Sunday, January 24, 2010

New Direction of Blog

I have a 700 dollar elephant on my computer, named Photoshop CS4. It is a wonderful program for those of us who want to be creative, but can't draw. My aim is to learn how to use this program to its fullest. Some of my blog entries will be Photoshop centric, others will just be photos. I do use Camera RAW for all my photos, so I do use Photoshop for all of my photos, although my husband shoots in JPEG, so if you see a photo with his name on the bottom, that is straight from the camera.

I think I will stick with Open Salon for writing. I do have a blog there, but have not started it yet. I am in love with my KINDLE and haven't had the time for blogging.

Back to photography. I belong to NAPP, or the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. I joined it two years ago, to take advantage of its discounts, and for the online tutorials which are both video and text. I like the video, because I can see what the creator is doing.

Today I learned about Smart Filters and making a creative blur. See if you like it.... The left one is before, the right one is after. I also cropped, fixed the white balance, removed spots (this was from a film photo, scanned), and did a little dental work. Any thoughts? (also, can anyone help me with moving photos around and putting words under them?? This is driving me nutss)


Sunday, January 3, 2010

What Baron teaches me


Baron is my 12 year old, epileptic schipperke. He almost died about 3 years ago from liver failure brought on by taking phenobarbital for his seizures. Now, he is recovering, happy, energetic and a PIA, just like healthy schipperkes.

Getting to this point was not easy for him, or for us. We spent thousands of dollars on medicine and doctors visits. With the help of our wonderful vet, Dr. Raab, we came up with a regimen that seems to keep our dog happy and healthy.

He gets fresh, home cooked meals twice a day: free range chicken, sweet potatoes, white potato, peas with a little shredded cheddar cheese and vitamins all mashed and heated up for him. My husband makes his fresh food about three times a week. He also gets organic, low fat dog food that the "Whole Dog Journal" recommended. He doesn't get any treats, except maybe extra chicken or a piece of his dog food. He takes human Keppra now for his seizures and SAM-E, a human liver medication.

What have I learned from caring for Baron? First and most important: patience. He tries my patience every day. He is food centric, always snuffling around for more chow. He drinks my coffee and paces around the house licking ?? off the carpet.

I learned conservative medicine, and natural remedies sometimes work as well as expensive surgery and meds. Baron tore both ACL's a while back and we opted to conservatively manage it (no surgery: he wouldn't have tolerated it with his liver issues).

He makes me laugh. He keeps me warm at night. Simple things amuse him: leaves blowing off the windshield, chasing an airplane across the sky.

I know all of you with a beloved pet can add to these thoughts. I just wanted to put them down on paper, while he is staring at me from across the room. I know what he is thinking: "When are we going for a walk?"

Patience, Baron, patience.