I've missed this staple of connection and sharing in my weeks, yet I have found that it has stayed around, in other guises, surprising me suddenly.
Just last August I finally got about learning to use Photoshop Elements 8. And what happened then was that I felt like elephants were playing pinball in my birdbrain.
I couldn't see forests OR trees.
What I've discovered, happily, is that for me Digital Fiddling is NOT dependent upon my knowing How-To use PSE8 or any other elephant-like [to me] software.
It doesn't need money thrown at it.
Nor does it require a fancier camera.
All it takes is desire and curiosity.
And a liberal dash of persistent consistency.
For awhile I'd noticed myself feeling breathless and apologetic about what I did NOT understand.
That, and I BEgan to BE timid and afraid to make mistakes.
That alone was itchy enough that I gradually stopped trying to use PSE8 and started using Picasa, then Pixlr & Picasa.
About my favourite thing to DO on Fridays [and oftentimes Saturdays as well] is meandering deLIGHTedly through Photo Art Friday posts and visiting everyone else's photo art and posts.
So Now that it is a once-monthly thing, I am happy to BE upon the first Friday in August. I'm eager to see what others have been up to.
And, yes, overJOYed to BE able to share some of what I've been up to, too.
Nowadays I pretty much work with Pixlr exclusively.
It's fun, easy, and always surprising.
Somehow I'm finding the Enoughness factor that was missing for me with PSE8.
It has BEcome second nature.
I love how that happened.
I did a little bit with the flowery theme, perusing my photos from the past several years. One batch jumped up and kissed me on the nose, that BEing the 200+ from the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix where I visited during the Chihuly exhibit in late March 2009.
Into some of the BEautimous glass sculptures I blended some very bare trees I'd seen earlier that month while in Philadelphia. And then to bring it all together, a spread of desert blooms.
I went on, once I got started, finding several other ways to respond to the notion of flowers.
enJOY!!
