Goose On A Hot Tin Roof

The Canada Geese are back! Sure they crap everywhere but they are such a beautiful bird. This one was checking things out from atop our storage racks at work.

Chris.

iPhone Camera Apps - My Thoughts - Part 2 - Camera Awesome.

Camera Awesome is brought to you by the brilliant folks over at Smug Mug. They have jumped on board with the iPhone app.

I've had a chance to play with it for a day now and I've really enjoyed using it. It's an amazing camera app.

Here are the features I have explored and some thoughts on them.

Exposure and Focus.

Simply tap on the screen at the point you wish to focus on and the app will focus there and set your exposure.

If you wish to set the exposure and focus from different parts of the image, simply tap with two fingers and the focus and exposure are separated into two movable points you can then move anywhere you wish and tap them to lock in the settings. This is a great feature.

Image Capture.

There are multiple shutter modes in the app.

Single Shot for just that, single shots. It's quick. No delay in the capture of the image.

Stabilized gives you a nice image stabilization. Very handy on those pot of coffee days.

Big Button allows you to tap anywhere on the screen to snap the shutter.

Slow Burst and Fast Burst just as the names says. Burst mode. The fast burst uses a lower resolution though.

Timer gives you a one to sixty second timer.

Interval gives you timed photos from 1 second apart to 60 seconds apart. I like this one for doing time lapse images.

Composition Tools.

There are 5 different compositional overlays ranging from rule of thirds to the golden spiral. There is even a horizon level.

You can apply effects automatically as you take the images if you like and you can choose to have the image automatically uploaded to one of the services you choose.

Editing Screen.

You can edit images you take with the app or select one from the camera roll if you like.

There are many filters, special effects and textures you can use. Several are included with the app and there are hundreds more you can purchase in packages for a very reasonable price.

I'm not a big fan of all the presets and special effects but there are a few that I really like the look of.

For me the big one is the Awesomize button which is much like an auto fix button. It has a slider to adjust the intensity of the effect and allows you to also adjust the sharpness, color temperature, vibrancy and contrast in the effect. I'm a big fan of punchy contrasty photos so this one is a big happy button for me.

Sharing.

Once you are finished editing the image to your liking you can either save it to the camera roll or share it out to your favorite photo sharing service. Smug Mug, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram and Twitter are included in that list along with many other sharing options.

Info Screen.

The info screen displays information about the image. The camera settings, file size and time/date as well as the status of the file. Those being edited, shared, archived and exported.

The only thing I can think of at the time of this writing that it is missing is the ability to add a a blur effect to the image. If it had that, it would be perfect in my eyes. As it is, it's the best camera app I've used on my iPhone yet.

I highly recommend it to everyone who wants more from their iPhone camera.

Here are some sample images I shot just for this post.

This one is straight out of Camera Awesome with no editing at all. A nice clean photo.

This one is with the Awesomized button pressed. It really brings up the shadows and the clarity in the image. I like it a lot.

This one is using the Road Trip preset. It like the dirty, grungy look of it on the metal parts and pieces. I may use this one quite a bit.

Of course this is all my opinion but I sure like this app. Great job Smug Mug. I hope to see the blur effect added in eventually but the lack of it is not going to stop me from using this app when I take photos with my iPhone.

Chris.

iPhone Camera Apps - My Thoughts - Part 1.

If you are one of the bazillion iPhone users like myself, you have discovered that it's a great point and shoot camera as well as a game console, movie player, music player and oh, ya, a descent phone. I however, do not like the native camera app on the phone even with the improvements they have made to it.

Enter the third party camera apps. I'm going to talk about the 3 I have.

Instagram.

Camera +.

Camera Awesome.

Let's begin with the most famous one. Instagram.

Instagram is a great photo sharing app that allows you to snap a photo and do some cool editing with the built in presets and add some blur if you like. My favorite preset is Lo-Fi, a nice high contrast preset. You can then share the image out to the Instagram service as well as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Email, and a host more. It uses a square crop format that I'm not sure I like but it's a nice easy service and the images look really good.

Here are a couple of images I took with it today just for this post.



Actually this second one is from Easter. I re-posted it again to show the blur effect.

Over all, I really like Instagram. It's quick and easy to use and allows you to share to many places at once. I really recommend this app for anyone who is looking for a nice quick way to share photos from their phone.

Camera +.

Camera + really raises the bar for these apps. You can do so much with it. You are able to set the focus point and exposure point at different areas of the photo. I like that. The camera section has a stabilizer function that works very well, a timer and a burst mode too.  You can zoom with it which is nice as neither the native camera app or Instagram offer that.

The menu allows you to turn sounds on and off, turn geotagging on and off and many other useful options.

The editing area has a ton of great presets along with the ability to rotate the photo, crop, add special effect to the image as well as borders. I've not played with the special effect looks much but the previews look great. The scene selections are similar to what you would have on a regular digital camera with auto, beach, scenery, etc. Great stuff.

The images can be shared out to all the usual suspects as well as emailed and saved to the camera roll on the iPhone.

I've used this app quite a bit since purchasing it. I really like it and I'm happy to play around with it.

Here are a couple of sample images.





I'm going to stop right now as I really need to play with Camera Awesome a bit more before giving my thought on it. It's way too Awesome to just plop some words down about it.

Stay tuned.

Chris.

Shadow And Light.

I love the way window blinds throws shadow and light when the sun is just so.

It just makes me smile.

Chris.

Failed Project.

Have you ever had a project that you thought was a great idea? The more you thought about it, the more you thought, this is going to be awesome. I have them all the time.

My latest was a photo I wanted to do putting an industrial spin on a fine dining setting. I had all these ideas of using oilfield blind flanges as plates, wrenches as forks and spoons, exacto knives for steak knives, etc. It seemed like such a great concept, at the time.

I spent several days thinking about the setting. The table top would be just a board, the background was to be an insulated wall. It seemed like it would be such a great shot. All the rust and the shiny tools together.

Well, it was not. The shot I envisioned just would not come to be. I took 15 or 16 shots and the best one I came up with is this.

Just goes to show you that not everything you think is a great idea for a photo actually is a great idea. But, at the same time, if you don't try, you will never know for sure. Sadly though this was to be my first great fine art image! Haha! Well, it's a lesson. And know I know.

Now on to the next crazy idea, whatever that will be.

Chris.

Fine Art Photography.

I've been thinking lately that I'm turning out to be a fine art photographer.

Wikipedia defines Fine Art Photography as follows - "Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides a visual account for news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to advertise products or services."

Created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. That's what I'm looking for. My creative vision. No worrying about anything but my vision.

Let me refer you to my 500PX portfolio. Every image on here is just that. Fine Art Photography. You may or may not like them but they are mine. I'm very proud of them.

It is decided. I'm a Fine Art Photographer. Time for some projects.

Chris.

Photography Is An Art.

Photography is an art. Plain and simple but such a powerful statement.

Art is subjective. It's open to interpretation by everyone who experiences it. Not one person will interpret it the same way as another. What you see as a fantastic photograph others may and will see as unattractive.

When it comes to my photography, my art, I'm my worst critic but what is making it worse is listening to what everyone else thinks I should be doing with my art. I've been giving this much thought lately as some of my worst critics are very close to me. The worst thing I think I can do is give too much merit to the opinions of people who don't even know the first thing about my vision and what I'm trying to express.

I like a certain look on the portraits I take. I like them in tight and personal with a bit of a brighter look. Some folks, members of my own family even, don't like that at all. Some prefer the Walmart or Sears look. This used to really bother me. I'd get very defensive and sometimes quite mad. After some though though, I realize it's alright. Everyone is more than entitled to their opinion. But that's all it is, an opinion. I will no longer allow the narrow views of others to steal my drive and make me feel bad about how I like things to look. From now on, I photograph for me first. If others like my style then I will gladly photograph for them. If they don't like my style, there are plenty of other photographers out there.

So now that I'm more worried about what I think of my photography, I'd like to share a few of my favorites in this post and tell a little about them. In future posts I will explain what it is about the image that I like and maybe a little about how I went about it capturing the image.

My Sweet Pea. I flat out love this image. I love her expression. I love the blur I added after the fact to focus your attention on her face. I even love the slightly magenta tone to the image. I feel love from this image. And here's the best part, I didn't spend half an hour with my lighting gear getting this shot just right and then hours in photoshop to make it just so....I took this with the instagram app on my iPhone 4. Yup, my iPhone.

My Parents - A Portrait. This one is very special to me I guess because it's my parents. I love them so I love photos of them.LOL. A bit one sided but there it is. I like the lighting I used here. One 48" umbrella and a large reflector for fill. I like the black background. I like that both of them wore dark pants even though I asked them not to. They didn't know why. I love the sharpness of this image even though I used a $700.00 lens instead of a $2100.00 lens. The gear heads will love that last statement!

Grandma Deep In Thought. This is one of my favorite photos of my Grandma. I happened to take it and it makes me smile. She was a sweet, sweet lady and I miss her greatly. I love her expression and how she is looking away from me at something that has captured her attention. I love the detail in her face and sweater. I love the blown out background in the window. What was out there didn't matter anyway.

So enough of portraits let's see some odd stuff. I love this fuel cap on a tidy tank at work one frosty morning this past winter. The light was early morning perfection. The texture of the frost just leaps off the image at you. The color is perfectly saturated.

Storm On Fork Lake. Ok, everyone who has seen this image loves it. So why did I include it in this ranting post? They love it until I tell them it's an HDR then half of them say "well, it didn't really look like that did it?". To that I say who cares? It is my favorite image from 2011 and I've sold it several times over already. Oh, and yes, this is exactly what it looked like to see it in person. I did not embellish it at all. Just brought out some detail that the camera could not see in one exposure that my eyes could.

So there you have it. I'm more interested in what I think of my photography now as it is my photography and my means of expressing myself. It's not that I don't want to hear what others think of my work, I just won't put all my self esteem on those opinions ever again.

Thank you for reading my rant. I feel much better now. I truly hope you enjoy my work.

Chris.

Easter 2012

Morris Fighting The Snow.

My co worker Morris trying to find his work truck under all that snow. Yes, it's really that white out again.

Now this is a bit more creative. I've been giving some thought to what I'd like to photograph but still not sure if I want to pick one style over another. I like people photos but I still like the nature and wildlife stuff.

Chris.

What's Keeping Me From Moving To The Next Level?

I've been very unmotivated lately. I hardly want to take photos. I'm in my fourth year of a 365 project and I've missed more days that I care to admit to. The photos I'm turning out just aren't doing it for me anymore. I feel so blah about it.

So what is it? What's going on?

I've been doing a lot of thinking on this problem. A lot...maybe too much. I'm technically proficient. I can get my exposure right in the camera most of the time. My focus is good. Technically my images are quite good I suppose but they just lack something.

I suffer from a creativity issue. That's a tough one to overcome. I don't think you can learn to be creative. I think it has to come from experience and much time. I think this is what is causing me so much anguish this year. My technical skills have gotten good. I no longer think about my exposure I just make the choices and take the photo. Making a good exposure of a crappy scene though, well that's just pointless now. In the beginning it was all about practice, practice, practice. Now I'm looking for some impact.

Look at this above photo for example. Exposure is good. White balance spot on. Whites are white, colors are accurate. But man is it boring. This was all I could come up with that day. Can you say slump?

This above photo was my last creative idea. What I feel was creative anyway. I thought about it for a couple of days. I had read a blog post about calming yourself when everything seems out of control. I wanted to try to get that feeling across so I decided to add some motion blur to my surroundings by spinning in a circle while I took the self portrait. Not bad I suppose. But that was back in late January. Since then, blah.

Alright, enough of the 'woe is me' attitude. What am I going to do about it? Practice, practice, practice. Haha! What an idea that is. But how am I going to practice something so esoteric? I'm going to start looking at tons and tons of photographs. I mean constantly and from everywhere. Flickr, 500PX, magazines, blogs. You name it, I'm going to look at them. Really look at them. If I like them try to decide why I like them. What is it about that photograph that speaks to me? Is it the composition, the color the subjects?

I hope that through this practice I will start to develop more creativity in my own photography.

So, starting today that is my plan. Wish me luck. If you have any thoughts or suggestions for me, please leave a comment.

Chris.

93.365.4 Creative Block

Monday April 2 2012.

I'm suffering from a creative block these days. I've been really struggling with the photo a day project this year. So much going on at work, at home and just no good ideas coming to me these days. Ah well, I guess I'll survive.

Chris.

92.365.4 April Fools.

Sunday April 1 2012.

To all the guys in my neighborhood who thought to get a jump on their lawns during yesterday's beautiful spring weather.......Mother Nature would just like to say April Fools with a heavy snowfall warning for today. Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Chris.

91.365.4 Planting Sunflowers.

Saturday March 31 2012.

The kids planted sunflower seeds today. We put them on the window sill to get plenty of light until they are ready to transplant to the garden. Should be fun for them to watch the flowers grow.

Chris.