Grand Rapids Michigan Real Estate Blog

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Barns Away! - A Digital Photo Editing Essay

We went on a volunteer mission to Caledonia, Michigan, a rural community south

of Grand Rapids today, delivering flyers for a local Amy Grant Concert at our local

Fine Arts Center.  We always take our camera along when we travel to capture local

interest pictures.

When we got home, I began playing around with the editing of this abandoned barn

photograph.  Below is the photo just as it was taken - unedited.

abandoned Michigan barn

 

Now, here is the same photo below touched up with sharpness, contrast and lighting tweaked:

abandoned Michigan barn

It appears crisper, more weathered and with a lot more interest in the shape of the trees

to me.

Now, here is the same photo below in sepia. I really like this effect with this subject.

abandoned Michigan barn

There is even more contrast and it appears more weathered. A really great effect with this 

barn.

 

The version below is altered with light and toning through gamma, contrast and brightness

editing.  It has a ghostly look to me.

abandoned Michigan barn

 

Below is the same photo in grey scale, it really tones down the light and color and makes

it appear foggy and much more monotone, as if it was taken at dusk.

abandoned Michigan barn

 

 

Below is the photo with a negative effect - with the light and dark features reversed.

abandoned Michigan barn

 

The final editing was done with color hue and saturation, a totally different look for the 

same photo.  It looks like spring and green things growing with green tint emphasized.

abandoned Michigan barn

This photo essay was just for fun to show you some of the effects you can get with 

basic digital photo editing.  I don't have anything fancy - this was done with PhotoSuite

software that came with our camera -a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1

It is fairly easy to get those "special effects", have some fun with your photo editing.

Bonnie

_____________________________________________

The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate,

the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in

West Michigan.  We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!

search for Grand Rapids homes Find Grand Rapids Home Value Grand Rapids Relocation Guide

Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

                          Contact Terry   616-292-7263

OUR FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

________________________________________________________

 

 

 

Are You Reading Your RSS Like a Pro??

With all the technology, widgets, flyers, social media hype, it is easy to

overlook the basic tools on the web.  I'm talking RSS.

I subscribe to RSS NEWS FEEDS and blogs because it is the fastest, most

efficient way to see if there is new info out there that I want to read. 

If you haven't investigated or signed up for your news and blogs this way,

I strongly suggest you DO IT NOW!!!

sharing ideas

Laura Bergells, on Chief Information Officer blog, has an excellent point by

 point post on WHY and HOW you should use RSS.

RSS feeds not only update you quickly on what is being posted by your

favorite bloggers, it is also food for blogs.  Let's face it, we all just

disseminate information to each other.  If you aren't out there gathering 

 from the INFO TREE, you will have nothing new to interest readers.

 

A great site for RSS Lists is www.Alltop.com

Here is a typical page on Aviation for today.

 

             So go ahead and RSS. 

You will never go back to the old way of

searching out information by Google or Yahoo!.

 

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty

Copyright 2009 All rights reserved

 

 

 

_____________________________________________

The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate,

the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in

West Michigan.  We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!

search for Grand Rapids homes Find Grand Rapids Home Value Grand Rapids Relocation Guide

Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

                          Contact Terry   616-292-7263

OUR FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

________________________________________________________

 

 

 

Jing!! What a feeling! Free and Fun to Use Video Software

I just ran into a product called the Jing Project. I just saw it used and was

intrigued.

 I downloaded the free software and created my first Jing Project.

It is quite easy to use and I can think of many uses, from giving instructions

 to clients to just explaining how to complete an online task.

I hope you have fun with it. My first attempt was to explain how to do a

search on our MLS, just to show off how the Jing Software works. 

 

 Just click here to start the video.

 

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty

Copyright 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_____________________________________________

The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate,

the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in

West Michigan.  We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!

search for Grand Rapids homes Find Grand Rapids Home Value Grand Rapids Relocation Guide

Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

                          Contact Terry   616-292-7263

OUR FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

________________________________________________________

 

 

 

Me & My Tablet Computer in RE World

"I write this after many months of talking about the possibility of going to a

paperless solution.  Within 2 weeks I will embark on the trail of my first

transaction with at least minimal paper by buying a HP 2710 Tablet Computer."

This was one of my first posts on Active Rain. I have been using the

HP 2710 Tablet for almost a year now.  For those of you considering going

this route, I will give you my opinion on using it every day.

me & my tablet computer

 

I find I learn something every time I use the tablet. Buyers and sellers

love the technology.  Although they feel uncomfortable using the digital

pen to sign lots of forms, it is great for the occasional document that

needs to be completed. The digital pen has a button on the side of it

that  acts like a right click and clients feel like they might cause a

problem if they accidentally push it.  It just locks up the screen,

annoying but no big deal.

The biggest issue is when I send a form from my system to another

and the receiving computer has an older version of Adobe than I have.

 It will show the signatures or additions to the document on the screen

 but when you print  the document, they don't show up on the printed

version. I'm sure this will be corrected eventually.  In the future I believe

 we will be using this technology every day but for now, it is the exception.

 

Using the tablet in presentations, especially a listing situation with the

air card to connect to the web, I can show my clients what we do for

them on-line. Along with the power point presentation, this high tech 

approach does make the client feel like we offer more than the competition.

 

I would recommend using the Tablet computer for everyday real estate.

 My original tablet computer blog

 

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate  Westbrook Realty

All rights reserved copyright 2008

photo of the tablet guy by Bonnie Westbrook

_____________________________________________

The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate,

the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in

West Michigan.  We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!

search for Grand Rapids homes Find Grand Rapids Home Value Grand Rapids Relocation Guide

Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

                          Contact Terry   616-292-7263

OUR FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

________________________________________________________