First Photoshop Panorama

Click on the image above to enlarge (and I mean enlarge!)

It's far from perfect, but I took a series of photos in Central Park with my old point-n-shoot (Canon PowerShot), then merged them into a panorama using Photoshop.  This is also my first attempt at adding text to a Photoshop project.  Though there are many issues with this project (which I won't point out...), I'm still fairly pleased with the outcome.  It's all a learning experience, right?

Photoshop users - any suggestions for what more to do with this project?  And how?

Josh + Jenny

We were in Oregon recently for Tim's best friend Josh's wedding.  Since it was just a week after I'd purchased my new camera, of course I took the opportunity to snap A LOT of photos. 

One of the major issues I ran into was lighting.  The outdoor photos are easy - light abounds.  But inside, where the ceremony took place, it was hard to get great shots without flash.  And I didn't want to use my little pop-up flash because I knew the quality of picture wouldn't be great.  I did play a lot with the White Balance, ISO and shutter speed.  Experimentation is a great form of education...

Here are a few of my favorites - some edited a bit in iPhoto, but without any PhotoShop edits.

She was running toward something, but looked so picturesque

 The KISS!

Guest Book and Programs

First Dance

A special moment...

Cutting the Cake!

The centerpieces were so Country Chic

First Pet Portraits

My Favorite Things

 

 My first storyboard

"Nappy Timmy, Cuddly Kitty"

First Portraits

 

This is my hubby - he makes me happy

 Cute Cute Katie

Girl Talk in the Outfield

 

 Spy Face

First Nature Shots

 

  First Hints of Fall

 Lamp-lit leaves

Bright Blossoms

Lavender and Sunshine

Tea Party Protest

DCscapes

 

Grey Day

 Invitation to Rest

Frager's - An American Hardware Store

Budding Shutter Bug

I'm pretty sure I first caught "the bug" when my husband, then boyfriend, bought me my first digital camera just a few weeks into our relationship.  I was leaving to study abroad in Latin America, and he realized even before I did that I would need a pocket-sized camera to document my journeys.  That PowerShot served me well, and when it was stolen from my car two years later, I replaced it with another just like it (only the newer model, of course).  I quickly became known as the girl who takes pictures of everything.  Anyone who has spent any amount of time with me over the last 5 or 6 years knows that my camera is more often glued in my hand than tucked away out of reach.

I love taking photos.  I love looking at other peoples' photos. I love the functionality of photos - they serve as my memory since I have such a poor one.

But up until today I scraped by with a miniature point-and-shoot digital camera with only preset capabilities.  Today, after hours and hours of research over the past weeks, years of yearning for a camera with guts, and a lot of support from the hubby, I bought my first real camera.  He's a Nikon D90 and I'm in love.  I'm still trying to name him (any suggestions?), but of this I'm sure... he's going to be my "other lover" for the foreseeable future.

This blog will be dedicated to my journey as a photographer.  I use that term loosely, but also with purpose.  I choose to call myself a photographer even though I'm nowhere near the kind of photographer I aspire to be some day.  But as I learned from Jonathan Mead over at Zen Habits, the world needs me to do what I love.  And I love photography.  I am a photographer, though just a bud of one.