A Touch of Tablet

There is nothing better in the world than a supportive family.

My family has always been supportive of my endeavor to become a professional photographer particularly my wife and my in-laws. My mother-in-law believed in me so much, she got me an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 professional-quality printer a few years ago and I've created many wonderful prints with it - including two that were accepted into the Orange County Fair.

My wife has no problem whenever I say I'm interested in buying books, joining professional organizations, or taking classes on photography. She believes in me 100% and wants me to really go for it. Now that is a great woman.

Continuing this trend, my in-laws got me another wonderful gift for my birthday this year to help support my photography dream - a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

For any of you who are not familiar with this device, it's like a raised pressure sensitive mouse pad. With the pad you use a pen - not a pen with ink, but a pen with a plastic nub - kind of like a large stylus that you would use for a PDA.

When you press this pen to the pressure-sensitive mousepad, it lets you make very fine selections in Photoshop or create effects that look like paintings or drawings because anything you can draw with a pen or pencil, you can draw using this device.

Tablets are used by virtually all professional graphic designers and photographers because it gives you much more control over what you're doing on the screen than a regular mouse. And now I have one thanks to my in-laws (who were told by my wife what I wanted).

It's kind of weird to use at first because I've used a mouse all my life. I'm starting to get used to it, however, and I can already tell I'm going to be able to further improve my photography with it. Yet another small step forward on my way to the top!