Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Guess What Just Came In!!


Whoever thinks patience isn't a virtue should just, you know, die now I guess...

Snail mail just seems so slow. But this morning I can officially stop with the anxiety attacks I get from getting anything in the mail. But either way, I can carry my camera around and whenever I can get a chance I can take some hopefully, beautiful photos.

I purchased a Sony Cybershot DSC-W610 14.1 MP (for those of you who know how significant or insignificant that is... yeah, fill me in)

And by all means, if you have any advice to help improve my photography please feel free to let me know!

Also, I want to show you all one of the photo editors I will be using through this journey. I have set up a photoshop.com account and with this account, I have access to their Adobe Photoshop Express Editor program. And oh my goodness, when it says Express, that's what it truly means! This program comes with options where you don't even need to have prior knowledge or experience with Photoshop to create a truly amazing photo.


This thing works wonders! Take from the transformation in my tree photo in my previous post (granted it wasn't all that great, yeah yeah yeah, but hey, let's focus on the context alright).

I also am going to begin my 30 trial of Photoshop Elements 10 (as seen above) next month, just so that I have enough time to figure out the ins and outs of Express Editor first. Notice in the bottom left-hand corner is my photoshop.com account link. Hopefully I can figure out how to set my settings to display my public albums so everyone will be able to review my progress; bare with me in the meantime.

No need to worry, I haven't forgotten to show you how I created my first transformation, that's coming soon, but here's a little preview picture of where I began:


So stick around for some photo fun!

Oh, and I wasn't serious about the dying earlier... no, please don't die.



Remember, when it's all said and done, there's more than what meets to eye...

Sunday, September 23, 2012

How You See The World... Literally

Ok, I think we all can come to a collective agreement that looks can be very decieving, right? Or is it our own minds that deceive us?

I've been reading around the web to get some ideas on how to enhance my photo journey and I stumbled across a really interesting article that really introduced me to the basic concept of photography and the mindset that is needed to gain an genuine understanding of it.

In Ben Evans's article Benefit From How You See The World, he states that "we get 80% of our impressions about the world through our eyes". If my math is correct then that means 20% is created through another medium. He explains that this medium is through our minds that communicate what we would like to see. Yes, in our minds we form our own realities of our surroundings before we even see it.

In a nutshell, the process of Reticular Activating System (RAS) allows our minds and eyes to generalize, highlight, then delete information while we are looking. Without throwing a bunch of scientific jargon at you, generalizing is the reason why we can never recall the last stranger we've last seen. Things that are unfamiliar with us are just meshed into crowds and become a blur. Highlighting happens when we notice only what we're focused on but not the surrounding situations, somewhat like when you're watching your favorite TV show but didn't notice the lights were turned off and someone left the room. Our minds delete information like when we see didn't notice any of the billboards you've passed on the highway.

This article really hit it right on the nail for what I was looking for to start as a beginner, like myself. I will put this information into play so that I do not produce any photos as boring as this one I took with my cell phone camera...

Yes, I know, what an absolutely boring image because even with Adobe Photoshop Express Editor there still isn't that much excitement going on...
I will be posting all the information on how I edited the original image, materials I used, and everything in between soon. But, now that I know about this RAS technique I should be able to use it to take more eye-catching photos and improve them through different tools in Photoshop.

Remember when it's all said and done, there's still more than what meets the eye...

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Wishful Thinking

Well, well, well, I see you've made it back to my blog. Ok, well I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I did place my order for my camera, but the bad news is it will not be delivered until between the end of this week and sometime next week (sad face). Somehow I missed the option to do expedited shipping so unfortunately I will be waiting on the snail mail method. But, I am excited to get my camera, as it will be the first of which I have full ownership (where have I been, right? I know, I know).

I ordered a Sony Cyber-Shot 14.1 MP digital camera from eBay for around 100 bucks so hopefully I don't run into any defects or issues that will hinder me from starting my project because I really don't want to have small talk with you all in the meantime. I chose this particular camera because I borrowed a friend's similar camera during this past summer and I instantly fell in love! The autofocus was great and the image stabilization worked better than I thought. I was reading around the web and one of the main elements to taking nature photography is the focus and zoom technologies to enhance the quality of each photo. I will be looking into some nature photography book such as Mountain Light, to get a feel for what the thinking is behind taking nature photos and how to approach a setting to take the best picture. I hope all goes well so wish me luck...



Remember, after it's been all said and done, there's more than what meets the eye...

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Meet Me!

Hey everyone! I am Uniquely HerStory and welcome to my blog! For this blog I will be expressing my experience, or lack thereof, taking photographs and exploring photo editors. The purpose of this blog is to teach myself how to manipulate the features on a "regular" camera to explore the possibilities to create a vivid image through a photo editor. My plan is to take photos of nature and outdoor objects, pop them into a photo editor and see what happens! Will it be better or worse? Is there more I can be doing using the features on my camera or photo editor? Hmm, something to think about. Now, I don't have my own personal camera to begin this project but I do plan to purchase one shortly. I really don't plan on it being anything big or fancy, so whatever camera comes up within my price range... sounds like a winner! As for a photo editor... I plan to use the Photoshop software but since I haven't used Photoshop since high school I guess I will be relearning those skills all over. Yes, if you couldn't tell already I will be doing this project as an beginner. However, I will be working on new projects every week to explore all the different capabilities within photo editors and digital cameras to see what I learn. I'm super excited so hopefully this turns out alright.  


Remember, after it's been all said and done, there's more than what meets the eye...