Pixlr: The Poor Man’s Photoshop.

I love my header. It’s a picture of a majestic buffalo in front of a beautiful Northwestern landscape. Isn’t it awesome? It reflects the name of my blog perfectly because you can see one buffalo cheek. You can probably guess what the other cheek looks like. And if you think the buffalo has a cheek on his rear, then you’re wrong because only apes, humans, and other animals that aren’t buffalos have buttocks. Alright, I’m done giving you this biology lesson that you don’t really need.

Anyway, this was the first picture I uploaded, and I felt reluctant to edit it on Pixlr because I had already edited the hell out of it on Picasa with the 1960’s filter and with some brightness tuning. Then I read the assignment, and thought, “Sure, I could edit this picture on Pixlr… why not?” So I went to Pixlr and before I knew it, I was looking at an affordable Photoshop! They are almost identical to each other. The only difference is that one of them costs hundreds of dollars, plus tax, and a hint of buyer’s remorse. So I uploaded my picture and I used the burn tool on the sky to make it darker, which was totally useless in the end because I had to crop it out so you can see this cool buffalo. Now you can only see like 4% of the sky in the header. After burning the sky a bit, I adjusted the brightness and contrast, which I liked a lot because it gave the picture a cool vintage vibe to it. I think this new header also adds a little bit more color to my page, compared to the older one.

Pixlr works like a charm, and now I feel like I don’t have an excuse to not get birthday, mother’s day, and father’s day cards for my friends and family. I can simply find a few pictures online, make them look cool with some editing, write a few nice words, and voila — a brilliant card that I can make from the comfort of my own home without having to waste time standing in a long line at Target. I have underestimated Pixlr, but now I know its full potential. Go try it out for yourself.

I hope you’re doing well,

—Buffalocheeks