A Reluctant Model but a Great Shootsac!

I have to compliment Jeff – he is being a very supportive hubby while I am learning photography. He willingly agrees to go along on “outings” and waits patiently (most of the time) while I get lost behind the lens. It’s nice to know that I have him watching my back, so to speak – sometimes I zone out so much I would never notice any immediate threats in the area! Often I pull back from the lens and think “did I lose Jeff?” only to find him sitting on whatever is nearby, waiting tolerantly for his wife to get done playing with her camera.

On our recent outing in San Antonio, Texas, something happened that really surprised me. Jeff started taking pictures, demanding I stand in certain spots, and has even mastered the basic functions of my camera. I hate having pictures taken of myself. I always have, and always will. I have to admit, though – I think he got a nice one here. You can even see me sporting my new Shootsac!

I’ve gone through a learning process when it comes to camera bags. My first was a backpack, great for camping/hiking, right? Nope. It was a pain in the back, literally, and also really inconvenient to have to take the backpack off to swap out lenses. On to bag #2, a Swiss-tech messenger-style with lots of padding. Is it great for keeping everything safe, fitting everything I might possibly need, and good for travel? Yes. But it’s heavy, unwieldy the way it hangs (shoulder strap not long enough) and still not convenient enough for quick-swap lens changes, and nowhere to put my always required bottle of water. I researched, researched, researched online, and saw lots of interesting and neat options. But what’s a girl to do that loves to pretend that she’s fashionable? Certainly not wear a fanny-pack style camera bag (especially not with being as pleasantly plump as I am) or wear a dorky photographer vest w/all those pockets. Been there, don’t want to do that again with a backpack….and then I found Jessica Claire’s website www.shootsac.com with the awesome Shootsac!

At first I couldn’t believe my eyes – a bag that could hold what I needed, perform like I wanted, all while looking stylish and not screaming “camera bag, come and rob me!” Yep. I spent a long while trying to decide what cover I wanted (I had it narrowed down to Festive, Lively, or Effervescent) and went with Effervescent. Just had to have a touch of pink there, and it’s elegant and classy. Jeff likes the fact that I can flip the cover over to the boring black side when he is forced into the “honey hold my bag”. Our trip to San Antonio was my first real outing with my bag – amazing! I wore it all day, had it loaded w/crap (lenses, batteries, wallet, bottle of water) and even had my hoodie draped over it when it got warm, and still didn’t have any back pain! I can also say I have mastered the art of the quick swap lens change now with my bag (hint, cradle the camera body in the crook of your elbow against your body).

Although I hate to be a model, I think I look pretty cute w/my new Shootsac!

(I sound like a commercial, don’t I – LOL!)

Photoshop is Amazing!

I am amazed at how much can be done in Photoshop - the opportunities and ideas are as endless as the human imagination. I have read 3 or 4 books now and spend countless hours just "playing around" learning by trial and error to see what I can come up with. I've learned the barest basics to "fix" general things in photos, such as levels, contrast, sharpening, etc. I have learned to clone stamp, brush, heal - and even made a custom brush thanks to Violet's tutelage. Photoshop Elements 7 is an amazing tool. No, it's not the full-out $700 Photoshop, but it really can do a LOT of the same things, sometimes in a little bit different way. I also think it's a little more user-friendly than the "big gun" Photoshop. The only thing I have found that I can't do in Elements is record an Action, which is akin to recording a macro in excel. It's a quick and easy way to quickly run through steps that you repeatedly do over and over again. The cool thing is, I can run Actions in Elements (created by others), I just can't create my own. Not a big deal, considering I still really have no idea what I am doing anyway.
Today I was playing with some old flower photos from this past summer when I first got the camera and I stumbled across this "reverse black and white" thing....and I can't seem to figure out how I got to that in the first place, but look what I was able to create! I thought it was pretty darn cool. Now if I could only remember how I did it.....back to the drawing board!