Time...

My Japanese exams are over and the school is on a break till next year. It's the perfect time for me to clear as much work as possible so that I work on some personal projects like cleaning my awfully messy room, getting to some of my photos and most importantly think about what I would like to do next.

Last year, I purchased the Adobe Creative Production Suite mostly because I needed it for work. The software I used the most was Premier Pro but I also own After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop etc but have barely used them. The software I most wanted to learn is Photoshop and after that After Effects.

Recently, the public library open a branch near my home and I took the opportunity to borrow some books. I borrowed mostly photoshop books for digital photographers because that's where my main interest lies.

Now that I have time, I think I should get back to picking up more digital skills. I made an important decision almost 3 years ago when I took a pay cut in exchange for greater flexibility in my work schedule. At that point in time, I wanted to do so much but I've got so distracted with work and life that I never reached my goals.

Lately, I've been thinking that it's time to make better use of the opportunities that have been gifted to me in life. Recently, two of my friends made brave life-changing career decisions and that made me think long and hard. I wanted something 3 years ago when I made my own big decision and I still can achieve what I had set out to do then, so there is no reason not to do it. Hence, aside from Japanese, my new goal is to become skilled in Photoshop and after that After Effects. Initially, when I first made a decision to learn Japanese seriously, I didn't realise just how much the experience will affect me. I was an obsessive student. =) And the best part about it was just how much I enjoyed it. Next year, I will not have so many hours of Japanese, so it's time to learn the skills I set out to learn 3 years ago. Maybe it's a little late but if I can be obssessive about Japanese, there is no reason why I can't be equally obssessive about digital art. =)

Anyway, the above is my first attempt at using channels to convert a colour photo to black and white. Previously, I'll use the photoshop default conversion which was always horrible but there are many far better ways to do it. This method makes use of channel mixing.

This photo was taken off a ship that was headed toward the lovely island of Miyajima in Hiroshima. I like the clouds in this photo very much, I think the sky is very dramatic and the reason why I picked this photo to convert to b&w was because I feel that shades of black and white will enhance the drama in the skies. Too much colour would be distracting.

Okies dokes, that's it from me for today. It's awfully late and I'll need to sleep.

Hope you enjoy the photo. Good night. =)