Picnik

Getting good photographs has definitely been a challenge for me, particularly the close ups needed for my etsy shop. I was aware of Picnik, the online photo editing tool, but hadn't made the time to play with it. I was going through some photos we took in the city over the weekend (expect a post on that soon) and it was the perfect opportunity to see what it can do.

This first picture was taken in Indiana on a return roadtrip from Virginia a couple of weeks ago. The windmills go on and on as far as you can see.

Not a bad picture, right? But not a great one. A little crooked and a little bland. I pulled it into Picnik and started clicking away until I liked it better. This is the picture after straightening it and applying Boost, HDR and Lomo-ish. I still would have liked the blue to be more blue, but I'll keep practicing.

Here's another example. This picture was taken in the city from a moving vehicle as the sun was setting. You can see it's a little dark and doesn't do a good job of focusing on the street performers.

Here it is after cropping, adjusting the exposure and applying Cross Process (I think. It's easy to lose track.) and Lomo-ish.

Thumbs up to Picnik! It can be a little intimidating at first with so many options, but just get in there and start clicking to see what you like. You'll definitely find that you'll develop a few favorite go-to effects. There are also options to add frames, stickers, text and all sorts of fun stuff.

Now I want to go back and work on our wedding photos!

Slap Fight

I got in a slap fight with one of my cats over orange chicken. I like to think that I won, but you never really know with a cat.

The custom purse I was working on is complete and shipped. The requestor wanted a purse with silhouettes of her cats in their typical poses. I really like how this one turned out.

I just introduced jewelry to the Etsy store! This was the perfect opportunity to break out the micro studio I got for my birthday. It's actually much bigger than I expected. As you can see below, it takes up the entire dining room table.

Overall, I'm very happy with the pictures of the jewelry...

I tried retaking pictures of purses with less success. The camera wants to wash out some of the bright colors. I'll have to keep practicing with different settings.

And now, back to watching Dexter!