Photoshop

Why is it we (I) don't take the time to do the things I love until I have an assignment?  I guess that's why it's so important for me to take classes.  And I'm loving Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class.  Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon playing with my camera and with Photoshop.  And since the Chicago area got about 8 inches of snow yesterday, that was a very good use of my time!  (Yes, I did help clear the driveway :-) )

Here are a couple of pics I took the for assigment "less is more".

I like the first one OK, but I really like the second one.  I copied the photo and blurred the image.  Then I used a layer mask (so easy to do in Elements 10!) to brush the focus back into the flower petals.  I added Kim's "awaken" texture, but you can't really tell after I blurred it.

I had so much fun that I decided to play some more, and came up with a new "self-portrait"

I wanted to have a more artsy look for my little icon, and I think this will do nicely!

Another thing I learned from one of my fellow classmates is that my camera has a "dioptic" knob so that I can see through the viewfinder to manually focus without wearing my glasses!  It is truly amazing to be able to focus my camera without pulling out the reading glasses every time!