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There’s NOTHING Easy About Photoshop

It only took a few comments on yesterday’s post to convince me that I had been misunderstood. Perhaps dangerously misunderstood.

My intention was not to provide a tutorial as much as a glimpse at the many steps involved in photo editing. Trust me when I say there’s nowhere near enough detail in that post to help you reach my end result.

It has taken me quite a few years, and quite a lot of frustration, to figure out how to use Photoshop. It is not user-friendly. It has taken a lot of reading and a lot of trial and and error for me to figure it out. And I am one of those people who can typically open up a computer software program and figure it out for myself.

There’s nothing easy about Photoshop. Really. Even people who think and/or convince others that they are pros bungle things. Check out the fun Photoshop Disasters blog if you don’t believe me. It’s a bit of an exercise in “what’s wrong with this picture” that sometimes I don’t even get, but it can sometimes be entertaining.

If you have used Photoshop and were thinking of buying it for yourself, I would definitely steer you toward Photoshop Elements, which is really just the layman’s version. But, if you have never used it, it is not something I would ever recommend as a first step image editor. Especially if you are not tech savvy and/or don’t have hours to spend visiting other people’s blogs and Web sits to read the myriad tips and tricks that are out there. Not to mention hours on end practicing the various techniques.

I’d been using Photoshop for several year before switching to Elements a little over a year ago. I was able to start using Elements pretty much out of the box, but only because I was already familiar with the various tools as a result of my previous Photoshop experience.

A couple of my readers say they use something called GIMP. I’ve never used GIMP, but they both have. And they seem to like it.

The most compelling reason to try GIMP first is that it is FREE. As in, it doesn’t cost a cent.

Also free are the basic editors built-in to Flickr (sponsored by Yahoo) and Picasa (a Google product). Many cameras come with software you can use for image editing, too.

Now, I am not going to download and try GIMP because I don’t need to. I already have Elements and am perfectly happy with it.

But I would try it if I were considering the purchase of that sort of software. Does free software scare you? It shouldn’t. Not all free stuff is bad. I know that goes against the “nothing is really free” mantra, but there’s lots of stuff out there, good, quality software, that you can get for free. It’s known as Open Source.  Simply put, it is software programmed by people who share their programs AND programming code so that other like-minded folks can use the programs and/or tweak and improve upon the code.

This is not a technology Blog, so I’ll leave it at that. But first, I should also tell you that I use an open source version of the MS Office suite, which Hubby discovered, and it works just fine. I can open and manipulate Word and Excel files. I can create Word and Excel files to share with others. It’s called OpenOffice, if you’d like to check it out.

Anyway… I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t misleading anyone into thinking I meant to say Photoshop and/or Elements are easy, go buy it today. They’re both hard to learn how to use. There are lots and lots of tutorials out there to help, but there seem to be plenty of GIMP tutorials, too.

If you’re a GIMP user, I’d love to hear about your experience.

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You Capture – Flowers

The theme/assignment this week for Beth’s You Capture meme was flowers.

A lot of the stuff I shoot is in or around one of the houses. This week I wanted to be different. I knew I’d be driving up to East Central Pennsylvania on Sunday and thought maybe I’d see a bunch of roadside stands selling mums. It’s that time of year, you know. (Fall. Woo hoo!!!)

I did see some places with flowers for sale, but most if not all of them were Amish-owned and, it being Sunday, closed. Those folk can be sort of funny about you poking around their places, especially in that area where the Amish are a huge tourist attraction. So no mum shots.

After leaving Hawk Mountain, however, I found a cute little town where I could practice some shooting at odd angles and capturing some interesting flower images. I’ve shared my favorites here.

Asters

That pot of purple asters alone is not all that interesting. But I loved the green chair sitting beside it and I think the maroon and yellow trim on the building added some interesting color, too.

Hanging On

This poor flower was the last one on the plant. And it is half-eaten. Probably by some dumb, stupid stink bugs. The color of the flower is nice, but the extreme dark green of its leaves are what really make the colors on the flower stand out.

Reminds Me of Grapes

Even though flowers are the subject here, the effect I was going for was all about color. I love the bright-green leaves on the plant to the right of the white flowers (bacopa, I think). But I really like this shot as a whole with the purple bench, blue window trim and reddish coleus(?) leaves in the background.

La Cocina

I have to admit, I was initially drawn to this image because that donkey is funky-cool. Plus, I just loved the colors of the sign against the stone wall. The fact that the donkey is also a flower pot was a bonus.

Candy Shop

This last shot is my favorite. I love the crazy color combinations. I also like the angle. Oh yeah, there are giant, paper flowers in that window, too.

You can see more creative genius with flowers at Beth’s blog.

If you would like to see the rest of the images I captured in that cute little town, visit my Flickr page.

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Bothered Bovines

I’ve mentioned before that I have a thing for cows, right?

I know I’ve also mentioned that cows tend to get a little freaked out when you stop to say hello.

I mean, think about it. Day in and day out, cars, trucks and motorcycles rumble past. Every now and then, if the weather is nice, someone might stick their head out of a window and yell, “Moo!” Or a motorcyclist might honk as they motor past. But most people don’t stop.

Of course, I’m not most people.

The way cows do react when you stop cracks me up.

It's not just the cows that are watching me here.

I haven’t “mooed” or anything. I just stopped my car, got out, and stepped over to the fence to take a picture or two. It was such a pretty day, I couldn’t resist. At least three of the cows and both horses are watching me closely. If you click on the picture, you’ll see a larger image.

How about now black cow?

That black cow in the center of the frame was definitely the more curious of the lot.

She's got a heart on her head.

Her mostly white friend was also watching me pretty closely. I wasn’t waving or doing anything menacing. I didn’t even moo. (I’d have no idea what I was saying if I did moo.) I was just snapping a few pictures.

"Yo, lady! What do you want?"

I couldn’t stand beside the field all day, so I snapped one more photo of the curious cows before leaving.

Different cow, same field.

I snapped that last picture from the car. The cow was pretty and I like the red barn in the background, too.

That was the last cow photo of the day. After that, it was on to Hawk Mountain. I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.

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Caterpillar Envy

Last week one day, one of the blogs I frequent (The Old Nichols Farm) featured a post about a Monarch caterpillar. Jess, the brain behind the blog, is one of those people I met in cyberspace (aka the people in my computer) that I could totally hang out with. She’s funny. She loves taking pictures. She’s got three really cute kids. And a gun. She kills chickens. She likes bugs. And she’s got a great sense of humor about it all. I know I already said she’s funny. But having a sense of humor about life and being able to poke fun at oneself without being self-deprecating in a truly negative fashion is different than just being funny. It’s an art.

Anyway, Jess’s oldest child started school this year. On the first day, to keep the younger two occupied, she decided to go looking for a caterpillar. And they found one!

Later that day, she reported to me that it was already or in the process of becoming a chrysalis. I honestly don’t know much about the Monarch life-cycle, so I went looking for information. That’s where I learned that in only about 10 days, a Monarch butterfly would emerge from the chrysalis.

How cool for she and her kids to be able to see that!

I thought it was so cool, in fact, that I looked at the yellow plants those very friendly soldier beetles frequent to see if I saw a Monarch caterpillar. I did not. I didn’t really think I would. But one never knows.

Oddly enough though, as I was walking down Turkey Hollow Road under one very large pine tree, look what just happened to catch my eye…

The biggest caterpillar I have ever seen. It was at least four inches long!

That is not exactly what it looked like when I first saw it. That’s what it looked like when I returned. I love the way the sun is lighting up its hair.

This is what it looked like when I noticed it for the first time.

Caterpillar dangling from pine tree.

It was dangling pretty low. I walk under this tree every time I walk the dogs to the end of the road. The caterpillar was low enough that I could easily reach the branch it was hanging from.

How could I NOT take it home?

Hubby, who usually thinks my interest in critters is weird, was even impressed. Here’s a picture of it in front of Hubby’s hand to give you a better idea as to the size of the thing.

Hubby showing off our caterpillar.

It actually looks shorter in that picture than it did at time of capture. Here it’s a bit contracted . Can you blame the thing?

At first glance, I thought it was a Luna Moth. The only really big moth I knew about. So I looked it up on the Internet. It is actually an Imperial Moth caterpillar. One reference I read said it could get as big as a 6 7/8-inch wingspan. That’s bird-sized!

Unfortunately, I also learned that when it’s time for this one to make its little cocoon, it burrows underground. AND, even worse, it doesn’t re-emerge until June. No watching that metamorphosis. My luck, I’d put the thing in a jar, under some dirt, and forget about it. Then next summer we’d have a house full of bird-sized moths. No. Thank. You!

So I set the thing free.

Newly-liberated Imperial Moth caterpillar.

I released it in this little pine tree at the edge of our driveway.

Our Charlie Brown pine tree.

When I stopped by later to check on it, I got this really cool picture.

Imperial Moth Caterpillar (upside-down and facing camera)

Click on the picture if you want a full-screen view.

Speaking of really cool pictures, I also had to share this one I got of a grasshopper. Of course there’s also a soldier beetle in the picture. Those things are everywhere.

Grasshopper

I can’t wait to return to the WV place to see what other critters I can find.

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Mountain Dew

I’m back!

Oh, Happy Day.

Sort of. I mean, really, I didn’t go anywhere. I just took a break.

I didn’t get a whole lot done either.

Work has been crazy busy. Plus, we decided to hang out at the WV place all last week. So, no progress on projects at the MD house.

It was a great week in WV, though. We didn’t really want to come back. But now that we’re here, it’s good to be home.

I don’t have a whole lot to say, really.

But I took quite a few pictures last week.And if I don’t share them here, they’ll just be stuck in my computer, unseen, forever.

So here goes…

If you’re not really interested in looking at pics, you might want to stop reading now. Because there’s lots of ’em.

Now, to really appreciate these pics, you should click on each for a larger view so you can see the detail. They’re cool, if I do say so myself.

Critters

Snake! Not a great picture, but one I had to share. It was about 6 feet / 2 meters long.
Ladybug (in bright morning sun).
Another ladybug. (Diffuse, soft morning light.)
Small butterfly on thistle.
Butterfly or moth? You tell me. I have no clue.
Slightly larger butterfly.

Spider.

On a Dewy Mountain Morning

Drippy leaf.
Another drippy leaf.
Wet grass.
Wet pine.
Big drip.

Interestingly colored berries.
My favorite dew shot.

Berries

I love how the sun makes the berries translucent.

These berries are some of the few bits of color currently in the forest other than green.
Drippy berries.
Not sure if this is a diseased version of the same tree that has the red berries, but I love the color of these particular berries.

The plants weren’t the only things covered by dew…

Dew-covered Belle.
Dew-covered K.

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Backtracking

I’ve actually had an exciting week for a change. “Exciting” in my case does not mean oh-my-God-did-you-hear-what-happened sort of stuff. It means I finally did something different.

It’s about time, too. Different does not necessarily mean exciting, but at least it was fun.

We did NOT go to a sushi bar.

Amy’s kids were with their other grandparents for the weekend. Amy, who was really in need of some girls-night-out sort of fun, adult time or both, invited me to join her and her girlfriend, Jess, for dinner and drinks in Annapolis.

The plan was to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas at El Toro Bravo on West Street. Margaritas would have been REALLY good after yet another 100-degree day.

Jess arrived very early (3:30-ish) with her friend Kaitlyn. They each had an 8 dollar margarita, which they nursed because they are both tiny and they knew Amy and I would be awhile. Amy arrived next and ordered her own 8 dollar margarita. A short time later, they all ordered another round because I still wasn’t there (I had to work a full day on Friday).

AFTER their second round of expensive margaritas arrived, the fools at the restaurant told them there was a time limit on how long they could stay there if they were just going to have drinks.

So, you have three women seated at a table in an uncrowded restaurant who told the staff they were waiting for someone else (me!) AND already spent $48 on drinks, and you tell them there’s a time limit? Seriously? Idiots.

When I finally arrived, the girls told me what happened. We all agreed that was a very rude and stupid thing to do. And, after that, the restaurant didn’t deserve our hard-earned money.

Because I’m an idiot and know nothing about Annapolis, I parked like 10 blocks away (I did mention the 100-degree day thing, right?). That meant by the time I got to the place, I was dripping with sweat and quite thirsty. So I was drinking Amy’s water and Jess’s margarita. The waiter asked if I would like to order something and I said, “No. I’m just going to share these drinks and we’re going elsewhere.” They never did apologize, but instead tried to joke their way out of the screw-up by acting cute and asking if we were mad. Duh.

Anyway… we did not go to a sushi restaurant as the picture would imply (I just thought that sign and the artwork behind it were cool). We went to an Irish pub on Main Street. I won’t mention that restaurant’s name because the chef was on vacation and the food SUCKED. The beer was very cold, however, and we had a great waitress. Had the owner not apologized several times and removed the food from the bill, I would definitely reveal the pub’s name. But I’ll give them another chance. Even if they did serve our butthead, let’s-make-everyone-pay-even-more-taxes governor. And despite the fact that the well-intentioned owner touched Steve (Jess’s boyfriend had joined us) REPEATEDLY when he visited our table.

We did manage to capture a few pictures, though.

Here I am (in back) with Jess and Amy (Kaitlyn was gone by then).
Steve, Jess and Amy.

After plenty of beer and a mediocre and far-too-small meal, we left and looked around a bit. Downtown Annapolis on a Friday is always interesting even in the sweltering, still-90-degrees-at-9:00-PM heat.

Steve, the Indian and me with Jess do-si-doing in the front.

Amy knows how much I like being photographed with weird, inanimate stuff, so she made us pose for that fun shot with the wooden Indian. I was trying to look solemn like the Chief. Steve was feigning surprise. And I think Jess was either trying to square dance or strike an Irish-dancer pose. (We should have communicated on the appropriate mood before Amy snapped the picture.)

A booty-defining store.

The store windows we saw were quite entertaining. Annapolis is the home of the US Naval Academy.

Fun, touristy bumper stickers.
Taking a positive spin on things.
Proof that Jess rarely stands still.

It was a very fun evening  full of laughs. I had dual cheek cramps at least twice during the night. It’s too bad Kaitlyn had to go home to feed her dog before I remembered the camera was in my purse. I promised the girls a real margarita night at my house in the near future. So maybe we can get some pics of Kaitlyn, too. And I can find out if her name is spelled with a “C” or a “K.” If I spelled it wrong, I’m sorry. That’s one question I forgot to ask…