The Creek, Dubai

Ancient Dhows, The Creek, Dubai

Late this afternoon (Tuesday) I found myself in a tall garage overlooking The Creek which is a small river that runs through the city of Dubai. The ancient boats known as dhows below come in from Iran and Mumbai bringing goods into the city.  The dhows, were docked next to the Spice Souk (Market) which is strewn with hemp bags opened showing the various spices for sale. It is quite fascinating the way this city can be so cosmopolitan and yet retain ties to the old world.

I ran out of time and was not able to make any images in the market so that will have to wait until next time....

Here is a link to info on the Dhow.....http://www.thenational.ae/guide/historical/the-making-of-a-nation/dhows/

Christmas 2012.......

Something to Remember this Christmas......

Carousel, Maine

'So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now'...John Lennon

French Lick, Two Trees

Sunrise, French Lick, Indiana

Having just had eye surgery I find that I can see the screen on my iP5 much better - something that has not been great for quite some time. Turns out I had a cataract in my left eye (the dominant one) and they needed to replace the lens...and now my vision is 20-20 - no more glasses - have to love modern technology.

And speaking of modern technology the iPhone is a perfect tool to re-create older more traditional photography -  such as the work of Edward Steichen where he mixed platinum and color as in the famous image of the Flatiron Building in New York.

This image today is the first in my exploration of re-creating these older images using the iPhone and iPad.....also a bit of Photoshop involved.....

Here is a link to some gum over platinum prints - http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7114251914438294276#editor/target=post;postID=4844196365450493793

Church, Wales, Great Britain

Wales, Church,

Stumbled upon this Hansel and Gretal Church while exploring Wales last year....Loved the leaning tower....and the light was fabulously mysterious....

Apple iPad and Olympus OM-D

The Palouse, 4/3 OM-D image

This is another image form the workshop in the Palouse. The image was made using the OM-d 4/3 Camera and then processed on the iPad and laptop. The original sky was completely blue so I added a few layers of clouds using weather FX and Photo Wizard. Finished it all off using NIK CFX4 on my laptop. Adding clouds using Weather FX works out well but you might need to add a bit of grunge.

Death Valley, Mesquite Dunes

Mesquite Dunes, iPhone4s Image

'When I looked at things for what they are I was fool enough to persist in my folly and found that each photograph was a mirror of my Self'........From the book Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations by Minor White

Icelandic Church

Icelandic Church, iPhone4s Image

"A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education"..........Smiley Blanton

Iceland, Vik Beach

Vik Beach, Iceland, iPhone4s Image

Sitting on the plane to Los Angeles and found this image on my laptop hard drive. I have made three trips to Iceland and always find time to get back to Vik. First off the landscape is wonderful but he real draw are the hot dog s you can buy at the petrol station about 300 yards behind where this image was made.....watch out Nathan's... At any rate I am off on an adventure in Asia - Hong Kong - Bali and Singapore. Part work and part photography.......Stay tuned for some new images.....

Red Church, Iceland

Iceland CHurch

Today's image started as a DSLR photo which was photo-synched over to my iPad2 for processing. Snapseed and Blender were used and then the image was synched back to my desktop where I added a texture and sharpening.

I like creating what I call the anti-postcard image.......The original image is below and was made through a bus window on a rainy day, hence the soft fog look....

Wind Farm

Wind Farm near Walla Walla

Passed this scene on the way to Portland, Oregon when leaving the Palouse. Image was made using the Olympus OM-D 4/3 mirror less camera my friend Dan Burkholder made me aware of. I  continue to marvel at the ease which my eye-fi card downloads my images directly to the iPad with no wires attached. Additionally the images come into the iPad at 16MP.

This image was created using snapseed, blender, FXPhotoStudio and Moka Hanga

The Palouse, Rad's Farm

Combine, Rod's Hubner's Farm

Yesterday afternoon The Last Pixel Show workshop made images aat Rod Hubner's farm, between Oakdaleand Colfax, Washington. And what an afternoon it was - everything from Matty the dog, to getting a ride in a combine that was out in the field harvesting the wheat. There were dust shots of the combines moving through the fields cutting the wheat and then coming in to dump their loads into a waiting truck.


We were there until almost sunset. At one point, off om the horizon there was a red circular light ashing down from the clouds

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park, iPhone4s

"There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm."........Theodore Roosevelt

Iceland Waterfall

Iceland, iPhone4s

'A strong person and a waterfall always channel their own path'...Unknown

Iceland Impression 3

Iceland Impression #3

'Simplicity is the glory of expression'.......Walt Whitman

Iceland Landscape 7

'Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished'......Lao Tzu

Iceland Landscape

Iceland Landscape - iPhone4

Came across this one this morning from the Iceland trip in 2010.....

Fonthill - Redoux in Iris Photo Suite

This Fonthill image has been redone using the just released Iris Photo Suite application for iPad users. And for sure I was not dis-appointed at all.

At first the interface is complicated as they have moved icons from where they lived on the older version. But once you find everything it becomes quite simple to navigate the app.  Iris has added several new processing tools in the FX, Auto-adjust and Adjustments dialog box at the top of the screen. And finally we have brush size and opacity to paint in and mask out areas with more control - this is huge. Be sure to check out the filters at the bottom of the screen as they have added some new twists.

Couple of excellent much needed improvements are the file save directly to your camera roll and quickly I might add. Additionally when choosing an image the folder pops up on-screen for easy navigation and selection.

All this is after using it once this morning - will get more time to play over the next few days and see what else I can learn. If I have any complaint it would be making the image size adjustment a bit more clear. Possibly the go button in the dialog box along with the cancel icon...then it would seem to follow in order...but this is a very small nitpick compared to the rest...

In the meantime have some fun out there.

PS: Sorry but can't remember how I got to this image - just went in and played....

California Coast

California Coast

 It crossed my mind this morning that there are hundreds upon hundreds of applications for the iPhone to manipulate photgraphic images so I decided to post a fairly straight-ahead image today. Straight in that it is simply an HDR exposure with local tonal controls being applied in Filterstorm and sharpened in photoforge.

I am not saying that one should not use applications - what I am saying is find out what any particular app has to offer and use them creatively, not just to say how many images you stitched together or how many were used to create the image. Possibly the old adage comes into play here, KEEP IT SIMPLE.