Amateur Photography - How FUN!

I gave you guys some great blogs to check out yesterday, so today lets get down to the basics of what it's all about... photography!  I am no photographer for sure.  But with the help of the gadgets that I'm about to tell you about, I make some spectacular - well fun anyway - pictures to scrap as well as hang around the house and/or post to my facebook page.  So lets get down to the nitty gritty.

First let me tell you about http://www.mcpactions.com/ .  MCP provides actions for Photoshop Elements, CSE and other photo editing programs.   Jodi at MCP is an excellent photographer.  More importantly, she knows how to teach you to not only use the actions, but troubleshoot any problems areas that she has encountered with the programs.  If you're a Digi-Editor, check out MCP and pick up a few free actions to get you started. 

Next, one of my favorite toys is http://www.poladroid.net/ .  Poladroid is a standalone download that makes your pix turn into digital polaroids - yep, just like the ones mom used to take.  Once you download the program to  your desktop, just click and slide one of your own digi-photos from your file on top of the icon.  It actually takes the time to process!  These can be printed right from your desktop fine, but I usually stick them in Photoshop after they've 'processed' and print them in a 3"x4" format (2 per 4x6 paper).  Oh, and you don't have to worry about saving the photo under a new file name as Poladroid does that for you, while still keeping it a jpeg file. They are great to scrap with, especially if you've scanned some older photos or even newer ones that you want to give a vintage look.

Lastly, you've got to try http://pixlr.com/o-matic/ .  You can either play with this gadget online or download it to your computer.  This too is a standalone so you don't need to know any other software to play til your hearts content!  This program makes available a 3-fold alteration:  filter, special effect and frame for each photo you "process".  I love this program soooo much that I actually have a hard time not using it with every single photo I take!  BUT always remember to save your photo under a new filename so that it doesn't replace your original.  Also, you can apply the filters and save the new photo - then open it back up in Pixlr and add some more filters.  There are literally hundreds of possibilities.  Just to show you a little bit of what this program can do I've downloaded just a tiny example.

 If you'll take a look at the center photo in the top row, you can see what I mean by taking the saved photo through a second time.  You can tell by the examples how you can make beautiful, retro, vintage or just plain fun photos over and over again!

Okay, well that about wraps it up for today.  I hope these ideas were helpful and if you have any questions about anything, just leave me a comment:  I promise to do the best I can.

By the way, I want to thank GiGi and JC for taking such great pix for me to play with!

Cheerio!

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs." - Ansel Adams