and ACTION!

When I started my little blog I was so naive

of how much work blogging really was

I didn't know a thing about creating graphics,

or what it took to take great pictures

and I certainly never thought about how much I would be sharing

but the honest truth is that so much of who I am today

is because of this blog

If I had had a head start on all of this back in high school

I think I would have been far better prepared for college.

I would have had a better idea of who I am

and what I wanted to do with my life.

but instead I have a worthless degree

and like a brand new car that you sadly wrecked without insurance

I'm paying for something I can't use.

In the 3 years that I've been blogging

I've found a love for modeling

graphic design, photography,

and most recently photo editing.

If you had asked me even just a year ago what a Photoshop action was

I would have said

"something geeky computer people use to make their pictures AWESOME"

I had no idea that they were so simple

and that you really didn't need to know much to use them

even now I'm learning more and more just by watching how they work.

Even layer masks are starting to make some sense to me :D

I got started by trying out free actions I found around the web

such as Paint the Moon, The Coffee Shop Blog,

and Maybe Mej

But last night I used up all my saved up clams and purchased my first action set

from Paint the Moon

well two sets actually! A total of 50 Actions!

Talk about fun!! It really is like playing a game...

you never know which action is going to be the winner!

The above images show you just what actions I used on each image.

Frames from Kitschy Digitals

Here you can see the before

and after! Pretty cool right!?

These shots are from a recent photo shoot I did

for some future clients

these ones didn't make the cut but I liked them all the same.

I'm telling you - it drives me crazy that I can't share

all my photo shoot work with you :(

One guy who is always ready to have his picture taken

is my basset hound Miller.

He is such a ham for the camera.

We recently moved our master bedroom

into the same room as my studio

to make room for our future foster care kids

and Miller, who loves to be wherever we are in the house

has fallen in love with hanging out on our bed

as I work on whatever it is I do all day long on the computer.

Needless to say I'v been photographing

his sweet little face even more than usual.

Charlie dog on the other hand

hates having his picture taken!

this little guy is our little Terrorist

oops I mean terrier.

He's always trying to escape our yard,

and in the wet months of winter and spring

I wash this guy more times that I wish to count

on a daily basis.

This particular day,

I believe he was hot on the trail of a local gopher.

~

What have you learned about yourself through blogging?

Have you learned any new skills recently?