Beginning on GIMP

In May of this year I was on the search for a program that would allow me to edit and manipulate pictures. I essentially wanted Photoshop but couldn't afford it...

I found a program called GIMP which is a free program that works like Photoshop. It does not have all of the advanced features but for amateur to semi-pro picture editing, it is perfect. I now use Lightroom for the editing and if needed (maybe 5% of the time) I will use GIMP for manipulations or more advanced editing.

The great thing about GIMP, besides being free, is that I find it much easier and user friendly than Photoshop. The tools are simple to use and clear cut. There is also a great online manual that you can use as a guide. I also spent hours on YouTube looking up tutorials.

I have a project that I have been wanting to start for GIMP that I hope to put up here soon but for now I wanted to introduce the program and also show you 2 pictures that were pretty much the first things I did on GIMP after watching some tutorials.

Challenge

So Katrina saw this great picture of a bride's face in partial focus and wanted to see if I could take a picture similar to or the same as the one she saw. Here is the result in two forms and let me just say that she was quite impressed that I was able to learn this and pull it off in just 10 minutes.

Labor Day Boating 2011

Our friend's, Evan and Cheryl Smith from Halifax, invited us to go on their boat on Labor Day.  With my broken ankle on the mend, I decided to be good and just sit on the boat and take pictures of everyone else.  It was a lot of fun and I didn't mind being on the "sidelines" to the action.  Here are my favorite 25 pictures of the day.

It was a cloudy day so I used lightroom on this one to add some blue (well, more blue than normal as it was more of an artsy effect I was going for).

 Evan Smith's Cousin - Tyler

Evan showing off  :)

Good Harbor Beach

It's been too long between my posts and there have been many pictures taken in that time.  I will have to split them into 3 posts.  This is the first.
On September 3rd we went to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, MA and I brought along my camera because I knew this was a beautiful beach.  Here are my favorite pictures from that day.  P.S. Let it be known that my wife Katrina took a few of these shots.