iPhone Captures the Royals: on TV: Hipstamatic:AutoPainter and more

Being of direct English decent, my mother was a WWII bride, I could not miss watching the Royal Wedding today! I remember seeing the news clips of Diana's wedding but because I was a FT working person, I did not see it as it broadcast. This one I did not want to miss. I mean, where else in the world...but Merry Old England! After a few minutes watching the preparations I remembered what my dad used to do as a photographer, when a major historical event unfolded on the TV, like the Moon walk: he got his camera out and took pictures off the TV screen. Well they were not the best and of course the TV resolution would show, but he had some images to hold on to. So I got my iPhone, made a couple test shots and decided that I wanted to use the Hipstamatic  app, a square format to eliminate the TV branding, and I like square. I knew the actual pictures would not be great but I also knew that with a few creative apps, I could make some interesting artistic images of the day. So I pulled up my chair to within a foot of the TV and played. Then I played more when it was over and processed these images! When the Hipstamatic filled with shots, I switched to CameraPlus Pro, so I didn't miss a moment. Watching and anticipating the TV's camera shots was just like being there and trying to anticipate the next shot, while concentrating on how to frame it if it came up on the TV so I could make a nice composition.
Call me crazy, it was fun, but I should have been working on finishing up my iPhone presentation for Penn Camera on Monday in Tysons Corner...I hope you can join me for some fun images and insights into iPhone photography. Now I have to get busy on that!

The Cookout: AutoPainter:ArtistaSketch:Iris

Roadside stands used to proliferate on the "National Highway" old RT. 40. Before the "Beltway", before I-95, and I-70 there was Rt. 40. Originating in Atlantic City, New Jersey, passing through Delaware, and spanning the width of the state of MD, Rt. 40 was the way we got around. It took us to the beach and to the mountains of the Alleghenies. Most of the businesses that sprung up on the highway, were motels and restaurants, to accommodate highway travelers. Rt. 40 on the east side of Baltimore was always a bit more industrial due to the factories, but they still had the travelers needs in mind. Now many of the old motels have fallen away or become somewhat "seedy". I had an occasion to travel old Rt. 40 the other day and when I passed this funky little roadside lunch spot called the Cookout I knew I had to turn around and make a few pictures. It was a spot right out of the time machine! The sign says it all as does the picnic bench and road..These images are blended in Iris, using several styles of AutoPaint, the original file and ArtistaSketch to arrive at the renditions here.

Layers of work: AutoPainter:ArtistaSketch:Grungetastic: Montage: Iris...

Lately with the iPhone I have been having fun capturing people doing what people do! and then transforming the image from the literal to the well...painterly. Experimenting with lots of apps out there is a ton of fun, and interesting to see how they transform photos digitally. The four photos here have different processes applied to each, but still have a similar feeling.

The opening image I shot last week of the desolate beach on the Delaware Bay near Cape Henlopen. It was just a bench and the beach and the bay. I shot the person I put on the bench at Union Station two or more weeks ago. When I began to process the bench image I wished I had a person on the bench, and I thought: wait, I have that lady sitting on a train bench with an orange hat, that would be perfect, so I opened the images in an app called Juxtaposer and put this together, then began the artistic process so the two blended as if the lady was originally there.

This is also a blended image done much the same was  in Juxtaposer except the man on the bench was the base image, I added the foreground texture of the floor from an image I shot of the station ceiling. Then processed the image together in many artistic apps such as AutoPainter: ArtistaSketch and Iris. The barber below was not a blended image it existed the way it was in the original shot, but I did work it through the apps for the artistic look.                                                                                            

The last image here I made last night on the Johns Hopkins Campus. It seemed timeless to me. It was a warm spring night and there were two young women in "SKIRTS" sitting on the bench enjoying the warm evening, studying together. Study Buddies, getting ready for their final exams. I asked them if I could make their picture as I had to get close for the shot I wanted and knew they would see me doing it so why not ask first. When they complied I asked if they would just please resume the positions they were in and go on as if I was not there. (that image, after all is what drew me to the scene) I used many processes on this, even brushing in some paint colors in the scene and borders and masking out layers of apps as I wanted, a real process, I felt at one point I had gone too far, so I stopped here.

iPhone goes to Cape Henlopen

This one is part of my little beach picture series. Hipstamatic~Cano-Cafenol and Chunky Lens

Yesterday, was another beautiful day at the beach, but a bit cooler! I made a run up Highway #1 for some supplies, and after getting them I spent the rest of the day roaming the beach and the Cape Henlopen Park until 5:00 when I headed back to S. Bethany. I am on a mission to gather a series of  "Little Beach Images" all shot and processed with the iPhone, in much the same way, just different subjects and comps as I find them along the beach. After yesterday I have what I needed for a project, but will continue to add to the series, when I get a chance. The opening image is one I made on the beach yesterday for the series.
 There is a big public fishing pier in Cape Henlopen State Park and it was empty except for a few hardy folks, and the fishing woman reclining comfortably in a lounge chair with her rod across her lap, her line dangling in  the water. I asked her if I could take her picture and she agreed. I just loved the red blanket on her legs and the lines of her position, not to mention the whole idea of lounging on the fish pier!

Processed with AutoPainter: Iris~Layers of Styles:ArtistaSketch

 Her son was with her and he was heading down the pier to shore to gather clams. I processed this image much the same way only I did not apply any layers of ArtistaSketch.

 My last stop for the day was Fort Miles inside the park. Fort Miles is the remains of the WWII encampment that guarded the Delaware Bay and seashore. The troop quarters still remain as do the bunkers, and towers. One of the building was open and I walked in. To my surprise there were two pieces of what appeared to be perfectly kept or perfectly restored vintage furniture in Red, so I made a few shots.

Apps :BracketMode:TrueHDR: Rays

After that I headed down to Herring Point and made a shot of the Bunker there. The image below, was shot in BracketMode: and processed first with TrueHDR for the image blend then I opened it in Iris- and applied Invert. After that I saved the image and opened PhotoForge-and applied Watercolor,Oilpaint, and sharpen. My final application was in DynamicLight. It gave me the feeling of the rage of war, quite accidentally.

Now its time to pack up and head home..won't be back to the beach until late May, after my New Mexico Adventure.

Hipstamatic: A Great Beach Day

Yesterday I took a long beach walk in the afternoon to enjoy the warm temps and the sea. The temperature reached 85 degrees and when walking on the beach I felt the warm southern winds one minute and the next minute a breeze that felt like the freezer door had just been opened. The beach was flat and the tide was out. A  baby gray seal was sleeping on the beach. He was being guarded by one of the nature groups and people were not allowed within a large distance so no pics, but it was nice to see him on the beach. There were some tide pools and the edges of the pools had some interesting sand designs drawn by the flowing water. I thought the designs looked like trees. I framed the opening image so the reflection of the hazy sun in the wet sand was at the top of the image. The rest of the images are just little snips of shore.

AutoPainter App

Theres another app I have just come across called AutoPaint. It has four basic paint methods: Cezanne, Van Gogh, Benson and Aquarell. It makes a nice addition to the existing paint apps. I have used it to blend layers of images together in Iris. These are a few images I have made with the app over the last couple days travels.

How do you see a tree...Rays..BracketMode..Noir..Camera or Iphone position matters

Noir, BracketMode, TrueHDR, Rays, Iris

Yesterday I made a trip to the beach. I'll be here for just a few days this time: meeting contractors for maintenance work on the beach house. I had time to stop and make a few images, as I was not racing a clock yesterday. The farmers fields have been planted and the spring wheat is greening. I often see a single tree, as I come and go from the beach. I have noted its place, standing alone in a field, but the time, the weather and conditions have never really been right to stop and make some images, until yesterday! I pulled off the road and onto a farmers road, with no trespassing signs posted. But I figured they wouldn't mind me taking a picture, if they even saw me over the acres of flat wheat fields.

The first image I take is never the "Final" image, instead a warm up...so here is the scene as I shot it with the iPhone app CameraPlusPro. I have done no work to this image. It is right out of the iPhone. Funny when I say that I chuckle, but the thought process is the same for DSLR shooting too! Not much too look at, but rife with opportunity. This image made me switch apps to BracketMode for two images with different exposures, which I had in mind to blend in TrueHDR when I had a chance. I also did not like this camera or iPhone position as it really did nothing for me, so I said what if...what if I see it from the ground with the beautiful green wheat I loved in the foreground. Then it started to happen, I got my mini Joby tripod out because I could not hand hold a bracketed exposure in this muddy knee position! SO I made some brackets, both horizontal and vertical, and headed on down the road.

Raw Ha? not, instead...Unprocessed iPhone image in CameraPlus Pro

When I arrived at the beach and settled in I began to review and process images I made along the way with the iPhone. The tree was my first shot of the trip so I started with that. After running it through TrueHDR it came to life! A wow for me. I added some Rays from the app rays to add some extra pop. Then a new app Noir was mentioned in my iPhone group and I tried that on the processed image and I loved the monotone effect as well. I also like the color version below. Sign up for my iPhone classes in Washington, DC Tyson's Corner on May 2 with Penn Camera and Learn more!

BracketMode, TrueHDR, Iris-Levels, Rays

AutoPainter app, added to processed image.

Photo Weekend at the National Shrine

Saturday, after presenting my thoughts on composition and light in photography, at the Baltimore Camera Club Camera School, I headed to DC to meet up with a few iPhone photo friends. The weather was very stormy and traveling down the BW parkway was very dark. I know I shouldn't have, but when traffic slowed I grabbed a quick Hipsta shot out the front window. The light from the storm was that strange combo of dark and bright. After meeting up at Union Station, we visited the National Shrine. The rain was very heavy and we were chased inside. I really should explore around town more..this is a beautiful cathedral and I am sorry to say I have never visited. Not carrying a tripod I was hand holding the iPhone, inside making some shots. We entered the cathedral on the Crypt church level and being soaked by the drenching rain I decided to just sit for a few minutes and absorb the space. I noticed as I sat that there was an artists display of plaster works on the stations of the cross and I liked the way the display lights illuminuted the works so I made some shots there. I processed these in the MonoPhix app to get the B&W conversions, then I took the images into Iris and added some texture layers to give them a look.

 

Often when I visit a place such as a museum or historical landmark, I try to find subjects that really speak to the purpose and presence I feel in the place. The memorial candles were lit and glowing in many places through out creating beautiful additional light.

This man stood for most of the mass exactly where the light from the cathedral met the darker hallway, as if he was afraid to cross over the line between the light and dark intersection.

Hipstamatic and Autostitch

Every Thursday night that I am in town I try to make it to the Baltimore Camera Club. Tonight a few of us met early for a planning session and we sat outside of Starbucks in Mt. Washington. One member was talking about using his pan head to make panoramas and as I was listening I thought if they only knew how easy it was to make an iPhone pano..so I got up and walked over to the old warehouse and made 9 shots with the Hipstamatic. I then loaded those shots into the app AutoStitch and it blended them as they are here. I added the sun in Juxtaposer and added some textures in Iris. I enjoy the odd alignment of the edges so I left them.

Montage and Iphone Artist of the Day...

I have been having some photo fun with an app called Montage. You can add many images into the Montage and arrange and change opacity, add borders and more. The opening image is actually three images that I shot at the beach last weekend when I was leading my beach workshop. They were all processed the same, and shot with Hipstamatic Cano-Cafenol film and Chunky lens selection.  So the tonality of the three images was very similar. I stacked three images to make this one Montage.

Another Montage processed image. This is the same image placed on top of itself and opacity adjusted. Then I textured the file as one image in Iris and added my signature in Impression.

This is just another work up in Montage, running through many options for Montage imagery.

This was an image I made to support a write up for an iPhone group I belong to, on using the app Montage..it has everything but the kitchen sink in it...even a shot processed in Decimi8..
Oh and I was very surprised and please to be selected the iPhone artist of the day in the on line iPhone sharing site call iPhoneArt. You can check it out here: http://www.iphoneart.com/home

iPhone: Little Beach Photos

This weekend was my spring beach photo workshop and Nancy and Jim were great. As we were finishing up this morning, we were walking back down the beach from shooting the jettys, and I began to see little pieces of delicate seaweed that had been washed ashore. They were beautiful and I suggested some compositions to Jim. As he made some images I walked down shore with the iPhone, snapping little images of the seaweed to create a collection of images. I chose the Hipstamatic app loaded with the Chunky Lens and Cano Cafenol film for the tone and border the combination produces. I thought it would be  a great compliment for the subject matter. When I processed them I used Iris and the same Grunge overlay for consistency. I always wear waders for workshops so I can run into and out of the surf as I bring some seashell props to shoot. I realized that my wet boots in the surf would add to the collection and made a shot or two also. Oh and we found a little fish on the beach. He became a part of the collection and a seagull feather too....isn't that what the beach is all about! The edge of land and sea, and the offerings that can be found there....I just kept saying this is the Zen of the beach! Enjoy!