Hooked

After our whirlwind Scott Family Road Trip, I started doing some serious thinking about how much I really love this photography stuff. So much in fact that I'm giving a really long, hard look at possibly, maybe, hopefully trying to do something more seriously with it. As in, trying to become maybe, somehow, professional...some day. Sooner than later. Hopefully.

While in Yellowstone I spent about four hours chatting it up with the pros and heeded their advice regarding outdoor photography vs. indoor portrait shooting etc. I also met with another pro once back here in the PNW.

I've signed up for some advanced classes this summer. I've also joined a couple different photography forums where tips, advice and questions can be asked and answered, and pictures can be shared and critiqued. The pros in those forums have been giving me some great advice and pointers on what to do etc. Once of the biggest pieces of advice I've been getting from just about everyone I've spoken to is that I need to start by building a portfolio and to do that I need really honed photos. My photos are OK (the picture of the raindrops in the title of this post, I took in my front yard) but some need some post production, as in, I need software.

And so, this weekend after much careful consideration (and some more of my Craigslist selling prowess) we purchased some mid-level photography post-production software, and I am hooked. While I'm not a fan of the cutting out a person and pasting them in another picture kind of business, I am a fan of being able to boost saturation, tone etc in a picture that needs a little help.

And so I give you my first before and after, and please know that I am light-years from being happy with this, but I spent about 30 minutes with the software, playing around, and this is what I came up with.

Before:


After:


And now that I see them...I think the after shot is a little too light.

Yes? No?