:mattLandia:

Virtually all the images created, edited, or tweaked on this site were done using Macromedia Fireworks. For Photoshop purists out there, that may border on heresy, but I got turned on to Fireworks in 98 and made it my tool of choice. Granted, virtually all of my work (including my photography) is showcased digitaly and Fireworks greatest strengths favor digital vs. print images. The one drawback is the cost to purchase new or upgrade.

I was turned on to a free photo editing tool recently called Paint.NET. I've played with it for about an hour and feel like this is a pretty decent photo editing app. A couple of observations:

- You'll need to install the Microsoft .NET framework first. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to install (using broadband).
- It seems really speedy at processing, resizing images, applying multiple color filters, etc.
- When saving, it prompts the user to optimize the file size, a huge plus to anyone posting photos on the web.
- It's more like PS than Fireworks, so I got stuck on how to do some relatively simple things like adding a drop shadow, but I'm sure it's more my lack of PS experience.
- And it's FREE.

Give it a try.

Posted by mattLandia at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tis the season for leaves to fall (yep, they are littering my yard as we speak), the air to cool (yep, first few days in the 50's are upon us, except it's 82 outside today) and teeth to rotten further (yep, got a bucket o' chewy goo on the coffee table.) Not a bad time of year at all.

Posted by mattLandia at 05:20 PM | Permalink

As you can easily guess, we took some time off this past week. Both our schedules are getting increasingly busy, and with the holidays around the corner, we decided it was time to take off a week and let our batteries recharge. So we boarded the dogs, threw a bunch of clothes into the Hyundai, and drove south to Pensacola Beach. More importantly, we turned off our cell phones and laptops and relaxed. We took a ton of photos, and if you care to check them out, you can check them out by clicking on the Flickr thumbnails to the right.

Our recipe for relaxation was 5 days of no schedule, laying in the sun, gorging on seafood, buying tacky beach gifts, visiting museums, dropping in on relatives, walking on the beach, snorkeling, listening to books on CD, and laying around the hotel room.

Try it. You might like it.

Posted by mattLandia at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Posted by mattLandia at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)