Family, Trucks, Country and PicMonkey

Sometimes you just can't help but love the place you've chosen to live. Some might say we are silly
for living in the country, but how can you not love this view?  It always amazes me to see the landscape and colors changing before your eyes as the seasons pass.



I know some of you recognize the view below. This is quite a different view than what you may have seen. Some of you may even have been lucky enough to climb to the top of  Vroman's Nose and look down on the acres and acres of produce fields in this rich valley.

Rays of light behind Vroman's Nose added with PicMonkey

Yesterday while at a family get together we decided to have an impromptu photo shoot with the family and their vehicles. Why yes, of course, in the country we have to have TRUCKS. And not just any trucks , mind you, they have to be diesel and must be a Ford or a Chevy.

Photo by Kelly M.  - unedited

So here's my crazy family and their significant others having fun in the country with their trucks.  But who , or what, is PicMonkey? Well PicMonkey is an online photo editing tool that I've been fooling around with for awhile. I like to have the tools to edit and be creative with photos, but I don't have Photoshop or any of the expensive software. PicMonkey is free but also provides additional features if you choose to pay for an upgrade.  After using the free version for awhile, I chose to splurge and purchase one month of the full upgrade. I'm not quite sure yet if I'll even use all the cool features. We'll have to wait and see. 

So here are some of the photos and creative edits you can make with PicMonkey.  Most have been color optimized due to a very hazy night; not the best for taking photos. 

Uncle Dave and Cousins -  Lindsay, Austin, Cody

So you expected all boys, right?  Well the youngest here, just traded her first car in for her own diesel not to long ago. Pretty cool huh?

A bit more blue was added in the sky on this one. 

Notice the spotlight in the middle of this one. 

Black and white are always in style. 

This is an actual haze effect. 

The two above were actually cropped from one photo. 

A fun frame, one of many. 

This is my favorite - the effect is called Urban Glow. 

You can also create collages of the individual photos you took.

As I peruse through Pinterest, I see many of the bloggers use PicMonkey to make labels and all kinds of crafty paper goods for the home. I plan on using it to make labels for my classroom in the fall. 

Do you have a favorite photo editing program you like to use?  Please share by leaving a comment or just let me know what you think. 

Now  was that "country" or what? 

Enjoy,