Having fun with my camera...

Hey there readers! I've been attached to Photoshop, my camera, and CreativeLive for the past few days. I thought I'd share some random photographs I took this week. Let me know what you think!

Photoshop Week is coming!

Photoshop lovers! Have you signed up for Photoshop Week with creativeLIVE yet? You should! It's 40 classes over a span of a week. So get your laptops ready, a pot of coffee or two and a note pad.

Some of the classes you'll watch:

Habits of Successful Photoshop Users

Creative Photoshop Panoramas

Photoshop Camera Raw: Instant Optimizing

Advanced Beauty Retouching in Photoshop

Photoshop for Outdoor Photographers


Click here to get more info!

Gift ideas #3 - Photoshop users

Hello readers! Hope you all survived Black Friday okay... and by that I mean skipped it all together. As I'm about to dive into Photoshop, I realized this gift idea should probably be posted beforehand!

Gift Idea #3 is for the Photoshop users in your life! Help make their life easier with these Keyboard Shortcut Skins.

Mac users only! They also have Lightroom and more! 

Click on the photo to go to Photojojo's website to purchase!

Exclamation points!

Photoshoots, business cards, oh my!

Testing out some new things I learned at the Photoshop for Photographers seminar, working on business cards and photo shoot at the beach... it's been busy!

If you have never been to a Scott Kelby seminar you need to make time and go. Even if you think you know Photoshop inside and out I guarantee you will learn something. I jump at every chance to take one of his seminars. They're educational and entertaining. He doesn't just drone on and on for hours. He's also an amazing photographer, so you not only learn more about Photoshop, but you gain some photography tips from one of the best photographers out there.

Anyway, I'll try to post some of the things I've been working on sometime over the weekend. Meanwhile, check and see if there's a Photoshop seminar coming near you! Chances are it'll be after the Olympics since he was leaving our seminar to go over to shoot.

The slacker is not slacking!

Going to this tomorrow... you should too if you want to play catchup with the new Photoshop! Hopefully photos to post after I learn new things and experiment! And everything else I've been working on I'll get up on here too. I have some links to share too..... oh my goodness I need time to stop so I can catch up with everything!

Photoshopping gone bad

We've all seen bad photoshopping. Sadly sometimes on the cover of magazines, sometimes just on the internet. But when it comes to the news... well first of all you would hope it wouldn't be photoshopped in the first place. Doesn't seem to be a problem for some...

Click on the photo or link below to read the article.



http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/05/busted-irans-jarring-photoshopped-missile-test-image/51940/

Photoshop Cream

This is an interesting fake ad floating around the internet...




Click here to see more from this graphic artist. And we wonder why plastic surgery is becoming so common place....it's because everything we see is fake.

Photowalk

Every year in October, for one entire weekend, Scott Kelby (publisher of Photoshop magazine), hosts a Photowalk which is located all over the world. Photographers get together in their nearby city, wander around for the day and just take photos. Choice photos can then be submitted and a winning photo is chosen. The photos are amazing.

Although this isn't the winner, this is my favorite from this year's top picks.

Regina, SK Canada (Wascana Centre) By Kristin MacPherson

Trip Back In Time #1

I went to my 100 year old Great Grandmother's house on Sunday. Her house dates back to the 1820-1850's, and it looks as if it is stuck in the previous century. The family is too busy taking care of my great grandmother and continuing her quilts to update the house. I wandered around, reliving my childhood, and snapped a few photos.

I titled this entry as #1 because I plan on posting a few photos over the next few weeks. I had some fun with photoshop with these photos. Below are two different effects of the same photo.







Let me know which one you like better!

Spotlight...

...on another graphic designer.

With all these postings about photoshop and photoshopping, I just have to share this with those who may have missed it.

A father, who happens to be a graphic designer, convinced his kids that Ewoks are real. Considering I just watched the entire Star Wars series for the first time (yeah yeah I know), I got a kick out of this. (As opposed to if I saw this link a year ago, I wouldn't have thought it was cool)

http://anthonyherreradesigns.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53:this-is-what-happens-when-your-dads-a-graphic-designer-ewoks&catid=34:anthonydesign-blog

Testing out some things I learned...

...in the Photoshop Seminar. I used the previous head shot with my roommate to test out some contrast tricks.


Let me know what you think! I'm going to mess around some more and post my results!

Photoshop Extravaganza!

Today I attended a seminar called Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It Live! It was an amazing seminar. Scott Kelby is a fantastic speaker and an equally fantastic photographer. I sat through the seminar pretty much looking like this:



but with a pen in my hand and a coffee in another. Perhaps it was the excessive caffeine that made me look like that, but I believe it wasn't.

I wanted to leave the seminar (after it was finished of course!) and just go home and shoot and photoshop. Sadly my schedule didn't allow that, and won't until possibly later in the week. I can't wait to take some of my head shots from Sunday and see what I can do with them...

SO EXCITING!

Check out Scott Kelby's website. There are a ton of great photoshop how-to's on there. Right now if you're not a NAPP member, you can still view the videos for free for 24 hours. Do it!

CS4

Last Wednesday I attended an all day seminar on CS4 - the newest Adobe Photoshop. The name of the seminar was Photoshop for Photographers, and each of the five classes were about different things you can do with your photos. It was very interesting because I have never altered any of my own photos for my website, just photos for recreational purposes and photos owned by an architectural firm I worked at.

The speaker opened a new door of options I never considered for my own photos. I tend to feel that if you alter your photograph more than just dodging, burning, and things of the sort - it enters the art world and leaves the photography world. It seemed that the speaker at the seminar had the same feelings. He would refer to his heavily photoshopped images as "illustrations" instead of photos.

I've decided that I'm going to work with some of my photos and see what I come up with. I have a new note on my website that says my photos are not altered or photoshopped unless otherwise noted - this way it is clear which photos are originals, and which are so called "illustrations".

I'm excited to see what I come up with!