RAW

I finally did it! I shot in RAW and edited RAW! If you are a serious photographer, you are shooting in RAW. RAW files are much larger (about 4x the size of a jpeg) and are basically designed to make your editing better. Ted and I couldn't figure out for the longest time why my photoshop refused to open RAW files. After a lot of research and a lot of asked questions on the photography message boards that I visit, we found out that my camera is too new for the old Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plug-in in my version of Photoshop (CS3). So we downloaded the latest version of ACR from the Adobe website and it STILL wouldn't work in CS3. I THEN found out, that I would need a DNG converter to allow those files to open in CS3, but they would open just fine in CS4. Ted had gotten me CS4 a while back, but I didn't want to use it just yet because I like the familiar. CS3 is my comfy place. Anyway, I finally broke down and had Ted install the CS4 on my computer and I switched my in-camera settings to RAW & Jpeg (which takes the same photo simultaneously in both formats) (JUST IN CASE RAW didn't want to work again). I opened the first RAW file and IT WORKED!! Woohoo! Success! I then proceeded to follow a beautifully written RAW tutorial online with my two RAW photos that I opened in ACR and I was so pleased with the results! I am only just beginning, but I KNOW I am going to LOVE RAW!


So now for the story behind the photos. We have been on a mission to find Eliot some slippers. The first ones we bought him were just adorable! They were "paws" with 4 claws coming out of each slipper, but they were too big and fell right off his feet whenever he would try to walk. A few days later, I headed to Target where they had a cute blue pair, the ONLY pair. I knew they would be on the small side, but figured that they would last until Christmas and then we could ask someone to buy Eliot a new pair at that point in a bigger size (the paws probably won't fit for another 5-6 months maybe). After two days of wearing the blue slippers, I realized that, in fact, they really were too small. Today, we tried Walmart (no luck) and finally Marshalls where they had lots of options for girls slippers, but only one option for boys. They were an adorable pair of Stride Right dinosaur slippers. I thought that they might be a little big, but decided to put them on Eliot's feet right there in the store to see. I put them on and then told him to go for a walk. I put him down and then walked away (a few aisles away). They didn't fall off! They seemed to fit just fine! Score!

Just then, a lady probably in her 60's saw Eliot walking in his new slippers and she said "OH, aren't you just the cutest thing I have ever seen?!" She then looked to Ted and I and continued "...and I have 7 grandkids and he is still the cutest I have ever seen!" So there you have it, Eliot actually IS the cutest ;)