Following right along the huge popularity of digital cameras came a host of new photo editing software programs.  Though photo editing software actually predates most modern digital photography.  Photos would be scanned into a computer to be digitally manipulated, it was digital photography that really allowed photo editing software to take off.

The best thing about photo editing software is that, combined with digital photography, it allows the consumer to do at home what used to be impossible without a full darkroom or professional photography studio.  Everybody can now digitally remaster their photos at home to make them much better than they were to begin with.

One of the most useful features of almost all photo editing software is that the software allows you to quickly and easily crop and re-size your photos.  Remember the feeling of getting a roll of 35mm photos back from the lab and finding that your thumb screwed up a great photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or Notre Dame?  Now, with a few clicks you can crop out your thumb, leaving an excellent, thumbless photo.

Another handy feature of nearly all photo editing software suites is that they allow you to alter the brightness and contrast of your photo with a few clicks of your mouse.  Aside from poor composition, which can usually be corrected with a little cropping, one of the most common causes of bad photos is that they’re either too light or too dark.  By adjusting the contrast and brightness sliders in your photo editing software you can’t save every photo, but you can save a lot of them and what’s even better, you can make your already good photos great.

Photo editing software varies from here quite a bit, depending on the manufacturer.  Some photo editing software, especially software which comes bundled with digital cameras, usually only has features for cropping, resizing, and adjusting brightness and contrast.  Other, more advanced programs like Adobe Photoshop will allow you to alter the brightness and contrast of each color in the photo relative to the rest of the colors, to work in adjustment levels and to add other visual filters to your photo.  You can even blend photos together or take a person from one photo and drop him or her into another.  This is helpful if your uncle keeps missing the family reunions.  Regardless of what software you use, all photo editing software can help you make your photos a lot better.

There is something very inexplicable and enthralling about Ancient Egyptian art.  The Ancient Egyptians were one of the most enigmatic cultures of our earliest recorded history.  We know just enough about the Ancient Egyptians to make us realize how complex and sophisticated their society was, yet not nearly enough to answer all our questions about them.  Personally, the one facet about their culture I am most mystified and intrigued by is their art.  Ancient Egyptian art provokes the feelings of mystery shrouding over their culture perfectly.  Clearly, they were a passionate, creative, and strangely harmonious people, and Ancient Egyptian art shares these qualities with its viewers.

Ancient Egyptian art has had a profound impact on art and architecture today as well.  If you look around, no matter what part of the world you live in you’re likely to see some buildings and art motifs that reflect the designs and themes commonly found in Ancient Egyptian art.  You probably don’t realize it in your day-to-day life, but when you are actively looking for it you see it everywhere.

There are a lot of Ancient Egyptian art works you can buy and hang around your house if you’re especially fond of it.  Obviously, they are not real Ancient Egyptian art, but they mimic real pieces very well.  Conveying the same sorts of mystic and intrigue into your home.  My friend’s wife spent some time living in Egypt and their house is filled with such artworks.  I feel a little bit like I’m visiting a museum when I am at their home.

Of course, real Ancient Egyptian artworks are priceless and pretty much found only in actual museum displays.  I love going to museums when they have an Ancient Egyptian art display up.  I’m not sure why, it’s just one of those cultures I’ve always been fascinated by.  If you live near any big city, there is probably a few museums near you that will at least once in awhile have some Ancient Egyptian art on display.

Even if you don’t live near any such museums, you can at least get a chance to see some Ancient Egyptian art by snooping around online.  There are some great web sites devoted to Ancient Egyptian art, giving you a sense of what it is like.  Then once you’ve seen enough of it, you’ll probably begin to notice all the subtle ways it continues to influence creative designs today.

I recently had the good fortune to be invited to an exclusive photography exhibition. Being an amateur shutterbug myself, I was thrilled at the prospect of seeing the work of a world renowned photographer. Especially so, as I’d heard that his latest subject was aerial photos. Sure, I’d seen aerial photos in the past. And what’s more, begun to appreciate them as an art form! But I didn’t have a clue what this particular exhibition of aerial photos had in store for me. And boy was I swept off my feet!

Called ‘Earth From Above’ this was an exhibition of a French photographer who specialized in taking aerial photos of different parts of the globe. There seemed to be no country that he hadn’t covered as a subject of his aerial photos. I was envious as I counted over 82 countries on the list that was handed out to the attendees. But then, you should have been there to see those excellent aerial photos. At first glimpse, you could barely make out what some of them were all about. I mean, for most of us, being used to seeing the world from a position where our feet are planted firmly on the ground, subjects of photography have come to symbolize and even signify a certain closeness. But when it comes to aerial photos, the perspective changes altogether. What seemed like millions of dots on a blue background actually turned out to be flamingos, gathered near a lake shore. And what appeared to be a marble painting of sorts, turned out to be the Great barrier reef from above, with swirling sands, shades of water and even a little boat placed in the frame to give us an idea of the enormity of the landscape.

Come to think of it, I really never wondered how aerial photos, which began as a science or defense project, came to become an art form capable of such excellent quality. Archives in most public libraries will reveal that aerial photos have existed ever since flight became a reality. But in their initial days, aerial photos were restricted to spy planes snooping over enemy areas of meteorological expeditions, intent on tracking the weather and other related phenomena. While those kinds of aerial photos served a purpose, and were often clinical imaging of subjects for study, the exhibition I had the opportunity to witness extended a certain class and élan to aerial photos.

Truth be told, beginners like me will never be able to undertake aerial photography. Even professionals, unless they are well funded professional photographers, will scarcely be able to afford the prohibitive costs of specialized cameras, logistics and the hiring costs of planes that are required in order to take aerial photos. Aerial photos and aerial photography demand a lot more than mere interest. They demand cold, hard cash which most of us can never afford. But then, thanks to a minority breed of well funded aerial photographers, the rest of us can enjoy aerial photos and see this fascinating world of ours from a few hundred to several thousand feet above. And believe me, unless you’ve seen the earth from above exhibition, you will never truly understand or even comprehend the beauty that lies in aerial photos.

Over the last 60 years since it was invented, there has almost been a cult around the use of this product. Would you believe that it was created for the military during World War II?  Originally called “duck tape”, this tape was used to keep moisture out of ammunition boxes. It gained it’s name after the aquatic bird for obvious reasons. It was nearly waterproof and it resembles ‘duck canvas’. Soldiers started using it for a variety of purposes other than for ammo boxes. As we all know, there are a thousand things you can fix with duct tape. It is sturdy, strong and lasts a long time.

The name duct tape came to use after the war, when its color was also changed from army green to silver and was used to help attach and seal metal ducting in construction. Now of course, you can find it in a variety of colors since it is no longer used only for ducting.

Here is the official record of how duct tape is made. Duct tape is a strong tape that is composed of three layers. The top layer is a resilient plastic (Polyethylene). The bottom layer is a rubber based adhesive. The middle layer is a fabric mesh. Duct tape is manufactured by pressing these three layers together. I learn something new every day.

What product other than duct tape can claim fame to have being used for repairing flat tires to making women’s dresses? Police even occasionally use duct tape to restrain unruly prisoners. It would take a 100 pages to describe all the things you can do with this product. Moreover, what other product has a fan club?

Duct tape is one of those things that you learn to use at a very early age. There is nothing better for an older sister to use to perhaps control an unruly younger brother, but don’t tell her that! Kids have found it the perfect answer to broken notebooks and binders. Artists use it to make Christmas decorations and other holiday displays. Fashion is not only dresses with this tape. There are also pants, shoes and hats all made with the same material. And how about the woman that put it around her waist so that she would look better in her wedding dress?  There are festivals and contests, so if you have your own special duct tape story, you might be admitted in the Hall Of Fame.

Looking at my  Ansel Adams poster, I am reminded of my last trip to the mountains. I’m not a mountain climber, I have a serious muscular illness which prevents me from being able to properly exert my upper body strength. But still, I have always looked to the mountains with a kind of love and longing. I’ve been blown away by their magnificence since I was 13 years old. I was raised in the mid-west, hundreds of miles from the nearest mountain range and never saw them until my parents bought an Ansel Adams poster for our living room.

I was just completely overawed by the spectacular detail of the rocky crags in the  Ansel Adams poster. It was as if he didn’t just capture the image of the mountain, but somehow brought back it’s soul as well. In that Ansel Adams poster was the image of a kinship with nature, the like of which I had never seen before. It was as if the photographer knew the mountain personally and had it pose it’s most splendid pose just for him.

It is that same  Ansel Adams poster which I now look at, as I remember my trip to the rockies. Usually you say that a picture doesn’t do it justice. I don’t think that in this case, that sentiment is exactly true. The  Ansel Adams poster is completely just with it’s subject matter. It is more that it doesn’t give it completeness. It isn’t just the epic scale or fantastic beauty of the mountains, which can be captured by the  Ansel Adams poster. It is what they do to you as an observer. They surround you, they tower over you, they overwhelm you in their multitudes and dizzy you with their scale. You can feel the icy air which has been propelled in frozen currents down their sides cut into your face. You feel giddy in the thin air. Although the  Ansel Adams poster captures the beauty of mountains, it never can capture their power over you.

But maybe Ansel Adams himself could feel this power, could give himself to it and be awed by the mountain. Maybe that is where Ansel Adams posters get their impressive power, not from the familiarity which the photographer had with his subject matter, but rather his awe and humility before it. Perhaps what makes Ansel Adams posters so great is that he never attempts to capture the experience of mountains in their entirety, knowing that that would be beyond anyone.

There are many advertising jobs available in todays market economy. For many artists and writers, they are the best way to make a career in their own chosen field. Companies will pay you huge amounts of money within just a few years if you are talented and efficient and most of all, a creative thinker who can get the advertising jobs done.

For artists especially, advertising jobs are plentiful. This is because of the visual nature of modern society. With the tremendous amount of information which is constantly flowing at us, few people take the time to read over just any old message they receive. To get their attention, something has to look slick, efficient and presentable. To do that, it needs good design. Corporate logos, graphics in tv commercials, business cards, layouts of presentations and web design are just a few of the areas in which advertising jobs require talented artists to do the work. And you don’t need any special training, besides artistic training, to get the job done.

For writers too, advertising jobs are the way to go. Not just writers, but anyone who has graduated school in the humanities and is trying to decide on a career. You wouldn’t even believe how many business people can’t write a decent English sentence. They completely depend on humanities types for almost any kind of communication. Memos, press releases, spin doctoring, advertising copy, special offers and many other areas of advertising jobs require your skill today. Within a few years, you could be making upwards of $100,000 every year!

There are many programs that offer training for advertising jobs, but really, the best way to go about getting one is just to apply to a company and acquire an entry level position. If your writing skills are strong and you are willing to work very long work weeks, then you will quickly advance through the ranks until you are really making the big bucks. This is simply too good an opportunity to let pass if you are like me, someone who loves the written language. Rather than going into law or management, I get to use my persuasive skills to advance the merits of my clients products on a daily basis. Life really just can’t get more fulfilling than getting paid to do what you love, especially if you are making the big bucks like advertising jobs pay.

We recently purchased, installed and began using Adobe Creative Suite at work. Although I am a diehard Quark fan, the cost of purchasing the software, was too cost prohibitive for our office. We opted for Adobe Creative Suite because it includes two of the industry standard tools for design - PhotoShop and Illustrator - and a contender for the title of number three: InDesign. So, like it or not, I have been forced to learn how to use Adobe’s layout tool and I must admit, I’ve come to like it.

At first, I balked at the differences between Quark and InDesign. Using Quark had come to be second nature for me. It’s so intuitive, I felt like it was an extension of my own body. So, it’s not surprising that making the switch to InDesign was somewhat painful for me. I can now use this tool quite adeptly, accomplishing pretty much anything I could previously do with Quark, much to Adobe’s credit.

Another bonus that is included in Adobe Creative Suite that I like is the image bank. I’ve installed it on my computer at work and it’s a great asset in my daily job. Part of my day’s work includes updating our Intranet home page with stories and imagery that relates to our region and workforce. The image bank included on the Adobe Creative Suite CDs is quite vast and a welcome resource when other image sources have become overused and exhausted.

We have recently installed Adobe Creative Suite at home. Although my husband is yet to be convinced about InDesign being a close contender to QuarkXpress, I’m quite confident that if he gives InDesign a run for it’s money, he will be pleased with the outcome and quickly become skilled in it’s use. I’ve even heard that you can have cloak InDesign to mimic Quark, if you really just can’t get the usability out of it with it’s current functionality.

In my opinion, releasing Adobe Creative Suite as a package deal was a marvelous move on the part of Adobe. They have revolutionized the tools used by designers across the industry, getting a stranglehold on the market. There will always be those who swear that Quark is better than InDesign, however, the purchase of InDesign is much more economical, especially when obtained as part of Adobe Creative Suite. The cost factor alone is likely enough to end this debate once and for all.

Many actors can proudly wear the brand of stardom.  Fewer can tote the banner of subtle sensuality, commanding grace and seamless work in every single role they play.  Anthony Quinn is one that did all of the above.  He traversed the boundaries of ethnicity, playing various roles wherein the Mexican-Irish star was a Greek, an Italian, a Filipino, a Mexican, a Native American and many other distinctly defined identities.  Never faltering or falling out of character, so convincing was he in each.

If you didn’t know he had died in June of 2001.  Anthony Quinn is at the top of all our lists of sexiest older male actors.  And not just for his undaunted masculinity and sex appeal but Quinn had a versatility, an ability to cross genres without compromise.  A gift for switching roles and registers that inevitably earned him two Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards and numerous accolades.

Think of “Viva Zapata!”, for which Quinn won his first Oscar.  He played the boozing, carousing romantic Eufemio, a foil to Marlon Brando’s Emiliano Zapata.  Consider his starring role as Paul Gauguin in “Lust for Life”, for which he won his second Oscar.  He plays the balance in the dickering, challenging, competitive friendship with fellow artist Kirk Douglas’s Van Gogh.  There was his passionate rendition of Santiago in the TV adaptation of Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea”, a performance many might say deserved more recognition.  And his endearing Nick Acropolis, attempting to court the uninterested Rose Muldoon, played by Maureen O’Hara.

We could revisit each of the over 160 roles the Chihuahua born (1915) Anthony Quinn played in dramas, comedies, westerns, numerous other genre films and TV series and shows.  We could appreciate the many dedicated sites that speak his praises, but better, we could also rent or buy the films and revisit and confirm how we esteemed the stunningly flexible and fine actor in memoriam.

As a child, I often dreamt of becoming a film maker. I know, I know, many people have the same dream. Individuals like Steven Spielberg actually go out and buy a movie camera, so that they can start making that dream a reality. This is a wise choice. I heard he even took it as far as hanging out on movie sets, uninvited. Man, that guy was born to be a director. Just look at where he is today. Is there any director bigger? I doubt it! It’s funny where an idea or dream can take you. For those who are completely determined, it can be all the way to the top. Maybe you want to make movies when you grow up.

These days there are plenty of wanna be directors and movie producers out there. Many of them are taking advantage of a simple movie camera and the Internet. This is a great idea. Make a short film or full length picture. It takes less funding than many expect. Just picture things on a small scale. Kevin Smith is the paradigm in this regard. He maxed out his credit cards to make a “cult classic” film called “Clerks.” Hey, we all love this flick. No one cares if the actors are were his buddies or that the film was shot in black and white with a low grade movie camera. It’s the finishing piece that matters. It’s hilarious! Now he makes bigger budget films, because he now has some clout. This is a typical process in Hollywood. You slowly climb to the top.

A perfect example of an idea and a cheap movie camera is “The Blair Witch Project.” Was this film great? Well, not in my opinion. I thought it was infinite shots of the dark ground and people screaming.  It’s the simplicity and concept that drew audiences in. These guys didn’t need an expensive movie camera or big celebrities. As a matter of fact, I think they used a hand held. Anyway, they built the Blair Witch legend up so much on the Internet that everyone started believing it was a true story. Therefore everyone went to see it and it brought in a fortune. That’s pretty sweet since it cost practically nothing to make. Hey, maybe you’ve got an idea and a movie camera. Well, what are you waiting for?

Stained glass gifts make excellent presents for all occasions. One of the greatest things about stained glass gifts is that each one is a unique work of art. Although some are cast and others are handmade, the dying is a deeply individual project undergone by a specific artist to make a unique creation for you to give to a friend or lover. Stained glass jewelry, in my opinion, is especially elegant. It has an exquisite delicateness to it, the tiny bits of stained glass glowing in luminous designs which are fascinating to inspect.

Another of my favorites, and probably the most classic of all stained glass gifts, is the sun catcher. This is a pane of colored glass designed to be hung in a window. When the sun shines through it, it creates different colors corresponding to whatever image it depicts, and shines a beautiful projection of it into the room. What makes sun catchers such great stained glass gifts is that they become part of your daily life. Any time the sun is out and shining, you can see its rays reflected in the luminous, multicolored hues of the sun catcher, adding a touch of brilliance to the whole room.

If sun catchers are a type of stained glass gifts which you really appreciate, you might consider purchasing a kit instead of a finished one. Although sun catchers make great stained glass gifts, kits also do for their own reasons. First of all, a great thing about a kit is that you get to customize it making the decisions about exactly what colors it has. Besides, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you made it, even if not completely. Finally, many people really just like to have a project to do with their hands, and sun catcher kits are a stained glass gift which allow them to do just that.

If you like stained glass gifts, you might also like blown glass. Unlike stained glass, blown glass comes in a variety of different organic forms, such as vases, lamps and many other things. And there are as many varieties of blown glass as there are stained glass gifts. Perhaps more. Blown glass has even more uniqueness than stained glass, because very often there is not one central design to it, but on the contrary, each piece is the individual vision of the artist who made it. There is only one in the world.