I bet you read that blog title and thought it had something to do with some new toddler appropriate gadget. Think again. This time I am the one toying around. Lately, I have tried to couple what little (and I mean little!) knowledge I have of my camera, in addition to the smidgen of skills I have with photoshop, and using my children as my muse (does that need to be plural – as in “muses”?), I have been spending too much time behind the lens (and computer, but what else is new) . The only problem is that after tweaking and tuning, I am afraid the end result is more of just a plain old distorted photo then art – but I am having fun, and that’s all that really matters (until my kids are old enough to say, “what did you do to my face in this picture”). So bear with me, photos are bound to start appearing in various styles until I figure out what I like best. I am basically beefing up the color, trying to get some white balance (and adjusting skin tones), sharpening a bit and playing around with some fun actions that apply an assortment of effects. For example, remember the park pictures from last week. Here is what they look like now in their new and improved* (quite subjective to enduser’s opinion) state.

So remember this one?

Now it looks like this

Or this one?

Here’s the after “Ami toying” shot

Here is some more of my handiwork (you can compare with their “before” image two posts down)

There’s a good chance that in 6 months (or 6 years) I’ll look back and wonder what the heck I was doing here (you might already think that) – hopefully that’s just because I am that much better at this photo taking thing by then.