piper

Just making myself a new signature and was wondering what size people make them (image size and file size)? I made it at a much larger size to make it easier to see what I was doing then reduced it afterwards and it went all pixelated and horrible Any ideas on the best way to reduce them?? edit Ignore that - think I worked it out :rolleyes:

Tracey, She is looking great for such a young pup. Excellent that you can get conformation and working ability all in 1 package You must be thrilled.

That would bem e and is why Piper has her CD took 3 years to get after her first leg cos I only did 1 or 2 trials a year) , is trained for CDX but I'm not interested in actually getting it, her AD and some of her ADX, her JD and some of her JDX. The only thing I have kept working at in regards to competing is herding where we are close to an intermediate title and aim to continue. For some reason that I can't put the fimger on I find herding different. Other that herding I just prefer to train.

I feed a raw diet and my guys frequently get a meal of raw liver so I would say that the liquid it is cooked in should be fine.

I also always use the highest setting. If I get a great picture and want to do something with it I don't want to find it was a reduced quality image. However if I want to use a picture for a wepage or somethng I can always reduce their size. Once I transfer them from the camera I do a first cull then leave them for a few days usually and go back and look again. It is amazing how a couple of days can change your mind about something. Anything I am not sure about I keep - photoshop can always help it if I decide I want to play with it ;) When I've done the second cull I then transfer them to my external hard drive for stoarge there and get rid of them from my computer.

Hmm not sure - I wasn't really in a hurry or needing to train them for any reason so didn't pay super close attention to the time frame. It wasn't that long though I don't think. Piper was crate trained from a pup but as I just mentioned she didn't cope with the intensive. But I really do feel that in hindsight I shouldn't have gone away with her first. We had been away and been to some herding and agility training days. When she wasn't crated she was having a great time and I think she was way too high when we got there to cope with the huge hours she had to be crated, combined with the fact that she had already spent substantial hours in it or the back of the car over the preceeding days. And as Ness will attest, Piper is NOT a laid back border collie so her age and general activty level was probably another contributing factor. I think she had 1 really bad day and then they moved her crate in the crating area and she settled. When left in her own crate in my room for meals and things she was fine. It is a big thing for the dogs - around 70 of them crated in close proximity to each other and for long hours. Definitely make ure you get them used to the crate being covered as covering them in the crating area really helped settle many dogs and 1 of the lecturers ended up doing a shopping run to buy sheets to go over crates for those who had not brought something to cover them with.

lol I'm sure she will be fine. When I did it, not many dogs were reuqired for the 2nd inensive but those that were "invited" back (Piper wasn't - she wasa thorough pest while we were at the first 1 inspite of having been crate trained - but I put that down to the fact we had already been away and her mostly in the crate for about 4 or 5 days befoe we got there so she was fed up, and a just over 12 month old BC that needed more exercise than she got) were allowed to be on mats in the lecture theatre rather than crated. SO if she can get through the first 1 she can settle at your feet for the 2nd 1 If they still do it that way of course.

Good luck with insructors course. I really enjoyed it when I did it. For crate training my 2 older boys I started off leaving it open and feeding in there with the door open, then went to shutting it while eating but reopening before they finished it. Then to leaving it shut until just after they had finished eating. I also left it setup all the time and open and available to her. At about the time I was able to leave it shut until after finishing dinner Reagan started using it himself - putting himself in it for short periods which I rewarded when I saw it occur. From there I went to putting go in on cue and then cueing them to go in at other times of the day, closing the door and dropping a reward in. Next step was a stuffed kong or bone or something that would keep them occupied for awhile and gradually increasing the time that it was left shut after they finished. At that stage I was using a wire collapsible crate. I now also have a vai kennel and find that they all prefer that as it is darker. In terms of flying them - the type of crate allowed depends on who you fly with. Unless Qantas have changed their rules they will fly a collapisble crate (just cable tie the door closed and also around the top and ends to preent it collapsing) however Virgn Blue will not fly anystyl of crate that is not held together with screws as a friend and I found last year. She had something similat to a vari kennel and we assumed as this was not collapsible tat it would be acceptable. We left Adelaide no problem but when we got to Sydney to pick up the dogs were told they would ot fly that crate again as it was held together with plastic clip locks and they must be bolted or screwed together. So I would check with the airlines before choosing a crate.

I'll second that - I got mine on Ebay for a bit less than that (I think) and use it with Borders and it does an excellent job. Bathing is SO much quicker and easier now and their coats finish off much better IMO

Stepping out...

Cowboy:

Yes the cards and water skiing are excellent. 2tollers the tutorials are excellent. So far I have been doing the 1s from this page http://photoshopessentials.com/ They haven't taken me long at all. I just had a go at the 1 on blending images and am really happy with how this turned out given it was a first attempt. I have since had a play with the other 1 and found by changing the layer transparencies it looks more effective.

I just had a play at 1 of the tutorials posted. I tried filling a photo with smaller pictures. I think I should have used different pictures but it was fun to learn something new I'm looking forward to trying some differnt images with this effect now. Thanks for the tutorial links! ;)

Here is tonights effort. This guy kept swooping Piper at the beach today and I managed to get a pic as it went over. I didn't realise that its beak was open at te time and when I did I just ad to do this to it :D

Thanks Harminee. I just tried playing with 1 of a BC pup at about 10 weeks of age and gave in. My eyes are too tired for that fine coat going everywhere!

My effort for tonight. I decided to start fidling and playing with adjustments that I don't normally touch. I used the channel mixer to change the colouring of the picture and then stuffed around with applying filters. I haven't added a lighting effect before and had fun trying out the different lights and moving them around, they can really change the look of a picture.

Here's 1 from the collection Harminee uploaded earlier. Thanks Harminee :rolleyes: and whoever sent the pic in the first place.

Nah that's ok. I looked and thought hmm some of those photos are awfully familiar. lol

Well done. You and I were on same wave length I was just about to upload mine to photobucket Complete with name n script font and same location. lol Only difference was the frame.

Congratulations Tracey and crew! It sounds like it was a wonderful weekend fo you. 1 day Piper and I will get to QLD to tril with you...

Thanks heaps. Going looking now...

Oooh very nice! SO do share, were did you find the lovely backgrounds?? Also anyone know of any good places to download brushes and gradients etc for PS7? I kep doing searches but am not having much luck

Very nice! I don't know how you do so well around all of that fur. I get too impatient with it, lol. Although I have found that using the quick mask with a soft edge brush gives a reasonable result without too much fuss.

Another of my Singapore photos - this guy was jumping out of the water to catch his lunch. I need to try and learn some new tricks. Should find some good pictures and have a go at merging.

Playing with photoshop gets very addictive, especially when it is too cold to go out and do anything else. Here is 1 of today's efforts. Jessi - playing at being a very cool beagle :D The bonus of beagles over border collies is they are way more tolerant when it comes to letting you do stupid things to them!