Let it Snow.

Once again the snow has started falling.  An expected 25 cm is on the way so winter is truly here.  I came out of SAIT tonight and found the first traces on the back of my car.  After a quick swipe of the wiper I noticed how it gave the shape of a frown which matches my mood of what lies ahead.  Still I hope that maybe I will find some opportunities to capture some nice photo's over the next few days if the roads are not to terrible to drive on.

This Instagram 366 photo of the day was cropped and the Drama 2 filter and frame were done in Snapseed.

Channel Surfing

The day was full running around with the boy's activities at school and choir so I thought it would be nice to relax once I got them home and into bed.  Instead I found my self channel surfing the various stations watching the results of the US elections.  I'm not one for politics in general, but I find the drama of elections interesting.  Watching tonight I was surprised how off the media was earlier in the day who predicted a much closer race.  So as I bounced back and forth giving my remote a workout it was a chance to learn how the US system works.  I think when you are able to look from a distance and be objective it allows you to take all angles and thus formulate a more well rounded point of view.  I hope that the people of the US will move forward and improve and strengthen their country and that those of us in other parts of the world will do the same.

So here is a quick look at my remote, post processed with Snapseed, which is my Instagram 366 photo of the day.

Small Surprises.

When one is looking for something to photograph you must keep your mind open and be ready to switch your focus at a moments notice.  We had an incredible shift in the weather today and we went from negative temperatures into double digits above freezing I went out to photograph the snow melt.  While I was setting up one image a ladybug landed on my iPhone.  I took a leaf and removed it from my screen and put it on the ground.

Suddenly this little guy became more interesting then the water and I watched as he moved across the leaves looking for the sun.  I shot a number of photo's and then went inside to sit down and look at them.  I was happy with the sharpness and look of this image so I cropped it in Snapseed and used the old lens filter to darken the edges.  So this small surprise visitor (especially for November) became my photo of the day.

Inspiration from others.

Photography is a medium to express one's self and a way to share our world with others.  There are those who's imagination and originality astound me and I admire what they consistently create.  I am always looking at the work of other's as a way to be inspired and to build my visual library.  I had always felt that one can learn the technical aspect of our medium and creativity is an inherent gift.   However I now am believing that one can develop ones imagination and what it takes is a nurturing and the freedom to allow this to happens.  We can also do this by allowing ourselves to be inspired by others.

Another way inspiration can come out is by simply taking little suggestions that you get from your peers.  I follow a number of photographers on Instagram and one of them is Greg Gerla (leggomygreggo) whom I had the opportunity to work with as an assistant from time to time back in the 1990's while I was a student at the Art College. He is an awesome photographer and is producing an interesting body of work on Instagram.  Today he made a little remark about there not being enough pictures of leaves considering that it is fall.

I decided that this was a bit of a challenge to him and I had been looking at the leaves in the snow on the deck earlier in the morning.  So I stepped outside with the iPhone and decided I did not want to focus on one particular leaf, but instead show the randomness of their beauty in the snow.  I tilted the phone and angled it in a way that gave me a pleasing composition and snapped the first image (my photo of the day for today).  I then moved in for a little closer look for the second shot.  Now both were processed with snapseed and a little bit of saturation was added back. I shared them earlier in the day and the comments and likes were positive not only in Instagram but on Tadaa and Facebook as well.

Working with still life's.

A great deal of my subjects for my Instagram 366 project have been everyday objects or small figurines .  Essentially these are still life's and I try to look at all the elements that goes into making an interesting photo of such objects.  Lighting is of course one of the key factors, yet other considerations such as angles and backgrounds are just as important.  Sometimes one has to think outside the box a little bit when trying to find a background that works with the subject.

Yesterday my son and I attended the new movie "Wreck-It Ralph" and as always there are always some sort of promotion tied in to the movie.  Lately there have been figurines that are attached to the children s movie snacks. These stand on top of the drink cup and Cool got one of the lead character. Today I was looking at it thought it might make a neat subject.  So I picked it up and as I was observing it I saw it with the tile of the kitchen floor behind.  Since the movie is suppose to be about games from 30 years ago the tiles reminded me of some of the grid patterns associated with video games from that time period. I moved it around and chose to shoot from an angle that accentuated the hands of Ralph who uses them to smash buildings. After taking the image I brought it in to Snapseed for the cropping and adding a bit of grunge before framing it up with RealCamera+.

For those of you who are wondering, Wreck-It Ralph is a good movie that kids (especially boys) will love.  It has a nice story and enough inside jokes for those of use who grew up with these games.

Now I want to update yesterday's post.  I was able to figure out how to get Wood Camera to save to the camera roll and noticed that images shot on that app are at the resolution of the device used.  I still have found that when I bring them into some of the other apps there are some that tend to render them smaller.  So far I think it has something to do with iPhoto, but I am still looking onto it to see where it is happening.

Working with Wood Camera.

I have a number of Apps that I have downloaded over the last year.  A few have become my favorites, some I have removed from my devices and there are a few that I need to spend sometime with to see how they look and the results they give.  Today I took another walk in the Bowmont Natural Area as it was pleasant out and I wanted to get the change of season. I also wanted to test the App Wood Camera.

One of the features of the app is the chance to preview the filters before you shot the image.  This helps you decided if the look will work with the scene in front of you.  You also get a full frame image which is nice to have.  However I have experienced a few glitches which I still have to research to see why there are problems.  The biggest was the saving of images directly to the camera roll and not just to the Wood Camera  album.  Even though I set it to do so and then tried to save images manually they failed to move over.  This makes the images hard to download the files to your computer as a backup.  I was able to overcome this problem by saving the files to the camera roll by first opening them in iPhoto.

Unfortunately some where along the line the files where downsized to a lower resolution and I could not find information on the Wood Camera app as to the size they are saved in at the time of capture.  So the images look OK on the web, but if you had a unique image you would have to work with upresing software in order to get a good print.

If I can resolve these issues I can see me using it for monochromatic images as I like a couple of the filters.  The image below is done with the Belfast filter which has a nice sepia look.  I was able to get the iPhone down to a few inches off the water to get the shot with the water and driftwood in the foreground and the bridge in the background. The frame is one of the ones native to the Wood Camera app and I felt works with the shot. It is my Instagram 366 photo for today. 

I then photographed the driftwood with the London filter which gives a fairly nice B&W look. I brought this image in to Snapseed after transferring it to the camera roll as I feel that the amount of frames offered there did not give me what I was looking for.

This photo of the bridges reflection was using the Berlin filter and the dialed back the amount before saving the image.  RealCamera+ was the app I used to add the frame.

I also took my Canon 7D with me and shot the final image from the exact same spot as the above photo.  This was at the 24mm focal length on my 24-70mm f2.8 lens at 1/60th sec and f 10. You can see that the iPhone has a slightly wider field of view. I added the frame in perfect photo suite 6.

New month, new project.

With two months left in 2012 and I embark on a new project.  The month of  November has become the month for men around the world to grow moustaches in support of men's health issues. Now the last time I attempted to grow one was back when I was twenty something and the results were less then spectacular.  I still don't grow facial hair all that fast but my wife and boy's are looking forward to seeing what I will look like with a little facial hair.

So I began with a post of my clean shaven mug and will updated it every few days as there is something to show.  If you are at all inclined to follow my progress you can do so here or at http://mobro.co/patricksk where you can also make a pledge.  It would be nice if I could hit $200 so if you feel you are able to please support me during the month.

I am also now into the home stretch with my Instagram 366 challenge.  Throughout I have posted many images but not to many of my family.  Today though Luke once again suggested that he wanted to be the photo of the day and asked me to take his photo with just his face emerging in the bubbles in the bath tub. Now many times when I take his photo he makes a silly smile but to day he gave just the right grin as I snapped the shot.  A little post processing in Snapseed to make it jump and I think I got a cute photo of my little guy.