Midwest Photo Safari
Midwest Photo Safari Newsletter March / April 2011 - Vol 1 Issue 20

Click HERE to view as a web page
In this issue:
  • what's new at MPS
  • photo tip of the month ...free image editors for the Mac
  • safarian "image gallery"
  • our current safaris
  • history tidbits

WHAT'S NEW AT MPS?

Our regularly scheduled Safaris for 2011 are now booking and running. Calendars for the St Anthony Falls Heritage Trail and the St. Paul Capital area are now online. 

We still have 2 openings for our North Shore Safari going out May 7th. With all the snow we have had this year, we have a sure  bet for some unforgettable images of Gooseberry Falls I am sure... Link HERE and sign on!

Our "Minneapolis Nights" tour now runs on the East Bank of the heritage trail AND coming soon, the Nicollet Mall! The popular Minneapolis Nights in the Mill District on the Heritage Trail runs Thursdays through Saturdays. On Sundays we will walk the new Nicollet Mall route. LINK HERE for the detail and sign up page.

If you are planning to do any of the Heritage Trail Safaris before May 31st, you may want to think about entering the "Seeing the Minneapolis Riverfront" photo contest that the Mill City Museum is hosting. Its a good chance to get one or more of your images displayed at the Mill City museum. If you are a former Safarian and have an image you took, why not enter it?... Click Here to link to details

OUR CURRENT SAFARIS NOW INCLUDE:

All of these safaris run Thursdays thru Sundays.

for complete schedules, visit our Web Site

MPS PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH

Freeware Image Editors

In this newsletter we look at some of the more popular image editors for the MAC available either free or at very reasonable shareware prices. Our last newsletter covered apps for the PC - If you missed our last newsletter, link to the archive HERE

FOR THE MAC

The GIMP is arguably the most powerful free photo editor available today. With that comes the Photoshop comparisons. Often lauded as the "free Photoshop," the GIMP does offer many features similar to Photoshop, but it has a steep learning curve to match.
http://www.gimp.org 
Seashore is a free pixel-based image editor for Mac OS X designed to offer features for image adjustments and a number of painting tools. The feature set isn't as powerful as GIMP, which is also available for OS X, though running through X11, but it will offer more than enough power for many users and can also use GIMP brushes and textures.
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.html

Pixen is a free (donation-ware) graphics editor for Mac OS X. It has been specially designed for pixel artists, but is also suitable for other types of pixel-based illustration and animation. It offers layers capabilities, animation features, a tile view, and features for working with restricted palettes. You can even assign a separate tool and color to the right mouse button.
http://opensword.org/Pixen

GraphicConverter is a multi-purpose graphics tool for converting, viewing, browsing, and editing hundreds of image types on the Macintosh platform. If there is a file format or image processing task that your existing software can't handle, chances are that GraphicConverter can do it if you're willing to tackle the learning curve. GraphicConverter is a worthwhile tool to have on-hand, but needs some serious work in the usability department. GraphicConverter is not free, but you can use the shareware without time limitation if you don't need batch processing features.
http://www.lemkesoft.com/

facebook 

Check us out on Facebook

Between our newsletters, we will be posting updates to our Photo Safaris and we are also working on some new photo albums to enhance our web galleries.

 Our Facebook pages are located here: MPS FACEBOOK

SAFARIAN IMAGE GALLERY

Our April 2011 image of the month is from Barb J. of Savage, MN. 

Barb captured the bold colors of the whimsical "jungle creatures" outside of the Rainforest Cafe at Mall of America on our Mall of America "mini" Safari recently. I call this one the "unwelcome passenger" that seems to be invoked by the tigers experssion.

 Nice work Barb!

HISTORY TIDBITS FROM OUR SAFARIS

On the West Bank (afternoon) Heritage Trail Safari, We visit and photograph 

First Bridge Park

 (from the Minneapolis Parks Board)

This park is located at the site of the first permanent bridge to span the Mississippi River at any point along its entire length. Four bridges of different structural types have been at this location throughout the years. First Bridge Park is  located under and adjacent to the Hennepin Ave. bridge There are several Interpretive markers providing historical information and photographs about the site. The park features a river-edge walkway with ornamental railings, lighting, other circulation features and landscaping. A continuous, curving seatwall along the back of the river-edge walkway offers many spots to sit and watch the river flowing by. The wall and other features are enhanced by many artist-designed whimsical bronze sculptures of water creatures. 

A large piece of native limestone quarried near the site has been cut and erected as a monumental art piece.

We combine Photography AND History on all of our Safaris to help you visualize and compose your images of the historically significant areas we tour.
 
Copyright © 2009 - 2010 -  2011 - Midwest Photo Safari
If you wish to cancel your subscription to this newsletter click here