A prolific photographer and editor, she has a Facebook fan site devoted to her photography, called Berre’s Creation. Her number one rule in life is to choose a job which really makes you happy, so it won’t feel like a job anymore. Through photography, she found a job she loved, and Picnik made her photography happen. Therefore, she adds, history starts at zero, if the zero is in the right place. And her history started with Picnik.

Picnik: How did you first hear about Picnik, and when was that?
Nagehan: Tuesday, 2 November, 2010, at 7:58 am. It all seems like yesterday! I was surfing the net to find a program to make me feel relaxed and busy with my photos when I saw Picnik’s link. When I first entered [the app], I’ll never forgot that I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Because some of sides of my moods can be bloody, the original reason to stick with Picnik was the Halloween effects. I have never seen such original effects before. So, I spent all my time making scary photos. Then, of course, day by day, I met all the colors and smells of Picnik’s wonderful world. I laid a blanket and started Picniking.

How has Picnik changed your life?
I have never thought that a program can change your perspective to life before I met Picnik. It has given me a priceless aspect towards human beings and creatures. When you decide to retouch a photo, you can easily realize what’s wrong, and after fixing it, you get learn that nothing is perfect, except with your care and painstaking attention.

All people tend to like and adore aesthetic images, faces, bodies, arts etc… When you have the power of touch of aesthetic, you feel self-confident. Picnik has given me more courage for life. Because I have found what I am. I love photography and I have a channel when I am home alone with Picnik.

What did you like most about Picnik when you first started using it, and what do you like the most about it now?
I admired Halloween effects. I spent all my nights making scary photos. At those times, I was impressed with a vampire film, so seeing the Halloween effects made me feel like I’d discovered a treasure island. But nowadays, after getting better acquainted with Picnik, I like the Advanced settings, mostly Curves. Some of the time Cross Process sits well on my photo, another time I’m tempted by Polaroid, sometimes Dramatic Sepia cleans all dust :) So I use them as a trilogy: Dramatic-Polora-Xpro :)

One of the most striking features of your photos are the eyes in your portraits. What is the best feature in Picnik for bringing out the personality of your subject?
Eyes are the crucial part of the body language. Facial expression always completes its meaning with eyes. So I give special time to the eyes. When I want to bring out the personality of my subject, I always dress the photo with Cross Process. So with this feature, it makes it feel as if you have eye contact!

What do you use to shoot with?
When I read the question, a quote has come to my head: “When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!” ~Ted Grant

I think your best feature that reflects the spirit of the photos is Dramatic Sepia! I always want to use this feature to put an end to express the meaning. But I have never used this feature on a photo except one which my shoulder and peace hand necklace placed in it… I believe in using Dramatic Sepia on nude photos is the best use of it.

Some of your most interesting photos have been taken by friends and retouched by you. What do you look for when you look for photos to edit?
This is the most sensitive spot of the interview. When I look at a photo, something terrific happens in my mind. As if, a Picnik simulation is working in my mind: Advanced, curves, custom, decrease RGB, put cross process, a little touch up, blazing the eyes…

Some points such as eyes, air, a good color arrangement, historical places arouse the desire to make photo retouching… But, the most important one is, a photo should be photographed by me or I should be the one being photographed. I couldn’t retouch a photo found on internet if it is not a request. Nowadays, because of needing a higher resolution camera, current photos arouse less desire to retouch a photo, because, I think all Picnikers know that if they are not changed, current photos starts to be boring. So, I should photograph all the time, and it should be higher resolution. Now I am a retoucher but I suppose Picnik will turn me into a real photographer.

What inspires you to pull out your camera?
I like objects as tennis ball, poker chips, chess pieces, necklaces…etc. I generally put an object that belongs to me in my photo that has been either photographed by me or my friend. So when I see an interesting object that inspires me to pull out my camera. Sometimes, when I realize a good color arrangement on myself between nail polish, lipstick and necklace, I want to photograph it with a great excitement.

If any feature of Picnik were to be named after you, which would it be?
It would be a great honor ;) Polaroid.

What’s one new feature you wish Picnik could have?
I wish there could be spotlights effect, stencil graffiti, (color) charcoal sketch, burnt paper, vintage, water drops, linocut, cartoon features. There may be some ways to reach some effects I mentioned by using advance tab, but I wish there could be some specific buttons for spotlight effect, linocut and cartoon feature.

Add the Go Pink! and Frame it Pink Effects or add a pink ribbon Sticker to the photos you share.  Make your voice heard by tweeting your Pink-ified photos, showing them off on Facebook, emailing them out to friends, or adding them to the Picnikers group on Flickr.

Join us in spreading the word about early detection, prevention, and a cure.

Since her ascendency to the administrative chair in April, Trish Isenor, the group admin, has managed a 459% increase in membership and 19 contest topics ranging from subjects as varied as “Best Party Pictures,” “Best Shopping Pictures,” “In Memory Of…” and “Camping”. Ahh, the joys of youth.

So attention all Facebooking Picnikers! Join this group! But as of this week’s theme “Sunsets and Nice Scenery Summer Photos”, all the first prize winners get free three-month Picnik Premium subscriptions!

Small print: it’s just for fun (and prizes!) and Trish and her friends are doing this on their own so any technical questions should be directed towards Team Picnik Members via the Feedback Button inside Picnik.

Because of her talent and because she was using Picnik exactly how some of us dreamed our users would, and because she’s been with us since the beginning of our relationship with Facebook, Katie soon became a sort of icon for us, an archetype for everything a Facebooking Picniker can be, and everything our users can be capable of. So, of course, we had to feature her for our inaugural Featured Picniker post.

A student at the University of New Brunswick and a native of the port city of Saint John, across the Bay of Fundy from Nova Scotia, Katie is taking a bachelor of arts, with plans to become a teacher. As Team Picnik quickly discovered, she’s easiest to get ahold of through her Facebook account, where she’s got 11 groups, 600 friends, and 93 photo albums. So we asked her a few questions.

Katie first heard of Picnik about this time last year, right around the time Picnik launched on Facebook. “I just found it while looking for a good distraction from studying for exams. Success.” When we asked her how it has changed her life, she quips, “It’s brought me from rags to riches,” then adds, laughing, “Not really, but it surely gives me a place to get creative and share some of my stuff I come up with in my spare time. Boredom is never an option when Picnik’s around.” Of her friends, she says she’s started “quite a few of them, actually!” using Picnik, and she uses a little Sony Cybershot, “which has been through its share of hardships, including a little dip into a lake.”

Have her favourites changed since she started using Picnik a year ago? “At first, I lived for the Duo-Tone effect, but now I rarely edit a picture without the presence of Cross Process or Cinema Scope. Those two are genius. I always throw a little bit of text into most of my pictures too.” Where are her influences in her work? “I’ve been inspired by a lot of my friends’ photography actually. You don’t need a big, expensive camera and a Hawaiian beachfront property to find a gorgeous photo op; although, it would be nice.”

We asked her, if any feature of Picnik were to be renamed after her, which one would it be? “Oooh I’d probably have to go for “Photo Pixel-Kate [for pixelate]“, since my name sort of fits in there!” Heroes or Lost? “I actually don’t watch much TV at all. I’m more of a music kinda gal.” If Picnik were a character in either, “If I watched either… Picnik would be the best characters in each show!”

We asked her what is one new feature she wishes she could have. “Well in all honesty, and not trying to sound cliché, but I couldn’t think of one more thing to add to Picnik. It has everything you need for a great photo-editing frenzy.” And finally, we wanted to know how it feels to be probably the most often mentioned Picnik user ever in Picnik World Headquarters. Katie demurs, and says she can’t wrap her head around it, considering how many talented people there are using Picnik besides her. “I’m no superstar, but it definitely feels incredible to be looked at in such a cool light!”

Mike is deep in the banking part of the e-commerce industry this week.  He is building the back end support for the subscription system… making it a solid experience so our Premium users can continue Picniking without a hitch.

Brian is working on very related stuff building and integrating the front-end aspects of the subscription system.  But also (spoiler alerts!) he is adding new fonts and shapes!  What I’ve seen over his shoulder is WAY cool… carrying some momentum from early design work Peter had laid out.

Jonathan and Monica have been connecting us with tons of reviews and write-ups… even a little TV action!  I’ll get a list together in the next few days for you to check out.

I won’t run down everyone today, you can see what I’m up to… especially if you’ve sent feedback lately. :)

BTW – did you know you can add Picnik as a Facebook application?  Do a search for “Picnik” on facebook, or just click this link.

Shouts to our Flickr and Facebook user groups!

- Picnik de Fotos… Hola!
- *picnik addicts * BFF!

For the past month or so I’ve been immersing myself in all things Facebook, and you’ve already been enjoying some of the fruits of my labor (such as attaching photos to wall posts and browsing your Facebook friends’ photos). Well, today we released an update that will make our integration with Facebook even more seamless: you can now skip the approval step when saving your photos to a Facebook album. And even better, you can also edit photos you’ve already uploaded and then save them right back to Facebook.

We’ve got plenty of other exciting things coming down the pipeline, but I’ll leave that news for another time. Enjoy the new Facebook features, and have a great weekend!

Type has landed! By far the feature you’ve requested the most, Type has at last been added to our Create tools. You can find it next to Special Effects, and LOL to your heart’s content. Or you can say serious, meaningful things too. Check back for an ever-evolving type tool as we tirelessly strive for typographic perfection.

Facebook Friends Photo browsing. Now you can browse not only your own photos but all your friends’ as well, including photos other people have taken, tagged with your friends’ names. In the Photos tab, under Facebook, click the Facebooker dropdown menu. Your friends’ worlds are at your fingertips!

Facebook Post to My Newsfeed. Quick shortcut to push any photo (yours or your friends’) right to your Newsfeed. In Picnik, either click the new checkbox while saving a photo, or click the little gear menu beneath the thumbnail while browsing under the Photos tab. Your world is at your friends’ fingertips!

Facebook one-click photo editing. If you have Picnik installed in your Facebook account (click here if you don’t!), you’ll now be able to edit your own and your friends’ profile pics in just one click! You’ll also notice new edit links inside your Picnik Profile box that will let you pull those pics straight into Picnik.

The wheels are turning fast here at Picnik World Headquarters, so keep checking back for more thrilling updates!

 Update: Facebook is back!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we have over 200k users on Facebook, and we’d love to see more. When we were not attending to family and civic duties, we were quietly polishing our Facebook experience. We really like how it has turned out. If you haven’t tried Facebook yet, go sign up! Facebook is open to all users now, not just the elitist college folk. And if you’re already a Facebook user, be sure to check out the Facebook-enabled version of Picnik. Facebook users can try it out here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2258014869&b.

And last, but most certainty not least, I’d like to welcome the newest member of the Picnik team, Monica Harrington, marketing guru. The attentive readers of our blog probably noticed that Monica and I share a last name and quickly jumped to some kind of relationship conclusion.  You are probably right, but it’s only through a quirk of fate. Monica and I are married, but Harrington is her maiden name. Mine too.  It was a nice convenience when we got married, but family reunions can be a little confusing. It’s great to be working with Monica again. We haven’t worked together since the Valve days. As much as I’m looking forward to working with Monica, I’m especially happy to be working with her assistants, Frank and Emma.

Monica and her assistants. 

Rumor of the day: Text. Stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone for adding us and for all the great feedback! We’re stunned, thrilled, and downright giddy. Stay tuned as we work out kinks and come up with some great new Facebook features.