LR Mobile & My Mailing List

Last night, I went for a walk around the neighborhood, and I brought my iPro lenses with me, just in case. I ended up only using the super wide angle, because I’m a fan of wide angle photos.

As I walked, I kept looking for stories to tell. The main two that kept jumping out at me were the amount of garbage on the side of the road, and the first signs of spring. Amazingly, I saw a bag for In N Out burger in a ditch. The closest In N Out is like 150 miles away.

In the end, I chose to shoot something totally different, because I drawn to the lines of the image.

I edited with Lightroom Mobile, which is free if you have a subscription to photoshop and lightroom. I just started using Lightroom mobile recently, and I have to say I’m a fan. I love having most of the same tools as I do on my mac. Plus, it syncs to Lightroom on your desktop, which means you can even make edits on your desktop, and they will sync to your iPhone. Pretty cool!

My favorite features in Lightroom mobile are the clarity slider, the shadow and highlight sliders, and the vignette (which is one of the better vignette tools I’ve seen.)

After making the edits in Lightroom mobile, which you see in the above image, I decided to try a painterly look with Artista Impresso (below.)

Finally, I’m starting a mailing list. I was going to announce this alongside the launch of my new site, but there are still issues that need to be worked out there. As a little incentive to sign up, I’m going to be giving you an ebook that I’m finishing up, which is my guide to the Big Sur Coast. I share a lot of my favorite locations, what you’ll find there, and when you might want to visit them.

The mailing list will be used to share info about upcoming books, workshops, and stuff like that. So go here to sign up, and I’ll send you the Big Sur book as soon as its finished, which could be within a week.

I’d Love Your Feedback on Workshops

Earlier this week, I had a wonderful conversation over breakfast with Meri Walker, aka iPhone Art Girl, and she was encouraging me to start mentoring, and teaching workshops on iPhoneography. Teaching is in my blood, and in my background. I really believe teaching photography/iphoneography is more rewarding than creating my own art. So, I thought I would see what kind of interest there is in my services.

For those of you that would be interested in improving your iPhoneography, what would you be most interested in doing with me?

Here are a few things I’m currently considering:

• Skype sessions
• On location workshops between Portland and SF, or near you (depending on how many people in your area are interested in a workshop)
• Ongoing mentoring with assignments, feedback, and lots of learning, at a comfortable pace

Here is what I can promise you about workshops, they will be a lot of fun, we will do some creative things together, and you will learn more in a day with me than you could in months of following my blog.

Please leave a comment if you’re interested, or you have another idea you might be interested in. You can also email me directly at d.pasillas@yahoo.com, if you’d rather discuss this in private.

Cloudy With A Chance of Waterfalls

I was playing with Diana Photo yesterday, and it combined a waterfall image with an image that had some clouds. This isn’t that image, but it gave me an idea. I liked the concept, but the two images that Diana Photo used, didn’t quite work for me.

I ended up taking two photos that I thought would work well together, and imported them into Union. By using the waterfall image as the foreground, I could set the blending mode to lighten, and only the brighter part of the image would show through. That made it easier to mask out the bits of the image that I didn’t need.

Next, I used Snapseed to make a few adjustments, including a vintage filter. Finally, I used iColorama to add a slight painterly edit.

Prospect State Park

I hate valentines day. Really, I do. I know a lot of you think its great, but theres a dark side to it too. There has to be, because everything has an opposite, to keep the balance. For every happy couple, there is a miserable single person :P. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not miserable…I just don’t need the yearly reminder that I’m still single.

Anyways, this year I decided I didn’t want to be near any happy people, or the internet, where said happy people can share how happy they are on 2/14. So I grabbed my gear, gassed up the car, and headed for the Oregon wilderness. My first thought was to go to Fourmile lake. About a mile into the dirt roads you need to take to reach the lake, I hit snow. It was enough snow to make me have to turn around.

Luckily, there is plenty to see in Oregon, so I quickly came up with a plan B. Klamath Lake was nearby, and theres a bald eagle migration going on right now, but I forgot my zoom lens at home. So, I had to “settle” for driving to Crater Lake. Too bad everyone else in southern Oregon thought Crater Lake on valentines day was a great idea. I’ve never seen it so crowded. There was zero parking at the rim, so I turned around and headed for Plan C, which ended up being Prospect State Park.

There are a few waterfalls along the trails at the park, with some nice lookout points from high up. It was nice and all, but I didn’t come all this way for the typical photo form the designated lookout area. This is the view of Barr Creek Falls, from above, with a painterly edit. It looks nice, but its been done.

After taking this shot, I asked a young couple on the trail if they knew of a way down the steep hillside to get closer to the falls. They said there was, but they weren’t sure exactly where. I was pointed in a general direction, and luckily, I found a dangerously steep path down. If you like a challenge, this is for you. The trail was muddy, the rocks were slippery, and covered in moss, there were fallen trees you have to squeeze under. It’s like an obstacle course on an incline.

This is Mill Creek Falls, which you can only see part of from up on the hillside. I intentionally cut out most of the waterfall, because there was harsh light. The sun was shining on the top half of the falls, which was just blowing out all the highlights. So, I had to change my composition to get something that worked on the iPhone.

Overall, I was happy with this little park. I still have one more waterfall to check out there, so I’ll be going back. And, next time, I’ll go on an overcast day, which makes for better lighting on waterfalls.

Can Someone Please Explain…

David Pasillas:

So Shannon and I have been discussing things that have come up in the landscape photography community recently. I think she wrote a great piece, and I encourage you to read it, if you haven’t already. I also recommend reading Sarah Marino’s article on the current state of affairs, naturephotoguides.com/blog/photo-consumption-conformity

Originally posted on SeeingSpotsPhoto.com:

…what is up with all of the negative attacks on photographers/photography lately?

(Spoiler alert…Devil’s advocate time!)

Right around the time Peter Lik is reported to have sold that expensive slot canyon shot, I also saw at least two articles about how photography isn’t art, and another purporting the term artist isn’t applicable now. We are all “creative entrepreneurs”.

Now, within the last few weeks, I see a rash of photographers attacking the work of their peers.

I guess my question is, “To what end?”

Really, please, explain it to me.

My perspective on photography as a whole is this: it is a medium to express yourself, therefore it is art. The articles I read specifically compared it to painting, suggesting the camera does the work, therefore it is not art.

By that logic, doesn’t the paintbrush do the work?

The tool is just that. A tool to be used in…

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Layers of Light

As I’ve been adding material to my new site, I realize that a lot of the reviews I did are pretty outdated. This image was created while I was updating my LensLight review.

I also have a few new apps to review. First, I need to figure out how to fix some issues with the way the site is displaying on mobile. Its kind of a big deal for an iPhoneography site to display properly on a mobile device. Wish me luck, because I’m not savvy when it comes to web design.

Projects! Projects Everywhere!

Here is another shot of the woods near the cemetery in Jacksonville. The grunge look is great for making it feel a little creepy and gritty.

I feel like I haven’t been blogging, or working on photos, much lately. I decided I needed to stop writing for iPhone Photography School, while I focus on all of my other projects. I might write for them again in the future, time permitting. Right now, I’m trying to finish up my first book (there are plans for more,) building a new site to replace this one (its going to look great,) and getting things in order for some New England workshops this fall, among other things.

So if things are slow around here, its because I’m trying to get the new site up ASAP. Web design is super frustrating, but I’m fighting my way through all the issues that arise.