Photoshop Examined

Since I'm totally convinced that I'll never have enough time on the planet to learn all the things I'm interested in learning, I try to keep picking up something new to work on in fairly rapidfire order. This year I started with learning how to shoot a compound bow and make my own arrows. Hopefully, those skills will prove to be useful when I head up to visit my Uncle Don in Fargo this November to go deer hunting (something I've never done before).

But before I get up there, I've decided that I want to really find out what Photoshop can do. My original goal was to get skilled enough to let me convert a particular picture of Larry and Gary Green into a "masterpiece" that is both fun and interesting. To do this, I've acquired 4 new books, completed one and have scanned the other 3 as I start on the second and third books ... and they're really great. First I got "Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop" and I've completed the 21 lessons in that book. It's a bit more than an introduction, but it gives extremely straightforward steps using Camera Raw and Photoshop to update good pictures with varying flaws. That gave me most of what I needed to make my new picture ... but it also got me interested in digital photography, raw files, DNG and really understanding how it all works.

The other 3 books I have, that I highly recommend, are "Camera Raw With Adobe Photoshop CS3" by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe, "The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book For Digital Photographers", by Scott Kelby and the "Photoshop CS3 Bible", by Laurie Ulrich Fuller and Robert C. Fuller. The only problem I've had so far with these books is minor. It concerns the "humor" that Scott Kelby interjects into his work. It gets to be a little too much. But I already was aware of this when I bought the second Kelby book ... also filled with practical applications of Photoshop ... and the fact that I bought it (anyway) means that I think it's got many fine teaching examples to offer. Of course, the "Bible" is primarily for reference, which I'll need quite a bit of, I'm sure.

Not wanting to leave things half done, I've now also ordered a Nikon D5000 camera so I can take pictures in raw format and go from "A to Z" in the Photoshop process with some of my own shots. Another experiment in learning ... about to take off. We'll see how it goes.

Fun Golf Day

The last 3.5 weeks of weather here in eastern Iowa have been very much like San Diego. Highs in the low to mid-80's with cool nights. Many days have seen highs in the upper 70's. I suppose it's about to come to an end as we also have had no measurable precipitation for almost 4 weeks and it would be nice to get a little moisture for the lawn. At any rate, the weather has been perfect for ... well, just about anything outdoors. So today I took part in a 4-person best shot tournament at St. Andrews (Cedar Rapids, IA) golf course. Great weather and a great time. We shot 58 (12-under par) and took 2nd in the championship round. That was meaningful since it meant we got back $60 each in prize money. Also, I'm feeling better about another tournament coming up the first Friday in October as I was able to hit the ball pretty well today (I was a bit anxious since it was my very first round of the year), which bodes well for 2 weeks from now.

At the end of the round I took a nice quick bicycle ride as the golf was with golf carts and just not much of a workout. But the weather was just great with light winds and about 75 degrees with some clouds.

Of course, the Vikings and the Hawkeye's winning this weekend also put a positive spin on the entire day. And how 'bout them Bears, beating the Steelers! Who'da thunk it ...

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that my Photoshop training has paid a few dividends as I've updated my profile (and website) pictures (of me) with new versions taken in September. This month and the next are going to be filled with studying Photoshop CS3 and learning how to do more with all the (untouched and un-retouched) pictures I have on my computer. Should be a good time.

So many things to do on this earth ... so little time. Well, at least I'm not wasting what time I do have on the supernatural fantasy world of religion. If I'm going for wasting time with fantasy, it'll be with Lord of the Rings or King Kong or Star Trek or Star Wars or Stargate, etc. At least I won't be deluding myself since I both understand and admit that they're *not* real. Enjoy yourselves, folks, because your time can be over far more quickly than you could ever imagine. And it's what you do while you're here and what you leave behind that matters ...