Update

Wow its really been nearly a month since I last posted. I haven’t been shooting much lately, mostly just playing with photoshop, but thats about to change. I’ve been making lots of new contacts back here on the central coast, trying to find new clients. Tomorrow I’ll be shooting a woman and her horse on the beach around sunset. That should be fun. She offered riding lessons in exchange for photos.

I also have a shoot with a model on thursday and I’ll be working with a hair and makeup artist that I met recently. I’m sure we’ll get some amazing photos to share. Theres another model that wants to work with me soon as well. We actually taught preschool together a few years ago…small world.

Oh! I also made those amazing oreo truffles the other day. They’re super easy to make and very delicious. I definitely recommend making them this holiday season.

Concept Art – Dream Odyssey

While I was unable to shoot recently, I decided to come up with some concept art for a matte painting. I’m no painter and I can’t really draw, but I was able to make this from scratch in photoshop with an assortment of brushes. The perfectionist in me wanted to keep adding details, but at some point you have to move on to the next step.

I’m in the process of turning it into a photorealistic matte painting. I have most of the pieces in place. Now, I just need to make sure the perspectives work and get the colors corrected.

How did I get into this? I watched a few videos by Dylan Cole, who is amazing btw, and felt like I could create something cool too.

Self Edit Mini Challenge Reminder

Hey guys. Don’t forget the deadline to submit your photos is almost here. If you’re already done, you can send them to me at submit@davidpasillas.com. Be sure to include your name and link to your blog or website that you want promoted.

If you haven’t heard about the challenge or forgot what its about, here is Shannon’s original post.

Basically, take 100 photos of a single subject and submit your 1 or 2 best photos. Go read Shannon’s post for why you should take part. This is definitely an opportunity to improve your photography.

If you think its too late to join, you’re wrong. I still haven’t done my shoot. Well, I did do a shoot with a praying mantis, but I want to do another one since I already shared those pics.

Grab your camera and join in on the fun!

More Awards

First off, let me say…

Excuse the cheesy thank you card I made this morning. I decided I don’t like all the rules that these awards have, so I’m going to ignore them and do things my own way. Nobody is enforcing any of these rules anyways. I’ll thank everyone that nominated me for an award recently and then I’ll give you some links to check out.

My thanks to Charlie and Fabian for the Very Inspiring Blog Award and the One Lovely Blog awards.

Thank you Paul for the Sunshine award.

Thank you Yvonne from PhotoEcstasy for the Very Inspiring Blog Award.

And I have to thank AngelineM and PhotoPoetics for nominating me for the inspring blog award.

Did I get everyone??? I do thank you all. Sometimes I wonder if I’m wasting my time with blogging and then I get some recognition from my peers that let me know I’m appreciated and probably inspiring some people out there in the blogosphere.

Now for some links. I’d like to share some sites that I think you could benefit from. If you’re following my blog, you probably want to improve your iphoneography or photography in general. These are some sites that I like to visit regularly.

PSD Tuts+ Lets face it, if you want to get the most out of your camera, you’re going to have to know how to edit. This is a great place to pick up photoshop tips and techniques. There is also a lot of amazing art.

Digital Photography School I highly recommend this site. The amount of free info is pretty incredible. Spend some time there everyday, or a few times a week, and you’ll definitely see some improvement.

Neil Van Niekerk Interested in flash photography or great portraiture? Neil has a lot of knowledge to share.

PhotoResourceHub

Moose Peterson Moose is a real pro with amazing wildlife photos. He’s also into shooting planes and landscapes.

PhotoCascadia This is an amazing group of photographers. They offer some insights into their craft with blog posts and paid tutorials.

Now that you have a bunch of new sites to check out, go learn something new this week.

My First Matte Painting

I’ve become really fascinated with matte painting recently and wanted to give it a shot. I found this tutorial online and decided I needed to do it. You should click to see this much larger.

This is what I’ve been up to lately. Not shooting, but pushing my photoshop skills. I’m mostly self taught. As someone who spent way too long in school and then spent time teaching, I believe you can teach yourself just about anything if you have the desire.

It seemed like a lot of my teachers could have been replaced by a book. All they did was lecture straight from the book and hardly ever added anything unique to justify their salary. So, why the hell do I need to pay someone to read a book to me? I don’t. I’ll get the book and teach myself in the comfort of my home while listening to music.

Believe it or not, this started out as 2 daytime images of Florence and Cairo.

After turning it to a night scene, I painted in the fires, smoke, and lighting. It was really fun bringing the city to life and controlling the light. I’ve had this idea of painting with light for quite some time, and this is probably the first time I’ve actually done what I had envisioned a long time ago.

My finished version isn’t quite finished, but it was close enough for me to share. I think I want to crop some off the sides and add more smoke and fire. I’ll probably light up more windows too.

Ramblings & Free apps

I’m still here, just not compelled to share iphone photos at the moment. WordPress has been odd lately. Somehow, I’m getting more views when I don’t post anything haha.

I’m experimenting with painting in photoshop right now. I’m watching old Bob Ross videos on youtube because he makes painting look so easy. I tried on the iphone, but it was a little challenging since I didn’t have all the tools I wanted.

I don’t care if you’re drawing with chalk on the sidewalk or sculpting with playdoh (my playdoh skills are awesome btw,) getting immersed in other creative activities is a good way to push your creativity.

Freebies

There are two long exposure apps available for free right now. Figures that would happen after Nick and Shannon’s long exposure collaboration ended! Slow Shutter Cam is one I’ve used a few times that works well. I can recommend that one. The other is Slow Shutter Plus and it looks ok except for the ridiculously low res saves. 640×480 on the iphone4, 852×640 on the 4s.

A Creative Rut

I’m still here, just going through a creative rut and also an overload of social networking.

The other day, I was ready to shut it all down, except for my blogs here. I was about to deactivate my personal facebook page, but then I’d lose my photography page there, so I didn’t. Instead, I’m avoiding it for a while. I was also about to quit Tadaa, an app like instagram, but a few nice people talked me out of it because I’m one of their favorites, and they were going to miss my pictures.

I feel like I need to disconnect from everything for a bit and get a little R&R, but I almost feel guilty for not blogging. For a few years, I’ve tried to get an audience for my photos. When nobody was paying attention, it was easy to walk away for a month or two and not give it a second thought. Now that people actually appreciate what I do, and might actually miss me, its harder to take a break.

I guess what I’m saying is its not you, its me. Just kidding.

I’m still here, but feeling uninspired at the moment. I tried exploring Santa Barbara and Ojai to jump start the creative juices, but I struggled to find beauty in what I was seeing.The mission was cool, but crawling with tourists who seemed determined to keep me from getting my shot.

What do you do when you’re uninspired?

 

EDIT: WordPress is suggesting Mental-Health as a tag for this post…what the hell are you trying to say wordpress???

Ironing Giraffe

I wasn’t going to share this here because it has nothing to do with the iPhone or iPhoneography, but people are loving it on my personal facebook so I thought I would share with you before I share on my photography page tomorrow.

I like to try wild tutorials once in a while to push my creativity and photoshop skills. This image was fun to create and the 4 hours flew by until I got light headed and realized I hadn’t eaten anything in a long time. Believe it or not, only 2 images were used to make this. Enjoy.

Square Off Votes

I recently entered the Life in LoFi Square Off contest and now its time to vote. Please vote for my image. You can vote once a day for a week, but don’t worry, I won’t harass you everyday. The top 2 images get free canvas prints and a feature on Life in LoFi.

Versatile Blogger Award

I have to thank Sheila for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award. I feel humbled knowing that other people appreciate what I’m doing…even if I don’t really know what I’m doing haha.

The rules of the award are:

1. Add the Versatile Award photo on a blog post

2. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.

3. Share 7 things about myself.

4. Pass the award along to 15 favorite bloggers.

 

7 things about me:

1. I played baseball for 12 years and tried out for major league scouts when I was 18.
2. I’ve been on the field at AT&T park in SF and got to take batting practice against a couple of trash talking former major leaguers, Vida Blue and Tito Fuentes. Tito said he’d buy me season tickets if I went deep on him. I crushed one to left but the wind knocked it down at the warning track
3. My photoshop skills (I don’t use PS for this blog) are self taught. All you need these days is an internet connection and you can learn anything.
4. I have an associates degree in Early Childhood Education and I’ve taught preschool in the past. I’m also looking to get back into the classroom.
5. I wrote and illustrated a childrens book that I’ve been meaning to upload to ibooks as soon as I redo the illustrations in photoshop.
6. I like to bake almost as much as I like to eat desserts.
7. If I could eat one thing the rest of my life, it would probably be pizza.

My 15 nominations in no particular order:

1. http://photobotos.com/ They’re showcasing amazing photos everyday.
2. http://postcardsfromcolorado.wordpress.com/ Simple and beautiful photos.
3. http://edithlevyphotography.com/ Great photos from a DSLR and iphone.
4. http://tracielouisephotography.net/blog/ Tracie is an outstanding photographer and a good source of inspiration.
5. http://itssarahsplace.com/ Sarah can cook up anything and take great photos while doing it.
6. http://ashcroft54.com/ Really pushing the creative limits of iphoneography.
7. http://sillymonkeyphoto.com/ Dmitrii is a very solid HDR photographer.
8. http://briangaynorphotography.com/ Brian is easily one of my favorite photographers here. Follow him and enjoy the beautiful images he shares.
9. http://ahardyperspective.wordpress.com/ Another excellent photographer on wordpress.
10. http://thelittleleaf.wordpress.com/ An A to Z photo project with awesome photos.
11. http://mselenalevontraveling.com/ Elena is a beautiful woman with a fascinating story.
12. http://enidanpics.wordpress.com/ I’m a sucker for good flower photos.
13. http://hellasydney.com/ Her writing style is hilarious.
14. http://liketheocean.com/ Another Oregonian with beautiful photos.
15. http://gaia365.wordpress.com/ Kenneth is a great iphoneographer.

1 Month In

Yesterday marked a couple of things for me. It was a month ago that I started this blog on a whim and also the day my dear Aunt Bea passed away. I went out that day with a feeling that I might catch some special light around sunset because I had another angel on my side. I waited and waited, but the sky was cloudy and it didn’t look promising. Then, the sky opened up in front of me and bathed the boardwalk in beautiful light. The image still moves me even after a month.

A month ago I had no idea what this blog would turn into. I’m passing the 1000 views milestone today. Somehow I fooled 40 people into following this blog and even more suckers are joining everyday (I’m grateful for all of you.) I also have to thank  Sarah for choosing  me for the liebster award and promoting me to her followers on multiple occasions (sorry I haven’t had time to thank you for that.)

I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you all for stopping by and motivating me to keep shooting and sharing. I’ve enjoyed each of your blogs, even if I don’t have time to leave a comment on them all or “like” them. Last, but not least, thank you to the app developers that have graciously given me their apps to review. I still have to dig in to AntiCrop, Filterstorm, PhotoToaster, and PhotoForge2 so I can tell you guys all about them.

If you’ve managed to make it this far, have a great day!

How To Get Free Apps

I want to let you guys know how I scoop up a lot of apps for free. There is an awesome app called App Deals (Free) by Appsfire. I have other apps that let me know about free apps, but this is the best and seems to cover everything. You can customize the app to show you apps only in the categories that you’re interested in. Obviously, Photo & Video is what I’m most interested in right now, so its at the top. There are tons of other categories for you to choose from too.

If you slide your finger along a category, more apps are revealed. Or, if you check often and you just want to see whats new since the last time you looked, you can tap the top right of that category where it might say “1 New,” and only that app will be displayed.

Not only does this app track freebies, but it also lets you know about price drops. You can even tell App Deals to notify you when a specific app drops in price or becomes free. If you spend a minute or two each day with this app, you’ll end up saving yourself some money.

 

 

Snapseed Walkthrough

I hope you picked up Snapseed today while it was free. If you haven’t yet, go do it now! This post will let you behind the curtain and show you how I use the app to edit pictures on my iphone. The app has a lot of features, but I won’t cover them all in this post or it would be so much longer than it already is. Lets start with the before and after.

This is the original image taken with ProHDR:

For this image I’ll start with “tune image” I like to add some brightness because although it may look great on the retina display, your image will probably look a little underexposed on the web. Here I added:

• +8 to brightness,
• +23 to ambience which brings back some detail in the shadows and adds some saturation. If you go in the – direction, it removes detail from the shadows which can be interesting in some cases.
• +6 Ito bump the contrast up slightly
• +10 to Saturation for now. The image looked a little lifeless so I’ll try +10 for now and see what it looks like again when I get further along.
• +3 to white balance just to warm the image up slightly. In most cases you probably don’t need to mess with this. If you end up going too far with it, you can always go to the “Automatic” panel and play with the color correction slider until it looks normal again.

Free App!

Snapseed is free today!!! Go download it now and save 4.99. Its my favorite photo editor for the iphone and I highly recommend it.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8

Photobotos & a Freebie

Today, photobotos.com is graciously featuring one of my images on their blog. They’ve been showcasing some truly outstanding guest photographers recently and I’m proud to be in their company. Go check them out and give them a follow!

Because I was feeling the love, I’m also offering the featured image as wallpaper…for FREE. Just go to my facebook page and click like to get the link. It should be the most recent post unless I have time to post something later today.