Getting Dirty In The PaintShop.

The word photoshop is a "brand that has become a verb", like Xerox and, of course, Google. Most people know what it means to photoshop an image, and that's what I've done to these images. I don't use Photoshop though; I'm still using an image editing program from 1999 called Paint Shop Pro 7. The people who wrote the software (JASC Software) were bought out by Corel in 2004 and the company ceased to exist.

These first three are done simply, and on the same principle. Open a blank image (a palette, if you will) twice or more bigger than your image of a tree. Copy that image onto the blank palette, then copy it again, flip the second copy over, line them up and...Voila! A tree on a lake. The second and third images are just variations on that approach.

You can layer in other images, and sometimes things get a little weird.

Self-portrait.

Black and white...

and color. Sandi, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ.