Full Disclosure

I feel it my duty, before embarking on any photography posts, to provide you with the full disclosure regarding my photography/Photoshop experience and education...

1. I am not a professional. I am not even an amateur. I am but a wee babe in this world of white balance and layer masks. I barely even know what those words mean.

2. I have never taken a photography class or a Photoshop class. Everything I know I have taught myself by reading tutorials online. I must, must, must give special thanks to Pioneer Woman's photography page on her blog. She is the one who speaks to me, and her myriad of other readers, in plain English. She also provides detailed illustrations that bring her photography tutorials to life. Her blog is the reason why Photoshop and all the crazy dials on my Nikon D70 finally started to make sense to me.

3. I must also thank my husband for accidentally breaking the flash on my camera. If it weren't for this little mishap, I would have probably never stumbled into natural light photography or learned one darned thing about aperture, shutter speed, etc...

4. I use a Nikon D70, which is not the newest version of Nikon's digital SLR series. As I mentioned above, it has a broken flash. It has also been left out in the cold a couple of times by accident. I use Photoshop 7.0, which is by far not the most recent version of Photoshop. Despite my lack of high tech equipment and slightly dated software, I seem to get along just fine. The point is: Anything my dSLR and I can do, you and your dSLR can probably do better. 

That said, it really makes me wonder why I'm starting this photography page at all.

But the thing is, I think that there are more of you photography seedlings, like me, out there in the world, who are just bursting with the desire to see your photography skills blossom. And because I am so new to all of this myself, I think I have a perspective that is very simple and fresh. I know what it's like to just be starting out. All of those basic photography questions are still swirling around in my head, like little bits of dust in a ray of sunlight, slowly finding a place to settle.

I also like to participate in different photography projects online, like 'I ♥ Faces' or 'My Best Shot Monday', so this is a place to share my work with you and explain how I go about editing a particular photo. This is also going to be a place for me to keep a record of what I've learned, and a place to go back to when I've forgotten half of it.

In short (oh wait... it's too late for that), I know very little, but what I do know I am excited to share. If this photography page helps you even a little bit, or if it helps me to become a better photographer, it will have fulfilled its intended purpose.