The Simple Photographer

IT Guy and I woke up Saturday morning on the shore of Lake Fort Phantom Hill near Abilene.

It wasn’t a surprise. We’d traveled five hours the day before to get there. Going anyplace in Texas takes a while.

The dogs got us up at their regular time, and, for once, I was happy about it. The sunrise was lovely, so I grabbed my camera and walked from our RV to the water’s edge.

Much to my delight, the unexpected happened. Four ducks swam out of the undergrowth at my feet. Immediately I started shooting with my little camera, letting it sort out apertures and focuses on its own. I didn’t even take the time to get my horizon line straight. Camera stealth and speed meant I would get the ducks in my shots. If I had to quickly set dials and adjust my stance for the horizon, the ducks would have been long gone.

Back inside at my laptop, I opened each shot in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. If you have Microsoft Word, you probably have that software already installed on your computer. It’s a powerful tool for the Simple Photographer.

First, I clicked on Edit Pictures. This brings up a toolbar on the right. I then clicked on Auto Correct which brought the photo back to the color intensity of the original sunrise.

Next I clicked on Rotate and Flip, where I turned the photo from a sideways picture to an up-and-down one. While there, I used Rotate by Degree to straighten out my horizon line. Boy, did it need it. I then cropped the photo with the Crop tool to make the picture rectangular again. Back I went to Edit Pictures where I resized my photo to a small web picture for easier opening on your website.

I did all that with a photo tool from Microsoft that I already had. Pretty neat, huh?

I believe in keeping photography simple. I owned a one-hour photo and portrait studio for eight years; and believe me, things back then weren't as simple as they are now. God bless Bill Gates!