|
We are just a couple of Aussie women in our early 50’s who have taken a great interest in the field of Graphics and have decided to start a home-based business that came about from wondering what to do with all the photos we have taken and the “artwork” we have created.
Our website will also contain links to informative, interesting and useful websites that have aided us in some form or another to get us this far
Read on if you wish to know the long version of how we got here.
In my late 40’s I had damaged cartilage removed from my right knee that made me start to wonder what I was going to be like when I retired. I didn’t like the images that popped into my head so I began to explore interests that I could take up to ease any further damage and get me through the rest of my life with as much mobility as possible. It wasn’t until I found an old photo, all creased and torn and decided to attempt to restore it that I found what I was looking for. The photo was of myself of about 4 or 5 yrs of age all dressed up in my miniature debutante dress.
So I began “fiddling” around in editing programs to teach myself how to restore the photol, I also went on the net to find tutorials on different aspects of each program. Whilst attempting to follow “instructions” I ended up with something completely different to what I was supposed to be learning, I could read what I was supposed to be doing but putting it into practice didn’t quite work out the same so I’d just veer off onto another tangent with the “wonder what this does” action.
After awhile and having more files in my recycle bin and wearing the “edit-undo” procedure out I decided I’d better find another way to learn.
Best thing I ever did, I found a site where I could try video tutorials on learning for less than AU$5.00 for a 30 day period and if I liked the tutorials I could continue to access them for a monthly fee until I decided to cancel my membership. Well I knew within the first day that this was for me it was so much easier for me to see in action and follow, it wasn’t long before I became very pleased with what I had done to the photo. By the end of the first week I had decided to get all my families photo’s from my parents home, scan them to my PC, work on them and make a slideshow DVD. That was in March 2007.
As I learnt a certain tutorial I would go practice it on a photo, once I had done the tutorial I would continue with that photo adding other aspects from another tutorial, then save my creation. In the meantime I had bought a Canon Powershot S3 IS camera to take photos to work on, stuck it on auto and off I went. Oops not too many good ones, most of them didn’t look as good as I was seeing, better read on how to use the camera. As I began to understand my camera the good photo’s began to outweigh the bad ones and now I had a lot of photo’s as well as my own “artwork”.
I started to wonder what I was going to do with all these “creations” and photos I had, especially once friends would drop in and go "wow "or "cool pic" or "that’s great Polly". “ Hmmm maybe I have something here” I thought to myself, and so I decided to start a home-based business making cards, printing and framing photos and selling them as well as photo restoration. Hmmm problem, I live in a small town, I would need to find another way to market my business , so on the net I go again and here we are.
Whilst doing all this a friend of mine was in the same predicament and became interested in what I was doing. “She” would often call in as I was clicking away in my “homemade” studio on a scene of objects. and make some suggestions about the arrangement I had come up with, I go “oh yeah I would never have thought that”. So it became that “she” would arrange a “scene” I’d take the photo and “she” became the “Gal” part of Polly-Gal Creative Designs and went out and bought a camera, the next model up from mine. | 
