Fun with Photoshop

Today I downloaded a bunch of Photoshop Actions from The Pioneer Woman's blog.  Have you ever checked out her blog?  One of my favorites, for sure!  She takes great photos, and she has the most adorable Basset Hound, Charlie.  Makes me miss my Milo when I see her Charlie, but it makes me just love his memory more. 

After downloading the actions, I was just playing around with some photos.  Here is an example of what "actions" can do......

Before:

No actions used on this photo of me taken at Golden Gardens.

















After:

I used the "PW Seventies" action -- now my photo looks all vintage with the press of a button! Being the novice photographer, I think actions are helpful.  Until I learn more about Photoshop, actions are a great way to make your photos look different without actually knowing what you are doing :)














How about these shots of the Jester Basset from the Basset Bash?

Before:

No actions used.












After:

I used the "PW Fresh and Color" action.  It makes the photo look much crisper and the colors more vibrant.  I'm in love! 










This should keep me occupied for awhile!! :)

New photography skillz.......

I got my Canon Digital Rebel xTi back in November 2007, and have been wanting to learn how to shoot better photos, and learn how to use editing software since then.  Finally, 3 years later, I'm taking the steps to make that happen.  I had purchased a book written specifically about my camera over a year ago, and finally cracked it open a couple weeks ago.  I felt like I was back in school, taking notes and stuff.  I'm more of a learn by doing kind of person, so I had a hard time staying focused while reading the book.  Enter Kim.  It is pretty awesome when one of your closest friends is a professional photographer.  Have you ever checked out her website?  If not, drop what you are doing and immediately check it out, she is the bee's knees.
Today while Kim, Casey, and I were hanging out down in Ballard, Kim offered to give me a few pointers regarding shooting outdoors.  It was pretty cool seeing how the different camera settings make a big difference in how a shot looks.  Just tweaking the exposure can make so-so photo look so so so much better!  Kim also showed me how to use some of tools in Photoshop to help my photos look lighter and crisper.  I'm pretty stoked to put some of her pointers in to action!

Here are a couple shots from Golden Gardens this afternoon.  Love love love Seattle when the sun is shining!

I won't be quitting my day job any time soon, but I am looking forward to learning more techniques.  Big Picture Classes also offers an online workshop called Mastering Manual Mode -- that is an idea......      

Daily Photo Projects

I am not sure how I stumbled across Noah Kalina's photography project, but it is pretty phenomenal. He is a photographer, based out of New York, who has been taking a daily photo of himself since January 2000. Check out the photos below. It is incredible to watch how he changes over the course of over 6 years. The idea is really cool, and I would love to do it at some point. You can also check out Noah's blog here, and website here.



I discovered Jonathan Keller's daily photo project while exploring Noah's website. Jonathan is another New Yorker that has actually been doing his daily photo project for a few years longer than Noah. Pretty incredible. He has a sweet pirates mustache to boot. I love how it looks like it is flapping around in the wind in his video. Check out his website here, and his photo project below.



The Simpson's did a parody of Noah's daily photo project, it is pretty hilarious.


Homer Every Day from Noah K. on Vimeo.