Back To School??

So, for Christmas  this last year David got me Photoshop Elements.  I have always been interested in photography and wanted to learn more about editing.  I opened up Elements a few times, but really didn't know all that much about it.  I pinned a lot of tutorials to pinterest, but was so easily frustrated by them because I really didn't have a frame of reference for the program at all.  So, after about a month of fighting that losing battle I started to look into courses. UVU offered a community education course on the basics.  It was a good price, close by, and I thought the description of the course offered what I needed so I signed up.  It was back to school for a few hours twice a week for me!

I was a little hesitant about this because it was after all Community Ed.  I thought it would be filled with a bunch of retirees learning how to open up a picture.  Needless to say, my hypothesis was a little true.  My class was about 45% older "computer savvy" people (and by that I mean stuck in the floppy disc age, but still thinking they know what's going on), 50% moms, and 5% me.  Although it did move a little slow (and I felt slightly out of place), I still really really enjoyed it.  I was able to learn what the tools do and get a good base knowledge for what I want to know in the future :)

Here are a few things I learned to do:

Taking this picture.....

...to this picture of "Mr. Melonhead"

Fixing this scan (and kind of terrible quality picture)....

...to this better picture!

And this one I took a few weeks ago....

...Into this fun (and more flattering) picture!

^^^^Anyone notice one of the changes I made to the last one?  Haha, maybe a little vain and not the most "perfect" use of the tool.  But it was fun for me to think of this application and practice using it ;)

Also, I have to share this story because it is just too funny.  During my last semester (and even after graduating from BYU), I used to have this recurring dream that I completely forgot all semester about a class I had registered for and never attended. That would lead to me realizing months later that I got a big fat F on my transcript or couldn't graduate because it was a required course.  These dreams probably didn't go away for about a year.  During the first week of this Photoshop Elements course I was thinking about how I was so excited for my next class and wondering what we would learn next.  I thought about that for a while and then realized that I had completely missed my "next class"!  My "next class" was actually the night before and I had completely forgot about it until noon of the next day.  Too funny.  Good thing my recurring dream came true about a community ed class and not the real thing ;)

Love,
Kristy Jane