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Usually, taking the initial shot is just the beginning for me. I love to play with images... tweak them, invert colors, swirl them, etc. The tool I use for this 'magic' is Adobe Photoshop Elements. It's a wonderful photo editing program, that's chockablock full of special effects called 'filters'. It's relatively inexpensive (under $100) and way less frightening (and expensive) than Photoshop CS. I heartily recommend it... it's like the giant box of Crayola crayons on Christmas morning, but for adults. It lets your creativity come out to play for awhile. Why not let YOUR creativity come out and play for awhile? I guarantee that it won't be wasted time. 

What you see here are some examples of my creativity coming out to play - before and after shots. Sometimes the 'tweak' is an easy one - perhaps inverting colors, turning what was dark into light. Sometimes, the 'after' image involved hours of painstaking work - for example, cloning out the distracting background of the glass horse, so that you can truly focus on the intent of the talented glassblower in Venice.  Now you can see a Dream Steed in motion.