This is what happens when you find a new photo editting tool !

When I get home from a day out watching nature, I have a routine. If I haven't already done so on the way home, I sit down with a glass of wine and a smoke, and go through my photos on my camera. Any that were out of focus or missed the subject completely, I delete. Any that look promising I upload to my laptop. Then, accompanied with another glass of wine, from the laptop I then delete any duplicates and start thinking about what will look good on my blog. And I then, along with another glass of wine, start editing my photos. Finally I post my photos to my blog and start writing it up. By this time, as you might have guessed, I'm half pissed. And with Queens Greatest Hits 1 or Blink 182 playing in the background and the days memories still fresh in my mind, I let my fingers loose on the keyboard and a waffling blog post soon follows.

 

But I'm now in a job that only sees my weekends free. My days of blogging during the week have gone........or have they...? This is a one off weekday blog post !

 

I've also had the disadvantage of my laptop 'dying' on me back late last year, so am currently using a friends 'notebook' pc. It's not mine so I haven't uploaded the editing Sony software that I was accustomed to......

 

Earlier in the week I discovered a new editing tool on Flickr.

 

I only post photos on Flickr that I feel are good, so naturally I don't post very often, and have probably neglected this invaluable editing application. On Monday I found some free time to really explore the Flickr website, despite being a paid member for over five years.

 

 It was quite a revelation ! I accidently found the most brilliant editing tool. I never even knew Flickr provided this service. It doesn't only provide me with my usual editing (cropping, sharpening etc) but also has several additional features. My favourite is an app called 'Splash'. Using this I found I could turn my photos monochrome but then highlight my chosen subject in colour.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I wondered how the same application would look on a human.....

Luckily I have some very photogenic family members to practise on.....

 

from the original photo I cropped and sharpened Beths original picture and concentrated the Flickr 'splash' edit tool to highlight the colours on Beths face and hair above....

 

 

With Lynsey and Debras photo above, I used the 'splash' edit button to monochrome the background and stand out the two main subjects in colour....

 

 

And with Ali's photo above, I concentrated the edit tool to high-light her photogenic face and hair...

 

After discovering this new editing application, there was really no stopping me....

 (as in Queens track number 7)

 

Literally......because I then discovered there was a 'text' edit app.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, for me, that was the next batch of blog cards made, sorted and ordered....

 

But then I had my next surprise.....

 

 I found out how to take a screen shot.

 

 From many I can already hear the 'scoff' sounds, but honestly until today I didn't know how to...

and my first attempts were....

 

 

and then I thought regular Cranford Parkers might appreciate this........

 

 

and from hours making that, I then decided to make one for my old patch, Lake Farm, too....

It's not a place I visit so often now. Despite various reassurances the site is not so populated as before the new school building went up.

 

 

They were made using both the Windows 8 Paint app and Flickr 'Aviary' edit.

 

But one other good thing did emerge from me discovering this Flickr edit tool......

 

Way back on a gloomy June day in 2013, Nathalie (the Fulham and Barnes peregrines Godmother) and myself went looking for the juvenile called Buster, who had disappeared after fledging.

 

 We found ourselves on a hospital ledge during our search............and after looking all over the prospective ledges below and across any potential sites, we never did find what happened to him. But at being at such a height we were on one memorable occasion, treated to an impromptu child game of catch from his siblings Amy and George. I never published my photos at that time, they were so dark and unsuitable...but with playing around with the Flickr edit tool at least one of the photos of them has become visible...

 

 

Never give up.