Time suck... and some new photo editing skills

So today marks the end of my first week of "Project 365." What a major time investment! Sure, it's only "1" photo-a-day... but do you know how many photos it takes for me to be satisfied with that day's photo? Definitely more than one! And then there is the editing - very few photos are perfect before editing. More time invested... but I must say that so far the time invested is totally worth it. I love the photos I've taken so far and can't wait to look back on all 365 at the end of the year. But I guess that is getting a bit ahead of myself....

In the mean time, I have learned some new features of my photo editing software while working with the photos that I have been taking. One new effect I have finally learned how to do is a soft black border. Looks simple.. it is simple... but took forever for me to figure out. I currently use Paint Shop Pro 8 as my editing software which has more than met my needs to date (and is WAY cheaper than Adobe Photoshop), but the only frustrating thing about using this software is that everyone else on the planet seems to use Photoshop! So learning how to do new techniques is a bit challenging... not many resources on the web. But check out the borders I've started adding to my photos. Here is my 365 photo for today. I also hope to create a better watermark when I figure out how to do that... another day. :-)