Planes of Past

A mobile post for today. As part of a team day with work, we visited Motat 2 – the aeroplane and train museum. For most of the afternoon I used my Sony, of which I will post some images in the next few days. For this shot however I used my samsung galaxy s2.

The image itself is of the entry to the new indoor section of Motat 2- prior to this, a number of the planes were outside. Some of the big ones still are, and awaiting desperate restoration. Its nothing like some of the large plane wreckers/graveyards, but a nice collection for our part of the world.

Editing wise, I used the app Afterfocus. In this I cropped the aspect, added a vintage style filter and some vignetting.

November 30, 2012 0

Sundown in the City

Shot on the mobile using pudding camera app and then edited with photo editor, todays image is of the CBD in Auckland. Taken from Mt Victoria, a popular stop in Devonport for tourists and locals alike.

Im off to another half marathon in the morning. Since standing on a nail the day after last months half, I have not put any training in, so im expecting a challenge. If I can walk after I will take some post race shots.

November 24, 2012 2

Fish, Shrimp and Photo Editor

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!

November 9, 2012 0

The Approaching Storm – Pudding Camera

I tried out another photo app called Pudding Camera today. A fun, free app, Pudding Camera offers the user a wide selection of cameras (e.g. Basic, Snap, Panorama, motion, etc.), and a wide range of ‘film types’ aka filters.

The camera selections apparantly come with different focal lengths, but this appears to simply be the crop factor (clearly it cant adjust the cameras built in focal length). I loved how it has ev compensation, which works fairly well. I would like to see future releases have a touch to focus rather than just centre focus, and a macro option would be nice also. That being said, its free!

Its all shot live, not with post processing options, also strangely no live view of the filters considering this.

The light was pretty magic this evening as I headed out to test my repaired car and Pudding Camera. Everything seemed colour saturated! I shot this image using the ‘standard camera’ and brown tint filter.

Tomorrow I will either try a second shot using it, or try a different app.

November 7, 2012 0

Me Afterfocus

Day two with the afterfocus app, I thought it would be useful to show the limited depth use for portrature – that being one of the more often used depths of field in some peoples photography.

As discussed yesterday, unless one is shooting in macro, mobiles and small sensor cameras have a wide depgh of field due simply to the sensor and lens combination not really making shallow wide open shots possible.

In todays self portrait, from my hand to the wall in the background, all was in focus more or less. Using Afterfocus I selected my hand as the in focus, my body and head as midfocus, and the rest as background. Then, using Afterfocus’ other functions I added a vintage filter and vignette.

I will look to try out another app tomorrow, but Afterfocus is a keeper for my mobile phone photography!

November 6, 2012 0

Horse on the Hill

As I mentioned yesterday, I have decided to concentrate on mobile phone photography (and the wordpress mobile app)over the next week, and experiment with photo editing apps out there for android.
Last night I installed Afterfocus. Reading the writeup and comments on the android store, some say it brings dslr quality to your mobile phone. Whilst that was a big statement, it does have a number off good reviews, so i gave it a go.
For those of us who use both, you will know the biggest limiter (well one) on small sensor cameras is their wide depth of field (this can also be a positive). Afterfocus allows one to digitially remaster the depth of field afterwards, giving that wide open feel of a dslr. I must say, I like it. As far as using a mobile only for a camera goes, it really opens up post processing creative options.
Horse on the Hill was shot in my last visit to new plymouth. Using Afterfocus I ‘opened up’ the aperature, adjusted to black and white and added another colour filter. Im only viewing it on my galaxy s2, but for a quick edit I am quite happy with the result. I will likely try another edit using it again tomorrow.

Please excuse any typos or non caps. Im in a bit of a rush and am not the fastest mobile keypad user!

November 5, 2012 0

Bike Vignette Diana Style

My main pc and editing software compter is connected up to our tv, and with a guest staying with us this week I have decided to concentrate on mobile phone photography – leaving the tv free for others!

I also recently finished a quick strip down, repaint and parts swap on my bike (just in time for my car to blow its radiator side tank…). Taking it for a bit of a test ride I headed down to Bayswater, cycling around the marina, and took todays shot.

Although unedited, I used the vignette app set to diana style.

I think what I will do some time this week is try out a few android photo editing apps and report how they go. For those who follow me, you will know I’m a dedicated Gimp user for post processing. Since its not on android at this stage I will have to see what works on a mobile level for me!

November 4, 2012 2

Museum on the Hill

A mobile post on the run today. Museum on the Hill was shot outside the Auckland Museum using the vignette app on my galaxy sII.
A great place to visit, both for the surrounding park land and bush walks, as well as the museum itself, which one can potentially explore for an entire day. – I’m fairly sure I have wrote a little about it in the past.
Thats all for today. Back tomorrow!

November 3, 2012 0

Waiting for the Marathon

Today marked the annual Auckland Marathon – New Zealand’s biggest marathon that starts at Devonport on the North Shore, heads into the CBD, out of it to the east bays and back into the CBD again. The more popular half Marathon also takes a similar journey, ending in the CBD rather than continuing on.

For a number of years now I have got back into entering such events, and for the Auckland Marathon, this was my third half, also doing the full marathon several years previous. I think I can firmly say its also my least training half marathon (literally having about 4 runs over the last 3 weeks to get prepared).

There is always an energetic buzz of excitement and nervousness as we count down to begin. Some people are entering for the first time, unsure what to expect, others are old hats, clear what they are getting themselves into. As the first 3-5km pass I run by a number of people who have unfortunately taken off to strong and ended up pulling muscles or twisting joints. The local residents turn out in the mass cheering people on. We hear towards the harbour bridge crossing and the number of runners chatting dies as breaths become louder and faster. The final 3 km’s are torture – not just because the legs want to stop for a walk, but because the sun is fully up, and we are running past the tank farms – local storage of petrol, diesel and the like. Then you finish!

I would have loved to take more images, but this is one such outing where I needed to focus on the goal. I was quite pleased that with limited training, I didn’t stop once throughout the race, and although not a personal best, it was closer to that side than the other. My legs wont be thanking me for it tomorrow though…well they are already complaining!

Image wise, I played around with how to combine and display the ‘in front’ and ‘behind’ me groups, but in the end simply settled on combining the two with a simple boarder divide. They were the only two I snapped as we waited for the countdown. I also added a cross-process filter which helped give the blown out white sky in the left photo a bit of a golden tone.

October 28, 2012 0

The Dinner

Some terrible weather had here today. I had intended to head out with the GR1 and get some film shots in town, but heavy rain and wind prevented a successful outing.

The day otherwise filled up with catching up with friends, I played around a little more with Paper Camera on my Samsung Galaxy s2 and chose today’s image ‘The Dinner’ for my shot to publish.

Just resizing done in Gimp, otherwise as shot on the App. One could almost make a comic book using it and shooting real people!?

October 13, 2012 0