Three Images Made Into One

So I had to do this assignment for my DII class. I'm not that great with Photoshop [I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that a million times throughout my blog already], but I was really excited that I actually remembered how to do this one task! I learned how to do it back in the Fall during the Photoshop short course I took, and I never used it outside of that course. I was just really proud of myself for remembering how to do it.

Now this is kind of rough, I'll admit. However, I'm happy with the outcome.

[Click on images to enlarge.]
Image One:


Image Two:


Image Three:



Final Image:


Again, I know it's rough. But I'm so excited that I know how to do this still and I plan on using it more often just for fun!

My Town

For a recent assignment for my Digital Image Illustration class, I had to do a project called "My Town". The assignment called for me to go out in the area in which I live, and try to portray the town the best way I could. Being that we live right outside Camp Lejeune [it takes less than five minutes from our house to the closest gate], I decided to go with the military theme [naturally]. I went around Camp Lejeune and Jacksonville, and photographed as many military-related things as possible - buildings, signs, memorials, etc. It was a lot of fun because I had never even seen some of the places and things before I had to do this assignment.

Here are some of the images I submitted in the assignment.

[Click images to enlarge.]

School has been...

...GREAT! I am almost finished with my first calendar year of school, and I am really excited about that! I have been working so hard the last year to do my absolute best in all of my classes. There have been a few classes that I absolutely disliked [one even close to hating], and there have been classes that I did not want to end because I loved them so much!! I love going to school for photography! I like learning things that just any random person on the street doesn't know, unless they did some serious "digging" and research on. I used to think I knew a lot about my camera, how a camera works, editing photos, etc. But I have learned that it doesn't matter how long and how many times you've read the manual of your camera, you aren't going to really know a whole lot about it; it doesn't matter how many hours you've spent editing photos and making photos look "good" because you have to learn what looks and is right; it doesn't matter what kind of camera you have if you don't know how to use it properly and continue shooting in AUTO; and there are so many other things that I have learned. I'm happy that I'm not just another person that went to the store, bought a camera, and call myself a photographer. If you know me, you know that I don't call myself a photographer now, even though I know a whole lot more than the people that have just picked up a camera and call themselves photographers when they have no photography experience at all - I am just a photography student right now. And you know what, I feel better by calling myself a photography student because I know that there is still more for me to learn before I can call myself a photographer. Yeah, I take photos for people, but I have yet to accept any money because it's all just a learning experience for me right now. Maybe in a little while I'll start accepting money, but I want to learn more before I start charging people.

Right now, I am currently taking a math class and Digital Image Illustration. Math is super easy because it's Algebra and I rock at Algebra! The Digital Image Illustration class is pretty cool! I'm learning a whole lot about Photoshop, and it's making me more comfortable with the program [but I still prefer to use Adobe Lightroom when editing because it's a FANTASTIC program and much quicker to use]. I have a certificate saying I passed a Photoshop course [simple tasks in the program, really], but even after taking that class, I wasn't very comfortable with Photoshop. I like to learn the more advanced stuff in programs, and this Digital Image Illustration class is teaching some advanced tasks. I love it! Here's just one example of something I learned to do in the class:

Photo One:

Photo Two:

And this is what I came up with in the end:


It was a bit tricky, and a little tough and frustrating at times, to get my ending image. But in the end, I'm happy with the results and I love that I now know how to do that! I honestly couldn't explain it to someone if my life depended on it, but I can whip out an image like that without any problems now. For the more advanced stuff, I like Photoshop; but for the routine editing, I prefer Lightroom because it's much quicker for me to edit photos.

I am now going to have to go through some of my past assignments and random photo outings of mine, and pick out with photos I would like to post in another blog entry.