It was a Wednesday morning during the height of busy season last fall. My sons had just gone outside to play with their babysitter so I could get some serious editing done. I opened a photo in Photoshop and noticed the problem…someone (I’m not going to name names, but I’m guessing the culprit was under two and a half feet and has an adorable mop of blond hair) had reached up to my computer keyboard (most likely with the aid of a stool) and had removed ALL OF MY GOOGLY EYES.
I need to explain that about a year ago I got the idea to put googly eyes on my computer keyboard. I’m always looking for ways to speed up my editing and I realized that I was spending time looking down at my keyboard multiple times per photo to find keys that I use often. I also try to edit in a dark room when I can so adding googly eyes to certain keys made it easier to find them in the dark. Why googly eyes, you ask? When you have a 5-year-old in the house, googly eyes tend to show up. So they were there when I needed them and they helped me find the keys I use so often.
Anyway, back to my dilemma that fall day… the boys were outside and I had a stretch of 2-3 hours of uninterrupted editing time ahead of me, but I needed those googly eyes. I had no backups. (Lesson learned. I now have a bag full of them for emergencies such as these.) I looked everywhere on, around and under my desk for the googly eyes that had been removed. Eventually I found myself on my hands and knees in our family room searching the floor and under furniture for them and it was at that moment that I realized I had a problem… I was (am) addicted to googly eyes! I cannot edit without them now. I understand that I created this problem myself. No one got me “hooked” on googly eyes. No one even suggested I try them to see if I liked them. I did this to myself.
I did finally find all the googly eyes on the floor that I needed that morning and was able to edit as planned, but the panic I felt during those moments caused me to go buy more later that day. I have no plans to stop using googly eyes. BUT I would advise anyone who is considering using them to think twice before you start using them on YOUR keyboard. You just might find that you like them. You might find that you can work faster and even type better in a dark room. And once you start using them, you may not be able to stop…
In Lovely Light Photography 