Check out » Home Central Baptist Church, Okinawa, Japan: Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Okinawa at the picture of the Church. It's a pretty large building built about 30 years ago when the Church was more centrally located. We actually house a Japanese Church and the Okinawa Baptist Convention. I wanted to show you how I made this logo.

First I took about 7 pics and stitched them together using a program called Panorama Factory. This gives you a feel for how Okinawa looks around where we live (very industrial):



If you want to see a larger version: http://www.smugmug.com/photos/286084912_cKZ9h-X3.jpg

My White Toyota Mark II is in in the parking lot to the left of the white sign.

I used Adobe Photoshop to remove some power lines and also some distracting industrial elements but I wanted to make sure there was enough of Okinawa to still be there. I also didn't like the color of the skyline so I found a nice photo of an Okinawan sunset and put that in the background.

I put the sunset in a layer behind the stitched picture and then I used an artistic filter called Paint Daub to give it the really nice effect you see here:



I then resized it and put it on the website.

__________________
Rich
Okinawa, Japan
Deacon, Central Baptist Church, SBC

SoliDeoGloria.com - A Community for Reformed Thought and Discussion
WebsiteMaven - Web Hosting Reviews, Guides, and Advice to build and promote your web site.

Very cool. I wish I could do that kind of artsy stuff! It ought to be a real plus on the website.

__________________
Dennis E. McFadden
Atherton Baptist Homes, CEO
First Baptist Church of Alhambra, Member, Transformation Ministries (CA)

The artsy stuff was done by Photoshop. The only thing I did was find a nice sunset to put in the background. It took a little bit of knowledge of Photoshop and layers and stuff like that but it wasn't really that hard.

Rich, have you had much familiarity with The Gimp? It's a really good program, IMHO.

__________________
Josh Hicks, Chloë's Daddy
Member of TRBC. My Blog
The Puritan Pub (Team Blog)
Board Rules-Signature Requirements-Suggestions?

I've played around with it but it's superfluous for my purposes. I've got the Adobe Web Premium CS3 with Photoshop, Fireworks, and Illustrator. I use Fireworks most often for web graphics. I like its interface and the job it does converting images suitable for the web.

Whoo! That is wicked cool, Rich!

__________________
Anne Ivy
Christ Chapel Bible Church
Fort Worth, Texas

Married to Don, mother of six, grandmother to an ever-increasing brood.

The Ivy Vine (my blog)

I love the Gimp ... but I'm a linux snob

__________________
Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://semperubi.rtrc.net

"Many men, after a long conversion, see more of the workings of sin in their hearts than ever they did before or at their first conversion. Now, such men have not an increase of sin, but an increase of illumination and light" (Christopher Love)

Very nice!

On a side note, it doesn't appear as crowded as Tokyo (the only place I've been in Japan). I have the image of hi-rises everywhere, but Okinawa looks positively empty!

__________________
Kevin
Far East
Deacon, Int'l Church

More dense near Naha but there are large swaths of Okinawa North that are very sparsely populated. They have beaches that are some of the most beautiful places in the world.