I'm Back - but I'm not feeling better
JoeUser Forums
Morning one and all, I hope everyone feels a little better than I do.
Chez Smudger has again been a place of illness. I could well imagine, in times past, the local populous being somewhat "wary" of our abode. It certainly seems that we get more than our fair share of "Bugs, Virus and Plague". Its not funny waking up, ready for work after a couple of days off; to find the next 48 hours a mixture of darkness and light (and the light hurt !! I shan't add the rest as it could well put you off your breakfast (or Dinner/ or Supper - delete as appropriate - 
).
Needless to say, I'm still NOT 100% (nor am i likely to be - EVER, but that's another story that has already been told to some extent)
This "Blogging" morning is also, somewhat , of a trial. My Xanaga site (Smudgersworld- but ain't they all
) keeps "disconnecting" ( that's the polite way to put it).
Anyway, upwards and onwards:
This last week, I have received my yearly Mobile Phone upgrade, and I'm a very happy bunny.
I must admit, I'm normally a Nokia Man, but the lady on the O2 helpline was so helpful and constructive , that she persuaded me to try the Motorola V547 (left)
It was even better when she said I could have it, effectively, on seven days trail - not that it's going back, its fantastic.
Nokia's are still a very good piece of kit.
Last Years O2 X2 was swapped with Laura's phone (she loves it, I hate it - it's far to small) , but I don't think that will happen this year.
Here are some of the pictures that I taken as "test" shots with the new Nikon. I know they are not "David Bailey" standard, but I'm pretty happy for now, seeing as I'm still working my way back into photography.
Quite "Arty" for me, I tend to like to take what I can see, but as I said earlier, they will do.
The other thing I've been doing in the 24 hours ( Cathy wouldn't let me do anything more useful -“ like the Ironing, Gardening, Cleaning and the like. That said - I did keep "wobbling") is trying to fathom out Adobe Elements 3, which treated myself to a month or two ago, but never really used it. The automatic features sort of work, but that's just not enough, I want manual control (where have we heard that one before ????).
So I put my hand in my pocket, went onto Amazon.co.uk, and brought a couple of Camera Books. One as OK (40 Tips for Digital Processing), but the really good book is "The photoshop elements3 book for digital photographers" by Scott Kelby. It's one of those, "Step by Step", a spade is a spade, type books. It doesn't waste time telling you how to use your Camera and then take the picture to use in Elements, it just tells you how to use elements. And, on top of all that, you can use it as a "jump to the right page" type book. If you want to adjust a landscape, you find that page and ignore the rest. You want to resize an image, you jump to that page. Its pretty good.
<Please note: the last "Elements" link is to a support site, showing tutorials and the like, this first link goes to Adobe - just thought you would like to know>