Photoshop FTW

I’m always getting asked where I studied photography & editing.

The truth is, I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was 3 years old.  My dad was a journalism photographer and he pretty much taught me everything I know about photography, from film to frame.  He taught me how to take an award-winning photo, how to develop film {he even put a dark room in our house!},  and even provided the means for me to have a background for my photos: travel.

Once in college, I took countless photography, digital photography, videography, printing, and digital editing courses.  I got my first job working as an editor for a wedding film production company, and soon after my sister {Jessica} and I started our very own film production company, Lovespun Films {previously EStyles Design}.  My sister has pretty much taken over the business side of Lovespun Films, but recently I decided to go back to my roots and work with her on some recent projects.

Since the world of photography & digital editing is always changing, it is impossible to know everything about digital editing.  I currently use the Adobe CS4 Creative Suite to do all my editing, photos and video.  For photo editing I use Adobe Photoshop CS4, for graphic design I use Adobe Illustrator CS4, and for video editing I use the CS5 version of Adobe Premiere.

I love Photoshop.  It is easy to use and there are thousands upon thousands of free tutorials to help you learn all over the web.  Once you master the basics of Photoshop, there are a lot of freebies out there to make your editing process go a lot faster.

Here are some of my favorite Photoshop tutorial sites and helpful Photoshop-master bloggers:

Smashing Magazine

Pugly Pixel

Paint the Moon

Photoshop Lady

Happy editing everyone!

Blogging for Beginners

I was at a party last night and someone told me they were thinking about starting their own blog.  She asked me what advice I have for her.  This is a loaded question because I have learned so much about blogging over the past year, it would be hard {and probably boring for you} to sum up everything in one post.  So over the next few weeks, I’ll sprinkle my advice here and there, and hopefully it will help those of you just starting out.

1. Establish a theme.

The first thing I always ask is, what is your theme? Without a theme, your blog will likely be all over the place and it will be hard to establish a core of readers.  Once you have established a theme, it will be easier to keep your writing personality and topics consistent.  Find a theme that you are passionate about, and you will find that the writing flows freely out of your fingertips and on to your screen.

When I first started my blog, it was all about living on my own in the city and the crazy experiences I was having.  Over time, my blog grew into more than just being single in a tiny apartment.  My blog has actually helped me to grow as a person by forcing me to try new things, learn to cook, travel more, and meet new and interesting people, all because I knew a {small} portion of the world was watching.

If you don’t already have a theme, ask yourself what you are truly passionate about.  Here are some of my favorite blogs, written by girls who know exactly what they are doing:

20-Something Travel:

20-Something Travel is the blog of a girl who has decided to quit her job and travel around the world for a year.  Of course, I love this blog because dropping everything to travel for a year is something I could see myself doing.  Even though I’ve never met this girl in person, I feel we’ve bonded over our love of exotic travel and Diet Coke, and apparently, so have thousands of other 20-something readers.

Pugly Pixel:

Katrina, of Pugly Pixel, is a graphic designer with a flair for taking ordinary objects and making them into graphic art.  Whenever I’m looking for some inspiration for photography or design, I turn to Katrina.  As a bonus, she’s always giving away fantastic freebies!

Busy Bee Lauren:

If you want your blog to have lots of personality, Busy Bee Lauren can help inspire you.  Her goofy and oh-so-random posts about anything from what she had for breakfast, to her crazy adventures with her husband {Tedward}, to her unfailing love for Leo D, she keeps her audience of nearly 2,000 subscribers entertained and guessing about what will come out of her mouth next.

Next time I’ll talk about my experience in creating an attractive blogspace and how to establish a core of readers & subscribers.