When I was younger. . . much much younger. . . about 30 years ago, I had purchased a used 35mm camera from a friend.  I was determined to learn all about f-stops and exposure and all those camera buzz words.  Back then though, it was different than the digital cameras of today.  To experiment, you had to actually develop the film to see how your pictures turned out.  Since I was young and broke as a joke, I developed my film sparingly and when I did, it was like Christmas morning getting to see how the photos turned out.

There was this one particular sunrise that I wanted to capture on film that was simply breathtaking on my route into work.  Not particularly being a morning person, I would never remember to take the camera with me because in the morning, I move about on auto-pilot.  So - in all my brilliance, I put the camera in the car the night before so that I’d have it when I saw my beautiful sunrise.  Hence the word ‘brilliance’ . . . yeah, not so much.  My car was broken into that night and my prized camera was stolen.  I was so heartbroken.  And the funny thing is . . . I wasn’t as heartbroken over the loss of the camera, but of the film that was inside.  I had studied and practiced and I was certain that I had some prize winning photos in there.  So sad, I was.

Now fast-forward 30 years later, I finally purchase my second 35mm camera. . . well, my Canon Digital Rebel.  And as much as I love my camera, it’s just not as easy to use as I’d like.  Oh, the Auto shots are good.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a fabulous camera.  It’s the operator.  Yeah, that would be me.  

This photo of my new camera was taken with my old camera, a little HP Photosmart digital camera I bought for my trip to Vegas last year.  It’s small and perfect for traveling, but it’s not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to taking smashing photos.  I keep it with me at all times . . . just in case I need to capture a quick shot sometime.  But for overall use, I absolutely adore my Canon. . . even if it is kicking my a$$.   I’m wanting to learn to take stunning, jaw-dropping, prize-winning photos.  The ones that you use all the fancy settings for.  Yeah, those are tougher.  Thank goodness I don’t have to develop all my practice shots.  I’d never get to eat and I’d be sleeping in the streets.

Because I have probably 100+ pictures of my cat alone.  She’s quite the ham.

And 100+ pictures of my flowers.

And 50+ pictures of the clouds.  Yeah, not really sure why on this one.  Just because they’re there, I guess.

And let’s not forget food.  Who knew that taking pictures of food would be so difficult?  I have terrible lighting in my house - meaning not much natural light - so my pictures always need help.

Which brings me to learning Photoshop.  I bought a book to learn Photoshop and in the Foreward, it said, “Yes, you DO have to be a rocket scientist.”  I put the book down.  I thought, “How hard can it be to just figure it out?”  I mean, I am a computer geek.  Well, let me just tell you. . . . Computer geek or not, Photoshop is kicking my BEhind.   So needless to say, these are ALL straight-out-of-camera shots.

My secret weapon that I’m going to use now is The Pioneer Woman.  On top of her fabulous Cooking section on her site, she has an entire section just for Photography.  She takes amazing photos already, but add her little Photoshop ‘Actions’ that she uses and it’s like Emeril “kicking it up a notch”.   She has these step by step posts of how she achieves certain attributes from Photoshop and that’s just what I need - Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop School for Dummies.

Another good site I found was Ximinas Photography.  It’s more text than Pioneer Woman’s step by step pictures for dummies, but it’s great information.

Hopefully, I’ll improve as time goes by and you’ll be able to see a difference in the quality of my photos.  We’ll see how that works out.  One thing I can say for sure. . . it does keep me busy.  And with all this time on my hands now that my house is empty, there are no excuses.

Do any of you have any tips, suggestions, references for me?  I am so OPEN to any information I can get.  I’m a sponge.  Not SpongeBob Squarepants!  Nope, I’m SpongeDonna YellowJeepBlonde.  Help me!  Even my jokes are lame.