For the those of us in the Middle of Summer...

Something to Cool You Off

Thoughts on why technology should disappear when Enjoying

When I used PC and Microsoft products, I was always aware of the technology or the DOS underneath the pretty Windows skin. I could fix a PC laptop and save it from death for at least two years. I can replace a broken screen, keyboard, hard drive, DVD drive, A drive (in the olden days), almost anything (hadn't tried a mother board yet). I knew almost all the fixes the tech guys in India knew, from all the time I have spent with them over these years.

But now, I am trying Apple products, and the need to know seems to be disappearing, allowing me to just ENJOY. Enjoy writing while listening to online radio, without worrying the computer will freeze even with a quad core processor. Enjoy using photo editing programs to their full potential. Reading web articles without all the extra Magoo (ads, sidebars) using Safari 5's new Reader (great item, you should try it). I like all my calendars, contacts and bookmarks to sync together. If I add an appointment to my iPhone, it appears on my MacBook.

Reading my Kindle on the big, gorgeous screens of the MacBook or the iPad, is a different reading experience. Perfect for cookbooks with beautiful photos of the cuisine, or for what I would call a Coffee Table book (the Kindle is perfect for a bedtime reader, or for taking outside, or to the beach).

Being able to not worry about the tech, not having my fingers ready to 'control-alt-delete' , makes my online experiences more relaxing, more flowing, more personal.

Thank you Apple.

First attempt at painting with Photoshop

This is a photo of Ballston beach down the Cape (Cape Cod) that I practised painting with Photoshop CS5 using the new Mixer brush and some other brushes.

It was fun to do, but I am not brave enough yet to try without a photo.

I did it

I bought the upgrade: Photoshop CS5. I have been playing with it, and learning the new features. I do believe some of them will change the way some photographers can work with their shots.

Here is the before shot. I want to remove the car in the background and remove the people playing on the rocks. I also wanted to make the shot less 'snapshot' like by cropping, and boost up the color a bit. This original shot is a film photo, scanned onto my computer using Photoshop CS5.

Using the cropping tool, which has a great grid feature, content aware fill (new), the spot healing brush tool with content aware (new) and the clone stamp tool, I was able to get rid of the car and those pesky tourists. Great new features I think I will use alot of since I like to do photo retouching.

Blogger in Draft

I have been playing with the Blogger in Draft ( http://draft.blogger.com/)  Bloggers can customize everything on the page and use some of the templates available there and not on regular Blogger. I am just beginnning with it, and don't understand all the ins and outs yet. If anyone else is using this, let me know how you like it.

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)

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.