The Simple Photographer goes to a pumpkin party at Jen R.'s place!

Bloggers have to be overly-creative people, just brimming with innovation and invention. Every time I turn around one of them is over the top with an idea or project.

The latest is a pumpkin party at Sanctuary Arts at Home. Blogger Jen R. is the hostess with the mostess so jump over there and visit with her and her friends.

http://sanctuaryart.blogspot.com/

My only contribution to the wing-ding is my pumpkin wagon, made with the free photo software called Gimp. Yes, I said free. Gimp is a party waiting to happen with your pictures. Download it and have some fun!

Oh, and happy early Halloween!

The simple photographer goes garage sale-ing.

I discovered something wonderful at a garage sale yesterday. I opened an old, beat-up paper box at a house off Texas Ave. It smelled like mothballs, and I immediately started sneezing. After wiping my nose on my sleeve (really, now, you know I lie! I’d never wipe my nose on my sleeve. My shirt was sleeveless so I used my arm!), I gently pulled apart the fragile tissue paper and discovered five or six pairs of old lady’s gloves, all colors - blue, black, green, and tan (great but not the wonderful part!).

Peeking out from underneath this loot was the corner of an old photograph. You know how I love photography. As I moved the gloves out of the way, I could see the banged up box held a treasure trove of old stained and weathered pictures.

The first one looked like the edge of a pond or creek. I loved the spiky plant in the foreground.

I could see the same plant in the next photo, but there was a statue in the background. (Maybe St. Francis of Assisi?)

The smiling man in the next picture looked huge. He dwarfed the rifle next to him.

When the next photo showed the big man with gun at ready, I was astonished. What could have made the guy turn from a happy tree-leaner to a cautious hunter?

I realized it had to be something small because the next picture showed the man was aiming downward. But this guy looked so big, he could have been shooting at anything!

He certainly wanted to make sure it was dead, whatever it was!

Oh, my! I think I understand now. In those days a snake bite could be deadly.

Especially a rattler, and that's what this one looks like. I'll have to show this pix to Mindy's Snakeman at http://snakelover61.blogspot.com/. He'll be able to identify it.

That snake looks kinda funny, though. Rigor mortis so soon? Or did the photographer go back later to take this shot. I couldn't wait to get to the next photo.








Wait. That's my own stupid stuffed snake that IT Guy shot at our farm years ago. It attacked him when he was cutting trees for a road. Luckily, he always carried a gun 'cause this one was mean and big. But pretty, as far as snakes go - which isn't very far. Yuck!

And that was Greg, my new friend, playing the part of the hunter.

I love Gimp, the photo software, don't you?

And I'm starting to love lying, too. It gets easier with practice.

Secrets!

We all have 'em. And I’m willing to share a really big one with you, mainly because IT Guy shared it with me, and I want to pass it on.

Photoshop is expensive. Oh, you knew that already? Well, here’s the secret part: did you know that GIMP, a photo software program that rivals Photoshop, is absolutely FREE? Yes, I said FREE! And, my goodness, you can do everything in the world with GIMP. Several Photoshop plugins work with GIMP, too, or so I’ve read, anyway. I'm still working on all the things GIMP already has, like the old photo button (results above) and the cloning tool (see below. I took that strange woman right out of the photo).

There are tons of tutorials about GIMP on the web, so you won’t be alone in learning it. Just like Photoshop, though, there’ll be a learning period as you plow through your first experiences with photo enhancing. As with anything you do nowadays, read up on GIMP on the Internet. Then, if you decide to try it, go to http://opensourcewindows.org/rcewindows.org/ and download it. I’ve read about GIMP being difficult to download, but we had no problems at all, and it wasn’t because IT Guy is so gifted in that department. It’s just that no problems appeared during the download.

While you’re at OpenSource, look at all the other free stuff that’s there. You might just find something else you can use. Here’s a big thank you to all you code-writing geniuses who gave us GIMP and all the other free software in cyberspace.

I did my header in GIMP yesterday, and slapped it up so you could see how versatile the program is, but it can do much more everyday things than the header.

Do you have any secrets you'd like to share?