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.....

Knowlton, Quebec

Arrived into Knowlton, Quebec last night and noted that this was the first time I had made this trip and there was no snow. Needless to say when I got up this morning I was not dis-appointed. I had some coffee and toast, put on some warm clothes and set out to find a few iPhone images.....and once again was not dis-appointed. I heard somewhere that we should all make postcards from time to time and today's blog is just that......something about a fresh snow when the temperature is 32F.....makes everything look like a  Thomas Kinkade painting...

OK, time to leave for the north country......going off radar with no internet or phone service....


Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday season.....all the best for 2012 - hope to see you all somewhere out there.....

Horn Player

Horn Player

This is another one of my older film images processed on the iPad using Filterstorm, photostudio, photo FX Ultra and photo forge. The original image was made with a Nikon F Series using Ektachrome Film.

Fairy Tale Field

Fairy Tale Field

So I am driving to Indianapolis for the workshop and  stop for gas - drive back to the freeway and as I am entering the feeder lane I look off to my right and see this amazing cloud structure....Of course have to stop and make the image....Lovely with all the trucks passing closely by....

But well worth the effort in the 32 degree weather.

Old House - Kent, Ohio

Old House - Ohio

I am on a long drive from New York to Indiana and noticed I was low on gas. Got off the freeway but the gas station was closed. Low and behold across the street was this old house that simply called out to be photographed. It was late, sun was low but I managed to off a few images. Sometimes I wonder - why....

Lewes Beach

Stopped at this location on the way home from my drive to the Everglades several years back. Located just south of Lewes, Delaware where you take the ferry to Cape May.....And then of course,. there is Cape May - a different story for a different time...

iPhone4
prohdr
photo forge
photo toaster
filterstorm

Whidbey Island, Photo Forge

Whidbey Island Lighthouse

This is a slightly different version of the Photo Forge workflow talked about on the Pixel-Show page yesterday. The basics are still the same in Photo Forge but the after treatment and sharpening are slightly different...I have worked up the basic treatment below - this was done on the old photo forge - I find that dialog a bit easier to get around and the results, at least for me, are better:

1, Once your image is loaded hit the funnel (yes the funnel) which will expose the Unsharp Mask icon.

 

2. Tap the unsharp mask icon to reveal the USM dialog:

 

3. There are several ways to use this USM. You can run the amount all the way up and then use the radius to your liking or you can do the reverse - radius up and amount down. They will effect the image in different ways - this is actually a sharpening method that comes from using phototshop and you should navigate your own way to what you might like. Lately I have changed to using the set-up below. When this was first introduced there were very few choices as to how to get this look - now there are several new apps that do a better job - but start here and play a bit.

 

4. The alternative way using forge is to just use the sharpen slider - USM if not done correctly will add artifacts into the image and depending on the image sharpen works just as well. I usualy start with the strength below.....

 

5. Once sharpened navigate (scroll down) and find the oil painting and watercolor sliders. You can use one or both - yo can use one - resharpen and then use the other - it is all trail and error depending on the look you are after.  As Teri Lou says PLAY PLAY PLAY

 

6. At 100% opacity the image will look something like this:

 

7. Adjust the slider to your taste.....

 

8. A combo of both watercolor and oil paint.....

 

9. Combo with adjusted opacity....

 

10. My starting point for the image above.....

At this point it is completely up to your creativity as to what happens next. I always like to have some clarity in the image so the subject stands out....I use Dynamic Light, Filterstorm, Snapseed and Blender to work up the final look. I even used Iris on the image posted today....

Take a Last-Pixel Show Workshop and learn more creative choices for your iPhone imagery - not to mention printing techniques and much more....If you can't make a workshop then take one of Teri Lou's online courses - they are perfect for learning basics and much more....

 

 

Applications on the MAC

Original

I have been playing with the applications available for the mac using both iPhone and high resolution images. Additionally after finishing on the Mac I import back into the iPad2 for finishing, usually in Filterstorm.

Today's Image above was an iPhone TrueHDR original. I then took this image into the Mac application Hand Tint and painted in some vintage color.

Next it was Grungetastic on the mac for a frame and a slight bit of grunge effect.....

 

Then it was photo studio on the mac to add noise and a few filters.....photo studio is an excellent choice for subtle textures and color..

I imported this last image and the original into photoshop as layers. With the Noise on top and the original on the bottom I set the opacity to 80% and the blending mode to darken creating the image below.

Using wireless I imported the image above back into the iPad2. Used Old Photo Pro to create the antique look and then made local corrections using Filterstorm...Below is the final....

I forgot to mention that I used the watercolor effect in Photo Forge - slipped my mind exactly where...

I like working with these applications on the Mac....Give me many more creative choices and ways to bend the rules....give them a try....

Music and iPhone

Eddie Van Halen, 2004

I spent most of my working life as a tour manager for various rock bands before retiring, well there are those who say I have not really retired, in May 2008. I almost always had a camera close by during these years....

So fast forward and my good friend Ken Leslie and I get together and decide to create a gallery show to benefit his organization, 1Matters.org which is based in Toledo, Ohio. I first met Ken while on the road with John Mellencamp a few years back and greatly admired his tenacity in working to help one person at a time overcome not having a place to live. Ken went out and found a space in Toledo, 20 North Gallery, to host the show. After several discussions between myself and Ken it was decided this was the right time to pull out the archives and show some of my music images - time to rescue them from the shoe-box's they lived in for years.

Having been a child of the 60's, San Francisco, etc, my thought process is to take these images out of the standard musician on stage genre and make them a bit more like my perception of live music...music being the fabric of my life since the mid-sixties. To that end several of the images will be printed on large stretched canvas.....other will be printed on Epson 9900 and 3800 printers using archival Epson papers.

Some recent landscape and personal black and white images will also be part of this show. More on that in the coming days on my big boy camera blog, http://hsandler.blogspot.com. 

Click here for more information about the Toledo show. Additionally, this work will be shown in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery.

The new image in the header is Billy Joel, circa 1985, performing in Tokyo at the Budokan.