Computer Down…

My computer is almost down.  The monitor keeps clouding over, and I can’t determine whether hardware or software is causing the problem, as the software itself has created plenty of issues over the past eighteen months.  The other night, I couldn’t get past the BIOS stages, so I’ve reloaded Windows XP and am frantically backing up the most important files to cloud storage, since I lost the files when I reloaded Windows.

Pretty stressful.

Also having problems with the Internet and have lost my favourite photo editing software, Google’s Picasa.  A friend’s given me Photoshop Elements.

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Some more photo collages from shortly before the computer crashed.  I took these in Alexandra Palace and Park, North London, and editing them using Picasa.

 

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Some More Photo Collages, North London

 

I took the above shots in Totteridge, North London, and used google’s picasa to create photo collages.

I captured the following sets of photos earlier in the week:

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Late Summer View Over North London

Another photo collage I created using Google’s Picasa.

Parkland Park, North London.

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Still Busy…

Stil busy with manuscript preparations for my novel, but here are  some more of the photo collages I’ve been working on.   At some point soon, I hope to put a photoshoot album together and publish the thing online.  I’ve been using the free photo editing software, Google’s Picasa.  It’s excellent.

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Busy…

Busy with manuscript preparations on my novel, so I haven’t had much time to post recently. But here are a few of the collages I’ve been working on.  I hope to put a photoshoot album together and publish it online.  I’ve been using the excellent free photo editing software, Google’s Picasa.

 

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A Taste Of Scenic North London

Here are a couple of photo collages I created using Google’s excellent free photo editing software, Picasa.  The second collage is selection of  favourite shots I took of Queens Wood and Highgate Wood in North London.

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Having Fun With Google’s Picasa

I’m still relatively new to digital photography, but Picasa’s keeping me busy. Picasa, which is free, belongs to Google. It provides photo sharing and basic photo editing software that users download to their computer hard drive.

In particular, I enjoy selecting a photograph, deciding what I want it to look like, and working on the image.   The editing software enables people to straighten lopsided scenery and alter the focus and colour.  I especially like the Crop feature to eradicate parts of a picture.  Users can experiment with this and present the same image in more than one way.  They can also get rid of wrinkles and blemishes from a photograph by using the Basic Fixes. 

Pretty impressive.   The option Create a Gift CD produces one or more beautifully set out photo albums to present to friends and family.

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Google’s Picasa: Great Photo Editing Software

I’m pretty much new to the digital scene, but rarely does a month go by without me discovering more fascinating opportunities, unavailable to the average person ten years ago.  Digital photography.  Music.  Videos.  E-books and magazines.  Open Source software.  Web 2.0.  Today, anyone can publish their work and interests online, usually for free.   People then pay for upgrades if they wish to.

Although I’m still finding my way round Picasa, I must say I’m seriously impressed with what I’ve already seen.  Picasa belongs to Google, which means people need to create an account first.  (Also check out Google Docs, a free online word processing suite that includes document creation, spreadsheets and presentations.)  Users download Picasa to their hard drive, then upload photos to Picasa web albums. 

On my computer, the Picasa 3 shortcut appears on the desktop.  When I click on the icon, Picasa opens and I can do a number of things – let Picasa search my hard drive for photos, edit photos already there, or upload albums to my web albums.  The layout is impressive, almost like a snazzy colour version of negatives.  The editing tools include a great feature – I’m Feeling Lucky – that brings photographs into sharper focus.  I’ve used this quite a lot recently.

The web album offers a lot of space.  The 135 photographs I’ve already uploaded have only taken up a small amount of megabytes, leaving room for many more photographs. Admittedly, I haven’t used Picasa for long – two weeks at the most – but I can imagine using it on a long term basis, along with the other excellent photo sharing site Flickr.

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