Carriage and Flag, Seymour, Indiana

iPhone Image, Seymour, Indiana

On the way to French Lick, Indiana last week I stopped to make a few images with Eric DiBlasi in Seymour, Indiana. I had seen an image he had made of an old barn and wanted to check it out.Being a fan of Americana specifically the American Flag I was happy to see one on the barn. Found an old carriage upstairs - must have been circa 1950 - and carried it down to it's place in today's image....someone said it was a bit scary......not sure....

Cara

Cara, iPhone4s

Portraits are fun using the Hipstamatic Camera application. I tend to use one film and lens combo with Hipsta - JohnS and KodotGrizzled. I like the way they render the skin tone, and, specifically like the the look if the image in a flat front light. For me that is just the beginning....I usually play with softness, structure and color trying to make the eyes draw the viewer into the image. This can be accomplished using Snapseed, Filterstorm and blender....

Caifornia Coast, iPhone4

California Coast, iPhone4

'I am poor and naked but I am the chief of a nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love'......Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux Chief

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls

'I must return to the mountains - to Yosemite. I am told that the winter storms there will be easily borne, but I am bewitched, enchanted, and tomorrow I must start for the great temple to listen to the winter songs and sermons preached and sung only there'.........from a letter written by John Muir in 1869

The Last Pixel Show is presenting destination iPhone/iPad workshops. Click here for more information. 

Zion National Park

Zion Natinal Park

Was drivign through Zion on my last day - fog, rain - generally bad day all around. I noticed this out of the corner of my eye - stopped and hand held my 3Gs....

Even though I appreciated the composition I never truly liked this image - thought it was soft and just not acceptable. But upon revisiting I realized there were certain aspects of this image that worked for me, and, for lack of a better word, I liked the Goth feel....So I took another shot at post-processing just to see what could happen.

Now with the original side by side I am not sure the original is not the one....Work in progress I guess.

The original is posted below.

Original 3Gs iPhone

Self Portrait

Self Portrait

I was invited on to a new Facebook Page all about iPhone Portraits hence today's posts. Over the past few years I have come up with quick combinations for shooting portraits, both quick street images and, of course, self portraits...most of the time I use the Hipstamatic Camera, Johns Lens and Kodot Grizzled film. If time permits I might use either ProCamera or Camera+ to take advantage of being able to throw the background out of focus.

This particular image was made using the IP internal camera...I played around in Filterstorm, NIK Snapseed, MacPhun PhotoStudio and Photo FX and came up with this workflow....My evil twin? Self-Portraits can be fun....

Come learn iPhone Photography with The Last Pixel show. Last Pixel is doing what we believe are the first iPhone location workshops with the first one being in Napa, California in April...Click HERE and look at  our website for more information...

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Ireland, Pink Bridge, Londonderry

So much for posting every other day.....on a roll this last week....

This image from Ireland a few weeks back - was out in back of our hotel in Londonderry. I was blessed with a brief moment of sunshine before it started raining again.....


Image made with my iPhone4s, tripod, truehdr, 6 image stitch in Autostitch. Local adjustments in Filterstorm, blender and photo FX Ultra. As developers are making more and more applications available for the Mac the image was further adjusted in Photoshop CS5 - Something I am exploring on a daily basis...

GO GIANTS....

New York, First Snow 2012

NYC, First Snow

How can I resist putting up an image of the first official snowstorm of 2012....This is the view from the bedroom window.....I posted an image last year from the same spot....iPhone 4s, TrueHDR, Filterstorm -

Graffiti Underground - Philadelphia

Graffiti Underground, Philadelphia

This image was made a few years back on my first trip to the Graffiti Underground in Philadelphia. The image is at the end of the underground with the City of Philadelphia in the background. Technically this is an iPhone 3G using Clear Cam - reprocessed today using Filterstorm, Photo FX Ultra and Photo Wizard.

Fonthill, Pennsylvania

Driveway, Fonthill, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

This image goes back a few years when I visited Fonthill in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with my friend John Barclay.  John runs workshops and photo tours out of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

According to Wikipedia Fonthill was the home of Henry Chapman Mercer from Doylestown, Pennsylvania.  Constructed in the early 1900's with 44 rooms and over 200 windows...The home contains many decorative tiles the Mercer made during the Arts and Crafts movement as well as artifacts from his world travels. Next door to Fonthil sits the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works also built by Henry Mercer...

If you ever find yourself in the Bucks County, Pennsylvania area stop by - well worth your time.


I will be making a presentation at the Photography Club of Lower Fairfield County in  Stamford, Connecticut  on Wednesday night, January 18   Click here HERE for information. Hope to see you there...

 

Ireland, Abandoned House

Abandoned House, Yellow Door and Window, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

It seems that I am always drawn to bits and pieces of color on abandoned buildings. This image is one in a number from my several trips to Ireland. Spotted this one buried back off the road....basically in a sea of mud....hardly was able to get the car in and turned around to get out...Wonder if it is a fixer upper...

For the next few weeks I will be posting every other day.....I am trying to catch up on my printing which has fallen way behind...One day it will be this blog and the next my big boy camera blog...

Did I mention how cold it is in New York........GO GIANTS.......

Zion National Park

Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah

Looks like a week of going back in the iPhone archives...

This image from a few years ago at Zion National Park...Tripped on to a wonderful sunrise location behind what I think was some sort of library or museum located just inside the Springdale, Utah entrance....

Ireland, Ring of Kerry

Stream, Ring of Kerry, Ireland

This image is from the last touring day in Ireland. I remembered this spot on The Ring of Kerry from the trip before when the weather simply had not cooperated. The conditions were pretty much the same this times around - something about touring Ireland in December and January just might be part of the problem - you get what you get. I was hell bent on getting an image of this stream and decided just to do it with my iPhone -  it becomes difficult to get any image with rain on one's lens.

As I was trying to use minimal applications on this trip the first adjustments were minimal - just filterstorm and NIK Snapseed. Then last night as I was watching the NY Football Giants beat the Atlanta Falcons (note the subtle sarcasm in that statement) I started blending textures back into the image in Filterstorm using the 'double exposure' - and ended up blending the original image with the textured one in Iris....then it was local adjustments in Filterstorm to taste.

The blended image (a 12 image stitch) is at the top of this page and the original image is below. It usually takes me a few days living with an image until I decide whether to pursue a workflow a bit more. Personally I am leaning toward the more painterly version on this image.

Stream, Ring of Kerry, Ireland

Ireland, View of Dingle Peninsula

Dingle Peninsula from County Kerry

On this Ireland trip I got into making panoramic landscape images using my iPhone4s and either ProHDR, TrueHDR and sometimes stitching Clear Cam images. The goal was to use as few applications as possible, and, for the most part kept it to Filterstorm, Snapseed and occasionally Blender and Iris.As mentioned previously the weather conditions were less then hoped and I attempted to stay true to the image as I remembered it.

This particular image is the view of the Dingle Peninsula from the Ring of Kerry....there are many many places one can drop down to the water from the ring with little or no 'private property' signs - albeit some of the access roads are hardly wider the car....

Ireland, Killarney National Park

Killarney National Park - Ladies View

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”.........John Muir

This image made with my iPhone4s - it is a straight ahead three image stitch using Autostitch. Local adjustments were made using Filterstorm....It is Ireland but feels to me like The Hudson Valley....

The JOyce's, Partry Mountain, Ireland

The Joyce's

So there we are driving down this one lane road up on Partry Mountain looking for an images.....Spot this couple walking their dog coming down the road and needless to say have to stop to let them by.....Mr Joyce looks in the window and says 'Surely you must be lost' - I say 'Yes, but on purpose'.....He tells me I might not make more then one more mile as the road is closed..... We chat for awhile and I ask to take their photo.....this is the iPhone version - I also did a big boy camera image to process later (this one has the dog in the photo).....In the end we take their address to send a print and move on down the road.

As we drive away it suddenly dawns on us that this is 'Joyce Country' as in James Joyce.....Make you wonder....will ask when I send the prints over....those are two fabulous faces....

Ireland, Giant's Causeway

Giant's Casueway

Quite the place. This was one place I was looking forward to seeing...located on the Scenic Causeway Coastal Road in Northern Ireland approximately three miles northeast of Bushmill. Giant's is a World Heritage Site and a National Nature Reserve.......Wikipedia says the fourth natural wonder in the United Kingdom...

Mostly this area is basalt columns stemming from an ancient volcano eruption - some as tall as 12 meters. According to Wikipedia the Irish warrior Fin McCool built the causeway so he could walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart....maybe yes maybe no......At any rate a must see if you are in Northern Ireland.....that and the murals in Belfast should be high on your list...

As it was off the charts windy this particular day, 70 mile an hours wind and pelting sleet I was only able to manage a few images...This one is an iPhone4s image....

Happy New Year

Knowlton, Quebec, Canada

All the best for 2012........

Winter Park Bay, Ballintoy, Ireland

White Park bay, Ballintoy, Ireland

Had quite the day today...Sun, Rain, Sleet and howling winds sometimes hitting 60-70miles per hour -  wind that one could actually lean into....did manage to get around though doing the Scenic Causeway Coast Road.

Left Belfast and motored north and east to Larne where we picked up the Scenic Coastal Causeway. Then it was north to Glenarm, Cushendon, Ballycastle, Ballintoy (White Park Bay) and finally finished at the Giant's Causeway before motoring back to Belfast. Notice me picking up the lingo by saying 'motoring' instead of 'driving'. I like the word 'motoring'.....

Late yesterday I noticed that I forgot my DSLR battery charger at home but got lucky as Belfast has the only Calumet in Ireland. Also learned the Northern Ireland is actually British....guess I missed that in school....

Today's image was made at White Park Bay in the town of Ballintoy.  Fell onto it by accident - was looking at a church from the road and decided to see what was behind the church......got really lucky...

Have I mentioned how good the food is in Ireland....and the soda bread.....nuff said for tonight.....

Belfast, Ireland

Old Mill, Annalong, Northern, Ireland

Finally made it Northern Ireland. Landed in Dublin early this morning, rented a car and headed north for Belfast. About 60 miles outside of Belfast got off the M1 and headed out to the Irish sea for a bit of exploring the coastal regions. Does not get much better then a fresh coffee and croissant to get the juices flowing -  always nice to be back on the road exploring new places...

Today's image is from Annalong, a coastal village in County Down at the foot of the Moume Mountains. Annalong is mostly a fishing village and vacation resort town. According to Wikipedia Annalong was first settled somewhere around January 1843.

Mostly the weather was alternately rain and then sun every 20 minutes or so - sometimes rather heavy...Managed to make a few images between the drops....Ireland is such an amazing place to visit not to mention visit with a few cameras - one of course being an iPhone...Anyway a good first day - 9 more to go.....

iPhone 4s on a tripod
ProHDR
Filterstorm
Photo FX Ultra
Photo Wizard
Transfer