It's a Picnik kind of a day

I have long been a fan of the picnic, in all of its incarnations.
Some of my fondest memories from childhood are the delicious lunches my Mum would pack for an outing to the Avon River or sometimes to eat between church meetings, as we had to drive about 30 miles to church. Ham and butter on white bread, potato chips, maybe an apple or an orange. Somehow, being outdoors and away from home made everything taste even better than usual.

The Teddy Bear's Picnic is another childhood memory. I would hear it on the radio once in a while, just often enough to memorize the words of the chorus, but never the verses.
Today's the day the teddy bears have their piiiiic-nic!

Then there is the Cadbury Picnic bar, a particular favourite of Jeff's. Packed with wafers and milk chocolate and caramel and rice crisps and nuts, it is a serendipitous concoction.

Every time my sister or my Mum wants to make Jeff happy (which isn't very often, teehee!) they send him wads of Picnic bars. And the rest of us mooch from him.

I have discovered a new breed of Picnik and it is awesome!
Picasa has incorporated a link to Picnik in its editing programme and I am becoming quite fond of it. Registration is free, although you can sign up for their Premium version for even more options.

I took my basic grapes photo and played around with it to give you an idea of the possibilities. Bear in mind that each of these is only an example of the editing preference. There is an infinite number of ways to execute each one of these to create your own magnum opus. All of these edits are under the Create tab.

First, the original photo, with just the contrast adjusted.
Pleasant, but a little boring.

Orton-ish gives it a lovely depth and sense of light and shadow.

Vignette.

HDR-ish.

I cannot remember how I did this.
It has an Invert on it, but combined with something else.
Whatever.
I like it.

Waterfall with fade.

Duo-tone.

Pixelate.

Posterize.

Hsl filter

Ripple blocks.

Smudge.

Kinda like looking through privacy glass.

Pencil sketch.

Hypnotic.

1960's with Doodle.

This is lame, but I can see cool possibilities.

Focal zoom.

There is so much more, but my wrist screams at me if I spend too much time on the laptop, so you will have to try it out for yourself. I can see some real art work coming out of this programme, can't you?

Have fun.

It is so easy to lose yourself in the Wonderful World of Picnik.

Evil grin.