Let's Fall to Pieces Together

FORWARD: The jist of this whole post is that I am soon going to put up a photography page on this site so that, if you're interested, you can learn along with me how to edit photos using Photoshop. That's the long story, short. If you're interested in the short story, long, please keep reading.  

As you can see from the photo above, and the strange photo I posted of Little Blue Eyes and Timber yesterday (I still can't decide if I like it or hate it), I've got a lot of learning to do when it comes to photography and photoshop.

I took this squirrel photo a couple years ago and always thought it was pretty cool, except it was terribly shadowed and dark. And that was back when I used 'auto' and my flash all the time on my camera, so I don't know how I screwed it up, but I did. I guess squirrels are kind of hard subjects to photograph, especially when you've got a large mongrel heavily breathing over your shoulder, waiting for you to tell him to lunge.

I pulled it out the other day and thought I'd test out my photoshop skills to redeem it. I can't even remember exactly what I did... I played around with layer masks, unsharp masks, brush tools, etc...

Mind you I don't even really know what any of those words mean.

Please don't run away.

Anyhow, what I ended up with was a slightly brighter, crisper, more vibrant picture with an oddly ethereal looking squirrel and bird feeder sitting centerstage. Overall I feel that it's pretty underwhelming and obviously photoshopped and pretty much a failure.

A failure except for the fact that I'm pretty sure I learned something, and the process I was using led me to figure out how to do this.

See? Good things do come to those who wait.

Or to those who dink around long enough and just keep clicking with their finger until something finally clicks mentally. That would be me.

The thing is, I really wasn't planning on having a photography page on this site for two good reasons: 1) I'm not a professional photographer. I don't know if I can even consider myself an amateur photographer. I'm not sure that the word 'photographer' and my name should even be used in the same sentence. Putting a photography page on my site seems a little bit like a misrepresentation or something. 2) I didn't think I really had time to maintain another page, what with keeping the 'Ramblings' and 'Home Cooking' up to speed. (And we all know that my mindless rambling is really what keeps you coming back for more, isn't it?)

Today, however, I'm sort of reformulating my thoughts...

I've been perusing some of the photo edits over at 'I ♥ Faces' for this week's 'Fix-It Friday' challenge. I would like to participate in this type of project, and the whole point is to post it on your blog so that other people can come take a look at your work. I want to do this, along with other photography projects online, but I also don't want to muck up my 'Ramblings' page with photo edits and such, because some of you who stop by to read maybe don't care much for all the photography hullabaloo.

The other mental transformation that I had regarding this subject is that, because I have THE WORST memory ever, I sometimes forget how I go about editing photos, and when I try out new techniques I don't always remember what they are a month later. Therefore, if I document some of my editing I can come back to it later when I forget what I've done.

Because I will... I will forget what I've done.

Just ask my husband. His name is... I forget. But ask him... He has to remind me how old I am sometimes.

And one more thing... If any of you are photographic amateurs... No, WAIT. That would mean you are way better than me. Let me rephrase: If any of you are completely clueless when it comes to photography and photoshop, you can follow along and you just might learn something.

Just to be clear, I will mostly be using Photoshop 7 for ALL my edits. I will most likely NOT be running any actions (actions are a set of steps that are grouped together to edit a photo and are recorded so that you can use them over and over again) because I am trying to learn how to do things step by step.

If you have Photoshop and have no clue how to get started using it, I hope that we can learn something together. If you don't have Photoshop, you probably won't benefit much from my tutorials.

But that's the beauty of putting my photography posts on their own page... If you aren't interested, you don't have to navigate yourself there, and can continue to enjoy my mindless rambling on the home page at your leisure.

Sidenote: I have to come up with a more appropriate word than 'tutorials'. That suggests that I know what I'm doing. It's more like 'just figured out and wanted to write it down before I forget, and if it helps you out too, so be it'. But that's kind of wordy. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment.

Now I'm off to the resort to have lunch with Mr. Blue Eyes and hopefully capture some blog-worthy photos to share with you on the soon to arrive photography page. Stay tuned! Or ignore completely. It's really up to you.

Comments

[Heather]

what a hilarious shot! I've done a couple video PSE tutorials and I could totally talk and read about PSE all day. Sounds like fun!

[jen]

I love it! I am still learning photo shop elements..It is so hit or miss with me. Many times I bang several buttons in frustration and POOF so my "tutorials" would not be as helpful..more like curse, bang keyboard three times..give up and repeat. I'm having a give away you might like..
Last day to enter: http://www.tutusbliss.blogspot.com

[Hayley]

Hey! We must be on the same brain wave-length. After reading your post, I am SO READY to check back with you for these "tutorials." I think your shot is great. It just reminded me of the squirrel that got into our pool screen this weekend. Our dog, too, was dying to chase it.

I made an update to my post based on your comments. Let me know what you think.