I discovered picnik.com and I love it! - PHOTO ART

It's so cool - it's so easy and on top of that it is free! I couldn't wait to share this discovery and the cool results with all of my gather friends.

Thanks to a gatherite who recommended picnik.com in a comment (isn't gather wonderful:) about free photo editing websites.

I played with their photo editing program the entire afternoon - OK - all evening too:) and I was impressed by how user friendly their site is. What I loved most about www.picnik.com  is that I actually came away with an entire gallery of photo art - how cool is that?

So come see the PhotoPlay by Rose H.  

I started with something simple ...

 a nice frame ...

a basic enhancement of a couple of recent photos.

Like my (architect and art) teacher in design school used to say - everything looks smarter displayed in a simple black frame.

This is the picture that started it all - my very first attempt!

Believe it or not, all I did was crop, enhance the color and I used one of their sandbox tab tools to add the rays and added a frame. 

I wanted the rays to be soft as I didn't want to take away from the picture.

  From plain flower picture - to - how cool is that?:)

Nothing more then one click of one of the effect buttons - to soften and darken the corners and enhance the center. Voila!

White Hibiscus

 I had to try a simple enhancement of a rose of course:)

I thought of Rose (just an ole Georgia peach) when I gussied up this photo.

Turtle with mossy back

The turtle is actually under water - so is everything else in this picture

Now that I figured out all the basics ...

I wanted to do something funky and artsy with my pictures and their funky tools in the sandbox are perfect for fun photo art.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, well ...

 here is my take on

 Andy Warhol inspired photo art.

It all started with this shot of the interesting texture and color weave on a     palm tree.

The original picture with only a color boost and a frame added.

Thanks to Sherrie of Rainbow Color Photo Competition fame - I had orchid on my mind - this weeks color theme challenge. I'm not entirely certain that I like the result, but it made for an interesting PhotoPlay. 

This is my favorite so far - doesn't it scream Andy Warhol?

..... and believe it or not - this originated from the same palm tree picture. 

Of course I couldn't stop with one PhotoPlay:)

This one started out with a photo of a mosaic detail. 

Below: My original photo - just color enhanced and corners softened.

Check out these reincarnations:)

I know this one is sort of a beginners standard when it comes to photo tools, but I think that the combination of mosaic and cool colors make it spectacular.

I found the vibrant colors mixed with an intricate overlay simply irresistible.

 Happy - funky and fun - photo art.

I really like these two:)

I liked every art photo in this series,

 but this one

might be my favorite.

What do you think?

Thanks for looking - I hope you have enjoyed my photos and creations!

My sincere thanks to all the brilliant photographers on gather who continue to inspire me to become a better photographer.

All images copyright 2009 Rose H.

www.picnik.com does have a premium version that you can buy for $24.95 - basically a membership for a year. They say if you don't like it you can cancel the premium version within 30 days - no charge. If you cancel after that it will be pro-rated.

For now I'll play with their free version, but I might opt for their premium version. Twenty-five bucks seems very reasonable, since I'm not ready to shell out beaucoup bucks for photoshop.