Picasa Post Editing Software (Free)

For most of my post editing software I still use Photoshop, 92% of the time. As I have mentioned positive results about the free program GIMP, I still find myself using the more familiar. And besides, I already have a full working version of Photoshop so I return to what I know best.

I do have several other programs that I seldom use but recently downloaded a free edition of Picasa. What I like about this new software is how fast it is for the basics in post editing and a little more.

I typically spend much more time on an image in my electronic darkroom but this image of Harrah's RIO taken out in Vegas was completed in less than a couple of minutes. Compare that to the sometimes "hours" I have spent using Photoshop and you can see why this could be just the right tool when your time is limited.

Without going through all the options Picasa has available, I will say the "straighten" function under the basic fixes and the "graduated tint" including sliders for both feathering and shade under special effects are my favorites. They are fast and effective.

I also like the histogram and camera information box at the bottom of the left corner that includes camera type, focal length and apertures used when looking through your archives.

So if you're looking for a free good post-editing program with an easy and intuitive interface, check out Picasa. It won't replace my Photoshop but I will use this program again in certain situations.

As always, if you have any questions please let me know and I will try to answer them, but I think you will see from the beginning this is an easy and fun program to use as soon as you open your first image!

Disclaimer! I do not receive any compensation from Google or Picasa for this recommendation, but maybe I should be..... :)

Tags, labels and image descriptions

Recently after logging into my Flickr account I discovered an option I found interesting under the stats tab. I've long been aware of the importance "meta tags" have been in bringing traffic to your website, although in the early years these simple and not so commonly known inserts were abused by redirecting irrelevant content responses through search engines.

Flickr's stats page shows the domains from where traffic has come from and the keywords used, including other useful data as well. You can review your current and previous day's worth of activity but are limited to only the prior 28 days of statistics. To find this information you can type in the desired date in your location bar. It would be nice if Flickr would archive a longer time frame. :)

Listed below are some of the more commonly used search phrases to find my images via Google. Many of these were obvious, however some of the keywords used to find their way to stats were befuddling to say the least.

Random order: Harley Davidson, Harly Bikers, Bikers, Trucking in the USA, Trucking, Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd, RVZ, 50's Rock, Black and White Highways, Trick my Truck, Highway Horizon, Little Cowgirls, Wyoming, Nascar, Vegas in Black and White, Rocky Mountains, I-80, Trucking Logo and Truck Stops round off the top 20.

Today the use of tags, titles and image descriptions are all important in the indexing for search engines so it seems as much as ever. The downside I suppose to some photographers, would be your images can be viewed and downloaded in larger formats than you may want to be available.

Intense Attention

Intense attention and an everyday obsession with photography is what drove the late Richard Avedon in capturing some of the most interesting and provocative personalities in his portraiture works.



In this video, photographer Richard Avedon speaks with Charlie Rose dating from 1993 through 1999. He discusses how a visual sense and a total concentration of his subjects were always so critical to his success. It is soon apparent how articulate and attentive Avedon is in these segments and how special he really was, not only as a photographer but as an intellect as well.

I discovered some new and interesting ideas in this video interview to be informative and thought provoking. Here you have view two top professional in a fun tribute to one of America's greatest photographers!
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If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.

A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.

I don't really remember the day when I stood behind my camera with Henry Kissinger on the other side. I am sure he doesn't remember it either. But this photograph is here now to prove that no amount of kindness on my part could make this photograph mean exactly what he.. or even I.. wanted it to mean. It's a reminder of the wonder and terror that is a photograph.

A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he's being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he's wearing or how he looks. He's implicated in what's happening, and he has a certain real power over the result.

A portrait photographer depends upon another person to complete his picture. The subject imagined, which in a sense is me, must be discovered in someone else willing to take part in a fiction he cannot possibly know about.

Photography has always reminded me of the second child.. trying to prove itself. The fact that it wasn’t really considered an art.. that it was considered a craft.. has trapped almost every serious photographer.

I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.

~Richard Avedon 1923 - 2004
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A special thanks to Aline at Lenscratch for her recent post!

One step at a time

Photographers who haven't heard of photo.net and their help forums, I would recommend this site! You will have access to currently 38 photography forums with more than 3,000 new posts added daily including great tips on a wide variety of topics and also post your images for a critical review from some very talented photographers.

What's one more image!?

Recently I came across an interesting statistic regarding the voluminous number of pictures uploaded to the top image warehouses across the web.

ImageShack appears to be in the lead with a reported 20 billion images, followed by Facebook with over 15 billion, Photobucket 7 billion and Flickr with over 3 billion. Who can comprehend such numbers as these??

I know statistics never lie, only reporters of statistics do, but I have no reason to doubt these figures. I researched several sites and found only a relatively small percentage difference in all the data, plus or minus a few hundred million.

With all the images to be viewed, one must certainly be discriminating when going through all of the selections we have at our fingertips.

I enjoy viewing photographer's images marked as "Favorites", both on Flickr and JPG magazine. You can discover some of the most interesting works under this topic. I believe the images photographers select as "favorites" helps in filtering through this selection process for a shortcut in time management.

"StumbleUpon" is also a good filter in helping to find the very best in high quality digital images on the web. You make category selections and "Stumble Thru" your way in discovering some of the most fantastic photography!

“Your photography is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees.” ~Paul Strand

You've Got Mail!

Just last week, a little passed midnight on June 11, after logging in to my JPG account, I realized there was something odd and peculiar looking about the site's interface. Whenever I made a comment on any of my contact's images, it appeared as if the photographer of that image had made the comment, including their user name and icon. As it was later discovered, read and write permissions were inadvertently made available to all users who were logged on during this brief time period.

JPG Magazine is one of my favorite online photo sharing sites which I've had the privilege of having my work published, both in their online and print media, but this breach is scary. Devin Hayes of JPG recently blogged about the hard drive on the application server going bad and also mentions about a "fairly critical bug in the server configuration that allowed a user to view another users messages."

To be fair, this can happen on any server and has happened to the best of them. The lesson learned is to remember every email and comment you make online, regardless of the site, can become public information. My advice to any one concerned is to delete personal email in your inboxes that you deem private or would not want to share outside of the sender and yourself. If the messages are important enough you can always print and hard file the old fashion way.
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I came across this YouTube lecture between Google authors and internationally famed photographer "Joe McNally." It's much more than a video clip, extending an hour and 10 minutes, but if you have the time I'm sure you will discover something new and exciting and maybe inspirational from one of America's top shooters!

“There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece."


Shot at the Ronnie Van Zant Park in Lake Asbury, Fl
We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants.” ~ Arnold Newman

Ansel Adams and PS Calculations

In 1966 while I was in the 5th grade, I recall a weekly current events assignment I read to my classmates on Ansel Adams. Our school was quite advanced for the day, relative to the other government schools in my area.

We enjoyed a typing class, which I was the only boy in the room, a chess class, a cool science room where we watched films on the universe including "Mr. Sun" and his cartoons on the dilation of time, and last but not least, my favorite, a once a week hour on photography!

About 3 years ago I shredded my first black and white prints from this early time period of my life while "weeding" out a closet. I don't know what I was thinking and it is quite regretful every time I think about it.


For those photographers new to Photoshop, there is a built in "Ansel Adams" tool. Well it's not really called that, but it is amazing the AA look and feel you can attain by using "Calculations" located under the "Image" tab.

There are many different options you can play with and can start by changing channels and blending modes. A much greater range in depth of creativity and some cool effects can be accomplished by using the Calculations tool, much more than by just removing the saturation out of a color image! Warning: This can be addictive. :)

A dear photographer friend sent me this Ansel Adams YouTube video. A soft spoken and brilliant minded photographer in his own few words shortly before his death. Thank you Laurie!



We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium.
~Ansel Adams