Monkey See, Monkey Do

There's a new kid in town, being developed by some of the folks who did Picnik. Moody, isn't it?

Here's the original.

Here is the Gypsy we know and love...

And here is Gypsy after Picmonkey.

PicMonkey has a ton of features that will delight the tortured soul (and aren't we all) who want to play with their photos but don't have Photoshop.

Now, I confess, I never did play much with Picnik -- I didn't have the time. But when our IT person sent this link for us to practice with for work purposes -- well, I had to get informed! It would just be wrong not to!

Here are a few more examples. The original...

After Monkeying around!

This is my friend Jerry's courtyard in Paris before...

...and after!

And here is the gate to the cemetery where Monet is buried...

...and here's my Monkey version.

I share the photos below and their story with some hesitation, but I think it speaks to the power of photo techniques to alter a mood. This photo is of Kevin, who will graduate from college this June, taken when he was about 10. It was a glorious day at the lake as we rowed across in a rowboat way too big for him to handle, but there he was, gamely rowing away.

This photo is after alteration. I shared it with Rick, rather proud of myself with what I had done. His reaction was quite different, an extremely physical and emotional one, as he saw his youngest son, pushing forward into the future, while Kevin's brother and Rick were fading in the background.

What was a summer memory shot had become an emotionally charged imaged wrapped in memories. A different photo and experience altogether.

Now, I haven't refined this at all -- in fact, in the spirit of overkill, all of these were done using nearly all of the features (on the same photo). But I'm loving to play around with it. Give it a shot!

NOW AT CHOPSTICKS AND STRING: A look at Paula Byrne's "Mad World," a biography of Evelyn Waugh and the events and people that inspired "Brideshead Revisited."