It was fun today. I took a lot of photos and although most of them are "tourist" shots, I decided to post some.

Snakes...I like my pets to be warm and fluffy.

A raccoon. Poor thing was trying to get some goodies :)

A suricate (?) behind a glass (reflection!). I don't think he/she enjoys life there..

This tiger was walking back-and-forth. He/she was also quite unhappy-looking :/

My friend, Helena, and the famous Tallinn "ZOO" sign/letter
near the entrance.

This iguana had the cutest expressions. Unexpected, really.

Artsy and flowy fish.

And some music.

*Download* Photoshop resources: Pack of 9 curves

http://www.mediafire.com/?tuqx66lg0pa7swv

Please bear in mind that I mostly use these curves for photos of nature (and that's really what they were designed for). I also tend to use a mixture of curves (23% of x; 33% of y etc), I'll never rely on the effect of just one curve (plus there are other wonderful features in PS as well).
I know most people would prefer to have curves that would look good on every photo, but unfortunately that's not possible in reality.

Also, sorry for the names, they were a last-minute thing. My curves are usually named "isdof8ufsdk", or something like that :P 

My comments on how/where:

Greens - Adds a lot of contrast + green/yellow tint.

Light breeze - Adds a blue tint and creates a softer and lighter feel. Does best with lighter images. This image was processed with a mixture of light breeze curve and a bit of something else (which I can't remember).

Miami - Very yellow/orange. I use it in moderation to add warmth to some images. It's good if you want to enhance/create a sunny photo.

For nature - Ah, a tricky one! If you have a yellow/green looking photo of grass etc, this is the one to bring out interesting colors in your shot. However, wood/dirt/brown things will look extremely purple...so that makes this curve less versatile.

Old times - I haven't really encountered a photo that didn't look the part after using this curve (no guarantees, though, very dark images are always questionable).
The result? Slightly yellow/green older-looking colors. Basically a niche preset, useful if you're into the vintage-retro stuff.

June - Not the best for very "crowded" photos. The sample image covers the basic look that this should be good for.

July - Sweet, bright and wonderful. Slightly over the top contrast/brightness, doesn't alter the colors much.

August - Bright, vivid and happy colors. Use in moderation, 100% full on might be a bit too
much!

Dream - Very bright and simple colors. It can be used on darker images but it can also look good with lighter ones to create a pure, washed out look.

Nature & mobile shots

Some photos that I've taken in the past month or two, nothing too exciting unfortunately. I'm thinking of doing a week-long photography challenge (in order to improve my rusty skills), taking photos of something every day. I might even come up with a theme for each day ("6 different birds, doves don't count"; "Beaches/doors/windows of Tallinn" etc)...but that's still a huge *maybe*.

I have to admit, these past 2 weeks have been lazy, UEFA Euro 2012 (can you believe that?! They actually had to pause the game because of a thunderstorm, I've never seen that done before) is keeping me indoors in the evenings. "Hmm, it's a lovely evening, I should go and take photos of the sunset...wait, what's that? Russia is playing against *random country*? I guess no sunset today!"

And about those curves I promised! I hope to upload 2 packs of curves in 3 days, I've been looking for before photos and writing down my thoughts/suggestions for using these curves.

The bog of Pääsküla. I could hear snakes moving around in the tall grass..
which made me pretty nervous because I'm a huge chicken.
I could never make it in Australia. I like nature, but a live snake is just
too much nature :D
Also, ticks. Small (hard to notice) and deadly. 

The first daisy.

And the second one.

Chives or murulauk in Estonian.

The cat without a home. It's a photo from autumn of 2011, I posted a similar photo of her back
then as well (and it wasn't that nice because I had some weird Photoshop-dream of her in my
mind that I failed to execute properly).

And now some fun images I've taken with my phone. The first one (starting from the left) was a
weird dummy (the head appeared to be a kids' ball) in Laagri Rimi. It also had a name tag: "Jüri"
The second one was a t-shirt in New Yorker. A chihuahua-Jackson? I have no words.
The third one was in a thrift store in Rapla. Do I get a penguin-vibe? The purpose of this...thing is unknown to me.

Some music worth listening.

Би-2. I've known about these guys ever since the movie "Брат 2" (year: 2000) came out (the soundtrack was excellent) but only recently I was able to get my hands on some of their albums and now I'm in love.
Unfortunately their best songs (in my opinion) are not on youtube, so I can't really spam this blog with their music :/
Mяу кисс ми; медленно схожу с ума; Bарвара; полковнику никто не пишет; моя любовь; зажигать; ангелы; сердце на волоске; луна-парк; третий рим; шамбала; фавн dj; скандал....