Burning the Midnight Oil

It's officially one week until the big day and I'm in the midst of knocking out the last of my Operation 30 items.  For anyone who is actually questioning whether or not I'll get them all done, you obviously don't know me well enough to know that failure is not an option.  All 30 will be completed by May 8, 2012!

And in case you're worried, I knocked off one more tonight. 

#30.  Learn Photoshop - check!

As some background on this one, I've had Photoshop on my computer for about four years and until now had only scratched the surface in utilizing it's full capabilities.  Frankly, I found it to be a little intimidating...layers, vectors, burn tools, oh my.  Where should I even start?  So when I set about tackling this one, I had to have a strategy...

Well, a loose strategy anyway.  I started by looking to the internet for inspiration on projects I could mimic.   (My co-workers were extremely helpful in pointing me to some good spots!)  I loved perusing sites like fark.com who has a Photoshop challenge everyday where people submit their alteration or caption for a given photo.  I was also introduced to the concept of a meme, which it turns out I was already quite familiar with but did not know it was called such.  

Help for the unfamiliar, meme is defined as:

1. An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.
2. An image, video, etc. that is passed electronically from one Internet user to another.

So if you're familiar with the soccer hooligan, Star Wars kid, philosoraptor, or the Rebecca Black video Friday, then you know memes.  Personally, I found the below meme to be hilarious and inspiring...

Perhaps it's the engi-nerd in me that thinks it's laugh out loud funny, while others just smile and perhaps think I'm weird for still laughing about it even as I type this.  :-)

With sufficient internet inspiration, it was time to watch some Photoshop tutorials to learn the in's and out's of the program.  I'm extremely grateful to TutorVid.com for providing free, comprehensive yet short, easy to understand video tutorials where I was able to follow along and mimic the basic skills to begin my Photoshop journey.  I had decided long ago that I wasn't going to take a formal class to learn due to the cost ($500+!), especially after seeing the free content online and particularly on YouTube.  (As a side note...It's still somewhat amazing to me that literally anything I want to know or learn to do is at my fingertips, as I simply need to Google it on my laptop, iPad or Android phone.)  

In total, I probably spent 1-2 hours watching tutorials and learning, and another 2 hours or so having fun with my pictures which I've included here in the order I created them... 

My first attempt with texture - a dried mud pattern.  Me before my hot air balloon adventure!

Some continued reinforcement for work and home from one of my favorite memes (who I originally saw in London on a cable advertisement).  So far, so good!  

Some experimentation with one of my favorite pictures from the Bud Light cruise.  In case you can't tell, that's me in black and white doing a Bo'z Up stance while the rest is left in color with noise and a few other effects on saturation and curves.  

I realized I hadn't mentioned my boys in any blog activities yet, so I had to find a way to include them.  Here's Preston and Hunter a few years ago, apparently watching me sky dive.  :-) 

This is just a ridiculous merging of two ridiculous images.  I think of it as me right now - super excited about learning Photoshop and going to the Kentucky Derby this weekend!  

My goal of going to bed earlier (before 11:30pm) isn't working out so well this week.  I was having so much fun in Photoshop that I had to force myself to stop.  And honestly, I can't wait to do more!  ...later, of course.  It's 1am and past my bed time.  (Are 30 year olds supposed to stay up this late?)  

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