Because I was challenged...

I'm not going to say who challenged me, or really that it was even a personal challenge.

All I'll say is that you DON'T have to be a professional to enjoy playing around with Photoshop.

Oh, and that you don't even have to have the expensive version to have some fun. These are all done with the FREE Photoshop LimitedEdition software.

So, on to the before's and after's. You don't have to like them the way I do...but I'm of course interested in what you DO like. So have at it. I had fun playing around with them anyway.

















Here is the before...

















And the after!

Now I'm sure that some will say that I 'popped' the green a little too much. But I kid you not, it was really that green! It just happened to be lower light than my camera likes under all that canopy.

Here is another.

















Before.

















And After.

So, I may have taken a bit more liberty with this one. I really wanted to see how much I could punch up the violet/blue. But look at how much sharper it is! (I did not use any kind of Unsharp Mask with this, it was all done with color balance, saturation, and brightness/contrast)

















Before.

















After.

Photoshop layers were utilized with this photo. So, there was a little more technique to it than just adjusting levels and color balance/saturation. But it was still done in less than half an hour. And if I were to actually print this out, I would probably bring the blue back down a little more. But I was trying to make a point...

Last one.
























Before.
























After.

Yep, I got a little more creative with this one. I don't know why I wanted to highlight the yellow dresses...but it seemed appropriate with the color balance a bit to the sepia side. I was having fun.

Which brings me to my point. You don't have to be a professional to use Photoshop. Obviously, in a professionals hands these would look even better. My photos turn out better than they would if I didn't go in and change a few things. Have fun with it people! Let the creativity show!

It's like a patch for my addiction...

I had posted a couple of days ago about a blog that Steph introduced me to. Last week I started reading the archives thinking "Well, when I get bored of this, I'll just stop reading." Problem was, I never stopped reading. I read through every back entry on that site. Yesterday was a dark day for me. I finally reached the end. No more posts. I think I cried a little.

So. To help soothe my addiction (I hope), I am borrowing the style that this post will be written in from PW. Granted, her photos are WAY better than mine...but you guys will just have to deal.

I'm sure that you (and by 'you' I mean the two people that still read this from time to time) have just been dying to know what I do on a day to day basis. So I'm going to satisfy your curiosity. All of you know about the "showing apartments" aspect of property management. Yesterday I focused on the other aspect of the company.
























One of the things my company does is rehab old historic buildings. This is one of two that we are currently be working on. It will have two very nice apartments in it soon.


















There's the tile that will be going in the kitchen and bathrooms.

























These front doors used to be yellow. Big Bird yellow. No joke.

























This is the kitchen. No really! Ok, it WILL be the kitchen once all the construction equipment is out, the floor is down, the cabinets are up, the appliances are...ok. You get the idea.


















This is a new bathroom layout for us. In the past, our bathrooms have all had a tub/shower combo. Like most standard apartments. In this particular apartment, we are trying out a separate shower and tub arrangement. (I just wish we had put a bigger tub in...I mean, if you're going to separate them the only reason to use the tub is for a bath right? That tub barely looks big enough for me!)

























Then I got distracted. LOOK! I can see my shutter move! Ok, actually, I was just checking to see that I wasn't getting too much dust on my lens. But when I turned the camera over, my finger hit the button. Oh so flattering. Hey, do I have anything in my nose? Guys? Hey guys?
















































This happens a lot at our construction sites. Not really sure why...

























And finally, here is the next building in progress. That whole front wall had to be torn down and re-built. Funny, as soon as I pulled my camera out all of the masons seemed to disappear. Weird.

So there you go. Don't you feel better now? Breath a sigh of relief and go about your day with renewed purpose. You're welcome.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another "A Brief Lesson In...".

Impossibly, irrevocably, unquestionably...Addicted

Thanks a lot Steph for introducing me to The Pioneer Woman. I seriously can't stop reading.

This woman is living my childhood dream. And it's not even fair, since it obviously wasn't her childhood dream.

Wow. Bitter much?

I'm sure many of you remember all of the career choices children used to wish for. My brothers wanted to be anything from Firemen, Professional Football Players, Astronauts, Archaeologists, and Loggers (remember, I grew up in Oregon).

I know that my parents wanted me to go into some sort of medical field. And I know that most little girls wanted to be things like nurses, teachers, doctors, or even lawyers. But as far as I can remember, there was only one option for me.

I wanted to be a Cowgirl. Seriously. I wanted to live and work on a ranch. Working cattle and riding the fences. I would even get out on my horse and imagine that I lived on a large ranch and had really important jobs to do. The dogs may have gotten tired of being herded and there was really only so much fence to ride and "check", but I kid you not, this continued into high school.

Stop laughing. I mean it. Don't make me hit you.

I really had no perspective on what an actual ranch hand's life was like. Just from what I would read in books. It was all so glamorous to me then. All horses and sunsets and hearty meals at the end of the day. The books don't cover the sweat, aching muscles, manure, and hard work. I mean, I had spent plenty of time around cattle to know that they were dirty, smelly beasts and that it would of course be work and not just a pleasure ride every day. But at that time, it was all a romantic idea.

So, you would think that now that I'm older, I would have abandoned this idea as a childish dream. I would know that my body probably couldn't handle it (at least at first), that it would be dirty and nasty and gross, and that it wouldn't be even close to that romantic idealized image from my childhood.

Guess what. I would still love to do it. If someone asked me what my dream life/house was, the first thing that comes to mind is a big ranch house situated in the middle of nowhere with an actual working ranch of some sort. Lots and lots of land. Without a neighbor in site.

Would I go crazy? Probably. Course...that's assuming I'm not already there...