Photoshop or Photoshop Elements?

Monday I went to this seminar. It was like having a vacation day. I LOVED Dave Cross. I LOVED Photoshop. I LOVE learning new things.

Now I have a dilemma: Photoshop Elements (I currently have this) or Photoshop?

How do you pick? Help? Anyone?

Standouts

Tonight was the next-to-last photography class of Digital 101. We took in prints on different papers (not me, I only have 1 kind) with different printers (not me, I only have one kind) or other variations (not me, I only have 1 kind). Anyway, when I mentioned that I might not be at the last class because of travel--packing for my vacation might take all my energy--he said I should be sure to have these shots printed by a good printer and frame them. Now is that a compliment or what?

You've seen the first one before, in this blog. Six Feet Under is a local restaurant, located fittingly enough across the street from the Oakland Cemetary. The next one is of Olivia at my grandmother's. I even got a compliment on the composition.

I think I will. Get them printed I mean. Just the other day I read about this thing I'd never heard of called a standout by Mpix. It takes the print and mounts it on 1.5" gator foam with a black band around the 1.5" edge.

So I think I will.

Avoidance issues

Yesterday Dawn and David helped me with a certain chore involving a certain house that I may have finally disposed of and may have been less than candid about it's being a continual albatross around my neck. Whether that had anything to do with my avoidance issues is something I will address later. If at all.

The girls stayed with Grandma, and they must have all been bored judging from the number of "how much longer?" phone calls we received. I tell you, it was hard to enjoy the heat and humidity and manual labor with all those interruptions.

After the heat and humidity with a side of manual labor, we gathered at my house for dinner to celebrate Grandma's birthday. I put out aged gouda cheese and olives to keep the hungry hordes out of my kitchen (abject failure). We had ribs, wicked rib sauce (I need to visit my Troy family and make ribs with wicked rib sauce for them), black bean salad and macaroni and cheese. We also had strawberry birthday cake with strawberry icing. From Piece of Cake [I vow never to bake my own cake again because I will never beat this place]. During the festivities I took lovely pictures of willing subjects.

But above, well, above is a different story. Above is a subject with her own avoidance issues. Or perhaps she is admiring the artfully rust embellished cast iron planter. Or bowing to the design of combining a soft, airy fern with cast iron. Or dodging a mosquito. Weeping with hunger? Or HIDING.

Silly girl. You can't avoid the camera.

f stops and revelations

Here are the rest of the handful of photos from photo field trip day. I think I said I felt like I fought the camera the whole time and it was true. Turns out that I had inadvertently set my exposures to always be whatever I set each time based on aperture/shutter speed plus .65. I have given the camera a very stern talking to and have been assured it will not happen again. Where was this revelation? In the metadata stored with each photo snapped. Ack!

This crypt was elevated so you couldn't see the dove of peace until you got up close or at a certain angle. I like this one.

I focused on the hat in this one and recomposed. And because I had the f stop wrong, the depth of field was too crisp. I wanted more fuzzy...but "I am getting there" said the teacher.

This was just for fun. As evidenced by the listing to port. Or starboard. Whatever. Where's the ship's purser when you need her?

This chic broke off the pedestal you can see in the background. Since she looks so perfect from this angle, it makes you wonder what she looked like standing straight up and cuddling the blanket. Note the massive roots of the tree behind this vignette.

Last but not least: keeping the dead in, or the living out? [to my brother the seminary student: here's a sermon title for you, let me know what you do with it]

Six Feet Under

Across the street from Oakland Cemetary is a place which is reputed to have the best hamburgers in Atlanta. I have been trying to figure out where it is, and hey presto, there it was all along.

Name's kind of catchy, don't you think?

Only show the good ones

This is the first photo I took at Oakland on Saturday. It's before my mind melted into a puddle of mush and I couldn't recall how to operate my camera.

Which sounds better, brain mush or the fact that I was trying to use the tripod that my brother gave me somewhere about 15 years ago? Which the instructor borrowed from me to show another guy which kind to buy (you rock, Rob!). So anyway, either the heat or unfamiliarity with the tripod did me in. Because in 96 photos only a handful are presentable.

And, as my instructor says, "only show the good ones".

Stained Glass

Just two days ago I was lamenting the lack of butterflies on my butterfly bush. I wondered if something had happened to them the way it has to the bees. But this morning, when I went out to water (legally), this guy was on the butterfly bush. With the light behind the wings, it looks like stained glass, don't you think?

And I've learned the burned edge effect in Photoshop Elements. Not that I can remember all the steps. But I like the look.

Good hair day

Does anyone know why a 3 year old would lie down on a concrete porch when someone wants to take her picture?

Do yourselves a favor and double click on the photo and see how sparkly her blue eyes are.

I emphasized them a bit with my favorite toy, photoshop elements. And I may have complemented them by encouraging the blue paint on the porch. And perhaps have even given the butterfly hair bow a boost. You see, Olivia gets 2 M&Ms every night that she makes it through the whole day without pulling down her hair. So we must notice and complement the hair. Which is why I juiced up the pink butterfly barrett. Just a touch.

Olivia, your hair looks very nice. I hope you got your M&Ms.

Passing Gas

This is a photo taken in Italy, at the Verrazano winery. I think Cindy took it.

The "spouts" on the top of each barrel are how the wine breathes during fermentation. Water is poured in the top once it's tapped the barrel and a glass put upside down on top of that. If the barrel is pushed, as it was on our tour, the wine passes gas via the spout on the top. And the wine never is touched by air, which would ruin everything.

This arrangement was created by someone famous, probably Leonardo, the original multi-tasker and overachiever, not long after the dawn of time. I wasn't really listening to the tour guide. I was looking at the doorway I was standing in, at the barrel behind me, fidgeting and wondering how I could buy a house in Italy and move the dogs there.



Ciao!

Vote!

Gotcha! This is not about the highest job in the land, it's which photo do you like better?

Vote 1 if you like the first one better, Vote 2 if you like the second one better.

For heaven's sake, help a girl out. For all that's decent and good, vote! Because I've not subjected you to campaign advertising, vote! Because your vote can change history. Your vote counts!

Oh, and the two chicks in the lower left corner are Pam and Cindy, respectively. In Tuscany. Pienza to be exact. I fell in love with Pienza. This view of a lane overlooking a valley is all that's right with Tuscany. In the distance you can see the hills. in Pienza I paid for a candle so I could light it in the chapel next to the Pope's house. That was a first.

This is also the excursion that resulted in driving on a road that Tom-Tom showed was in the middle of a field.

And kept saying "turn around at the nearest exit".

Loudly.

Tom-Tom felt so strongly about that, he repeated it going and coming. Apparently, Tom-Tom had not downloaded an update on new road construction. I must say it is unnerving to rely on a device that says you are traveling on a non-existent road in both directions, on a road with "round abouts", in a country in which you do not speak the language, at dusk. Everyone knows dusk is the hardest time to drive. I think Tom-Tom was having a little fun at our expense.

All's well that ends well, though, because we got back to Castellina in time, 9:15 pm, to eat at the restaurant up the road from the hotel Cassafrassi where we stayed, and had THE BEST PASTA of the trip. And YUMMY STEAK. And sat on the patio next to a group with a German Shepherd laying under the table.

It was a good day.

Amen.

P. S. You can call 1-800-mollyfly if you'd like to contribute to the fund that will let me return to Italy.

Before and After

Okay, I took a lot of weird shots in Italy because I took the wrong lens to my once in a lifetime vacation to Tuscany and Umbria. But through the miracle of Photoshop Elements, I can make the most of what I got.


For example, here's a nice shot of a window box

And it's crooked, and there are power lines marring what is otherwise an old world feel. So, ix-nay on the owerline-pay. And a little squaring up. And a little cropage (no, Rob, it's not a word in a dictionary sense, but I think everyone gets it). And a little lighten/brighten action and a dash of sharpen. Presto, change-o and here you go:

This is fun!

Adventures in photo editing

I posted this photo or one like it a while back. I decided to apply some photo editing tips I read on a blog (but I won't say which or it will seem like I've gotten addicted to it or something...). So anyway, first is the original




next is the edited one. You be the judge. Which one do you like?



I like the second one.

Anyway, kind of fun to be able to begin to work the photo editing software that I've had for about a year now.