Yellow and Blue Tree

iPhone native camera shot enhanced with Snapseed. 

Further iPhoneography Filter Art

I'm definitely addicted to futzing around with filters. Vintique has some nice ones but the app keeps crashing and won't save higher resolution images (even though they are now free to save).

Camera+ crashes constantly so I have deleted it even though I paid to get the "I love Analog" and "Hollywood" filters ... oh, and for the app. I hope future updates will fix it.

In the meantime, here's what I made with Snapseed, Vintique, and FrameURLife.

Art made with ArtStudio Lite (iPhone 4S).

Above artwork modified with Snapseed.

Above artwork framed and modified in FrameUrLife.

I don't remember how this started out.
Whatever it was I modified it in Snapseed.

Photo snapped with iPhone native camera
and then filtered with Vintique.

Moody yellow fogged

For my iPhone wallpaper. And maybe yours. 

Not sleeping ... Again

When does a photo stop being a photo?

When does a photo become something else?

looking for an oil paint filter

Alien Skin make a nice bunch of filters under the title of Snap Art 3; one of which is oil painting. I'm still dithering about whether or not to use Photoshop since CS3 (which I own) is outdated and going defunct, and Photoshop CC (PSCC) is more than my machine can handle (not enough RAM for the 3D filter).

I have a set of actions that use the Oil Paint filter in PSCC which is not a part of CS3, so I tried to find an old one and Alien Skin is what I came up with. I am amazed at what these plug in do in the default settings. Here's a couple of examples (in close up).

Default "Oil Paint, Abstract (colorful)" filter with
a minor tweak of making the strokes shorter.

Default "Oil Paint" filter with no tweaks. Dig the texture!

These filters are to supposed to require PS CS4. But they work in my CS3. 

Still undecided.

naked ladies in the yard

Resurrection Lilies
framed with Frame Your Life (free) app 

Grunged Photo - yard and car

Today's experiment with Snapseed.

Warming the Pear

by Elaine Greywalker

Snapseed Tryout

I made this one in a lazy way, not really paying attention. Looks like it was found in the rubble of an old shack.

I liked it so much, I tried to duplicate the effect a few days later. I wasn't able to. What I did make is nice, though.

This app has a depth of features that makes it comparable to a full-blown computer app. Quicker to learn (of course) than Photoshop with a lot of nice effects you don't see everywhere else.

Lucky me, I downloaded it on the free day. Well worth $4.99.

Magical Message from the Universe

I hope someone can figure this out. These must be runes or ideograms in some ancient language.

Beginning a Quest for Spiritual Photography

I've got this idea for exploring photography. Instead of taking well-composed, analytical, by-the-book kind of shots, I'd like to see if I can make photos that reveal the mystical aspects of being. What I will do is wander around with my camera and take pictures at the spiritual opportune moment. I'm a little vague on this. Things should develop as I get into the process.

I'll be posting these images to my The Unplanned Eye blog. The original purpose of that blog was to capture the things I saw as I walked to and from work. I now work from home and the commute isn't quite what it used to be. I'm also no longer satisfied with the limitations of the phone camera. I inherited my daughter's lovely Canon camera at Christmas which does some wonderful things.

As I was taught years ago in a college basic photography course, I'll shoot some grey cards to find out what kind of color shift I get with the camera. Instead of painting an actual card, as I did then, I'll be printing out one. Changing out the camera's settings and using the built in filters ought to be a lot of fun. I've posted a snow picture here that came out much better than I expected, it was accidental in that I just opened up the back door and snapped it. I am astonished by the sharp texture of the snow and the lovely depth from all the blue shadows.

I hope I actually follow through on this. It seems like a nice idea.

Catching the Leaves

In the Richmond area