Hawaii.

I have not made a post in a VERY long time. Sorry about that. I have been so busy over the holidays I havent had much time to sit and upload all of my pictures. I am trying to get more serious with my photography business as well. I still need to step it up though a tad and really get on it if I want it to be sucessful. Meaning leanr as much as I can. Read books. Buy equipment. Buy props. start taking more pictures for friends to build my portfolio and start my website. Basically I need to really start investing in this if I want it to eventually become my fulltime work. Which I would love. Im trying to figure out if I love more of the photography or editing. I mean I LOOOVE photography and taking pictures but I'm finding out my true joy is taking pictures of nature, flowers, plants, sunsets etc. BUTTT those things cant pay me which is why I started getting interested in people BUT people make me nervous. You have to pose them, give them props, tell them they're doing great. Give them their money worth. lol. I guess I'm just not that confident yet. So it's hard. I guess If I were more confident I would enjoy people more and I guess that just takes practice so I need to just practice as much as I can. Then there is the world of editing which is a whole new world in itself. There is SOOO mcuh you can do to make a picture look good. I mean with digital photography, your original picture doesnt even have to look good anymore because now you can change it through editing. Lighting, coloring, shading, EVERYTHING!!! So again, trying to learn as much as I can which right now seems infinite. Just when I think I've learned a lot, I find a lot more I can learn. Now I'm getting into trying to understand working with Textures which appears to be the new thing now that can set your work apart from others. Gives the pictures a whole different feel. I'll learn in time, I guess it takes time and patience. Not many just start a business and it's successful overnight.

NEwho, here are a few pictures that I took when I was in Hawaii. Before and Afters so I can show you the many things you can do with editing and ways to make the pictures look AMAZING when originally they might have been just alright.



This is an original picture I took of a sunset



Here is the same picture with a seventies action applied to it to make it look like it was taken with film from the '70's.



Here is another version with the blues a little moer blue to give it a different feel and look.



And this is the same picture once again with different coloring action done to make it look bright and colorful. This one reminds me of a postcar or something.



Here is a picture of a peacock that I took. I was using my zoom lens so although I was pretty close to the bird, this looks like I was right in his face. I love using this lens with animals because you can get such a close-up look that wou wouldnt normally be able to get becuase usually animals, esp wild ones, dont let you get that close. Works good when going to the zoo too.



THIS is a picture I took of a flower lilly in the water with lilly pads. Originally I thought this picture was sooooo good... until I worked my photoshop magic on it.



NOW it is my favorite picture of all time. I want to make it a big canvas and hang it in my house. I love it even more everytime I look at it.

This is just a little example of how dramatically different you can make a plain ol picture look with just a little editing. And this isnt even pictures of people. You can do a world of different things when it comes to editing people.

Hope you enjoy my flower lilly as much as I do. :) I should try to figure out how I can sell my art.