The Gymbl iPhone Accessory

Capture: BracketMode Process: Autostitch; Snapseed

 The Gymbl is a fun little attachment  I used today to create these images made at The Fire Museum of Maryland in Towson. I have had the Gymbl for a while but just have not had the right time to get out and use it. I attached it to a spare camera plate and was able to use it on my regular tripod. It was easy enough to maneuver with the custom designed case that attaches to the head. I was amazed at how seamlessly the images were stitched because of the deign of the Gymbl accessory.  The Gymbl has a gimbal panoramic head that lets you rotate the iPhone around its optical center.

 Each one of these images began with vertical images and then they were stitched together with the app Autostitch which not only will blend the images but the bracketed exposures at the same time.
I made a few other shots with the iPhone but will get those processed later for another post.

iPhone at the Silk Mill: Apps: 6x7: Simply Black and White

Last weekend a group of photographers met at the abandoned silk mill to do some shooting, thanks to Tony Sweet for organizing the shoot. I didn't do any shooting on Saturday as I arrived later in the afternoon, but upon arriving at the silk mill I wandered around and behind the mill I found this old TV among the leaves. I told Herb who owns the mill, that I loved the scene and he said one day the TV just rolled down the hill from above and there it stayed. It was a fun weekend!All the shots here were processed with the app Simply Black &White and shot with either 6x7 or CameraPlus Pro, them framed with Crop'n'Frame...and maybe there's a little SnapSeed in there too.

If you live in the Gaithersburg area I hope you can join me for my iPhone workshop at Mac Business Solutions in January or in March at Horizons Photography workshops.  

You will learn how to get interesting shots with the best apps, explore processing options and more!

iPhone Artist of the Day

Yesterday I was named iPhone Artist of the Day on the fabulous iPhone art site iPhoneart.com
Tonight I was looking through some apps I had downloaded and came across one I had not explored as yet~ Slideshow+HD. So I opened it and began exploring its functions.To test it out I grabbed the sequential processing files on my iPad from the image that the iPhoneart.com folks selected as the image to post along with the announcement of my AOTD selection. The slideshow looked pretty cool with fun transitions and the ability to add music...so I downloaded some cool jazz from Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd and added it to the slide show. Then I saved the file as a Quicktime movie on my iPad, transferred the file to my laptop using the app PhotoTransfer and tried adding it to the blog. NOT! For some reason Blogger would not accept the QT movie as it was, from the file on my laptop..so I went to You Tube and opened an account, posted the movie there and clipped the HTML code to add to the Blog...Well that worked but the colors look a tad off...so I learned a few things tonight and am sharing this crazy process of making images on the iPhone with you in the experimental slide show. I hope you can join me either for my iPhone workshop in January at Mac Business Solutions in Gaithersburg or Horizon Photography Workshops in March and June.

Hipstamatic's New Foodie Pak

Capture: Hipstamatic~Loftus Lens: DC Film: Crop'n'Frame: SnapSeed inner white mat

Hipstamatic has added a new lens and film SnapPak inspired by David Loftus......which I really like. The film has a great tone for food and the selctive focus is a nice touch although you have no control over where it is placed it works fine. I love that Hipsta chose not to add a frame, unlike all the other SnapPacks Hipsta offers which have frame edges on them. Hipsta is also offering now a Retro Pak so if you missed some lens pack offerings many are available this weekend. Lens like Labatique which is also a fav of mine.
Wednesday I met the trainer from Penn Camera in Old Town Alexandria, VA. to plan some outings in 2012. We met at this wonderful French cafe called Le Pain Quotidien. Theatmosphere of the cafe was delightful to dine in and the food and coffee were fabulous.
I made the opening shot through the case glass with the Hipstamatic Foodie pak. I cleaned up some crumbs that were laying on the tray with TouchRetouch and brightened it up a bit in Iris. I will be posting links to the great workshops we planned out as they become live on the Penn Camera Website.

Capture: Hipstamatic~Loftus Lens DC Film Process: PerfectPhoto ~sharpen a bit: Crop'n'Frame: SnapSeed inner white mat.

Captured: Hipstamatic

Capture: BracketMode : Process: TrueHDR: PerfectPhoto~Sharpen: Iris: Crop'n'Frame: SnapSeed inner white mat..

Percolator 2.0 Just Released~ New Textures~Filters~and Opacitiy

Capture: Hipstamatic: Process: Percolator2.0: Iris Color Sense~masked: PerfectPhoto~sharpen

When I first saw this app in its original design I really enjoyed it. It had fun settings, but I always wanted some opacity adjustments..well voila in 2.0 there are some cool adjustments. I was notified today that the app had gone live and I wanted to see what the new enhancements would do so, I spent a few moments (hours) today working the new updates with some images already on my camera roll. The one thing I didn't take time to do was right down all the settings I used to get the effects so I am sorry I can't share those with you...but just play you will discover some great combo's between new texture options, opacity and effects its just fabulous! I was reminded though that it is a 3 mp image file when using a traditional format like the piano below. However I successfully blended back the saved file from Percolator 2.0 with the original larger file in ImageBlender and the result was the larger of the two files blended beautifully with the Percolator file. We will have to put increased resolution on our next request when they get to making another upgrade,  but for now this is fine. It handles resolution on square images better at 2048 x 2048 but shrinks a large iPhone 4 file image from 1936 x 2592 (a 5mp file) to1528 x 2048 (a 3.1mp file). No reason not to work with Percolator,  as you can always do a blend back with a large file, adjust opacity and blend mode in ImageBlender if you need a larger file. This file size manipulation resulted in a 13.1MB file on the piano below. Have some fun and play with the new improved Percolator App........

Capture: BracketMode Process: TrueHDR: Percolator 2.0: ImageBlender: PerfectPhoto~sharpen

Capture 6x7: Process: PhotoWizard~crack texture: Percolator 2.0 Stars

Relax... 6x7: Snapseed:FX PhotoStudio

Capture: 6 x 7 Processed: SnapSeed: FX PhotoStudio

  When I worked in retail really long hours and I needed to relax once I got home, I made a hot tub of water, lit some candles, fixed a little Amaretto drink and climbed in. Well, last night I needed a little relaxation. I love the way the candle light danced on the bathroom walls and hardware, casting deep shadows and always thought it would make a cool shot. But, I never made the shot because it would have just been too much trouble with the big camera...so last night, as I filled a tub of hot water and I made some iPhone shots! Call me crazy! All shot and processed on the iPhone! (no I didn't process them in the tub!)
Check out my new iPhone Workshops on January 20 and 28 at Mac Business Solutions in Gaithersburg, Maryland

Capture: 6x7 Processing: LensLight; CrossProcess: FX PhotoStudio: ScratchCam

Now that my holiday decorations outside are done I have to get out and test the Gymbl..I have had for a while!

PhotoStudio~ Percolator~ 6x6

Last week I made a run to Longwood. When I ran through the Tropical Room the leaves of the ground vegetation caught my eye. So I made some shots with the iPhone app 6x6. PhotoStudio is an app that I don't usually go to right away for processing, but I wanted to challenge myself to work with it and explore more of what it can do. What I found was that I really like the masking and erasing feature for effects. Its very easy to work with and you can see the effects while masking. I used that process extensively on the first two of these leaf images.
I also received notice this week that the fun app Percolator will be updated soon with more choices. Coincidentally I had just made an image with percolator after running it through PhotoStudio. I hope you can join me on Saturday March 10 and June 9th at Horizon Photography Workshops for my one day iPhoneography Workshop.