Photoshop fun

I took a production printing class in High School for a year and a half. The boundaries and projects were all very lenient and we pretty much got to do whatever we wanted so long as we got the few Ryobi printing press jobs done that the school had for us. During our down time my wonderful friend and I would go take pictures, develop them in the dark room, and then we'd hand paint them or scan them and mess with them in photoshop.

We were let loose to figure out how to do things on our own. I was never very good at figuring out the computer programs on my own. I struggled playing with the program and figuring out it's capabilities and limitations. I liked things to be shown to me. I liked being taught. My friend was always so good at exploring on her own. Two years after high school she had her graphic design degree and business to boot. A marriage, two kids, and five years later, her business is booming by word of mouth and she gets to work from home. She's quite amazing.

I enjoyed photography more than the computer graphics. I loved hand painting black and white photos. I loved the vinegar smell of the dark room (though I didn't particularly enjoy smelling like the dark room when I left though that was very common). It was magical watching the white sheet under the red light transform into recognizable objects and people. The summer after my Junior year, my teacher let me borrow some of the school's old dark room equipment. My parents let me commandeer their hall closet under the stairs, and I was engaged with dark room joys and picture generation for three months. I spilt some chemicals in there once and it smelled like vinegar for probably a year or more. What wonderful parents to allow me my dream though it inconvenienced them! They never once complained and always encouraged the development of our talents.

After my Senior year I heard of someone selling dark room equipment and chemicals. I had dreams of doing photography for a living so I bought it all for $350 (quite a large chunk of money for a girl who was paying her way through college); it's sat untouched in my parents' spare bedroom ever since. I didn't make it into the photography program at BYU, and I'm not doing photography for a living. (Although I should really reconsider since digital wedding photographers here start at $2500 and they don't even make prints of the pictures! They just give the couple a digital slide show and a CD with all the pictures so they can print them if they want them!) Anyway, I don't have room here for a darkroom, and I doubt I ever will, so I've decided to give it all away. I'd try and sell it on eBay, but shipping would be completely outrageous, and I don't even know if it works!

So lately I've turned back to photoshop. I really ought to take a tutorial to find out all the cool things I don't know that I'm missing, but so far it's been quite enjoyable. I don't mind figuring things out on my own now, and the internet magically provides me with answers to almost all my questions. I guess I'm growing up.

So here are a few things I did tonight. Mizike, if you want any of these, by all means use them. If not, I'm not offended in the least. I just took your title and tried to run with the imagery, so if you have something else in mind, tell me and I'll go with that. It's great practice for me and I'm learning to unleash creative powers again.