So I’ve figured out my technical difficulty. Though I’ve loaded plenty of photos from my point n shoot already, for some reason my latest photos just wouldn’t upload. It was like WordPress was giving me a blank stare. No movement. I bothered to look at the file size and my photos are waaaay too large (in the 4 MB range, rather than a handful of kb like they should be). So I need to figure out how to re-size them without messing them up, as per goal # 2. “Take better pictures with a real camera.” So I finally opened the Adobe Photoshop Elements program and installed it, because goal # 3. “Learn to use Photoshop Elements program” can’t be accomplished unless I take it out of the box.
I used the Help feature to see what I needed to do to fix my photos. It gave me this:
If you’re preparing images for the web, it’s useful to specify image size in terms of the pixel dimensions. In the Editor, choose Image > Resize > Image Size. Select Resample Image, and choose an interpolation method: Nearest Neighbor Fast, but less precise. This method is recommended for use with illustrations containing edges that are not anti-aliased, to preserve hard edges and produce a smaller file. However, this method can create jagged edges, which become apparent when distorting or scaling an image or performing multiple manipulations on a selection. Bilinear Medium-quality. Bicubic Slow, but more precise, resulting in the smoothest tonal gradations. Bicubic Smoother Use when you’re enlarging images. Bicubic Sharper Use when you’re reducing the size of an image. This method maintains the detail in a resampled image. It may, however, oversharpen some areas of an image. In this case, try using Bicubic. To maintain the current aspect ratio, select Constrain Proportions. This option automatically updates the width as you change the height, and vice versa. In Pixel Dimensions, enter values for Width and Height. To enter values as percentages of the current dimensions, choose Percent as the unit of measurement. The new file size of the image appears next to Pixel Dimensions, with the old file size in parentheses.
I hope you didn’t read all that, and maybe if you did it makes perfect sense to you, but it was a little disconcerting for me.
Actually I think all of my goals are either scary, intimidating, or even unpleasant in some way. Like the running.
Yeah, that’s totally what I’m like right now. Actually what I feel like when I run is also the bottom picture. The top picture is what I imagine in my head to keep me going. I confess, I haven’t been running that much. Like I took a month off and ran on Nov 21 and have not run since. I’ve got my shoes packed, so I’ll be running tonight. (Looks like I’m a Monday runner – I start out the week well and then do nothing!)
My goals are still in the toddler stage too. I’d call installing Photoshop one baby step. The next will be trying to muster the patience to do a tutorial, followed by jumping into the basic photo editing. Baby steps, baby steps.
the yellow cottage 