Photoshoppy Snob

I desperately need to upgrade my version of Photoshop. Right now I'm working with Elements 7, which is a slight downgrade from the CS2 I had on my old computer. Unfortunately, according to my dad, CS2 doesn't work on Vista. Although, he said way back in June that he would help me upgrade from CS2 to CS4, because Elements really doesn't work with what I use Photoshop for, but there hasn't been time. I use Photoshop to draw and paint, and the Creative Suite versions are amazing for that. Maybe not as amazing as an actual program that was meant to paint with, like Corel Painter or something, but it works for me. It's very easy to customize brushes and I feel like the brush strokes go smoother and I can do things manually more easily. Elements is made for people who want to quickly edit zits out of their photos, or make themselves look tanner, or add weird/cool effects without effort. That's nice and all, but that's not what I do in Photoshop. Recently (as in an hour ago), I've had a creative upsurge and started painting again, after months of not having any ideas, but the process is brutally frustrating. I feel like the program is designed to do things the quick and easy way instead of what I percieve as the "right" way. It doesn't even have blend modes!

I feel like I've been having all kinds of creative ideas building up inside me, but I haven't had the time or the proper means to create them. Not just drawings and paintings, but videos too. (I use Premeire Elements 7 for video editing, and there are some annoying "quick and easy" things about that too, but I was used to Elements 2 on my old computer, so really that's an upgrade, even after my experience with Final Cut at school). With my techie gig at Wizard of Oz, I just haven't had any time to film videos, or when I have days off, I'm so drained from the weekends that I don't feel like getting pretty and filming myself.

Bleh, it's just really frustrating. On the bright side, there's only one weekend left of the show, and then I get paid and can buy myself a nice new video camera, which I can use to film all those videos that I will have time for, especially once my sister starts school and my parents both have work (which I'm hoping will happen on at least some days before I move). There is a light at the end of the tunnel!