All Is Full Of Love

All is full of love by Bjork has been in my head for a couple of days now. I don’t really know why, since I haven’t listened to it in a while. I think it was a reminder to be aware of all the love around me. Not just from people, but also in nature. 

On yesterday’s hike to some waterfalls, I spotted this fleeting heart. I say fleeting because the leaf below the snow only looked like a heart because of how the snow was melting. It stopped me in my tracks, because it felt like it was meant for me to find. I’m sure I’m not the only weirdo that has those experiences haha.

At any rate, I found love in CT this past week. Love from wonderful friends and love from nature. Both have rejuvenated my spirit ❤. I hope today you will remember that love is all around you. 

Here are the Bjork lyrics and song if you’re interested. 

You’ll be given love

You’ll be taken care of

You’ll be given love

You have to trust it
Maybe not from the sources

You have poured yours

Maybe not from the directions

You are staring at
Twist your head around

It’s all around you

All is full of love

All around you
All is full of love

You just ain’t receiving

All is full of love

Your phone is off the hook

All is full of love

Your doors are all shut

All is full of love!

The video

Happy Feb 14th

A flower falls, even though we love it. 

-Dogen

I hate to be that guy, but I’ve never been a fan of this holiday. Probably because I spent too many of them alone. Shrug. 

I’ll probably be spending the day eating junk food and doing something artsy to express myself. 

I hope you have someone special to share it with. Don’t forget to spread the love and let your single friends know you love and appreciate them too. 

This hyacinth was shot with ProShot and edited with Snapseed and iColorama. Then I used artista Impresso for the painterly look. 

Eagle Lake

I’m out at Eagle Lake, just south of the Canadian border, for the 4th. Our friends have a house right on the water, so this is the view we have to put up with for a few days 😛

I shot this with the default camera app and did one small adjustment in icolorama. I mostly achieved the look I wanted in camera by having the sun just out of frame. 

When A House Isn’t A Home

Last night, around sunset, we had stormy skies that had a few breaks in it. I was feeling optimistic, so I went for a walk down between the ponds. For a moment, it looked like the sky was opening up right where I needed it to. Unfortunately, it closed back up after 5 minutes, and about 15 before sunset.

Instead of walking back with nothing to share, I stopped at the house on the corner to take my first shot at it. It’s abandoned and falling apart, obviously. There is so much cool detail and texture on the outside. I plan on exploring it more thoroughly one day. For this shot I just wanted a wide shot of the property. Next time I’ll be up close with my super wide angle iPro lens. I may even see if I can have a look around the inside.

Shot with ProHDRX. Edited with Snapseed, Mextures, and iColorama.

King of Hearts

A couple of years ago I took a bunch of photos of animals at the natural history museum in NYC. I thought I would do something cool with them eventually. And it only took like 2 years for me to play with a few of them.

This was edited in Snapseed, Mextures, and iColorama.

Fall?

This has to be the least impressive fall I’ve ever seen. The drought, and warm temps here in Oregon, have caused a lot of leaves to fall before they ever had a chance to change colors.

I shouldn’t have to go photograph plastic leaves in a store to get fall colors, but thats exactly what I did for this photo. Ok, I didn’t go to the store with the intent of taking this photo. I was the boyfriend being dragged around while my girl shopped. I tried to make the most of it by looking for interesting shots.

To hide the plastic fakeness of the leaves, I used iColorama to get a painterly style.

The Light

The other day, while I was waiting for some Japanese takeout, I took a photo of one of the lights and decided to do a fun edit in iColorama.

While I was taking the photo, my girlfriend’s 6 year old son was asking how the ceiling in the photo turned out all black, which lead to a little conversation on how a camera works. He actually figured out that its like our eyes. I was pretty impressed. Maybe I’ll teach him how to take photos on one of my old iPhones.

Mossy Grotto Falls

We lost power for a little bit the other day. It was a good thing, because I’ve been getting distracted a lot lately. The lack of electricity helped me focus on doing something creative. I decided I should go through all of my images on my iPhone and see what I haven’t edited yet.

I found this gem from mossy grotto falls in the columbia river gorge. I thought it would make a nice painterly image, so I took it into iColorama and worked my magic there. Then I took it into Snapseed for some finishing touches.

Painted Jacksonville

I found myself walking through the neighborhood of Jacksonville, OR again this past weekend. It’s a nice little touristy, historical town. Lots of old buildings, wineries, art, etc. Its small, so the people are unusually friendly, and actually know each other.

I walked through the neighborhood, from my friend’s place to the main strip, and all of the houses looked perfect. I got the strangest feeling, though. There were hardly any cars on the street, and no people, even in the late afternoon. I kind of felt like I was on a movie set. I wanted to take photos of a lot of the houses, to try and capture the strange vibe. Next time…

This was edited with Snapseed, then Artista Impresso. I also took a version of the snapseed edit and edited with TangledFX. Then I took the 2 painterly versions into ImageBlender, where I masked in the TangledFX style on the tree, grass, and parts of the house. Finally, I took the merged image into iColorama, where I used some dry brushes on the tree and sky, then a flower brush on other parts of the image.

I don’t normally edit like this, but I was allowing myself to play and have some fun. I need to have some play time, after all the other work I’ve had to make a priority lately. Don’t ever let anyone tell you being a photographer is only about taking and editing photos.

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.

Now It’s The iPhone’s Take on Pelicans

Since I didn’t use a zoom on my iPhone, I had to crop the image much tighter to make the birds more prominent in the image. I wanted a darker, more contrasty edit, so thats what I went for in Snapseed. I thought I was done with the image, until yesterday, when Meg of movethechair.wordpress.com, asked me about tips or suggestions for impressionist styles on the iPhone. Btw, go to her blog and check out the Take 12 project I was a part of recently. You can find it in the menu bar.

Last month, I was actually looking for apps that can recreate impressionist styles, but didn’t like anything I saw. I totally forgot that iColorama has some great filters/effects in it that can give you an impressionist feel. So, thats what I ended up using today to get the painterly look.

There are a number of styles if you tap on the top, select Style, then Painterly, or Coherence. Both of those will give you some good choices. For this image, I used Coherence at about 60% opacity and I masked out about 20% opacity on the birds, just to bring back a tiny bit more detail.

If you have any techniques you want to learn too, just ask! I’ll see what I can do.

Nature’s Fading Heartbeat

I was playing around with an image in iColorama the other day, and ended up creating this. I didn’t really know what I was trying to create, I was just messing with different features. When I finally stopped and looked at this, it reminded me of a heartbeat on an EKG machine, hence the title.

Fortnight Lily

These bushes were in full bloom at my parent’s house this weekend. I liked the way these flowers lined up to create an s curve.

I was able to test out the car mount for the selfy case on the long, boring drive, from the bay area to the central coast. I think it will take a little getting used to. So far, it has been fine. I don’t know that its made my life any easier, but I haven’t used it for directions yet. I’ll definitely be using it for that while I’m on the road for a couple weeks in Oregon. I was really looking forward to it, but southern Oregon is going to be in triple digits. I may have to start my adventure on the coast, or farther north, in Eugene.

This shot was edited with Snapseed and iColorama. The original image was pretty flat because of the overcast sky. I wanted to make the flowers pop, by adding contrast. I also made some selective adjustments to darken everything but the flowers.

Golden Gate From Below

I shot this using Hueless from the top of Fort Point. I hadn’t seen the bridge from this angle before, and now it might be one of my favorite points of view. It’s a completely different experience. You get a better sense of just how large the structure actually is. Maybe I’ll make it back another day for a sunrise, or sunset.

I’ll be on the road for the better part of the next 3 weeks, save for a few days next week. I get to go to the central coast this weekend for my nephew’s 3rd birthday party. Then, next weekend, I’ll be heading to Oregon for some r&r, plus plenty of photography. If anyone wants to meet up to shoot, I may be all over, from southern Oregon, to the coast, to Eugene, and maybe to Crater Lake.

While I’m on the road, I’ll be able to test out the new product iLuv has sent me, the car mount for the Selfy case. No more holding my phone and looking at google maps while I drive…I mean letting my copilot give me directions. I’ll be sure to let you guys know how it works out.

The edit on this one was simple. I used Snapseed to level the horizon, crop, and make a couple basic adjustments. Then, I used iColorama for a very slight color treatment. I think it lifted the shadows, more than anything.

Artsy Edit for Q

I haven’t had time to shoot or do much creative work lately. I’m too stressed out to create. A few things have been up in the air, but I think they’re starting to settle a bit.

Anyways, my friend Q, in NY, sent me the photo below of her, that her friend shot. I liked the color and composition, so I thought I would play with it in iColorama one night. I’d say my edit does a good job of reflecting her personality 🙂

We may get to do another photoshoot together this fall, if I do end up spending a month in NY. Fingers crossed!