Archive for the ‘Photo Tools’ Category
PaintShop Pro X2 for $42
October 19th, 2009 | 
Author: I just upgraded to Paint Shop Pro X2 Ultimate for $42. Plus I got a copy of Corel Painter Essentials 4 for Free. This is a pretty damn good deal. I know X3 is probably just around the corner, but the features of X2 suit me just fine. If you don’t already have a copy it’s definitely worth having. When you don’t know what you’re doing with web graphics, PSP makes it so much easier.
If you want your own copy give this a whirl:
1. Go to the Corel Store and add PSP X2 Ultimate to the cart. It’ll show as $49.99
2. At checkout use BONUS20 as your coupon code. This will save you 20%. You can also use BONUSBUCKS20 to save $20 off the price of the cart. Depending on what you’re buying, one may make a better deal than the other.
That’s it. You’ll get PSP at a nice discount. Plus you get Media One Plus, Nik Color Efex Sampler, Background Remove plugin and Lynda.com tutorials. All in all, a nice deal.
Halloween’s coming and PSP makes it easy to add graphics to your blog.
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Marketing: The Flickr Way
When I first started thinking about selling my photos online, I was considering using this blog and my SmugMug site as the focal points of my online marketing efforts. I figured Flickr would stay in the background because I couldn’t sell photos there and, unless I changed my settings, people could download them or “blog” them for free. Then I woke up. Flickr is the ultimate photographer’s network! How could Flickr not be used by the aspiring professional photographer?
So I started thinking of how I could use Flickr to market my own photography. After a year and a half of browsing through Flickr and uploading almost 3,000 photos, here are a few things I came up with…
NOTE: Some of these things I’ve done, others I have yet to do… Your mileage may vary.
JOIN Flickr!
This may seem like a no-brainer but, over the last few months of browsing photo blogs I’m astonished at how many new photographers don’t appear to have a Flickr account. I’m not saying it’s impossible to build a photo business without it, but when you can get an account for free and a pro account for only $25, why wouldn’t you? It’s arguably the best (and most engaging) way to get eyeballs on your work. All you need is a Yahoo! account. Go now.
Watch The Lunar Eclipse with Google Earth
Next eclipse in 2010
A total eclipse of the moon occurs tonight and will be visible from South America and most of North America and you can use Google Earth Sky to find out when and where for your location.
Frank Taylor writes on the Google Earth Blog, “Thanks to a some nice work by Michael Kosowsky of HeyWhatsThat.com, you can download a simple KML file that will let you use Google Earth Sky to view when and where tonight’s lunar eclipse will occur for your location.”
“Fast, simple, and free! The KML file for Google Sky is simple to load, and it will automatically guess your location on the Earth by guessing the location of your IP address. Make sure you select the ‘Switch to Sky’ mode when Google Earth prompts you. Double click on the ‘HeyWhat’s That.com’ placemark to position your view on the moon.”
Taylor says that based on your location, you will be able to view the green lines of a “planisphere” which illustrates your horizon in Google Sky. Taylor goes on to explain,” Cardinal points showing north, south, east, west; the positions of the moon and planets; and a special symbol representing the Earth’s shadow relative to the position of the moon. Not only that, but the time slider will be visible and you can drag the slider to determine precisely when the eclipse will occur.”
The last total lunar eclipse that could be visible from the United Sates happened on August 28, 2007. North Americans will have a chance to see the next total lunar eclipse on December 21, 2010.