Woah, Woah, It’s Magic

I have found that after a long day of work I love nothing more than to come home, take some pictures of the dogs (because they’re usually the only things around to take pictures of that aren’t some form of weed) and play in Photoshop for about 4 hours before heading off to bed. I had been working on the website for hours every night, but it was not as fun and I have put it on the shelf for now. It is presentable and I will do more to it once I have some time to sit down and read some of the Joomla tutorials online. So for now I’m back to Photoshop. It’s oddly relaxing.

I wanted to post an example of what things looks like coming out of the camera. I am really not any kind of photographer, I just am lucky enough to have a nice camera and good editing software. Here is an example of a picture that came straight off the camera. It’s not horrible, but it’s one of those that tells a good enough story, it deserves a little extra work so it can tell it’s story really well. (It looked a lot better to me until I put the new one up next to it!)

I spent 20, maybe 30 minutes on it in Photoshop and Voila! Magic! Now, Sky’s eyes, which I wanted to really take your breath away, stand out more from the rest of the picture. Also, when I took this picture it was a really hot summer day but the picture has such cool tones, it’s doesn’t reflect that. I changed it so it looks hot and it makes more sense that Sky’s tongue is hanging out of his mouth.

Everything I did was subtle, but the overall impact is huge, isn’t it? Here is the recipe I used to get this picture:

Liquid Eyes Trick

Levels, Saturation, general editing stuff

Fresh & Colorful*

Boost*- to taste

Sunshine*- to taste

*All Actions are from the free Pioneer Woman set

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Picture Dump

Been playing around with different ways to put actions together. I keep coming up with quite a wide range of finished products. The most recent are these…

Sky is constantly running toward me to “check in,” so I get a lot of really cute pictures of him looking like this. Sweet!

This one captures the quietness that is Amelia. She is such a gentle, unassuming soul. I just want to hug her all day long!

This is my favorite picture action-wise, although I couldn’t quite get it were I wanted it in editing. I think that’s mainly due to the fact that it was an iffy picture to begin with in terms of light, clarity, etc, but it shows this moment so well I had to post it anyway. Lyla has this funny habit of stalking Brando and then attacking. It reminds me of how a Border Collie works stock, or maybe how a lion takes down gazelle. The funniest part of it is she only plays like this with Brando, none of the other dogs. She’s such a character!

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Photoshop Actions

I’ve been playing around with Photoshop Actions all day and having way too much fun. Sadly, I only downloaded the 30 day trial of Photoshop because, seriously, that much money for some picture software? All that means is I’m just going to be doing nothing but snapping pictures and editing for the next month. Hooray! Anyway, what I ended up with after today is a bunch of this:

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Amore

Amelia is a beautiful, sweet Blue Merle bitch who is spending the summer with us. She is owned by Jessica Westleigh of Katahdin Australian Shepherds. She really is stunningly gorgeous, and Sky agrees with me. The two of them are attached at the hip. Where there is one, there is always the other. They even lay on the dog bed together and share ice cubes. I haven’t had the heart to tell Sky yet that she’s going to be leaving come October…

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Why I Love Dogs

(Note: click on picture to enlarge and get the full effect)

This is Sky. Sky was my first dog and the “one that started it all.”

I might as well say it now for anyone who is an “Aussie person.” Yes, Sky is a “mini.” Do I support the breeding of minis? No. Am I under the impression that the mini is a real breed? No.  I will be the first person to tell you that I was the poster child for how not to buy a dog when I got Sky, and made a bad choice on many levels. However, he’s my dog, and I was not going to abandon him when I entered the world of Aussies just because someone somewhere might look down on me or not place a show quality puppy with me because I owned him.

And now, stepping off the soapbox…

I choose this picture because it IS Sky. It is one of the first pictures I’ve ever looked at and thought, “Wow! That picture tells a story I could never put into words.” I’m sure there is plenty of technical this and that wrong with it, but I don’t care. It is my favorite picture I’ve ever taken. Somehow, I was able to capture my immense love for this dog and who he is with just a camera. It tells the story of how we’ve grown together over the years and where we have yet to go.

Sky is a sensitive soul. Don’t misunderstand; he is not calm. He is a firecraker. But he is gentle and kind and very in tune with my moods and feelings. He will do anything that is physically possible in order to make me happy. I am so lucky to have him, and I don’t think I would be as involved in dogs today if it weren’t for him in my life.

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