Hi all,

This is my first post on BT, though I have lurked around the site for a couple of years now. Over this time I have gained much valuable info shared by everyone here. So I'm returning the favor to others with a trip report and synchronized slideshow. The slideshow is 67Mb LARGE and 22min long. This was my second time working with PTE.

Both report and slideshow can be read and downloaded via my new unfinished website http://www.paradiselovers.com/. Please DOWNLOAD and SAVE the file to your computer for viewing. DON'T OPEN or VIEW DIRECTLY off the website as this will burn my allowable bandwidth.

To his credit, the beautiful Bonaire slideshow made by Mehmet Kurgun really inspired me. For his effort, Mehmet's credit can be seen at the end of my slideshow.

Thank you for sharing. We have 3 weeks to go and are extremely pumped for our second trip to Bonaire. I was also inspired by Mehmet's work, and I'm going to wait and see what I can do with my pics when I get bac,.

Nice photos! Thanks Raphael and welcome to the website!

Thank you, Bob & Babs.

I really enjoyed your slide show ! It brought back so many Bonaire memories for me, which is why I always appreciate when people post their Bonaire trip photos... You look so happy, we could see how much you were enjoying yourselves. Thank you very much for sharing.

And, what software did you use for your slide show? Your presentation was extremely well done.

Thanks for sharing!!! Your slide show was great!! You really captured Bonaire in your photos!

That has to be one of the very best slide shows I have ever seen. Are you a photographer or a web person or just a very talented individual?? I did as you said and downloaded it and thank you so very much---- It should be purchased by the Divi from you to use It is very much a good advertisement for them. The Divi looks absolutely great all clean and spiffed up and newly painted .---- The down town looked great also
What kind of camera did you have ???
Super don't just lurk, join us anytime

Denise. I'm glad you and others like it. Thank you for your positive comments. It was done with PicturesToExe (PTE) and a lot of Photoshop (no kidding here). PTE is a very cheap ($25) and popular software, and available at www.wnsoft.com

One word of warning, this slideshow took a ton of time out of me, because of length duration, conceptual layout design, composition, presentation, transition, and synchronization. For synchronization, visit www.alrobinson.com to download his excellent Excel spreadsheet.

My fiancee wasn't too cheerful sometime in the process due to the insufficient time spent with her, but was extremely happy on the contrary with the product when complete. Hehehe! Another note, you can be addicted to doing this if there's a commitment.

Curacao slideshow is in the early work stage. If time allows, it's predicted to take a few weeks to wrap up.

We'd be excited to see your slideshow as well. Good luck and dive safely!

Beverly:

All topside and underwater pictures were taken with an obselete 2MP Canon A40. Neither strobe or wide angle lense was used underwater (I can dream). I'm planning to upgrade my camera with a better optical lense in next 6 months. It'll be likely a 3MP Canon S1. 3MP is more than ideal.

I appreciate your sincere comments. I'm just a casual photographer (no formal training or paid photo work; I'm an engineer) and newbie to website design (1 week new). I yet have to get a decent webpage design software; so far I've created those two pages with free Netscape.

I'd be delighted to modify the slideshow shorter for Divi if asked. Hehe!

WOW Great slide show! I really enjoyed it and felt like I was right there with you guys.

Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed watching it.
You must have spent quite some time making it.

Wow. What a great show. I have to say Bonaire looks better in your photos than in person - no dig on my favorite place, but your photos are really super, sharp and colorful. Is the edge effect (the sort of raised button look) on the pictures a PhotoShop effect? How do you do it?

Bad news for my family time, you've inspired me to move beyond the ubiquitous Roxio slide show with the 2GB of images I brought back from our Xmas trip.

Thanks again for sharing all your work with us.

Again, thanks to all for your comments.

Bob: Yes, a lot of time indeed; but I really enjoyed doing it and am addicted to making more slideshows now with different transition technics. It's fun trying figuring out how to cheat the human brain. Hehe! PTE is somewhat limited in the area of transitions, therefore Photoshop and/other third-party programs would best serve the creativity.

Mark: You were right; that edge effect was done with PS. You can right click the selected layer, go to the EFFECT, and check off the EMBOSS. I used the default settings for INNER mode, but you should play with that a little to get what you like.

Good luck.

In case anyone cared, our Curaçao slideshow is complete and ready for download on our website.

The slideshow file is 57mb LARGE and 15min 45sec long.

Please DOWNLOAD & SAVE the file to your computer for best viewing. DON'T OPEN or VIEW directly off the website as this would overuse and abuse the website's allowable bandwidth.

Please click here for downloading.

Great Curacao show.I really enjoyed watching it.
Brought back al lot of memories, because I lived there 25 yrs ago. Saw many familiar places but also some new ones.

Curacao is associated more with crime than Bonaire. What was your experience, comparing them both?

Bob: Glad you enjoyed it. We'd heard about more crimes on Curaçao than Bonaire as well. Fortunately and luckily we didn't encounter anything on the either island, but never let our guard down at anytime.