
Every tax season, I struggle with a lack of time for creative projects. I usually only find an hour or two here and there for artistic endeavors, which doesn't work well with many of the projects I like to work on. By the time I get out my supplies and tools, it's time to do some chores or go to the office or get to bed.

I find that music is a great alternative creative outlet for these times. I can just sit down with an instrument and practice whenever I have a free moment. I started out this tax season playing my guitar, but I had an urge to try something new, so I stopped by Artichoke Music on my way home from work one day to pick up a new buddy.

I've also had it in my head for a while that I'd like to work on more self-portraits. I bought a great timer shutter release for my camera a few weeks ago and just had to dig it out to play. (I bought mine from Ebay, though, and it came with a clip to attach it to my tripod. I didn't have any luck finding a link for an identical item, but I'd recommend shopping around a bit.)
In addition, I just had to snag the A Beautiful Mess action set to help me with photo editing. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been trying to learn more about editing digital photos, and these actions have been wonderful for that. Since you can see every step that the actions do to your photo, it's easy to pick up some new tricks for altering your images. I've already learned about quite a few Photoshop tools I didn't even know existed.

I had a lot of fun working on these self-portraits, and I already have so many ideas for more. It's wonderful having a willing model at my disposal!

I tried involving a less-than-willing model in this photo set, but it devolved quickly. I guess I'll just have to practice more!