Picture of the Day.

Finished Picture:  I channeled my fear of dogs in to a creative outlet and came up with this masterpiece via Snapseed.  Though this picture is very grainy, to paraphrase Gordon Gecko, "Grainy, for lack of a better word, is good."  Though the subject is way off-center, blurry, in motion, and the picture is grainy, it actually works very well and I love how the sienna/umbra color coordinates so well with the vicious dog.  

Original Picture:  People often ask me, "Jimmy, why do you have a fear of dogs?"  I typically respond that I do not have a fear of dogs insomuch as I have a fear of being bitten and going to the Emergency Room - AGAIN.  When I think of dogs I often picture them in a pose similar to this - fangs bared at me, ready to strike and hungry for the taste of Jimmy.  Those teeth are razor sharp and make a Piranha look like an old man with dentures.  I reek of fear around dogs, and dogs are attracted to that scent like honeybees to daisies.

Favorite Pictures of The Week

Original:  This picture is so boring that I fell asleep twice just taking it.  Please do not look at this picture while you drive - you might fall asleep too.

Finished Picture:  A perfect example that answers the question, "What can I do with all my crummy pictures that are so incredibly boring I fall asleep looking at them?"  Taken in the morning after taking my son to school.  Having to fulfill my quotient of "streets and electrical poles", I found a perfect subject.  Snapseed did the rest and I was just along for the ride.  Have you ever heard about the gorilla that painted pictures that sold for $$$?  I wonder what that gorilla could do with an iPhone and Snapseed.

Original:  The original picture is actually pretty good and has some merit.  The subject is interesting, it fulfills my sign quotient for the week, it has the number 4 in it, and I love the blue light.  Fun Fact:  Elvis Presley would have been 44 if he had lived two more years.

Finished Picture:  Taken in my favorite parking garage (see below) in the afternoon on my iPhone with my favorite new app, Snapseed. 

Original:  Just a boring picture of a boring parking garage taken on a boring day because I was bored.

Finished Picture: I recently started using an app on my iPad called, Instagram.  It is a great way to post your photography and have others look at it and rate it - a great way to get feedback on your work.  One of the fellow Instagram photographers posted their work and mentioned that they had achieved some really nice results in an app called, Snapseed.  I must have dyslexia because I thought it was called, Snapspeed, which sounds more appropriate.  Anyhow, I quickly checked out the app, bought it, and one of the fist pics I created was this above - a pic taken in a parking garage one afternoon.  The original pic was nothing exciting, but I liked the subject so I thought it would be interesting to see what I could do with it.

Favorite Pics of the Week

     People often stop me on the street and ask, "Hey Jimmy, what are your favorite pictures this week?"  In answer to that constant question, I post the following:

Finished Picture:  With enough dust on the car to write War and Peace, I ran the car through the digital carwash to remove all the funk from the original image.  First I ran it through Tiffen FX (iPad app) on my beloved iPad to bring out the colors.  Next I ran it through Tilt Shift Generator (iPad app) to give the colors more KAPOW! and add a neat level of blur and sharp focus to give the picture depth.  Then I ran the final image through Instagram to slightly tame the colors, and share with my friends on Instagram.  Check my work out on Instagram - I am jimmy1963 and I have a kajillion pictures in my portfolio.

Original Picture:  While driving through the big city of Burnet, Texas, this impeccable example of Detroit craftsmanship caught my eye.  But what to do with it?

Finished Picture:  A good example of "how to create the wow factor in your pictures".  Whites have been whitened, colors have been brightened, picture has been sharpened, and what was once a drab picture suddenly looks pretty good.

Original Picture:  A good example of my unique photography method known as High-Speed Accidental Photography.  Not to be confused with taking a picture in a moving vehicle without looking at the subject.  Colorful subject and interesting signage - too bad it is blurry and out of focus.

Finished Picture:  When faced with a boring picture and a boring subject - what to do?  Pull out all the stops - you can't make it look any worse.  3 minutes worth of work on my iPhone while waiting for my lunch to be served at Jimmy John's and I created something pretty cool.

Original:  Lots of grey and nothing remotely interesting about this picture.

Finished Picture:  4 minutes of editing on my iPhone in my favorite app - Tiffen Photo FX.  Approx 20+ adjustments made to the pic to compensate for the washed out grey skies, and the lack of color and pizzazz.

Original:  Church in downtown Austin, Texas.  Picture taken on a dreary winter day.

Instagram

     One of my photographic interests is purposely taking a bad photograph and trying to make something interesting out of it.  I do not see it as a waste of time or a waste of digital space.  Instead, I see it as a fun creative challenge.  

Original:  A boring picture taken with my iPhone while moving.

     I think of it as the Pablo Picasso challenge - creating beauty where it did not exist.  To many people, Picasso was the eccentric artist that created weird paintings of grotesquely formed people, fat women, and general debauchery.  In reality though, he was skilled and talented at drawing photo-realistically.  However, at a certain point in his life I imagine that no longer became a challenge for him, and instead, the creative challenge became being able to create something one of a kind and unique, instead of drawing exactly what everyone else saw.  

     I am reminded of that every time I take a bad photograph on purpose - anyone can point a camera and shoot, but not everyone can create beauty where it did not exist before.  And that becomes the challenge with an iPhone, Photoshop, and all the available photo apps - creating beauty or interest with all the tools available to you.  

Finished picture after massaging it in various iPhone apps and injecting a lot of KAPOW!

     One of my favorite new apps is, Instagram.  Instagram is essentially the Facebook of iPhone photo apps.  It allows you to apply 17 different presets to a photograph to change the appearance, and share those pictures online with your online social community - Facebook friends, Twitter, Flickr, and other Instagram users. 

     But like most apps, there is so much more that you can do with it, than just what you see on the surface.  For one, you can massage the image in Photoshop or other apps, prior to taking it in to Instagram - the results can create stunning images.  Another thing you can do with Instagram is to share your portfolio of work with the Instagram community and have your work rated by strangers with either a “Like” or a comment.  What I like the most about Instagram, however, is the ability to meet other photographers, amateur and professional, and see how others are stretching the photographic boundaries with all the available apps.  A few years ago HDR photography was the rage, but now you can see how talented amateur photographers have gone on to create all new effects and methods.  As my fellow Instagram photographer, Tonythemaindog, said, “It is a great place to people watch.”  A fascinating place to see what others are up to.

Original:  An iPhone pic taken on a drab dreary day.

     Everyone has their own style.  Some people have a portfolio of nothing but black and white photographs, some people take a lot of pictures of hands, some people like to take pictures of shoes - everyone has their own idea of what they deem to be photo-worthy.  And this is what makes Instagram so fascinating - the wide variety of styles, effects, and abilities.

Finished pic with colors enhanced, a colorful sky added, a slight blur added, and a heavy dose of KAPOW!

     One Instagram photographer caught my attention recently.  Mommyroo3 posted a picture of a rain gutter with water pouring out.  A simple picture of an uninteresting object, yet by a little effort and creativity, she turned what would have been a trash picture in to a work of art.  I would have never seen her art if I had not joined Instagram, but by joining Instagram I can not only see beautiful fascinating artwork, but also see what others are doing with their work.  

     Are you on Instagram yet?  I am - go check out my growing portfolio - I am jimmy1963.