Telling a Story

I always feel words tell a good story. 

Then came a camera, the story gets better. 

After that, I realise a story gets better with an edited photograph. 

Hence Lightroom comes along. 

I like to learn some new skills from time to time, not just to complement my work, it is mostly to keep my mind active. Hopefully along the way, I would acquire enough skills to keep me busy when I retire. 

I am always on a look out for trial lessons before I commit to the product. And if it can be downloaded onto the Mac for the instant trial, that would be even better.

And I found Adobe's product trials! 

I frequent Adobe in the past for the PDF reader, that was about it until Adobe offers their products online only. And I found a haven of quality product trials that come with tutorials in their site. The trial runs for thirty days. And I found Lightroom here.

I have been looking around for a simple software to edit the photos for a while, and Lightroom is perfect. 

I can adjust the contrast, clarity, erase marks, change the tone of the photo and isolating a particular object in the photo easily. 

Fading off the background to monotone, the skin a bit too reddish? 

Adobe does not just provide free trials, they pair it with tutorials that you can watch and learn online. Lessons are broken up, and if you want to revisit any lesson, there is no hassle to re watch the entire tutorial.

The tulips on left and right are toned down, leaving the center tulip to be more vibrant.

The above samples are not great, but the idea is there. I think their trial library would keep me busy for a while!

My New Guy

Woohoo! Hubby got me an early birthday present!

We remember our wedding anniversaries (yes, it is plural), but we do not really celebrate in a big way. If we are in the same place, we would have a nice meal together, but no present. We do not celebrate V-Day, Christmas or New Year for the same matter. 

That is why birthday is big time important to me. Because I must have, and demand, a present from hubby, and more so after we are married. I know I am mean, but I want my present. It doesn't have to be expensive; it just need to be there so that I can be over-the-roof-happy for one day out of the 365 days. After a couple of lessons, I learnt to give bright, clear hint so that hubby knows what I fancy. 

So this is what hubby got for me, ta-da!

A new camera lens for my EOS 650D! 

I went for an introduction class at Canon Imaging Academy a couple of months ago, almost a year after I got 650D. The class was good; it helped to clear a lot of floating questions and let me use my camera a lot more efficiently and creatively. After the class, I asked the instructor for recommendation of inexpensive lens for a beginner, he recommended Canon EF 50mm F1.8 II to try as a prime lens. 

Check out the photos that I took with the new lens:

It is always nice to shoot citronella because they always smell so fresh!

See the ants? That was what I was aiming for, haha!

I love the creamy bokeh background in the first photo!

I realise I love shooting flowers and plants because they are mostly still and that gives me time to compose my shoot. I am trying to improve on my photography skill and I think prime lens would make me work harder by not allowing me to zoom in and out without moving around too much to compose the shoot. So this is my practising and homework lens :) 

I also wanted a prime lens also because eventually I want to learn how to do videography with my 650D. I am still so amazed with the camera's ability in low light environment! Probably I can finally make my low budget movie? Haha!

The present has made me very happy for days, and it would in the coming months and years :)

Thanks dear!