Bodies On the Beach-3

Here is my latest body from the beach.

I used Camera+ and its filters.

Aloha.

Bodies On the Beach-4

My husband, Warren Mitchell, was supposedly shooting pictures of a group of canoes.

While viewing the photos, I came across his idea of a Body On the Beach.

It was shot in his Sony RX 100 II.  I enhanced it a bit in Xnview, though it she was just fine as is.

Xnview is one of my favorite apps for viewing photos and art work.  It allows me to use plugins and has some enhancing options.  Best of all, it is free.

Aloha.

Bodies On the Beach-6

Here I am with another post of Bodies On the Beach.

The couples on the left have never been to Hawaii before.  Although their clothes look like summer, they are way too much for Hawaii.

They will figure this out in the afternoon.  Off they will go to shop for cooler clothes.

Hawaii is just so warm, you barely want anything on.  I love it!

I took this with Camera+ and enhanced it with Afterlight.

Bodies On the Beach-7

I thought of the old saying, “she runs like a girl” when I saw this woman running on the beach.  Yeah, she does run like a girl, an athletic one.

This woman comes out to run early each morning.  I’ve tried to capture her for several days, but she runs too fast.  I finally got her today on her return when she slowed a bit.

Here’s to strong women.

Aloha.

Today is an experiment. I’m blogging from my iPhone. My computer’s video card gave up.

I am the body on the beach. At least my feet are.

Aloha.

Today is an experiment. I’m blogging from my iPhone. My computer’s video card gave up.

I am the body on the beach. At least my feet are.

Aloha.

Traffic

I love to take photos from our car as we drive through Seattle.  Seattle is such an interesting city.  I have lived in Seattle all my life.  I love the rhythm of the city as we drive through it.

Recently, we were driving up Boren Avenue past some new construction.  It was early morning, it was a gorgeous summer day.  I could just feel the beat of the city.  I hope you enjoy this photo.

I put this up on Instagram and someone commented that she was glad she didn’t live in the city.  That she was grateful she lived in the desert.  Well, I’m glad she lives there too.  That is what makes her happy.  We all dance to different drummers.  We need to live where the music plays for us.

This was taken on my iPhone 6 Plus and edited in Photoshop and on my iPhone in Enlight.

Pike Place Market

This is a photo of the Pike Place Market.  A very famous public market in Seattle.  Positively every photographer in Seattle has taken a photo of the front of the Market.  But, nobody every drives along Aurora Avenue and nabs a photo of the back of the Market.  And for good reason, it’s rather boring.  The front of the market is colorful with lots of action going on.

But the back of the market, not so much.

I recently opened a second account on Instagram.  I call it @seattle_kerry_style.  My reason for opening this account is to give another look at Seattle.  I am a medium good photographer.  I can’t do the drop dead gorgeous photos of Seattle yet.  But, I can do some interesting alternative looks at Seattle like this.

I took this photo into my iPhone 6 Plus.  I started in Snapseed which is where I start with all photos.  I used the tuneup feature to just get it into shape.  A little brilliance, contrast and saturation.

Then I took it into Enlight, which is becoming one of my favorite enhancement apps.  The more I use that app, the more I find to use.  I started under Image and used Adjust and chose Tools.  I went into Basic and used some of the choices there.  Then back to tools and into Details.  I used structure there.  Then maybe into Color to use saturation.  I forget.  Then, I checked the check mark and chose Clarity.  Again, I went to the tools rather than use their presets.  I really like the settings in Clarity, although I don’t use the Clarity setting much.  I like to use sharpen there, as well as fine, blacks and saturation.

Then when I got what I wanted, I clicked the check mark and chose Target under Image.

This is something new to me and I don’t know if I’m using it correctly.  But I like how I’m using it and what it will do.

There are three choices of gradient under Target, radial, linear and mirror.  I have used radial.  I take the radial gradient and put it over one small area in the photo.  Then, I click on Tools.  That takes me to settings for the gradient.  I then choose Tone.  That opens up further settings for the gradient.  I choose hue first, then saturation, contrast and exposure.  I put them up a medium amount so there is some change in the photo area I have chosen.

Then I click on Tools which takes me back to the gradient shape and I play around with placing it where I like the effect it makes. For instance, I placed this gradient radial to make the purples, the pinks, and the greens in the photo.

Then, I will go back to Tools and play with placement of the gradient, then back to Tone to play with the settings to get what I want.

I keep going back and forth like this until I get what I want in that area.I repeat this several times until I have the photo covered in colors that I like.

Then, I save it and take the photo into the app Procreate on my iPad Pro.  In the front buildings that are green and purple that have some grey on them, there was much more grey than I wanted and it was very rough.  I thought it looked out-of-place with the rest of the photo.  So I took the oil pastel brush under Sketching in Procreate and lightly brushes in those areas to smooth them out and add a bit more color.

I’m new to doing all this.  So, I’m probably doing it all wrong.  But I’m having fun and I’m liking my results.

What is surprising me, is I thought one needed Photoshop to do all this.  It amazes me that I can do it all on either my iPhone or iPad Pro.  Digital technology is moving forward amazingly fast.  More and more it jumps forward every day.  It is so exciting to be on this ride with digital. It’s quite an adventure!

Maui Fern

This is a photo I took with Camera+.  There is a big difference between Camera Plus and Camera+, so don’t get confused.  Camera+ is an awesome app for your iPhone.  However, don’t buy it for the iPad.  It’s a total ripoff.  It has none of the features it does on the iPhone.

I used their macro setting which is not a real macro setting, but definitely brings you in closer on your subject.  Camera+ will let you set exposure, focus, white balance and other settings if you want.  They give you more than one way to do this.  I like to just tap both fingers on the phone screen and then tap in the exposure circle or the focus square to get what I want when I shoot.  Also their auto focus works great.

I shot this last year in Maui, although it could have been shot here in Seattle.  But, this is a Maui fern.  It is in a favorite place of mine, Kula Lodge in Maui, up in the mountain, as you go towards Haleakala, the volcano on Maui.

This was overexposed and posed some other problems.  I was going to toss it, but found that hard to do.  I had recently watched a Mike Moats video. If you don’t know who he is, rush, I mean, rush over here. Mike is a totally awesome macro photographer.

Anyway, I was watching one of his videos where he used Nik Software’s Viveza2 to work on a photo that had some problems.  Nik Software is made by Google.  It used to cost a lot of money.  But now, for some odd reason they give it away free.  There are also free videos on how to use it up at You Tube.

Anyway, in Viveze2 there are these little dots that you put on your photo,  They expand into a circle that you can then add contrast, saturation and other elements to in your photo.  So I worked on the overexposed areas in the photo and Viveza2 did it’s magic and my photo was no longer overexposed.

I hope you enjoy this image.  I had fun taking it and enhancing it.

Sunflower

This is a sunflower photograph I took recently.  Warren and I were on a drive heading east in Washington state.  We stopped in at Index which is a very picturesque little village nestled among the cascades and sits below Mt. Index.

On the way home, we stopped in Gold Bar for lunch. I had the absolute worst meal of grease ever.  I will spare you the details.  I’ll just say that when traveling in small towns, Mexican is your best bet.  While it may not be the best, it is hard to ruin a taco.  One has to work incredibly hard to ruin rice, beans and a taco.

After lunch, we came upon a poor little bedraggled sunflower plant in someone’s front yard.  I have been seeing glorious fields of sunflowers lately.  I was extremely disappointed.  But I figured, what the heck.  You never know. Well, I ended up with this beautiful photo.

So, you never know when that one special photo will show up in your camera.

This was taken with my iPhone 6 Plus camera on auto, using  Camera+.  I may have used macro mode, I forget.

For post processing, I started in Enlight.  That is my new go-to app.  I have been a real fan of Snapseed and still use it.  But I find that I can make some more subtle changes in Enlight.  I especially like the Clarify settings under image.  Those settings there seem to offer a bit different set of adjustments for sharp, saturation and black.

Then I took this into iColorama in the style settings.

Finally, I took it into Tangled Fx and used one of my custom settings. I love Tangled Fx. I like to make my own adjustments to their settings.  I have about 15 special settings.

Enjoy!

Hibiscus

Aloha means more than hello or goodbye.

It’s a feeling, a way of being that exists on Hawaii.

We are very blessed to have Hawaii as one of our states. I am very blessed to have now visited Maui 17 times.

This trip my husband and I are here for two months. When you stay in one place for that long you take a completely different approach to your trip. Especially on Maui.

It is not one big whirlwind of activity. We get a chance to really relax into Maui and feel the Aloha.

I think of Maui as my spiritual home.

Warren and I are going to renew our wedding vows on the beach this year.

We celebrated 40 years being married last May. It felt like a good thing to renew our vows.

So to celebrate that occasion, I told Warren it was way past time for me to have a new wedding ring. Poor guy didn’t know that you reward a good wife of long standing with a new ring.

I explained it this way:

Husband who doesn’t get a trophy wife has to buy a trophy for the wife of long standing.

It made perfect sense to me and I got a pretty new diamond ring.

This is a hibiscus I photographed at our condo grounds. It is the most beautiful color of pink.

Aloha.

This is a macro shot of a pincushion protea. Protea originally come from Africa but are found all over the world in tropical climates. 

There are about 1600 species of these flowers. They are absolutely incredible. They come in all kinds of shapes and every color imaginable. 

If you want a real treat take yourself over to Pinterest and check out these flowers. 

I use the word macro lightly here. It is not a macro in the true definition of macro. A true macro is 1:1. 

I took this on my iPhone 6 Plus with an Olloclip lens. It is a magnification lens. I was using the 14x lens. 

I love using the 14x and 21x lenses. I like to put them on my iPhone and go exploring to see what Mother Nature has hidden in the details. 

No, I didn’t just swear at you.  That is what this plant is called.  I’m guessing it’s a succulent.  But it may be a relative to the artichoke.  None of my followers on Instagram seem to know and I’m too lazy to look on the Internet.

I believe in always sharing how I process my photos.  I a, no great post processor, but I find it extremely helpful when people share how they get to the end of a journey.

I believe that the more I share, the more I will get back.  Like, what goes around,  comes around.  I have found that saying to be more than true in my time here on earth.

I also particularly love the phrase “give the person enough rope to hang themselves.”  That’s another one that I have always seen come true.  It takes awhile, but it happens.  Usually, they don’t need all that much rope.  What I have also observed, is that we don’t realize what’s going on inside that person that is making others so miserable.  I have learned they are miserable inside.  Like I don’t need to bother with revenge or getting back at them.  I could never think up a punishment worse than what they do to themselves.  Plus, if I were to bother with revenge, it would harm me.  It would take me into being negative.  It would poison me.  Why go there?  It’s not worth it.  It really isn’t.  It may seem so at the time.  You can almost taste it.  But I know now, it’s simply not.  But learn for yourself.  Waste your time if you want.   Most people have to learn the hard way.  I don’t know why that is, but they do.  I did.  I wish I had taken more advice.  I wish I had listened a bit more to my Dad.

Ok.  Back to sharing the post processing of the photo.  I can’t.  I found this inside Snapseed.  I hadn’t saved it!  I don’t have a clue what I did to it.  Other than to say it was in Snapseed.  I don’t use Snapseed that much for post processing anymore, so I think it was in there to crop it for Instagram.  But then why wasn’t it saved? I don’t know!  But I love this.  It’s not straight from the camera either.

I’m grateful I found it.  I think it’s one of my better photos.  I’ve been trying very hard to get this effect.  Very light lights and dark darks. I know people are using Stackables for this.  While this is close to what I’ve been trying to get, it’s not there yet.

So, I’m going to keep trying.

Maui sunsets are so beautiful and peaceful. We look out at the quiet bay where we are and watch the sun set slowly into the water.

Not all nights is it this bright. So, I admit that I have lent it a hand with one of my favorite photo apps, Enlight.

What is the plural for crocus!  Croci?  I don’t know. If so, then these are croci. My friend in South Carolina, Barbara Harris Sartell took this lovely photo and I did the edit.

I used one of my very favorite apps, Tangledfx. I don’t like the default presets that come with the app. But I love my presets. So far I have about 30 of them that I play around with.

I love to see the first crocus peek its head up because that means that Spring is very near.

This is a photo I took while walking out in Golden Gardens last winter with Warren. 

I put it in a Reflect app, Distressed FX, Skylab App and Enlight App.  

I read an article today about Ansel Adams.  He once took one photo and enhanced it 40 different ways.  It was this particular photo that helped make him famous.  That’s what we are doing today.  We are taking one photo and changing it many different ways.  Only our dark rooms are now digital.  Ansel Adams died in 1984.  Just before computers and digital cameras.  

I’m betting from how technical he was, from all the writing he did on photography and processing that he would have loved digital cameras and digital post processing.  

Hi everybody! It’s a new year filled with possibilities! I wish you all a great 2018.

Over Christmas Warren and I went to the Washington coast to Copalis Beach and stayed at an awesome place called Iron Springs. It’s several cabins on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Totally awesome.

I haven’t been feeling well, so it was nice to get out of Seattle for a week. Christmas can be a difficult time. For me, sometimes family makes it even more challenging. So my solution now is a quiet time at the ocean.

The two enhanced photos above are of an interesting log that had been washed up on the beach.

I used several various spps to get the effects. I’m a total app junkie and I’ve been letting most of them just sit on my iPad and iPhone. There are just a very few I usually use. Now, I’m branching out.

Last year I had hoped to take my photography to a step further in an abstract way. But we had our house remodeled. It took over six months and threw my life and ultimately my health in a tailspin.

Dealing with a general contractor and an interior designer that I fought with constantly was horrible. The interior designer could draw up plans, but had different taste than me. I think designers are used to just shoving their ideas and colors down the customer’s throats. I had very specific color ideas and design ideas. So we fought over colors, over floor coverings, everything.

All this and then the contractor was to finish in two months and didn’t.

My art work got pushed aside.

So now I am at 2018 and ready to start exploring where I want to go. There are so many kinds of art or photography out there. I try some of the types of photography art to fit in some place. But I never feel like I click. So I need to just explore, and try to figure out what I want to do.

With photography, I feel like I’ve been trying on all kinds of dresses, but none of them fit.

Things are always changing with my painting. But I’m comfortable with that. It feels like growth to me. I feel very frustrated in photography.

Here’s to an art-filled, creative 2018.

This is an image that was done on my iPad using a great app called iColorama. It is also available for the iPhone. It is difficult to fully explain this app. It works in layers but I think only two at a time. I’m currently taking a class to better understand it. It has tons of effects that you can’t even begin to wrap your head around. Then it has brushes. It’s possibilities are unlimited. But in many ways it is not, to me intuitive. At least not coming from Painter, Photoshop and Lightroom, Plus there is no manual. A really odd thing in my opinion. Previously, the app has left me in tears of frustration.

So this class is proving extremely helpful.

After I got done with this in iColorama, I did put it in Procreate and paint the light areas on the yellow petals.

To be honest, this was a pretty crummy photo. I’m amazed it turned out so well. The upper left was completely blown out. To fix that I did take the piece into an app called Touch Retouch which is an all time favorite app of mine. I cloned the blue background on the upper left. I love technology.

Have a great evening.

This last week a new app was released for iPhone and iPad. It’s called Kino Glitch. $1.99 at the App Store.

For those of you unfamiliar with Glitch apps, they’re meant to pretty much destroy your photo or drawing.

But this app is different. You have quite a bit of control over it. It’s different from any Glitch app I’ve ever used.

You choose the type of grid you want. Then you can adjust the size of the grid and how much Glitch effect comes through the grid. I chose none for this.

Then you can add a background and overlay.

You can also take your fingers and start moving the piece around. This is proving to be great fun.

The developer seems responsive to problems.

For anyone interested, I own a page on Instagram that features all kinds of photography, edits and art. If you would like to be featured, just tag to #BPA_Arts.

Enjoy your day!

This is another edit I did in iColorama. The beautiful dancer is from Pixabay. There are roses and trees in here that I shot. The purple flowers are from freepng.

I’m having a lot of fun in iColorama. My skills are building on themselves.

On Instagram, this piece has been my most popular piece so far.

But I have this nagging question. Is it my work or the work of this dancer that is touching people? I really believe it is mostly the latter. She is on her bare feet and on her toes in a perfect stance. Yes, I did good edit work. But without her, the piece would be lacking.

I am very critical of people on Instagram who get beautiful photos from Unsplash and put them together in an edit and then somehow think they have done something marvelous. When in fact, it is the photography that is carrying the edit.

It is a tight line we walk when we use other people’s work in our edits.

I’m not entirely comfortable with this. I’m new to doing this and I don’t know how much longer I’ll be doing this.

I’m going to have to think this over.

Due to health constraints, I don’t get out much to photograph. So I’m stuck using copyright free photos by others.

Anyway, this edit is about stretching yourself as far as you can. Because you never know what you’ll find when you do.

If you look close, you’ll see our dancer has found a beautiful bird that is bringing her happiness and a smile!

Have a great day!