fun with photoshop

I love to take an ordinary, boring picture and turn it into something cool and interesting. If it weren't for digital photography and photoshop, not only wouldn't I be able to do that, I probably would never have gotten into photography at all. You see, I am an impatient procrastinator. If I used film, I would probably have 53 undeveloped rolls hanging about at any given time. Actually, that's not true. I would be so impatient to see my pictures, but would procrastinate so long about getting them developed, I'd probably take a couple rolls and give up. Also, I hate reading manuals and instructions and really learning how to do things the right way. I mostly just wing it. I know I need to learn more about f stops and shutter speed and... all that other stuff. But with my digital camera, I can just take several pictures of something until I get it right.

I do the same thing with photoshop. I don't know what I'm doing really, just playing around until my pictures look how I want them to. Some get very little editing, just a bit of cropping, others get more heavily tweaked, either to "fix" something, or just because it's fun. Usually it's for the fun reason, because a truly crappy picture can't really be fixed with photoshop.

Except... every once in a while I see potential in a crappy picture. I think, maybe with a little help, there is something cool there after all. And sometimes, it works.

For example. A grackle. Ho hum. I was planning to get a picture of a little woodpecker I had spied in our front pecan, but of course he was gone by the time I came back with the camera. But this guy hung around, so what the hell. Here's my SOOC shot:

Blurry, boring, blah. Headed straight for the virtual garbage can if it weren't for the PS.

But after playing around with it, I was able to make this:

Which is still blurry, but in an artistic way. (Or so I tell myself. Ha.) I love spooky stuff though and this gives me that vibe. It also has a graphic, tenuous quality to it: the idea or essence of a bird. But mostly, I just think it looks cool. Thank you, photoshop!