I know some seriously talented photographers. I do not consider myself all that talented when it comes to photography. But I am learning ways to improve.

My current camera is a Sony Cyber-shot with a 35x Optical Zoom and 20.1 mega pixels. The lens is what it is and cannot be changed out. We picked it up on our trip to Colorado several years ago when the camera I had packed vanished with the luggage it was in. Overall, I’ve been pretty happy with it… but since I started on the bird painting project I have been studying up a little on what it would take it get a better quality camera that would allow me to take sharp photos from further away from the subject (i.e. my wildlife buddies) and with a switch of a lens, something that would let me get those really up close photos of flowers, bugs and micro fauna.

Photoshop has helped. I can crop, enhance and edit photos that are less then what I need for painting. In some cases, I may even have produced photos that are art-worthy themselves. In any case, I still want to use them as reference photos and using either pastel or oil paint, produce something completely unique.

I am now actually learning more about Photoshop. I signed up for this class in Craftsy: Essential Guide to Photoshop by Skott Chandler .  

I will probably go ahead over the next few months and take additional Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC classes in Craftsy since I splurged at the beginning of the year on their unlimited program.

I also purchased Adobe Photoshop CC for dummies by Peter Bauer. It arrived yesterday and I’m already in over my head.

But I’m having fun. I’ve learned how to get rid of distracting elements in my photos and improve those which were over exposed or under exposed.

For example, I was able to go from this….

to this…

To me, it is a much more compelling picture.