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  • Wet Path Home

    What started out as a clear sunny day, turned into a heavily wet day by works end today. I had planned to have a stroll around some of the light industry areas, but was not prepared for the thick downpours the sky offered.

    Driving home I wanted to capture the weather a little. Using my Ricoh and its wide angle lens, the rain out of the open window didn’t appear so obvious. Rather, I switched to macro and focused on the raindrops on the windscreen, blurring out the background, but leaving enough detail to make a road visible.

    In post processing using Gimp I cropped out some of the sky, sharpened, added a light vignette and pushed the colour saturation up a tad.

    Maybe there will be more sun tomorrow!

  • Changeable Weather

    We really had a day of changeable weather today in Auckland. One moment I was in warm sun, the next heavy rain.

    Looking out of my office window, out into the mix of suburbia and small industry, I shot today’s image on my Ricoh GRD IV.

    In post processing I resized, selected the clouds, pushed the contrast and reduced the brightness. I then converted the whole image to B&W, and touched the contrast a little further. Finally I cropped the aspect a little, removing a larger roof section in the foreground.

     

  • Roadworks Fiji Time

    Its funny how some images, to the individual, appeal.  One from my archives – Roadworks Fiji Time, was shot on my Ricoh GRD IV whilst in Fiji the other month. I cant really hit the nail on the head what appeals to me about the image, but I like it. I do recall being quite impressed with the focus and detail of the rubble pile, coming from the Ricoh – perhaps visually assisted by the filter settings I had it on… perhaps it just reminds me of the day or the moment at the time.

    Nothing other than resizing in post processing.

    This weekend has flown by. What I have noticed is the Christmas decorations and stores now opening up – is it that time already!?!

  • Summer Rolls In

    A fantastic Saturday in Auckland today brings along the hope that Summer is starting to arrive. The beach hosted a number of people sunbathing, relaxing and swimming.

    Stepping back into non mobile cameras, I brought along the GRD IV to capture today’s shot. Using Gimp in post processing I added a cross processed filter, which added a duckish blue tint. I also cropped to square format, before resizing to post.

    Off out for the second BBQ of the season tonight. I still have several shots of film left on my Rollei 35 to finish.

    Enjoy your Saturday!

  • Fish, Shrimp and Photo Editor

    image

    Some time ago I downloaded an app ‘Photo Editor’. I had forgotten about it until revisiting mobile phone photography this week.

    Unlike several of the other Apps I have spoken about over the last week, Photo Editor offers no range of simulated films, cameras or focus depths. Its a nice simple tool for cropping, adjusting contrast, saturation, and allowing magic wand like selection to parts of the image for selective adjustments of the above also.

    Todays image, simple as it is, appealed to me as I had a late lunch/late dinner (busy day). It was enough to test out the crop, selective saturation and contrast adjustment  of Photo Editor.

    As above, no amazing creative tools, but a decent photo editing app for mobiles on the run.

    As I wind up a week of sole mobile photography, I must say I have a new found motivation for the ease and creative fun it offers. A camera that slips in the pocket, edits and uploads – as well as makes calls etc really is the ultimate in portable image seeking. It has limitations, but then so do all our other cameras and tools of the trade…

    App wise, all tested had their pros and cons. Keepers (well i can keep them all, but ones I will use often) are Vignette, After Focus, and Photo Editor. The others were good also, but didnt quite have the flow or creative filters I tend towards.

    Thats all for Friday!