Photoshop Headache

I've only had my camera for a little over a week now, and I've been obsessive with my approach in how to shoot manually. It's going to take a lot more practice to take photos with a good white balance, exposure, accurate focusing, etc. There's a ton of stuff I want to know, and I'm that type of person who wants to know NOW! If I can't figure it out you can bet my nose is gonna be glued to the monitor for the next hour or more learning from different photography forums and tutorials, and then I'll go out and test whatever I just read. Yea, I'm intense like that.

Yesterday Mark and I went to Half Moon Bay to try and get some trendy colorful beach photos. Um, FAIL! First off, why is it always foggy up here? Secondly, I had way too many overexposed photos, and when I finally got decent photos they weren't as crisp as I wanted. So I come home pretty disappointed and thinking I suck at life. I do some more research, and one thing leads to the next - I'm now in about 10 different Photoshop forums three exposure tutorials learning how to turn my skies bluer, add clouds, make the water more clear, add a limb to my dog... it goes on and on. At this point my eyes are crossing, and I come to the conclusion that maybe I don't suck at life just yet. Sure I've got a ton to learn about post processing and taking a good photo, but knowing that even the greatest photographers use post processing on EVERYTHING makes me feel a tad bit better.

So instead of posting hazy, cloudless, gray beaches, here are a couple photos I took of Saka enjoying the salty air and sunbathing on the soft sand.