Monday, November 23, 2015

I Am My Own Teacher


For the past few months I have been my own professor.  I am teaching myself Photoshop and InDesign. Photoshop was a challenge, but I feel I have a grip on the basic essentials of the program. I can't believe I have been doing photography without Photoshop.  However, what you usually see of my photos are natural considering I didn't have the software to enhance.  Photoshop is great for when you need to add things or change a background for print (meaning magazines and such), but for everyday photography I think its best to stay natural and true to the elements in which you took the photograph. Photoshop has so many uses besides making someone's complexion look perfect or slimming them down.

InDesign is more up my alley. I have always been in love with design....whether it is print layout design or interior design.  I have been doing design since my days on my high school newspaper staff. Technology has changed so much since I was in college that I was afraid I would struggle with InDesign. I was pleasantly surprised that InDesign is not much different from my days of QuarkXpress on the Mac computers in college. After a day of familiarizing myself with the essentials, I was breezing through a creation of a brochure, business card, and magazine cover layout. Now onto adding it all into my portfolio and continuing to learn. 

As I have gone through these programs I have used a lot of my own photography. I forgot I had taken some pictures at my parents awhile back and wanted to share. Not my greatest work, but my camera is crapping out on me and I am hoping a new one is in my future (along with a sweet 300 mm lens!).  These pictures are untouched by Photoshop as you can probably tell.
Bench in my parent's front yard
At a park close to my parent's house


Getting pumpkins at my favorite orchard- Garwood's

My my favorite orchard- Garwood's

My parent's backyard


Fence along my mom's garden

My parent's backyard

My parent's backyard

Caught this after my mom watered her garden


Wind chimes nestled up against the woods