Surprise!!!

I'm sure that everyone had thought that this blog was long dead, and there have been times that I have thought the same thing.  I do, however, occasionally get the drive to create something.  This little number here is the result of one of those muse inspired bouts of creative delirium.

Before you get excited at my triumphant return, I'm going to caution you.  I do want to keep making captions, but it's not going to be on a regular schedule.  I will cap when my muse smacks me over the head and says that I must.  (No, I'm not taking applications for the position of muse.)

Nip / Pluck: An Adventure in Explaining My Process

A recent challenge was made to have several captioners take a single source image and put an individual spin on it.  The idea is that by explainining the thought process behind the scenes that new captioners might benefit.  Since the request has come up recently on the blog as well, I'll open this post up to do my best to answer any questions on my captioning process.

Here was the source image everyone was given to work with:

 

The first thing I noticed with the image is that it's a lower resolution tumblr pic.  That doesn't leave much real estate for adding text without modifying the image to add some.  I chose to remove the blur of red in the top right corner and stretch the shadow on the right to make more space.

The image itself gave me the feel of Snow White and the witch's hand for some reason, so I ended up on a bit of a fariytale slant.  Somehow, I settled on a reverse Pinnochio theme...real boy becomes puppet girl.  I added a frame to the image to give the feel of the classic storybook illustration brought into real life.

That left the writing.  It's the most important part of the whole caption to me.  The words should mesh with the image just enough to tie them together while letting the image speak for itself.  The controlling shadow hand in this image is ideal for themes of control and loss of it.

Since D/s themes can sometimes become heavy, so I chose a lively and fun font to keep things light.  It may not be the most readable font, but it expresses the undertones of softness and femininty I want the hidden dominant to have.

I like to add a teaser title to captions when I can to give a quick taste of the full caption.  I will usually put that in some 'dead space' in the image where it won't interfere with the core focus of the caption.

Last, and hopefully least, I add a transparent watermark to the caption to help deter other people on the Internet from claiming credit for my words and artistic adds as their own.  If this hadn't been a problem in the past (see here), I wouldn't bother.  Sadly, there are schmucks out there who scrape and repost captions while claiming they did the work.

And here is the final result:

Have questions on something I didn't cover in my explaination?  Ask them in the comments, and I'll try my best to answer.

Everything old is new again

A discussion recently came up where captioners were asked to dig back into their archives for one of their first captions to show new caption writers that even some of the best artists started small.  Part of the exercise was also in taking that first caption and re-imagining it with our current skills.  These are the results of my efforts.

The original caption from way back in 2007:

This is my updated version:

So...what do you all think?  Aside from fixing the typos, is the new version better?

Checking In / Checking Out

I recently had a bit of time to caption for a change.  I had an idea hit me that just demanded that I make it into a caption.  I won't bore you with the details.  If you're still following my blog, you've waited long enough for something new.

Can You Keep a Secret?

I was bitten by the capping bug yesterday and decided to explore some new territory of formatting.  This cap is an attempt to achieve a clean look that doesn't include the standard rectangular image insert.

In case it isn't clear enough from the caption, the setting I envisioned is one where a couple of guys have just accidentally stumbled upon something that has turned one of them into a infinitely knowledgeable genie.  This is the conversation that occurs shortly after.

Post Exam Jitters

It's been a long time since I've had either the time or motivation to create a new caption.  Inspiration struck me earlier today from an image that I found a few days ago.  Simone has been wonderful at making captions for me to hit various fantasies of mine, and I wanted to give her something in return.

I may not have hit her buttons dead on, but I wasn't really trying to put extra pressure on myself to hit one out of the park.  That will come in time as I try to shake off the rust and get back into the swing of things.

Without further ado, here's something new.

Update:  I realized after I posted that the text in the caption looked a bit rough.  I went back and checked a few things, and I had forgotten to smooth it like I normally do.  I'll leave the old version up to show what a difference a bit of text tidying can make.

Fixed version:

Old version with pixelated text:

Turn the Page

This photo practically screamed at me to create a caption for it.  I decided to go with a different direction than the obvious one.  Hopefully some of you can appreciate where I took this one.

Guest Caps by Dawn Carrington

I was recently contacted by a reader of this blog with an interesting proposition.  Since I've been busy fighting the good fight with real life recently, I decided to give it a try to see where it goes.

Dawn Carrington, a writer at TG World, came to me and offered up some of her own captions to be posted here.  After taking a look and seeing promise in them, I've agreed to post up a batch of her captions for you all to peruse.

Feel free to leave comments to let me know how you feel about me posting guest caps.  If you like what you see, leave some feedback for Dawn here.  If you really like them, go read her own caption blog: http://tgcaptions-metamorphosa.blogspot.com/

Gifts of the ... *Ahem*

Yesterday finally gave me the motivation to get off my butt an make a caption for someone.  It was the birthday of someone that spends a lot of time doing stuff for other people, so she was worthy of a caption to celebrate.

Waiting for a Call

I'm slowly getting back in to the swing of getting a few captions made.  It's still going to be slow going for the foreseeable future.  My attention is focused on other ventures at the moment.  I'll continue to post caps as I'm able to churn them out.

Mistress Knows Best

Has it really been over a month since my last caption?  Ugh.  Life had obviously been getting in the way of my creative time.

I had some quiet time last night so I made a caption for a dear friend, who I met through my blog here.  It just seemed fitting that my first caption in a while be made for someone who I met through the blog.  I'll try not to let another month pass without anything new, but I don't seem to be in control of the tempo of my life at the moment.

Enjoy it while you can...

Keeping a Close Watch

I recently made a caption for a member on Rachel's Haven who requested to be punished.  I couldn't resist the temptation to provide a bit, since we'd had some chats where the person was rather playful.  The caption describes several changes, but only the final one is shown.

Elly Electrified

Well, I did it.  I finally pulled together my creative forces enough to get through my Fantasy Football caption backlog.  This one is the grand finale caption for the Haven Bowl champion, Elly.  She provided the photo for me for this one, and I just let things roll from there.

Cutting Edge Therapy

I lost yet another fantasy football week last week.  That's good news for you, since I had good reason to churn out a new cap.

This cap was done for someone who plays hockey and likes transformations into girly girls that like gymnastics or figure skating.  I found the image for the cap when searching for figure skating pics, and I was struck by a goofy spell.  This caption is the result.

EP: Trick & Treat

I did manage to churn out a quick Enchanted Penis cap for you all to help celebrate Halloween.  Normally Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  I've been so busy this year that I didn't even get to decorate much.  This cap is my little way of making sure that I at least get to decorate my blog before it's too late.

House of Cards

This is another caption I made for a Fantasy Football loss. Life has been far too busy lately.  Expect the sporadic updates to continue for the foreseeable future.

Making the Cut

I have a friend who recently dragged me into playing in a fantasy football league, then proceeded to smack talk me about how I'm going to lose.  This caption was a bit of a revenge and return caption that pushes some of that friends buttons.  I know the type of change is different than I normally cover, but I hope that some of you can appreciate it anyway.

Oh yeah...this is my first caption with an experimental new style.  Comments on that (good or bad) are appreciated.

A Re-Birth of Sorts

A good friend who I chat with often had a birthday this week, so I made this caption for Elly.

A Helpful Friend

I put this caption together as a quick pick-me-up for someone who was feeling a bit bummed.  I figured I'd post it here to share it and to debut the new watermark.  Any feedback on the watermark would be greatly appreciated.  I don't want it to be too prominent, but I also want to make sure it serves its purpose.

The Jokess

This is another caption I did as part of a scavenger hunt.  The item was a Rule 63'd cosplay girl.  I had fun with what I found in my image search.  Believe it or not, the Sailor Moon pic is less disturbing than the other one I found.  I still shudder a bit when I think about it.