As a mom I am constantly taking photos, copying them to my computer and never looking at them again. It is not that I don’t want to share my photos but I am Photoshop illiterate not to mention that some of my photos are not as great as I thought they were when I took them. Some of them are dark, the colors are off, there is too much background, the kids or dogs have red eye, etc. and the last thing that I want to do is send a photo of the devil dog with red eyes to my family and friends.

Resizing my photos has also been an issue for me. I don’t know how to get them to fit into an email, onto my blogs or small enough to send as attachments to friends and family through my email server without the help of Photoshop.

Not anymore, I was recently introduced to the web site www.picnik.com. I now have the confidence to manipulate my photos and share them, plus, it is easy and free.

I know that moms like me don’t have a lot of time to deal with photo manipulation, may not have Photoshop, and need to be able to fix and save their photo as quickly and easily as possible.

With that in mind, I am happy to share my Cool Mom Find with all of the other busy, technology adverse moms like me.

So, what is Picnik? Picnik is a photo manipulation site that eliminates the need for Photoshop. Being a photo manipulation novice, I did not know where to start and with the help of Picnik I can walk through all of the steps from uploading my photos to saving and sending them in a matter of minutes. I can resize them to fit any format with the click of my mouse and I can save them anywhere -my computer, facebook, myspace, Flickr, Picasa and more.

Here is what they have to say on their home page:

* Fix your photos in just one click

* Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results

* Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time

* Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun

* Astoundingly fast, right in your browser

* Awesome fonts and top-quality type tool

* Basketfuls of shapes from hand-picked designers

* Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux

* No download required, nothing to install

The site has become a staple in my photo world and I wanted to share it with other moms who love taking photos, need a little help with photo manipuliation, but love to share them with friends and family.

 Here are some before and after shots that took me literally 5 minutes or less to create.

                      Before Manipulation                                        After Picnik

(all photos were resized to 250 x 190 - Picnik)

My photos are by no means professional quality but now I can at least send them without total embarrassment! I hope that this site helps you as it did me. Good luck with your photos and have some fun!

Off to make another Mommy Milestone.