Slow Shutter Effects – iPhonography

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My day to day photography is often done using my iPhone and lately I have been experimenting with one or two different camera apps. The set of images below were taken using Slow Shutter Cam which, if you can be sure to keep the phone steady is nifty little app.

Fountains

The problem with long exposures being used to achieve that misty / ghostly effect or smoothness in flowing water, is that everything else gets the same length of exposure. There are various ways of dealing with this but the Slow Shutter app simply uses thevideo setting on the phone camera rather than the stills setting. It is, however, a still image that is saved.

It is a clever answer to the exposure issue and there are options to take images up to the full resolution of the camera (8 megapixels). I have had a few issues with the handling of colour which can be seen above but I suspect this is something that I will be able to manage better with time and practice. These images have had some post production adjustments applied but the main issue in taking them was that I did not have a tripod with me and had to rely on keeping the camera steady with the aid of the railings round the fountains.

The fountains are in the centre of Middlesbrough in the NE of England which is, according to some, one of the ugliest towns in Britain – I disagree and suggest they take another look, this time with their eyes open and no prejudicial blinkers!

 

Hopping About from Day to Day – iPhone Photography

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This little fella was sitting on the wall by our front door when we came in after a walk at the weekend. He stayed there long enough for me to get a quick snap with my iPhone before hopping away.

I have a folder on my computer called “Day to Day Images” – a lot of the photos in it are taken on my iPhone and almost always I do some post production editing with one or other iPhone app. These would often be ProCamera and/or PhotoshopExpress, but I use others as well.

Today’s photo had some heavy cropping and a little sharpening was necessary as a result but I decided to leave it at that on this occasion. The images in yesterday’s post had no editing done at all – and that is fairly obvious. I think I will repost those images later in the week after I have made the necessary adjustments.

cricket

Retreating from the Hurricane

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Yesterday we felt the last remaining vestiges of Hurricane Bertha in the form of a brief sandblasting on the Millennium Park footpath on the seafront at Llanelli.

We were not long out of the car before we changed our minds about a place to go for a walk and headed for the woodland walk up to the reservoir in Swiss Valley instead.

The sand being blown off the beach felt like needles on the skin and although it wasn’t raining at the time, the locals clearly knew not to venture on the seafront when the wind is up as the place was empty of people. Swiss Valley on the other hand was relatively busy!

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Elliptical Illusions

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I saved the images below from those I took recently while away visiting family. I used my iPhone for all my photography while away and posted images to Instagram.

I wanted to post these images here because, despite my familiarity with the design of MIMA and the obvious link in the arrangement of shapes in the interior around the cafe area, the illusion that is created by this arrangement when seen from a specific angle did not properly register with me until I looked back at the photos.

mima cafe floor

mima cafe

mima cafe

Drawing and the iPad – Conclusions

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I was in the shade of Cwn Nash woods when I did the last of my iPad drawings on the Walk and Draw day on the South Wales coast and so it was done in more comfort than the previous ones.

My conclusions, for now, regarding the iPad as a tool for drawing are that I will not be splashing out on one just yet. I prefer using pencil or charcoal on paper. However, if I were to get one, it would be with the purpose of finding other approaches to drawing with it. I have no interest in trying to produce a “watercolour” or “pastel” drawing with the iPad, but as David Hockney showed, it can be used very effectively as a medium in itself and not as a means to imitate others.

Monochrome Madness

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In an additional post today, I would like to point you to this week’s Monochrome Madness post by Leanne Cole Photography where you will find one of my photos amongst a mosaic of others in this genre.

The image is one I took  a few weeks ago on my iPhone using Camera Pro. If I remember rightly, it was Adobe Photoshop Express on the phone that I used in post-production.

Light and contrast was adjusted, a sepia filter tried out but discarded for manual colour and saturation adjustment, and finally some grain added.

Wool on Wire