I recently became the examiner.com's history beat writer and had to submit a head shot for the site. Well, I had nothing I liked or was willing to crop for it, so I had hubby take a photo of me for it. The shot itself was fine, hubby did a fine job, but I noticed some things about it that I wanted to change. So, I opened the photo up in PhotoShop Elements 6 and tried to fix them. So, I am sharing the original and the touched up version. What do you think?
Original
Today I decided to head out for a walk and take my camera. I should have run yesterday, but I was a tad lazy and didn't, so I thought a walk today was better than nothing and why not take the camera? I ended up walking 2.86 miles while out, so I was happy with the mileage and some of the photos! Take a peek. What do ya think?
They sure mean a lot right now!
So, I submitted my photos for the class I took about nature light. Got the critique back today. Here's the photo and critique. What do you think?
In case you just started following along, I have three cats - Higgenbaffum (Higgy), Pooka, and Elizabeth. We have lots of cat toys around the house, but the one they all LOVE is rat on a string. It's not as weird as you may think. It's a furry rat on a elastic string attached to a plastic bar that hangs over a door. They love it and go nuts when they "find" it. LOL!
As I was putting away some laundry in the bedroom today, I noticed the sun came through one of the kitchen windows and hit rat on a string making a shadow on the door. So, I thought I would try taking a photo of it and see what happens. So, here's the best one I took. It's a tad blurry. If I have time to re-shoot it before I turn in my homework assignment, I will. I think it's a neat shot. And follows the assignment of how to look at light.
Alright, so I realized the sunset photos I tried on Friday didn't turn out. And I wrote a post on that. So, after thinking about what I did wrong, I went back out today to try and fix it. I went out with the tripod and tried again. I think there are a couple good ones. What do you think?
Yup, I am learning. I realized that the sun was setting and I might be able to get some shots off today for my assignment. So, I grabbed the camera and headed outside. Then I realized my 75-300mm lens would probably be a better option than the 15-55mm I had on the camera. Off I went to grab the 75-300mm to try and grab some shots of the sun setting behind the trees. And I got a bunch. And then I realized I didn't do it right. You see, when you use a telephoto-type lens, you need to hold the camera extra steady to avoid camera shake. And if with the temps being fairly nippy out there - it snowed overnight here - I didn't do a good job of it.
I did run the photo through Photoshop Elements to see if it could sharpen it up any. It did, but not enough. Ugh. So, I will share my sad photo with you and try again later in the week. We won't be around tomorrow at this time to take the shot, but we will be on Sunday!
Original
So, I signed up for an on-line photography class. They give the assignment, I take the photos, play with them until I like them, and submit the top three (my choice) to the teachers for critique. I have until Jan. 13, then I have to submit. Until today, there's been very little sun, which has been the assignment. But today! Ah, today. There was some sun. Not much, but the clouds were not as thick as the last several days and I was able to grab some shots. Here are the ones I like best from today. What do you think?
So, I am trying to teach myself Photoshop Elements. I got the ever-helpful "Photoshop Elements 6 for Dummies" book and am slowly playing with the applications. This is my first attempt at ANYTHING. Well, actually I'm already lying to you. I sharpened a photo earlier. But, that was a one button fix. This took brushes and percentages and hand-eye coordination. What do you think?
Before:
It's been several months since I've posted anything here. I think it's about time I dusted off the ole blog and add some stuff to it. I can't guarantee it'll be everyday, but I am going to do a better job of posting something more often than I did last year.
In reality, this is going to be a testing grounds skill-wise for me. I'm working on improving my photography ability this year in the hopes of going professional. So, when I post stuff here, hopefully anyone stopping by to check it out will tell me what's good and not so good about it. Be honest.
So, without further ado, a couple recent favorites. Both from a recent trip to Atlantic City.
A Christmas ball from Caesar's:
