Can anyone that hasn’t received ALL of their CDs from the music swap (who I haven’t heard from in the last two days) contact me so that I can chase them up please?
Thanks! (In other news I have stuff to blog but…. meh. I will TRY to dust the cobwebs off the camera, soon!)
Your garden, your door, your apartment steps, the view from your gate, your local park; “Outside” is this week’s MPAY theme!
Huge thanks to the players last week, you can see all the lovely green finds here.
My Place & Yours starts on Saturday but you can join in any day throughout the week, just follow these easy guidelines;
Link back here somewhere in your MPAY post so that people know where to come to join in – the more the merrier!
To play, take a photo or a bunch of photos of or relating to the theme & leave the link to your post in the list below. The photos can be as fancy pants & stylised as you like, or they can be quick & dirty via a phone pic – whatever you like. If you would like to write a little something, a lot of something or nothing at all, that’s cool with me too.
Do try to pop by & visit some of the other players & let them know what you think of their posts.
That’s not even all of them. I upgraded my old iPod with a new (second-hand & a ridiculous bargain) one that had a camera JUST so that I could Instagram, it’s a true, if sad, story.
So eager was I to play that I jumped right in with some seriously bad pictures taken in terrible lighting that I didn’t even like myself & then I thought “Well this is pretty crap, actually”. I even said as much, grandly declaring “I don’t like Instagram!” to anyone that would listen… but then I went back….
Oh. I. Love. It.
I’ve taken more photos of the kids lately than I have with my camera for ages – at this precise moment, I don’t even know where my camera IS. It’s so easy just to grab the iPod out of my pocket & take a snap. It’s fun. It’s inspiring following the tags to other #dachshund #baby #country #breakfast #vintage photos (…not together mind you, although, that would be an interesting photo…) & it seems more personal than twitter but it’s just as fast, as Bianca said, it’s like blogging but without all the words…. we all know a picture is worth a thousand of those anyway.
So, if it’s too quiet over here & you’re wondering what I’m up to, you know where I’ll be.
…or at least it will be, soon. If you, like me, are already a big Picnik user, you’ll know by now that Google are closing it down in April & integrating some (not all) of it’s features into Google+ in an attempt to force more people to use their facebook alternative.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll resent this sly move & try to find an alternative rather than be forced to use a platform you weren’t going to use on it’s own merits (although I did try, when it was new, for about a week…).
After perusing twitter links &, ironically, Google searches, I’ve found two online editors that certainly aren’t Picnik, but could fill the void somewhat. Below is my original photo of Suspence which I’ll be using to demonstrate what these two programs could do.
Exhibit A: Pixlr Express.
I think this is what I’ll be turning to, at least initially. The Pixlr Express interface is nice & clean & the functions are smooth & easy to use. I really like the overlays & you can easily adjust the basics like brightness/contrast.
It has plenty of nice filters to choose from & many, many, many more borders than I can ever imagine utilising, but it doesn’t have some of the things I really love Picnik for, like airbrushing which I often use as a kind of more specific focal soften (where you can focus on one area of the picture & it blurs the rest)… speaking of which, Pixlr Express doesn’t even have that. Here’s my Pixlr Express’ed Suspence;
As you can see, I really went to town with the effects, normally I wouldn’t edit a picture this much, with overlays & filters & a crazy border, but for the purposes of this demonstration I decided to click a whole bunch of things & hope for the best.
Exhibit B: BeFunky.
Yeah… the name is a bit of put off right there, but I have been using the app version on my iPod so I thought I’d give the web version a run too.
The interface is… juvenile I guess, and you won’t be able to ignore the advertising easily, or their bold attempts to get you to upgrade at every turn, but if you can get past that there are some nice effects to be had in just a few clicks, it differs from Pixlr Express in that it has some arty effects in addition to photo filters, I’m not a huge fan of those but they can be fun to experiment with. BeFunky have stickers too which I know some people loved to utilize on Picnik.
My BeFunky’ed Suspence:
Special mention: Sumo Paint.
I couldn’t find another online editor that will help you fake the depth of field like Picnik (Why I don’t know, nearly every image editing app for the iPhone or iPod do it almost as a default), but Sumo Paint at least lets you try with it’s Linear blur filter.
Sumo Paint looks & is much more complicated than Picnik ever was, and I honestly think if you’re going to take the time to learn & use Sumo Paint that it would be more worthwhile to learn & use Photoshop or it’s free equivalent Gimp instead. I can use Photoshop & I like it, but it really does take a lot of time & effort to get a photo looking as good as Picnik did with three or four clicks, which is why I am so damn bummed about it closing in the first place… I might not want to be forced into the realms of Google+ just to access the Picnik features I love, but, after all this, it might happen anyway.
More online editors to try for yourself:
Feel free to let me know about any others you’ve tried or like in the comments – believe me, I want to know!
It’s meme time!
My Place And Yours is back yet again – I thought it might help with my bloggy mojo.
The theme is GREEN!
GO!
My Place & Yours starts on Saturday but you can join in any day throughout the week, just follow these easy guidelines;
Link back here somewhere in your MPAY post so that people know where to come to join in – the more the merrier!
To play, take a photo or a bunch of photos of or relating to the theme & leave the link to your post in the list below. The photos can be as fancy pants & stylised as you like, or they can be quick & dirty via a phone pic – whatever you like. If you would like to write a little something, a lot of something or nothing at all, that’s cool with me too.
Do try to pop by & visit some of the other players & let them know what you think of their posts.
Have fun!
I have been having second thoughts about us, blogosphere. I have been thinking that not only might we need some time apart, we might have to break up altogether.
It’s not you.
It’s me.
I was thinking that I didn’t love you anymore. I was thinking that it couldn’t work out between us. That your eye would wander to more creative blogs. Prettier blogs. Better blogs.
I was thinking that I would concentrate on what has been making me smile lately & let you go completely. I was REALLY thinking that.
And then… I started listening to one of the CDs I got in my swap. A CD from Cam.
And I loved it. And I love Cam – in a not at all creepy, platonic, she’s a crafty super-hero type of way – and damn it… I love you, too, blogosphere. Without you, I wouldn’t have the CD I am bopping to. I wouldn’t have the gorgeous friends I have met, in person & in spirit & I wouldn’t have had the confidence or support to take the scary leap that is Geek Amour in the first place.
I’m sorry.
Forgive me?
Instagram has also been distracting me from your charms, blogosphere. I tried to resist, truly…!
If you’re a twitter type, I changed my name there too, to @GeekAmour, and I like it, but some people are CONFUDDLED! Poor people. They’ll get used to it.
But how are YOU? Are you blogging it up or feeling blah too?
…just a reminder for the people participating in the music swap…
CDs have to be posted TODAY!
Hope you’ve had fun sorting out your tunes, I’ve heard some super organised types have sent theirs already to grateful recipients, none of this last minute playlist fiddling for them!
Let me know if you’ve any issues & I’ll do my best to help; let the tunes begin…
