I was recently ‘tagged’ for a Meme twice in the past three days by my friends Justin McHood and Calie Waterhouse. As you probably already know a Meme is a blog post that usually tells others several things about you on a personal level that they probably don’t already know. Then, at the end of the Meme the writer of the blog post ‘tags’ 7 other people to write one about themselves. This variation requires me to tell you 7 things about me that have nothing to do with Real Estate. Before you know it we will be playing the infamous game show “Too Much Information.”

So, without further ado, lets play TMI with our guest D. Patrick Lewis.

1. I am a political junkie. I am the Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee for the Scottsdale Area Association of REALTORS and am a member of the Legislative Committee for the Arizona Association of REALTORS. I feel it is one of the best ways for me to give back to my industry and my community.

2. I enjoy gardening. I have found this activity to be a great stress reliever and very therapeutic.

3. I love to cook. Cooking is something I picked up along the way and also find it to be very therapeutic.

4. I am the son of an architect. My father was an architect in the Phoenix area for about 30 years and did some amazing work. Unfortunately I did not get his drawing ability but I did get his passion for creativity and design.

5. I love dachshunds. I can’t help it, my family has owned dachshunds my entire life, I love their disposition and attitude. My wife and I own two, Elliot is 10 years old and Shiloh is 6 months old.

6. I sunburn easily.

7. I love to camp, hike and backpack. Some of my earliest and happiest memories are of camping and backpacking with my father in the various canyons and campgrounds throughout Arizona. I can’t wait to create those same memories with my children.

Well, there you have it, my Meme. I hope it was as exciting as you anticipated and you learned something you didn’t already know about me.

Now is the time that I get to ‘tag’ 7 other people that I would like to know more about, and they are:
Phil Sexton
Sarah Stelmok
Paul Slaybaugh
Tyler Hurst
Shailesh Ghimire
Todd Tarson
Gary Miljour

I just wanted to share a quick story with you. Two weeks ago my wife and I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens Chihuly Glass Exhibit, which was blogged about on this site last week, and I took some pretty good pictures.  Shortly after I got the pictures uploaded to my Flickr page I received a challenge from Sarah Cooper, @sarahwv to you twitter folk, to create a slide show that was as good as her Chihuly slide show she created, which you can see here.  So, I accepted her challenge and created a slideshow and posted it to my Flickr page.  Well, as a result the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau liked it so much they have put it up on their site to promote the area, you can view it here.

It is just another example of how Social Media can create opportunities for you and your business.

As a Professional REALTOR® I spend a lot of time editing and retouching photos. Therefore, one would naturally assume that I use Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements but one would be incorrect in assuming that.  Don’t get me wrong both products are outstanding at what they do, but they are very robust and very expensive and much more horsepower than the average real estate professional need.

So, I have assembled a list of six FREE alternatives that may not be as robust but will provide a more than satisfactory amount of features for the average user and a significantly less painful hit to the wallet.  Please feel free to comment with what your experience has been with any of these products.

1. Snipshot is a web based somewhat bare bones site and offers the usual assortment of editing and enhancement capabilities.
2. Picnik is another web based photo editing site that allows you to pull photos from multiple social networking sites and has a much cleaner and friendlier interface than most.  But, sadly, Picnik still only offers the standard editing capabilities, unless you upgrade of course.
3. Paint.NET is a software program that only works on Windows machines but provides a much more robust photo enhancement experience. It is pretty easy to use and has a lot of tools such as a gradient tool, layers, special effects and a text editor.
4. Splashup is another web based photo editor that provides more functionality than most, you can do multiple image editing, adjust pixels and add depth with layers.  This site also allows you to pull photos from some social networking sites.
5. The Gimp is an outstanding software program with an tool set that rivals Photoshop Elements. It has plugins so you can add functionality to it and a huge forum that you will need to use often because it is not the easiest program to use. Granted, they changed some of the feel and names of commands to match Photoshop but there is still a learning curve with it.
6. Fotoflexer is another web based photo editor that is, in my opinion, the best web based photo editor out there, for free.  Not only can you pull photos from many photo and social networking sites but you can edit a photo from your computer without uploading it to the site. It has impressive functionality with a clean and easy to use interface.

I know I have omitted many other sites out there but these are the ones I have experience with. I look forward to your comments.  Happy editing.