House keeping

For a while I've been looking for an application that can do some basic photo editing. Nothing flashy; just a bit of cropping, making collages and adding text to photos. Why doesn't there seem to be any shareware out there that does this?

Inspired by Christine I've downloaded a copy Pixelmator. When I asked around Pixelmator seems to be the application that everyone hasn't heard of. A Mac only, cheap and easy to use image editor it seems to be more than I need so far. There appears to be a real community on the web for the app, with lots of 'how to' pages and YouTube videos out there.

My first, rather dismal, effort is the new header on my blog. I've tried to give a sense of place with this header. From left to right we have:

The Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London. I moved to London when I left university and bought my first, and only, house nearby.

I visited Sydney twice before I moved here to live eighteen months ago. This photo of the Opera House roof was taken on my first visit to Sydney in 2005. On my first ever day in Sydney, the tiles of the roof glistening in the sunlight took my breath away.

I was lucky enough to live in Manhattan for three months in 2008. A fantastic city it was like living in a movie set every single day. The photo was taken in a classic US diner located in Summit, New Jersey. The corned beef hash they served was legendary.

The Atacama desert which spans Chile and Bolivia is a memory from one of my favourite holidays. Stunning natural beauty that is unsurpassed in anywhere else I have visited.

The final photo is of Talkin Tarn in Cumbria. Close to the home of my grandparents it's a beautiful part of the world and somewhere I always manage to relax.