Wishing you Much Wonder in 2010.

This photo was taken with the Canon Rebel using my 100-300 zoom lens. I came out blurry so I used a few textures and overlays, and feathered the edges in Photoshop. Turn blurry photos into something new! In my research, its important to lower shutter speed to allow in less light and shoot faster. I now have my tripod and a wireless remote, so I am heading out to see if it makes a different. Wish me luck!

Pondering a New Thought. What do you think?

On another website a therapist who works with photography to help people make changes in their life wrote "Your photos are actually "self-portraits" even if you are not in them". WOW, I mean Whoa! that caught my attention, made me feel a little bit uncomfortable so I knew I was in the learning mode with God at that moment and I had to think about that statement. Especially since I have been a little less than satisfied with some of my work. Her belief is that we take pictures of things that move us, people we want to spend time with, actions that amaze us. These snap shots can give us an idea or our mood, our journey through time, our future.

So I began thinking about what was bothering me about the pictures. They were too blurry, they weren't crisp or as "Pretty" as some of the other professional photos I see, I can't get the f stop, ISO, aperture correct, etc, etc, etc. And in this self analysis I realized a few things. 1) I am in too much of a hurry to be perfect 2) Because I am in too much of a hurry, I am taking pictures just to have a picture, but not really to learn the process and 3) Like everything in my life I rush, look for quick, fast easy ways, and don't enjoy the experience. And so, what do I get? Blurry photos. It is self portrait of my hurried, fast paced existence. The beauty comes from slowing down, looking for the best shot, perhaps not always taking the photo, but just enjoying that quiet solitude, those moments when no one is around and you are seeing it all take place around you.

I am challenging myself to make the time to slow down. To no be so worried about getting a shot, but to spend more time with the learning, more time with relaxing and enjoying the visuals. Finding composition through my own life interpretation.

I love to learn new things about myself, about processes, about people. Its no surprise to me that this new revelation about myself has come up "once again". It just is. I hurry. I move fast. A lesson to learn is the slowing down. Perhaps we will begin to see a change in the way we take photos as we slow down and enjoy the process.

This also translates itself to photo editing. Photoshop should not be used to just slap on some layers and call it a day. It should be another slow process where we feel the photo and find ways to translate the moods into a finer print. Textures, words, layers can all be useful in expressing what we saw during those quiet moments but it can only be done if we took the time during the shot to feel the experience, to relish and enjoy the shot. What do you think?

Mermaid Cottage Coffee

There is a blog on the web Mermaid Cottages and its really a peaceful little place to go on Tybee island somewhere in Georgia where the pace seems much slower, the residents embracing the tourists and the setting sun. The cottages offer coffee in their homes and Mermaid Cottage is looking for a name for their coffee blend! I woke up this morning and was inspired to create this label! Now you all know I am just learning Word Art, PhotoShop and all that entails, but it was so much fun seeing where my thoughts and inspiration could take me. Here is the final draft. What do you think? Go on over to Mermaid Cottage and leave a Coffee Blend Name, you might just win a free jar of Mermaid Coffee!

Having Some Fun with Word Art

So, I told you I was trying to learn to develop my own Word Art and its been a little bit of a slow process. Its much easier to buy it commercially because the cost is so low, but the only reason why buying it is easier is because my computer is so darn slow that I keep freezing and shutting down Photo shop every time I press the text button. I think if I am going to venture into the design side of photography I am going to need to invest in a better computer with more memory. Hhmmmm...another item to research! Oh well, its a continuous learning lesson this here life!

But I have something so fun to share with you! I found a site that allows you to type in your words and it randomly creates a word art picture for you. The site wordle is so much fun. I created my own story using words and I am going to print it out and frame it. Think of how much fun you could have with children! Ask them to tell you words that describe them as a person and help them spell and put the words in and the press the button and it creates a piece of art. You can play with the fonts, the colors and its so easy! I just love fun free activities. In addition you can create phrases for your photos, coffee mugs, stationary. The possibilities are endless, but I just loved the way it took my words about me and created art. Give it a try and please post a link to your art so we can learn more about you. To get started with this one, I used my blog profile. Once I got the hang of it, I copied the words before I pushed the button to create, just in case I got something wrong and wanted to try again. I wanted my name to be more prominent, so I finally figured out what words were bigger and swapped them with one another. I hope you have some fun with this!

Practice, Practice...

I have been practicing and this week has been about adding digital word art to photos. I have found so many sites that allow use of their digital word art for personal use. This is great as I create photo and note cards for friends and family but a little limiting for those cards and photos I want to create for my own cottage business. The rules for commercial use are very difficult to find and when you do, they aren't always so clear. So for me, if you are planning to sell it, make your own digital word art. I am going to tackle that challenge next week. I am pretty sure its rather easy, using different fonts, you create a layer for each word, or set of words is how I think it would work. This would allow you to create depth, change font sizes, change font color. weave fonts into one another.

In any event, here are some really interesting sites that I think you might find fun to work with in developing your own photos. Be careful and make sure you use them for your own personal use, or get permission. In many cases, the artist or creator asks you to give them recognition for their work.

I am posting a few photos that I have created for you review. If you are looking for resources here are some. Let me know if I can help you with any other additional information.

Oh, and you can purchase all kinds of frames, masks, word art, etc. But many of these also specify they are for personal use only as well. Make sure you check.

This one is free for both personal and commercial: This site www.LostandTaken.com provides textures, papers and they can be used for both commercial and personal use. Read the creator's profile. I like his willingness to help others.

Here is one for fonts: www.1001fonts.com..

I stumbled up this site www.jenzworld.wordpress.com and so far all of what I find here seems to be limited to Personal use only. This woman Elegant Word Art 2 has beautiful work and again, her word art is for personal use ONLY. If you want to use it for commercial use you need to contact her directly. I haven't heard back from her regarding my request yet. Her site is well organized and categorized and there is a lot to choose from.

The interesting thing about word art is that if you aren't creating your own then you are limited by the thoughts and ideas of others. Quotes are everywhere, and its not the quote that is protected, its the style, layout and fonts used. If you are learning photoshop you will learn quickly that you can and should do this yourself so that you can create and use your own thoughts and ideas freely.

I have posted one of the new ones I have done for my family. Please link to your sites and let me see what you are creating! In this photo I used the paper texture from Lost and Taken and Bethany's word art from ElegantArt2.blogspot.com

Check them out!