Granuja Falls at Uvas Canyon

On my way out of the bay area yesterday, I stopped at Uvas Canyon because I heard there were waterfalls out there. The park is in a very rural part of Morgan Hill and kind of reminded me of the pacific northwest. There are lots of trees with a trail, with several wood bridges, that meanders alongside a creek. There seemed to be quite a few little falls. I didn’t have enough time to scope everything out because I arrived just before the park closed. I’m thinking I could spend a couple of hours there next time I’m in the area.

Shot with the default camera app which is probably why some of the falls are overexposed. Edited with Snapseed and Tadaa.

Stormy Road

 

Good news! I got published for the second month in a row in the SLO Coast Journal. Its a local online journal with a good amount of readers. Even cooler still is one of you also got published in the journal. Congrats Lace! Go check out her photos on Flickr (shes not a blogger yet.)

My photo that got published wasn’t even one of my top 3 shots for the month, but the editors sure liked it. You can see it over here on my other blog.

7 App Creation

Yesterday I was getting annoyed with all of the marblecam pictures being posted to Tadaa and wanted to show people an example of creativity. Marblecam is a one trick pony where all you do is press a button and the app does all the work without allowing any adjustments. BORING!

I created this from the pier shot I posted yesterday. In total, I used 7 apps to create this image. ProHDR, Snapseed, SimplyHDR, FX Photo Studio,WaterMyPhoto, Tadaa, and ImageBlender.

 

Highway 1

 

I think this is what you might picture when you think of Highway 1 in California. The ocean off to one side, some rolling mountains, and poppies growing along the roadside. It’s really not like this the whole stretch, but I did manage to find a spot with the poppies growing out of control.

I saw some odd things while on the road the other day. Three separate times, I saw someone peeing out in the open, including a woman who was probably 50-60 years old. No bush or car used for cover. Maybe she was unaware of the bathroom that was maybe a 3 minute walk away. Or, maybe I was in hippie territory. Yes, the Big Sur area has lots of dirty hippies unique individuals.

At this spot, there was someone down by the bluff either painting or shooting with a tripod. I couldn’t tell because it was so far away. Whatever he was doing, was really pumping him up. I heard him scream, while throwing his fists in the air, at the ocean several times as some waves crashed against the rocks.

Another idiot gentleman was riding his bike in the middle of traffic, weaving back and forth between both lanes, seemingly trying to aggravate tourists. I saw him 3 different times throughout the day, and he was doing the same thing each time.

Don’t let the weirdos discourage you from visiting though. They make for some good stories.

An Otter Sunset

An otter sunset…get it? Yet another sunset from Shell Beach. This was taken the other evening when I was out there. There were a few sea otters watching me shoot from about 100 feet away. A couple of them came pretty close to the shore, but of course, they waited for me to take my zoom lens off my nikon before doing that.

This image really came out better than I anticipated. The original looked bland, but there was enough info throughout the entire tonal range that I was able to work with it.

I did most of the work in FilterStorm, which I’m starting to think is probably one of the top 3 most powerful editing apps. If it didn’t take over 5 minutes to save when I’m done it would be hard to beat. I also used Snapseed and Tadaa to add the finishing touches. The final result was much closer to what the scene actually looked like when I was there.

Alright Sarah, I think I may actually head to Big Sur today. If I post from my phone later with ugly elephant seals, it means I’m heading up the coast.

Old Truck and A Haiku

Going back to the vehicle theme today.

There is a house across highway 1 that seems to always have busted up, old trucks for sale. They make great subjects for HDR, but this was shot with camera+, so its not really an HDR pic. I added drama and a vignette with snapseed, then used Tadaa for some clarity and a little bit of a filter.

I even wrote a quick haiku to go with this one because, for whatever reason, girls tend to challenge me to write haikus. My favorite one was a haiku making fun of haikus. =)

A broken down pile,
You throw rocks at me for fun,
Please love me again.

Porsche

One thing I like about Tadaa is they have challenges to give their users ideas of what to shoot. Recently it was doors, so the app was flooded with door pics. Most were snapshots, but some were quite good. Before doors was animals. Like there weren’t enough people only posting pics of their pets already!

This week’s challenge is vehicles. I’m sure the men are going to be all over this one. I took a few detail pics of my old man’s Carrera 2s to throw into the mix. Yes, its very fun to drive, but cops will hassle you for being in a red Porsche.

I shot with camera+ and edited with Snapseed and Tadaa. Using the campfire filter at around 50% in Tadaa really made the first image pop. I may have to actually print that one out for my dad.

Succulents

One of the places I stopped at today, while I was out, is a nursery that always has amazing ambiance. They feature a lot of creative things made by local artists. A few examples: large snail shells with some soil in it with a tiny vine growing up the string its hanging from, butterflies made from old light bulbs and colorful wire, things made out of driftwood and sells, and a wreath made out pages from a book and a succulent in the middle (I really should have just taken a picture of that one cuz it was very creative and cool.) I think you can catch a little inspiration/creativity just by being around other peoples art.

I also think talking things out with you guys helped quite a bit. If nothing else, its very reassuring to see that everyone goes through a creative dry spell now and then. I’m also proud to say that I have a lot of awfully kind people reading my blog. I appreciate the efforts you’ve made to pick me up with your thoughtful comments, email, and even an offer to meet up for coffee

Shot with camera+ and edited with Tadaa.

This Old Tree

I’m back after a little break from this blog. I felt like it was taking to much time away from me and I wasn’t getting enough out of it, so a little r&r was needed. I do appreciate all the kind things people have been saying lately, but I’m still not sure if I’ll be posting everyday like I have for the past 3 months. We’ll see how things go.

App Crazy

I think I have something like 45-50 photo apps on my phone right now. Thats after deleting a bunch that aren’t up to my standards. For this image, I used more apps than I ever have on a single image.

1. ProHDR
2. Snapseed
3. LensLight- Added the moon
4. FX Photo Studio- Created mirrored image
5. Tadaa- Added a couple of filters to get spacey/rainbow colors.
6. NIR Color-  Made a copy to blend in image blender at low opacity.
7. PhotoArtista Oil- Made a copy to blend in image blender for the painted reflection.
8. ImageBlender
9. FilterStorm- Separate curves adjustments for the sky and reflection

I’m pretty surprised I remembered all of that. You should click on it to see the large version.

So what do you think of the final outcome? Was it worth the trouble?

I also want to share a few blog posts that I contributed to recently. This one is on iphoneography, instagram, and being part of the in crowd. I’ve enjoyed my recent conversations with Shannon. She knows what shes talking about.

I did two posts for Mariam where I shared what I think helped me become not only a better  photographer, but a more creative individual. Here they are:  1 & 2. In the second post, I share a popular training website that offers 24 hour free trials to all of their videos. Go check it out!

A Familiar Path

Name that boardwalk. I think you’ve seen it plenty of times already. This is another photo from Oso Flaco Lake. The original was rather bland, so it sat on my phone for a while until I knew what to do with it. Recently, I’ve been using Tadaa….a lot. Some of the filters are really good, and the clarity slider is awesome, so I knew I was going to use Tadaa for the finishing touches.

First, I used Snapseed to add a little drama and I used the new center focus to direct the viewer’s eye =D. Then I used a filter in Tadaa to add the tone and increase the vignette around the edges. I also used a little clarity to sharpen the image.

If you do join Tadaa, look me up. My username is iphonephotog. Or, you might find my images in half of the feeds right now because they are trending, featured, and in the 24 hour charts. I’ll be happy to share your best images to help you get more followers.

 

**The voting is open again for the contest I entered. Please go vote for my country road image. Its the one in my previous post if you’re not familiar with it.

Another from Laetitia

Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.

-Og Mandino

I woke to find that a photo editor from a local online journal emailed me and asked to feature some of my work in next months issue. So thats kind of exciting. Especially since the circulation is about 35-40,000. I didn’t even submit anything, they just found me on flickr and said they thought I was undiscovered talent.

Now for today’s photo. This is out at Leatitia Vineyards again. Theres a very short trail along a hill overlooking some of the vineyards. There are also some large trees obstructing the views, so I used them as frames. If you saw me taking this one you’d probably scratch your head or laugh at me. I had the D7000 around my neck, but resting on my chest, I was holding my iPhone on top of the lens, and leaning back to fight the wind. You do what you have to for the shot.

I used ProHDR, SimplyHDR, Snapseed, and Tadaa. I’ll make another post today about Tadaa and why I’m a new fan.