Did I mention that I recently took the plunge and bought Photoshop Elements 6?  I can’t recall.  Anyway, I did and I’ve finally begun to play with it.  I have been nervous to play with editing software much.  First, I’d prefer to just get a great image in the camera.  Second, the software intimidated me.  I hadn’t found one that I thought was intuitive and easy to learn.  Third, I was afraid of over editing my photographs and having them look fake.

I’m happy to report that Photoshop Elements is very user friendly for a beginner.  I think it has some amazing features in it that will allow me to grow as an editer too.  I checked out a book from the library on PSE 6 which I’ve barely touched.  I’m looking forward to reading through it to see all that this program can do.  In the meantime, I started playing in the software last night and found it to be very easy to manipulate my pictures in a satisfactory way.  I have a lot to learn but so far, I’m very pleased.

Here are some of my examples from yesterday.  They don’t look too much different until you make them full size.

Before the edit – Above.  After the edit – Below.

If you are on the fence about purchasing this software package… I heard a rumor that Costco has a coupon book out right now with a coupon in it that would allow you to buy the software $30 off.  Since they sell it for $80 that means you can buy the software at $50 – which is 50% off the retail price.  Swing by Costco for that book now and then go back on January 21 to get your software half price! 

I recently enjoyed a tour of my library’s online catalog.  As I saw a title that interested me, I clicked the little "request title" button.  Boy was I surprised when I went to pick them up and found 22 books waiting for me!  I hadn’t really been keeping track of how many titles I clicked that little button for.  I have lots of inspiration to work with there.  However, after picking up all these books, another photographer friend recommended the title The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby.  The library didn’t have the title so I took a look at Amazon.  Don’t you just love Amazon?  I do.  It had 280 reviews and almost all of them ranked it as a 4 or 5 out of 5.  I received the book yesterday and it was worth it.  I think that even if the library had it, I would have bought it in order to have my own copy in my camera bag.  It is that good.  If you own a digital SLR camera and you want to learn to take pictures like the professionals do, you should start with this book.  When he tells you how to achieve the results you want, he doesn’t use a lot of technical lingo that messes with your brain cells.  He tells you to find xyz in your camera’s menu and set your camera up like this and then take the shot.  I have read about half of the book since it arrived yesterday and I’ve already learned a lot. 

Between my new purchases and my zillion library books, I’ve been absorbing all that I can on the subject.  I feel like my brain is just swimming in new information.  So much so that I’ve had a hard time this past week just picking one or two items to experiment with and post about.  That’s why I’ve been so quiet.  I’ve been spending my time doing my homework.  I hope you don’t mind too much.  Hopefully, it will result in some valuable information being posted on my blog soon. 

Have a great weekend everyone!  Remember to take some pictures. 

I just came across this guy and I really think you should see him.  As I was looking through his work I was really moved by his art.  I hope to see him succeed.

He has a photo blog over here at photoblog.com.  That’s where I found him.

He also has a website here.

He has such a great eye for the world around him.  I just can’t even describe him.  You need to see him yourself.  I will be watching his photoblog for daily inspiration. 

Recently, my husband and I went to the Melting Pot for dinner.  Naturally, I took along my camera. I had planned to practice some cool low light techniques to see if I could capture something fun. I snapped a picture in the waiting area before turning it off and putting it away. Then I saw a cool lighting fixture that I wanted to capture. I pulled my baby back out and turned her on to find a CF error on the back. Isn’t that bizzare? Literally 3 minutes apart.

When I got home, I found a free recovery program out there in google land.  So if this ever happens to you – don’t just reformat your card. Try to recover your images first. It took about an hour and a half but it got almost all of my images back for me including some that I’d previously deleted or moved off the card. Worked like a charm.   Here’s the link.

On a recent tour-de-Walmart, I found a monopod.  Given my new lens that my husband gave me… and all the issues I was having with camera shake… I thought this dandy little monopod might just work for me.  It’s like a one-legged-tripod… expect without the "tri" part.  (tee, hee, hee… yeah, I think I’m clever.  Don’t correct me.)

It looks like a great big walking stick.

IT’S GREAT!  You can adjust it to any height you want and it helps with the whole camera shake issue tremendously.  It’s much less cumbersome than a tripod and you can adjust it to suit your height and your angle much more quickly.  Sometimes when you are in the moment, you need to move your camera around quickly yet be able to hold it steady once you get the angle you want.  For $18, it’s a fantastic little tool to add to your equipment list.

Here is what the package looks like – if you go hunting for one. 

And speaking of hunting… it has a little V shaped attachment you can put on top to hold your gun steady.  Good to know… unlikely in my world but good to know.

When I was shooting my Memorial Day flag shot from yesterday, I used my monopod and my zoom lens for all my shots.  I was delighted to find that all my pictures were camera-shake-free! 

I’m not sure how I found her, but I’m so glad I did.  I’d like to introduce you to my friend Shelly.  She runs This Eclectic Life.  I think you need to know her too.  She writes about anything and everything that crosses her mind or her path.  She will write about everything from blogging ideals to a local vintage store.  When I finish reading her posts I usually either want to shout out, "Amen, Sister" or pack my bags and head to Texas to visit the store.  Sometimes her discussions of bacon make me want to hop a plane to join her for breakfast.  She is wise.  She tells it like she sees it in a no-bull type of manner that also manages to be kind.  I don’t know how she does that, but I’d like to emulate her.  She is a storyteller by trade and she translates that into good writing.  She is fun to read and I visit her everyday.  She is smart and sassy and I bet if you visit her once you’ll keep going back too.   

Has anyone read back far enough to recall that in the very beginning I sent a proposal to a magazine?  I have just had it confirmed that they have hired someone to do the very thing I was proposing to do for them.  Given the timing of the situation, I doubt that they took my idea and hired someone else.  I’m sure the deal with this other photographer was in the works before they got my proposal.  However, at least I know they thought it was a good idea.  I’m crossing my fingers that I can learn something from this new source.

I’ve been quiet the last few days because I’ve taken my own advice and started refocusing my efforts toward studying as much about photography as I can.  Coupling that with the fact that it’s warm here and my children require supervision when playing outside, I haven’t had much time to blog.  Still, my efforts will be rewarded, hopefully.  I picked up a book called Designing with Photos by Allison Tyler Jones and Donna Smylie.  In all fairness to the authors, the target audience of this book is scrapbookers who seek to take better pictures.  Given the target audience, I think it was a good book to help someone who knows nothing learn a little something toward taking better shots.  It was a little too basic for my purpose but I did find it to be a beneficial read.  It certainly made me feel better about exactly how far I’ve come and it reinforced some things I thought. 

A couple things the book said that I enjoyed.  First -

The first thing that comes to mind after gazing at a masterpiece painting is probably not, "I bet Van Gogh used really good brushes."  Why then, when you take a really nice photo, do people say, "You must have a really good camera?"  A camera and all its accessories are just tools.  Granted some are nicer than other…  but in the end, these tools do only what we make them do.  The vision is within the photographer alone.

I just had someone say something similar to me this past weekend.  Truth be told, I was offended that she didn’t see that the picture in question was more than just the output of a good camera.  The second thing I liked was their discussion of proofs.

A photographer works with proofs, taking lots of shots per subject and then using the resulting prints (or proofs) to determine which shots are best.

They go on to suggest taking your digital images to a one hour photo lab or a warehouse lab to have them printed on real photographic paper.  They also discuss the cropping "Ls" to create or buy in order to get a better visual on where to crop your prints.  This was a new thought for me and I think I might try it the next time I do a photo shoot.  There is just something about holding the prints in your hands to get a better feel for the final product.   

The third lesson was actually an answer to a question I’ve posted here previously.

We used three rolls of film during this photo shoot.  Out of all those pictures, we really only expect to get one that captures the moment magically.  Most professional photographers average one to three usable shots per roll of 36 exposures.  Doesn’t that make you feel good?

My answer is YES!  The pressure is relieved now.  Not every shoot will produce something portfolio worthy.  Whew!  What a happy moment it was for me to read that!  Then they go on to quote Ansel Adams who said,

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

I liked some of the assignments and I thought some of the pictures were really super.  I particularly enjoyed seeing one photograph before it was cropped and how much better it was after they cropped.  Obviously, I’m familiar with cropping a photograph but with this particular picture the after crop made it a superb picture when the before was just good.  I’m not sure I would have seen the potential in the before shot had they not shown it to me.  I think learning to see the potential of a photograph was the lesson I got out of this book that will be the most value to me.

I stumbled onto this blog of a mother at home with four children out in OK or some such place that I’ve been reading for the last two days.  It is very funny, sometimes gross, but I identify with her a lot.  Not the frontier part of her life – raising cattle and having a cowboy for a husband – but the rest of it I can relate to.  My husband is an accountant.  And although I live in the country, I do actually live in a suburban type neighborhood with neighbors on either side.  Anyway, the reason you might be interested in her is that she takes some stunning pictures.  And you get some good laughs along the way.  If you’re a mom of young children – or if you remember being a mom to young children – or if you’re married to a mom of young children – you might want to visit at least once.  I’ll keep visiting because she always evokes some emotion from me – laughter, admiration or disgust.  Still, she’s real and doesn’t hide what or who she is.  I like it.  Maybe you will too.

http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/confessions_of_a_pioneer_/

My parents are coming into town for the weekend.  In fact, they will be here in about 8 hours.  That means I have 8 hours to attempt to recover from the current state of neglect that my house is in before they arrive.  Like I said, I’ve been enjoying the Pioneer Woman’s blog for a couple days now…

My point here is this… you may not hear from me again until Monday.  Have a great weekend! 

Before you think my boy is all mischief, I should tell you that he is one of the most well-behaved sweetest boys on the planet.  Still, he is a three year old boy so on occasion, he gets in trouble.

Okay, onto why I’m here.  Recently I read Me Ra Koh’s blog post on depth of field and when my boy was sitting on the stairs in time out, I thought it might be a nice chance to practice.  My goal was to have something in the foreground that was blurred out with my subject being in clear focus.  Here is what I got.

I like the way the banister is slightly blurred in the first four shots.  The last shot is just cute so I had to include it.  I cropped them all to a square photo which really made them look better than 4×6 or whatever.

I’m turning into quite a Me Ra Koh groupie!  You can find the instruction blog here…

http://www.merakohblog.com/2007/04/02/depth-of-field-in-process/

This morning I discovered another blog that I think I’m going to be falling in love with.

http://chrishumphreys.typepad.com/chris_humphreys/

He has two posts in April about Depth of Field (Create Depth) and Showing Motion (Using Motion).  They are both great inspirations.  Also, if you visit his first post in April (Welcome to the new blog!) you can see a link to his old Blogger blog where he has some more history.  I like his style a lot and I think he will be a great resource for me.  I hope he is for you too!

For the greater part of my morning, I explored the blog of AC Ellis of Brookings, SD.  She has two entries that I found of particular interest.  The first is called Copyright vs. Reproduction Rights; Explained.  I thought this was a great explanation of the difference in real layman’s terms.  She also gives the aspiring photographer some food for thought to make an educated decision before offering disks and such to your clients.  I think it’s particularly kind that she is willing to share her reproduction release with other photographers who wish to use it as a spring board for creating their own. 

The next entry that I thought was so noteworthy was called Print Costs: Explained.  In this one, not only does she cover why pictures cost more with a real photographer than through Costco, etc. but she gives aspiring photographers a side-by-side comparison of two photographs – one original and the other after it’s been edited.  Another thing I like about this post is that she reaffirmed my thoughts that a good original photograph is the basis for a great portrait.  (See my earlier post entitled What I know so far)  However, this means I have a lot further to go!  That means I need to learn to edit and retouch my images.  I already knew that in reality, but this reaffirms the thoughts I was having.

And, beyond all that, there are some smokin’ good photographs on this blog.  Be sure to click on the label/category called Photog. Stuff to see the two posts that I referenced above.

http://www.acellisblog.com/