Post from: Panama Photo Journal

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

As always, clicking on any of the thumbnails will take you to the full size photo album.

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

This 1st pic shows a few of the features. The original in the background was far too dark and dull. 2 clicks added light and contrast. 1 more click added a frame. Then choose a layout and drag n’ drop the 2 photos into place.

The next 2 pics are from a simple group shot. Cropped and saved the portraits and then used filters to soften and lighten the faces.

Lightening and mole removal are so easy to do with Photoscape. This software may even make a decent photographer out of me,

For this crop I just used the smoothing filter to soften the skin, with no lighting changes.

Photoscape has many more options, I’m still finding more as I experiment. For free software it is tremendous and well worth a donation to the developers.

Finally, an attempt at lifting the colours of one of the waterfall pictures I was disappointed with before. Not a great improvement, but it’s hard to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Better??  Worse?? Too Artificial?? Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.

You can get a FREE copy of Photoscape too, HERE. Just click on the screenshot to visit the download site.

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

Photoscape
A free deluxe photo and image editor
For Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and Windows Vista
Download size: 13.1 MB - Dialup users can download this file in 75 minutes or less. Broadband users - less than 5 minutes.

Tis the season to take pictures - falalalalalala….

Today, is one of those rare times when something fun is actually useful and something useful is actually fun.

It’s amazing what you can still get free on today’s increasingly commercialized Internet. But, there’s still some darn good stuff out there, even though it takes us about four times longer than it did a few years ago to find stuff.

Let me be candid. This program isn’t going to replace Adobe Photoshop or even Corel’s PaintShopPro, but it’s really a great and feature-filled program that can do almost any normal image editing task you’ll ever need. You can crop, resize, add text, filter, and otherwise improve or enhance your images or digital photos easily and without having to read a 500-page manual. The interface is simple and clean - and best of all logical, so you don’t have read page after page of help files.

You can also create HTML pages with nicely formatted tables - and all you have to do is drag you images into the table cells.

If photo and image editing is something you like to do, or need to do, or want to learn to do, you can’t go wrong with this one - Photoscape. It’s free, it’s easy-to-use, and it has many of the features you’ll find on programs costing $50.00 or more.

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

Carnaval is celebrated in Panama during February, the exact date varies each year as Carnaval takes place during the days before the start of Lent, so is approximately 40 days before Easter or Semana Santa as it is known here.

These pictures are from last years Carnaval in Penonome, a pleasant market town about 100 miles out of Panama City.

Everyone joins in the festivities, lots of water gets sprayed on the crowds during the day, keep everyone cool. Lots of beer to make the party swing, and food stalls selling snacks along the route so no need to go hungry.

Music levels are LOUD, massive speaker arrays set up throughout the route all competing with each other for the locals attention.

With an election coming soon, last years Carnaval also saw the politicos out in force, sponsoring many of the floats and entertainment. Plenty of freebies being thrown into the crowds adding to the fun and hoping to swing a few votes.

The Carnaval floats parade through the streets in the evening, while the water tankers are being refilled for the next days soakings. Will save those photos for a later album.

I hope these photos help you survive the snow, which is now a distant memory for me. Christmas in Panama is close to the start of our summer season, with temperatures in the 80’s or low 90’s.

Off to start the partying soon, here in Panama we celebrate Bueno Noche or Christmas Eve more so than Christmas Day.

An evenings drinking and partying with the family, the kids get their presents on the stroke of midnight, lots of fireworks around the town, then the kids and mums head off to bed while the dads and lads party on till the early hours ( or late hours, I can never remember beyond the headache).

Happy Christmas to all my readers, Feliz Navidad a todos. 

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

I spent ages trying to get a decent shot of this waterfall, just off the road between David and Boquete. Tried all sorts of manual settings on the camera but none of the photos really captured the beauty of the place. I see many photos by better photographers than myself that really bring out the colors. My pics look so flat. What am I doing wrong?? How can I improve my picture taking?? Should I use a program like photoshop to make them look better?? Which is the best pic??

Thanks in advance for any help

Rik

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

There are some beautiful homes in the gated communities surrounding the town, at a price. Far too many of them. The towns infrastructure has failed to keep up with the numbers and for most supplies at trip down the hill to David is in order.

The damage caused by the recent floods seems to have been confined to the area close to the river, as the river level rose fast but also dropped quickly after the surge passed through the town.

Driving up to the town from David I was shocked to see the whole plateau above the town, which 4 years ago was open countryside, has now become covered in new buildings. I wasn’t impressed with Boquete back then, and even less so on this trip. JMHO

Post from: Panama Photo Journal

Just for fun, and some free EntreCard credits.

This pic is of an item that is popular in Panama.

Leave your guess in the comments section and the 1st correct guess gets 500 EntreCard credits.

No correct guesses in the 1st week, I will post a larger pic next monday and the 1st correct guess that week will get 300 EntreCard credits.

If the competition goes to a 3rd week the 1st correct guess will get 150 EntreCard Credits.

Only 1 guess per Email per week.

All comments are moderated, so the time stamp on my receiving email will be the deciding factor.

Comments are DoFollow, but with NoFollow reciprocity so make sure your blog is DoFollow to benefit from the link love.

Post from: Panama Photo Journal