Like so many others this morning, I was surprised to wake up to snow on the ground. I got out in fashionable wear, for all early morning photographers; shorts, Ugg Boots, and my fuzzy bathrobe. (If any of you see pics of THAT on Facebook or Twitter, please send me a link.)

I started in the entryway, moved to the back yard, and then into the front yard. It is at that point my attire may have drawn attention. Or not. Maybe they are used to it. Maybe they have other things to do. In any case, fashion aside, these are the images I captured.

Entryway shade garden plants, up close and fairly personal:

The neighbor’s lilac bush overhanging the fence:

Weeds I need to pull or “whack.” But aren’t they pretty in snow?:

Driveway art:

Leaves of the lilac bush out front:

Sunshine and snow on pine:

It’s the last day of April, 2011. Have a great Saturday!

It’s been a busy few weeks—and most of the “busy”ness and turmoil was not of my making. Yesterday I even quit about 5:00 and didn’t look again at the computer until about an hour ago. I did keep track of a particularly vehement exchange on Facebook last night, but as often as I wanted to add my two cents’ worth, I did not. It was an interesting exercise in self-restraint. 🙂

Yesterday the rain poured down and eventually cleared off to a large degree. I love the rain, and since yesterday was one of few days recently I’ve had the luxury of  sleeping in, I did. I listened to water falling gently on my skylights, and enjoyed doing NOTHING and worrying about NOTHING.

What a great way to start a day.

Late yesterday morning I happened to look across the valley and noticed Mt. Garfield in full, glorious color. I’ve often noticed how rain (and melting snow) will deepen the colors of the Bookcliffs. It’s even more pronounced closer, but difficult to get a picture on the Interestate. What is generally a sandy and not real “colorful” landscape (unless you just love it, as I do), turns rich brown and is especially set off by the slate grey of surrounding clouds.

That’s all I wanted to say. And I present this photo of evidence that color does exist in them thar hills—even if those colors are brown. 🙂

Have a great spring Wednesday!

For some time, I’ve wanted to write about a new iPhone Photography App I found. But I also wanted to do a few comparison shots; shots done with the iPhone 3Gs’ default camera software, and the new discovery.

Camera+ is a really cool software. Its most useful feature to me is the ability to change exposure separately from focus. It doesn’t always make a big difference, but sometimes it really does.

I shot each pair of pictures one after the other so lighting was generally the same, and I tried to keep the camera in essentially the same place.

The following pair of photos are taken above my neighborhood and I set focus on Mt. Garfield in the background. The iPhone version isn’t bad; colors are rich enough. Seems whites are pretty good, too. In the Camera+ version, the clouds are brighter and the white of the house in front is much whiter. In fact, this is more what I was seeing, standing on my balcony.

Another one is somewhat more striking, but it’s got some problems of its own that are only exaggerated by that change in exposure. I think this demonstrates how much more detail you can get, but you can also abuse it and blow out parts of your picture you don’t want to. I think the left side of the boy’s head looks a little too bright. I don’t care about the sunshine streaming in, but I probably shouldn’t have taken it so bright. Compare the two:

The last pair I took inside, and was VERY careful about where I was focusing and where I would take the exposure reading. The focus was on the face of the smaller elephant; the exposure was read in the darkest part under the larger elephant’s head. Neither photo is bad, and each has its strong points, but I just like the lighter exposure of the second one AND the wall color is more true, which is not yellow (or GREEN), but a dull white.

I’m afraid without further adjustment, the white balance is still off, leaving the wall a little greenish.  And, there are ways to fix that using the other features of this software. Rather than show you all that here, click on this link to Camera+ that will show you the various things the software can do and be used for. I recommend you watch the video, too.

If you take photos with your iPhone camera, you can also import them to this app to play with exposure, white balance, cropping, framing, etc.

To transfer these photos easily, and wirelessly to my computer this afternoon, I used another very useful app that I believe I mentioned in an earlier post. I think it’s worth another mention here because I have totally gotten my money’s worth. The app is Photo Transfer App, and it is $2.99. I have saved, many times over, the cost of this app just in time saved to get a couple of photos off my phone to my computer. You can also transfer files from the computer to the phone. This might seem odd, but I have lots of photos that lend themselves well to filter play, and some of the coolest photo filters and treatments are on my phone. That being said, if it’s something you want to do, I recommend changing the size of a hi-res photo so that it more resembles the size of photo taken on the phone. Too large a file will bog down the phone and the software, and that’s not fun at all.

I’ve had a lot of fun with the Camera+ app and to date, it is still only 99¢. I only wish I had an iPhone 4 with the better camera. One day….

Happy playing!

I’ve posted pictures I took of some very happy birds this morning. They seem very busy today, as I should be. Birdsong fills the air this beautiful spring morning.

I love the colors on this little fellow.

Here, he appears to be looking at me. I’ll bet he wonders what that beak is on my face (camera lens) and in what way it’s useful for gathering food and building nests.

Perhaps I’ll figure that out one day.

They are wiggly little creatures. It’s hard to get good focus. That little limb looks great though, doesn’t it?

This one turned out surprisingly well considering the bird wouldn’t sit still, and the camera kept trying to focus on those branches.

Welcome, Spring!

Old Tree on Clark's Bench above Bangs Canyon

This gnarly old tree trunk posed beautifully, didn’t it?

On Sunday, I got a spur-of-the moment invitation from @cllecr to hike Clark’s Bench above Bangs Canyon. Luckily she and her husband waited for me. I took out from the house without my purse (with driver’s license) and like I knew where I was going. It took me several tries in the wrong direction to find Little Park Road.

How many years have I lived here?!

It was mostly only overcast as we headed out, but darker storm clouds moved in from the south as we neared the top. The accompanying wind was cold and biting. In the distance, snow fell on the Grand Mesa. Still, it was great to be outside and with interesting people for a few hours.

On our way out, of course it cleared off! Isn’t that always the way?

Happy Monday!

Mt. Garfield Very Filtered

This is a crazy, surreal combination of Topaz Lab’s Adjust 4, Dark–Ghostly filter and Tiffen Dfx Suite Version 2 (Trial) Light/Rainbow filter. Nothing here you’d ever see in real life, but I enjoy this combination of contrast, color, shadows, and softness. Nothing but FUN. Topaz Lab’s website sports a gallery to show you what can be done with their various filters. There is some very interesting work there.

I was a little disappointed not to be able to move that rainbow so that only one part of the arc is visible in front of Mt. Garfield, meeting the interstate. I can enlarge it, but I can’t move it so it makes more sense than a simple arc over the mountain as you see it now.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in this software, you can download fully functional trial versions of the software they offer. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) offers a 25% discount to its members. Stuckincustoms.com has a coupon code for 10% off your purchase at Topaz Labs. You can also find reviews of lots of photo-editing software at this site. All the links are on the right side, and you’ll need to scroll down just a bit to get to them. While you’re there, you should also check out Trey Ratcliff’s incredible photography!

I’ve seen no such discount offers for Tiffen Dfx, but I suppose that doesn’t mean such a critter does not exist. If any of you DO know of discounts offered for this software, please leave a comment to that effect. Thank you!

Mt. Garfield Original

Back to the photo: I took the original photograph on November 23, 2003, with an Olympus 3040Z. This 3 megapixel, 3x zoom camera was my first foray into the digital photo world, and I had a blast. In retrospect, it was the camera I had the least challenge with, and it produced the nicest pictures. But maybe it’s because my expectations weren’t very high at the time.

I believe at the time I took this picture, I realized how difficult it is to get a clean shot of Mt. Garfield. It had just snowed and I went looking for a perfect photo for my Christmas card that year. I got pretty close, but realized there were road signs I couldn’t avoid, vehicles whizzing past, telephone poles and lines, barbed wire fences, and of course that blacktop ribbon of the interstate. Another location was busy with closer-in telephone poles, stop signs, rooftops, and lots of old and winter-bare cottonwoods. But, oh well. There’s always the magic of Photoshop to crop and remove “extraneous” information for a Christmas card. Clicking on the photograph will open a cropped and framed version of this photo.

It’s snowing today on the Grand Mesa, and it’s chilly outside. It’s a good day to stay warm inside, and play with photographs. The next thing I want to do is “paint” one of the pictures. I’ve bought a couple books that outline how to make brushes and textures in Photoshop to accomplish various effects. What I haven’t yet determined is whether or not I have to be able to actually “paint,” or if that is accomplished with layer masks and such. At least it should be fun to learn!

Have a happy Saturday!

The other day I downloaded and installed a trial version of a fairly expensive photo filter software. I believe there are two versions. One is a Photoshop plug-in and the other is a stand-alone application that costs less. I’ll have to look into that one. There are some things the stand-alone version doesn’t do, but it sounds like it’s essentially the same except for that. And maybe I don’t need those features.

Guess I’d better check that out. 🙂

Tiffen Dfx v2 Filters Applied

The name of the software is Tiffen Dfx Suite Version 2. For good information, I found a review by Ben Long, at CreativePro.com. It explains and shows with screen shots what the software does. I started with the same photograph. I used only one filter and changed the color copy of the photograph.

Here is a screen shot of settings I used:

Special Effects --> Black/White Looks

I can’t wait to play more. Days pass and I don’t know where they went. This is so much fun.

Okay, this one’s not for everyone, but this cracked me up. My girl dog talks to me. She’s the reason I don’t sleep well. She sits at the end of my bed and shifts her weight from one front leg to another, moves her ears, wags her tail, looks at me — and does this talking thing.

Any of you who have dogs might appreciate the humor in this. I think it’s probably best heard with headphones. I’m sorry, but I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t keep the iPhone cam steady. I do manage to hold it together most of the time—but toward the end, I just lose it.

Enjoy.

I’ve just posted some new photographs on Flickr.com. These are a little different; they’re pictures I took with my iPhone. There are two new sets.

iPhone Pics Originals is a set of original pictures  from the phone. iPhone Pics with Effects is a set containing many of the same pictures, but I’ve run them through various photo processing softwares designed for the iPhone and available at Apple’s App Store.

I love laying in bed before going to sleep, selecting a picture from my phone, and running these filters. It doesn’t take a special skill to use them, you just open the software, select a photo (or take a new one), then flip through the options. You’ll see your photo change with each swipe of your finger. Below, I’ve listed the apps I use and enjoy. None of them are perfect, and resolution is an issue (so is it for the iPhone!), but for just lots of creative fun, they’re great!

Photo Transfer App is an app I just found and I love it. It doesn’t edit your photos, but it makes working with photos so much easier. It’s a utility for transferring your iPhone photos to your computer and moving photos from your computer to your iPhone. In my opinion, this is something the iPhone should have always been able to do, particularly as it’s equipped with bluetooth. (I could transfer files back and forth wirelessly on my lowly PocketPC years ago.) This app makes up for the iPhone’s deficiency in a straightforward and simple way. Your computer and phone both need be on the same WiFi network. From there, it’s easy-peasy.

100 Cameras in 1 is nothing more than overlays that do different things to your pictures. I used different effects from this app to change the appearance of the original sunrise Jesus rays picture. I’ve included the three versions I created.

iPhone Pics Originals

iPhone Pics with Effects

FX Photo Studio does essentially the same thing that 100 Cameras in 1 does, but uses different effects. I like them both. They’re not enough alike for me to be disappointed with either purchase. I’m happy to have both of them as part of my “fun” arsenal.  This photo is of a sock from the pattern on my pajamas. I used several effects to create this piece that’s pretty colorful.

imikimi frames & fx is a cool framing and effects software for the iPhone. I need to do more research to find out exactly how one uses all the frames that are available. I will add more information when I have it. All I know is that I’ve had a lot of fun playing with this, too. You can see videos of how this app can be used at imikimi‘s website.  This picture is one of me that I ran through 100 Cameras in 1 and then placed in a frame using the imikimi frames & fx software.

Perfect Photo is a pretty cool piece of programming for the pictures on the iPhone. Among other things, you can use it to crop; straighten; adjust levels, brightness and contrast, shadows, highlights, etc.; rotate; sharpen; and reduce red eye. I haven’t used all the features, but what I have used, I find really handy for a photo from the phone.

Adobe Photoshop Express is a free app that you can use to crop, straighten, and rotate, do some color editing, run filters and effects, and add borders. I wish it had more, but I think what it has is pretty nice, as you’d expect an Adobe product to be.  This picture of the Craig power plant in early morning January 2010, is tinted in Photoshop Express.

PhotoForge is another app like Photoshop Express, Perfect Photo, and FX Photo Studio. It has the usual tools, filters, adjustments to color, exposure, sharpness, etc. It also allows for painting from a blank canvas.

Many of the apps I cart around and use are very similar, but each one does something different, and that is the spice of my photo app collection—variety.

Four Inches of Snow?

This is the reason I had to go to the chiropractor today. What you see done here, is not half of the driveway, and I cleared it all. Part of it I did twice. What I cleared here, already had more accumulation in this picture.

I love the snow, especially since I don’t really have to go anywhere in it. The effort required to clear this today was more than I’m used to. Ibuprofen, heat, and cold are on tap for me for a few days, I think.

I think this little girl is the funniest animal I’ve ever known. She lumbers along like a lazy little lion. She makes me laugh. She talks!

Patrón, One of My Dogs

Patrón is part of the reason I don’t sleep very well. In the middle of the night she will sit, just out of sight, at the end of my bed, and talk to me until I get up and let her out. She sort of shifts her front feet; first stepping on one and then the other, and utters these throaty noises. If I seem to be paying no attention, they get a little more insistent. I can’t take much of that before I head up and to the door to let the cold air in while she takes a long, luxurious stretch before she exits.

Patrón & Brutis

Brutis, the graying fellow on the right, is my lovely, bright boy. He knows when to go to his “house” based only on the sound of a specific a ringtone. He used to head for his house when he sensed I was going to golf. I was never sure how he knew since all the equipment was in the garage. The reason for the house is Brutis used to chew things, so I HAD to get a kennel for him so he could keep himself out of trouble. They don’t want to get into trouble, but I think they can’t help themselves. Anyway, Brutis is the only one of the two that minds at all. I hate to see it—he’s getting so grey. He’s been my friend for a long time. He’s a good boy.

Like children though, when the phone rings, they’re right under my nose wagging and wiggling and waiting impatiently and noisily for me to open the door.

One of these days I’ll get a picture of it, but I have watched Patrón saunter over to where Brutis is resting easily—and she stops, backs up, and SITS ON HIS HEAD. Just sits. You can see how she might be prone to doing things like that, can’t you?! And you can see how she might enjoy the process?

Last summer I took a iPhone vid of Patrón in “tuck-and-run” mode. She gets a burst of energy and runs maniacally around the house and I get to laughing so hard I can’t breathe. Usually though, I can’t get a camera on her before the burst of energy is gone and she’s a relatively normal doggee again. Here is a link to that video:

Happy Monday!