For my camera loving friends!

Every once in awhile, I hope to be an encouragement to those that stop by here to read my family blog, in the area of photography.  It's because of friends and family that I got into photography in the first place...encouragement and a desire to keep memories are strong motivators to me!

Granted, I hope there are times that you may be encouraged in other areas as well...such as, "oh my goodness, at least I don't parent like her!" or "whew, she totally blew that one...yep, I'm feeling mighty fine about myself now!"  And if you leave your time breezing by my blog and have a smile or have laughed a bit, I count it a privilege to have been able to give you some humor & encouragement for the day:) 

Now...back to the photography...sometimes I know that it can be overwhelming...the whole aperature/shutter speed/ ISO thing...

And some of you are going, "ummm, whatch u talkin' bout willis?"

Yes well...Here's where photoshop has been my help. 

Ultimately it would be AWESOME if I could figure out every little thing IN my camera so that every picture just came out great every time...but, let's face it...that's not going to happen...

I mean, hey...I've got dishes to load, crumbs to sweep and dancin' to do with the kids on the wii...when I see a moment and it needs to be captured...I don't always have time to get all my settings ready so that I can get the perfect shot...

So, I do the best I can with what my sticky fingers and flour covered apron can handle and I just snap...and then I cross my fingers and hope I can fix it all on photoshop...and 9 times out of 10, it's possible...

I have recently learned about ACTIONS in photoshop and I must tell you that I'm LOVING them...they are time savers and easy to run.  Let me give you a few examples of photos from about a year or two ago...I just went fishing for old photos that I knew I had snapped with my old camera and I ran them through actions in photoshop, and just a few little tweaks...take a look

Most of the actions that I use are from here and totally FREE.  I also love Pioneer Woman's Action sets as well...  There are some great tutorials on how to load them if you have photoshop elements and then away you go.  I like to adjust each layer as it runs so that I get the look that I'm going for.  Not every picture merits an action...sometimes it just needs a contrast boost...but other times, it just makes it fun!

Hope you have fun with your photos...and don't forget to print them and hang them up in your home...stick them on the fridge or enlarge the ones of little kids with goggles on their faces...those are the memories that you want! 

Happy weekend!