificial lake close to the family property; it was created by a dam on the Ouachita River.

Here is the result of the merger of real and made-up TV star families.