Photoshop Actions, Overlays, and Textures for under Twenty-five Dollars

I keep seeing all these wonderful online ads about textures and lately, Photoshop Actions and Overlays that you can purchase and apply to your photographs to turn them into works of art. Due to cookies and other forms of internet magic, these ads keep following me around, teasing me and tempting me! The results shown in these ads look absolutely beautiful and the products seem like they'd be fun to learn. Until I see the price tag, that is. These products may or may not make my photos beautiful, but one thing for sure, they can be prohibitively expensive. So I want some certainty before I buy.

WOO HOO! I got a Star on YouPIC!

Some time ago, I posted an article about a great new social sharing site for photographers called YouPIC. I responded to their Facebook ad in January and visited their site. They had a spectacular photo featured on their front page and also made some pretty startling claims on that page, to wit:

• "Find high quality inspiration for your photography from millions of photographers"
• "Showcase your best shots and be rewarded with tremendous exposure, awards, and love"
• "Improve your photography dramatically ..."

Just by joining a site and uploading your photos? Even though I was a bit skeptical, I joined this online community, which is free and allows unlimited uploads.

On Armchair Photography and Other Vantage Points

I belong to a community of photographers at a site called YouPIC. Photographers on YouPIC take marvelous photos from all over the world. They rise early, they take their camera (and sometimes other gear) in hand, and they venture forth into the world to find that shot. They find wonderful vantage points and take photos of unbelievably beautiful places. And people. And animals. But I am a retired lady who lives in southern Tippecanoe County near Lafayette, Indiana. Let's face it - I'm more of a point-and-shoot photographer. I take pictures of everyday beauty as I go about my everyday life.

Thinking into this further, I realize that much that catches my eye is from a vantage point that is unattainable to the camera, for instance the driver's seat of a car speeding down the highway. Or at home from behind my screened, locked-against-the-wind (as much as against any intruders), plastic-wrapped window. Somehow when I pull the car over or step out of the house to get the shot, the image is different - because the vantage point has changed.

One evening a couple of weeks ago before sunset - the golden hour - I was quite happily resting in my favorite spot, my old rocker by a tall narrow window in the summer kitchen. I looked out the window at the view and saw my beautiful magnolia tree in bloom, with some of the petals starting to drop. The day had been cloudy but had cleared around sunset and the light was beautiful on the tree and that section of my yard. I spent a half hour or so quite contentedly taking photos of that scene. I opened the window and threw up the screen - the breeze was pleasant, really the first mild spring temperatures we'd had this year. After a while my kitties wandered into the yard and sat on a tree stump and in the grass to enjoy the peacefulness and serenity. So then the subject of my shutter-bugging changed. Afterwards it occurred to me that the reason I had not seen this view before was that we had sadly lost  a big old tree last summer in that section of the yard (ergo, the stump). It had been blocking the view. So these are probably the best shots I've ever gotten of the magnolia tree in the ten years I've been trying from various other vantage points outside!

Armchair Magnolia	Armchair Magnolia
Yard at Sunset from Back Window	Yard at Sunset from Back Window

I think I need to invent a new genre called Armchair Photography - vantage points for the rest of us! :)

Here's a photo I had during another armchair session just this evening during a beautiful golden hour!

And yet another later in the season during the early morning!

Happy shutter-bugging!

The Armchair Photographer (JuneBug)

Heads up on a Great New Social Sharing Site for Photographers - Introducing YouPic!

Hi, fellow photography afficionados! As per the title of this blog post, I wanted to alert you to a really, Really (REALLY) great new social sharing site for photographers called YouPic!

screen cap of YouPic website

Really!

What's so great about it? Well ... let's see:

• It's free
• It's unlimited
• It's run by photographers from Sweden. (I think.)
• It's sort of a cross between Facebook and YouTube, so everybody gets a home page and a "feed" page
• I get to see dozens of beautiful and inspiring photographs any time of day or night
• and it's gotten my photographs more of a global audience than ANY OTHER SITE EVER, and that includes my own photography site!

What's not to like?

Well, I could go on and on but to give you a better idea of what it's all about, here's what YouPic says about themselves:

• "YOU Inspired: Find high quality inspiration for your photography from millions of photographers."
• "YOU Admired: Showcase your best shots and be rewarded with tremendous exposure, awards, and love."
• "YOU Improved: Improve your photography dramatically with photography tips from peers and by following your progress"

Wow. What could you possibly have to lose? I know what you're thinking. Is it just hype or is all that really true? Well, ever since I uploaded my first photo (after responding to an ad that appeared on Facebook January 1, 2015), I've gotten 12,486 views, have been liked (favorited) 1,088 times, and have been shared (re-pic'd) 571 times. In only two months time! Plus, I've gotten to see, like, and comment on hundreds of fabulous photos in the categories of nature, landscape, black and white photography, street photography, portraiture, fine art photography, etc. from all over the world, in similar fashion as one would view or comment on Facebook entries. I feel like a world traveler without ever leaving home! :) 

Other participants at the site have been so generous and so kind. It helps, I think, that YouPic uses an award system (and a points system) to encourage people to interact. And the more you interact, the more photographers interact with you. Even as a hobbyist I'm not a great photographer, and I certainly don't have expensive or fancy equipment. But on YouPic really great photographers actually take the time to enjoy my photos! What photographer wouldn't like that? 

So, has my photography improved as they claim it will? Well, only time will tell, but I truly believe my photos will improve. For one thing, I can read what people say about their individual process, see what brands and types of cameras they use, and also see what camera settings they use to achieve a particular effect. Besides, I think it just helps to look lots of good photos from fellow enthusiasts - Other people's photos help you see the world in new ways, see things you've never noticed, and perhaps give more thought to how you want to fill your frame before you press the button.

Anyway ... you can tune into your favorite news channel and get all the bad news going on in the world. Or you can join YouPic and see all the beautiful photos coming in from all over the world. The choice is yours, but I think you know which one I'd recommend! Warning, though - just like bad news, beauty can be addictive!

:)

JuneBug

P.S. Here's a link to my YouPic home page. Come on over and have a look! Better yet, come on over and join us! Again, what do you have to lose?  (except possibly some time well-spent?) :)