As I write this, in early April, we’re on the cusp of spring in the Pacific Northwest. It was a gloomy winter here in Portland–we had freezing temperatures and an inch of hail yesterday–and I’m ready for flowers, our local farmers’ market and some sun.

The weather has meant that my camera has spent more time in its bag than out, which is a drag because I’m supposed to be working on a year-long photo project documenting a large portion of the Columbia River. (It’s a long story.) I’ve made a few forays along the river, but I’m way behind, so the warm weather can’t start soon enough for me.

If you’re like me, and looking for a little photographic inspiration, be sure to check out Derrick Story’s article on incorporating motion into your shots, as well as the latest round of Subscriber Showcase winners. Derrick shares a number of simple tips for capturing movement and blur in an effective way, and I just love the creativity and spontaneity found in this batch of Showcase photos. We’re hoping to jump-start a few new subscriber photo contests in the next few months, so keep an eye on the blog: we’d love to get more photos from you in the magazine and on the site.

There are plenty of other fun and informative pieces in this issue, including Matt Kloskowski’s favorite sharpening technique for travel photos, and Liz Ness’ article on compositing. This last one, which shows you how to take an extracted object from one photo and place it into another background, is intended for advanced users, but almost anyone familiar with layers and the like should be able to follow along: we’ve made all of the files available online, and there’s a video from Liz showing how she cut out her subject (her husband) from the original photo.

If you’re still not ready to delve into such advanced topics, don’t miss Ben Long’s feature on when to use the Auto tools–and two other “go-to” semi-automatic options–found on the Enhance menu. We spend a lot of time covering detailed techniques for improving your photos, but Photoshop Elements’ automatic commands are pretty good (for the most part), and it’s worth knowing when they might come in handy.

The July/August issue will start mailing to subscribers on June 22; look for it by the beginning of July in the U.S., and a couple of weeks later in other far-flung corners of the globe. You’ll also find Kelly back at the helm of the good ship Photoshop Elements Techniques for that issue as well.

Cheers!
Rick