Picture of the Day

FINISHED MASTERPIECE:  In Snapseed I tweaked the Sharpness and Structure to give the picture a nice crisp appearance.  Next, I adjusted the Ambience, Saturation, Contrast and Brightness so that the image was bright, colorful and vibrant.  Next, I imported the picture in to Photoshop Express and adjusted the Sharpness again, but slightly, so that the picture did not appear over-edited.  And finally, I took out all of the color via Saturation.  I mention this because Photoshop has an adjustment in which I could just click on an icon and it converts it to Black and White, however this feature makes the picture appear a bit darker and blurrier than I care for - by simply removing all of the color via Saturation, the picture has a much better overall appearance.  I lied, that was not the final step - I had one final step:  I added a tint to the picture.  I love the light bluish green color on this, as it works well with the Italian modeled moped.  If I had used any other tint - red, yellow, blue or purple, the picture would not work as well as it does, but for some reason, bluish green works perfectly on this picture of a moped in the rain.

ORIGINAL:  A nice looking moped caught in a rare rainstorm in Austin.  The setting of a moped casting a reflection in a water puddle was perfect, but what to do with the image - how could I make it look better?  Should I make it bright and colorful, or dark and mysterious?

Fredrico the Fly

Original:  A typical photography excursion - I go out armed with my sweet iPhone4S, take hundreds of pictures of whatever seems remotely interesting, and come home with a phone that is hot to the touch and barely has any battery power left.  Above is a typical picture - while taking countless pictures of flowers with my macro Olloclip lens, I stop at the basketball court on the way home and spy a tiny little fly.  Naturally this captures my attention because I want to see how small of an object I can capture with my sweet macro Olloclip.  Unfortunately for this fly, he was not having a very good day.  How sad.  Anyhow, he was not wanting to fly, and seemed to be, um, having issues.  That's okay for me though - he was still long enough for me to take about 2 dozen pictures.  Why so many?  Good question - when shooting with a macro lens it is almost impossible to tell if you are taking a good picture at the time, so take lots of pictures to make good use of your time.  My rule of thumb is: Always take several pictures and hope one turns out the most perfect.  Not perfect, just "the most" perfect. 

Final Masterpiece:  Wow, this looks pretty cool!  This is what a tiny little fly looks like on a concrete basketball court as the sun sets.  As you can see, I needed to jazz up the picture quite a bit to get the desired results.  That's okay - I have 10 minutes to spare, my iPad, and some really cool apps.  First, I cropped the pic so that the fly was as big as possible.  Next, I sharpened the picture, but not so much that it developed that goofy "over-sharp" look.  Then I tweaked the Brightness, Ambience, Saturation, Contrast, and added a little more Sharpness.  After that it was time to run it through the Noise Reduction cycle.  This is actually a real challenge, as too much washes out all the nice detail, and not enough makes it too grainy.  But the finished results look pretty cool - a nice iridescent shimmer on the wings, and all the delicate features and hairs are accentuated on my little fly friend.

***Editor's Note:  I am so sad - my little fly friend passed away.  :-(  Did you know that flies typically only live up to 14 days?  I think I may have taken this picture on day 13-3/4.
RIP Fredrico the fly.

When the world takes notice

     Time to restate previously stated information.  In the radio business they call it “reset the table.”  In Jimmy’s World, he refers to it as “reset the table.”  Jimmy’s World seems to be very similar to the radio business.  

     But I digress.

Original:  Normally a picture that is this blurry and lacking detail or interest would find the delete button quickly.  But not with me.

     What is Instagram?  Instagram is essentially Facebook for photographers.  And it does not matter how good of a photographer you are - if you are a teenage girl and like taking pictures of your fingernails or if you are a serious photographer and go to a lot of effort creating your shots, then Instagram has a place for you.

Finished Picture:  How to make something out of nothing.  Looks a little bit abstract and a little bit plant life - I don't know... I kinda like it and it works for me.

     Now, what you do with niche within Instagram is up to you.  Are you trying to grow a business selling your photography?  If so, Instagram is a great avenue to do so that did not exist just a year or two ago.  It is a way for anyone in the world to see your work, and the hard part is to figure out how to steer people towards it.

     Why is this important to you and your budding photography business?  Because I recently came across a posting by one of my fellow Instagrammers, and she remarked how the Huffington Post had featured her in an article with the headline, “19 Instagram Photographers that we can not get enough of.”  Or something to that effect.  But the point of this is that this photographer was just minding her own business, taking nice pictures and posting them for the world to see, and then out of the blue, the world took notice and overnight her fanbase soared.  If she had a gallery of her work on Instacanv.as, then the world could have also gone to her gallery to purchase her work.  If she had a blog, then the world could have also gone to her blog and she could have made mad money through the advertising on her blog.  The point is, is that as a photographer trying to grow their business, you need to find an avenue that works best for you, or several avenues, and it may take time before you start seeing any tangible results, but if you just keep producing the best work you are capable of, eventually you will find success.  Eventually, the world will notice your work.

Taking pictures on a whim.

ORIGINAL:  Just a quick snap of billowing flags taken on a whim because they looked pretty and I was having a nice day.  I took about 8 pictures, because I wanted to get both flags as unfurled and flat as possible, and also because I knew it would take several shots til I got one I liked.  The resulting picture looked nice, but nothing exciting to look at.  Flags are difficult subjects to shoot as they move constantly and you just have to take a lot of pictures til you get one good one, plus, you do not have a good angle to shoot them since you have to look up and the flags turn out so small.  One way to fix the size of the flags - crop them to enlarge them.

EDITED PICTURE:  The original needed some work to make it somewhat interesting, so I straightened the picture, cropped it so I could have the nice puffy cloud in the frame, and adjusted the ambience and saturation.  It looked much better, but since the blue looked so pretty, I decided to brighten the pic to give it a unique look - who ever sees a sky this color of blue?  The resulting picture looked nice, but lacked something - not sure what.  I know - why does everything have to be in focus?  I fixed this by putting only the flags in focus, and everything else out of focus just enough so that your eyes are drawn to the flags.  A nice finishing touch.

FINISHED MASTERPIECE:  All of the editing created enough grain in the picture to make several loaves of bread (see middle picture) so I took the picture in to Photoshop Express on my beloved iPhone.  I ran it thru Noise Reduction until I removed a lot of the noise, but not so much that it gave the picture a slick look.  So I ended up with a pretty picture I took on a whim of two flags billowing in the breeze, both unfurled at just the right point, straightened, cropped, a puffy white cloud and a beautiful color of blue.  And how was your day?  

Pictures of the Day.

Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, Texas:  The original was under-exposed due to it being rainy at the time.  I corrected this using an HDR app, and though I over-processed it, like every pic on this page, it is a learning process.  Ideally I would have gone to the limits with the ambiance, saturation and detail, and then dialed it back a little, but I failed to do that on these pics.  Live and learn.

Downtown Austin, Texas:  A nice shot using my Olloclip wide angle lens one morning.  I have had my Olloclip for a week now, and all the shots on this page have been taken this week while I am trying to get the hang of using the lenses.  The wide angle is fun to use when taking pics of buildings and objects that will be affected by the lens wanting to curve the straight edges.

Flower Bud:  What a neat shot.  The actual bud is smaller than a pea, but with my Macro lens I was able to really zoom in on it.  The neat thing about a macro lens is that it gives you the opportunity to look in on a world you would never otherwise see.  

Little Debbie:  How can anyone disparage cute Little Debbie and her snack cakes?  What's up with that?  Another under-exposed original that got a bit over-processed, but there is a learning curve in all this stuff and I still like the shot.  SH either likes Little Debbie or hates her.  Why the hate?

Downtown Austin, Texas:  This came out a little overworked in my photo app, but it was a dark shot (I shot in to the sun) and because of that I over-processed it.  It is a nice shot though.  A good ad for Bulwark Exterminating Company.  Remember, if you have scorpions, call Bulwark.  Or drive around downtown and try to find them (the choice is yours).

Normal iPhone4S Lens vs. Wide Angle Lens

Normal Lens:  A standard shot (untouched) from my beloved iPhone4S, facing towards the sun.  The background is underexposed and the trees barely fit in to the frame.

Olloclip Wide Angle Lens:  Same exact shot as above (still untouched) standing in the same spot, however this time the wide angle lens is able to capture more light, all of the trees, plus the parking lot.  The shot above only caught two trees, but the shot below caught three, and almost five.  Notice how the trees towards the outside of the frame start to curve inward.  Also, notice how there is more depth to the image, and how everything seems more distant.

Happy Monday!

  Pretty blue skies and puffy white clouds are ideal picture taking opportunities, and I tried not to let this opportunity go to waste.  I caught this scene with my new olloclip wide angle lens.  I love how the wide angle lens distorts, but the distortion does not work for every scene, hence the need to have a variety of lenses.  What would otherwise be an uninteresting picture is made interesting by the lens distortion curving the buildings and making things appear smaller and farther away.  The beautiful blue Texas sky is accented with puffy white clouds and the sun peaking out from behind a cloud.  The colors are brought out via Snapseed and Photoshop, then tamed down just enough to where the picture is still bright and colorful, but not over the top - too much of a good thing can be bad.  The noise is brought under control just enough to where there is still grain and detail, but not so much that things look slick.  Enjoy your Monday!

Picture of the Day

Original:  An interesting and colorful picture I shot yesterday with my new Olloclip Wide Angle Lens.  This was from the first batch of pics I shot with it, so I was just trying to get used to using the lens and find interesting subject matter to shoot.  The wide angle lens curves the outside of the view, so I was looking for something that would work well with that aspect, as well as something colorful.  The subject worked well, but the resulting image is a bit blah and drab - nothing you would want to hang on your wall.  No problem - I had five minutes to spare, and Snapseed at the ready.

Final Masterpiece: Five minutes later I have managed to adjust the sharpness and detail, tweak the color and contrast, and produce an image that has some punch and pizzazz!  This is a good example of how to find a good shot - just open your eyes and shoot what you find interesting, then try to make your creation beautiful, rather than waiting for the perfect shot.  If I had waited for the perfect shot, I would have gone home with only one shot of a high-rise condo on Town Lake - whooo.

Olloclip

The nifty Olloclip is about the size of C Cell battery, or if you like food, about the size of a mini Snickers bar.  It clips on to your beloved iPhone 4S and has a Fisheye lens (the large lens facing the left above), or a Wide Angle lens (the small lens facing right).  It also comes with a Macro lens (unscrew the Wide Angle lens and it is hidden there).  It comes with a two lens caps, and a microfiber bag to carry your stuff in.

  The cool thing about having a hobby you like is that you come in to contact with others following the same interest as yourself.  With others you get to share your passion for the hobby, show them your work, see their work, get valuable feedback and grow your interest in the hobby.  Plus, you also come across stuff that you might not otherwise find out about.  The olloclip is one such thing that I would have not found out about had it not been for Instagram.
  If you are not familiar with Instagram, it is essentially Facebook for photographers of all skill levels.  Interestingly enough, Facebook bought Instagram this week, making the owners some very wealthy individual$.  Good for them. :-)
  On Instagram, you can post your photographs and share with the world your vision, talent and ability.  In return, anyone in the world can find your photograph and "like" it or comment on it.  Hopefully the comments will always be positive - so far I have not had any negative comments (knock on wood).  It is a great way to see work by other people and also come across information that you might not otherwise come across.  For example, other photographers might make comments about where they took their picture, what app they used, or contests going on.
  When you post on Instagram, you will typically include a hashtag (#) which is essentially a big collection of photographs from other photographers that used the same hashtag.  For example, you might post your picture as #instagram_underdogs, which is a group of photographers that are trying to garner fans and followers.  One such hashtag I came across a while back was #olloclip.  I had no idea what it was until I read the comments on a photograph, and the photographer was discussing how she loved her olloclip.  Well, being very curious, I googled the word and came across www.olloclip.com - a company that created the device above.  On their site they have a neat video showing the efforts they went to in manufacturing the prototype for the device, plus a store where you can order a black olloclip or a red olloclip.  It took about a week before I felt comfortable enough in parting with the approx $75 it took to buy the lens, but I finally ordered it, then sat by my mailbox over the Easter holiday waiting for the Postman to ring twice.  I hear he always rings twice, but the truth of the matter, Mr. Postman must have been nipping at the bottle, because it showed up two days late with Priority Mail.  What's up with that?
  But I digress - we were talking about the wonders of the olloclip.
  I was so excited about finally buying an olloclip, as I love photography and take tons of pics with my beloved iPhone4S.  I hate to say it, but I seldom use my beloved orange Pentax DSLR anymore.  It is a great camera and I really try to like using my Lensbaby (wow, it is really a challenge to use), but who really wants to walk around anonymously amongst the masses lugging a camera that screams "invasion of privacy"?
  So the iPhone is perfect for me and perfect for what I enjoy about photography - doing my own thing without having anyone hassling me (it is not usually a pleasant experience).  But after a while, you just wish you had those cool lenses for your iPhone.
  Welcome to 2012 and the olloclip.  The olloclip is essentially a lens for your iPhone, just like what you use on your DSLR, except it is much simpler to use - no F-Stops, focusing, or worrying about dust when you change it.  It is such a clever device, I am surprised that they are not more common-place.  Or perhaps they are - I just came across them recently.
  I have mainly used the Macro lens to date, and really like the results.  The Wide Angle lens is better than expected, and great for taking pictures of landscapes and buildings.  The Macro lens has opened up a whole new world to me, as witnessed with the pictures below - I took these the first day I used the lens and have been hooked ever since.

Original:  A flower bud with the morning sunrise smiling upon it.  But not shining enough to make a pretty picture.  No worries - I have Snapseed, Photoshop, and 5 minutes to spare.

Finished Masterpiece:  Not bad for the one of the first pictures I took with my beloved olloclip macro lens.  I used Snapseed to bring out the color, bring out the dead (not familiar with Monty Python?), sharpen the detail, and give it that Kapow! that the picture is screaming for.  I then used Photoshop to tame down the image a little so we do not get too wild, then brought it back in to Snapseed for a little fine tuning.  I love the bokeh effect created - the Lensbaby is great for this effect and I am pleasantly surprised with the olloclip creating this effect as well.  Me so happy.

Letters to the Editor.

  Okay, okay, I am not an Editor, but if I had titled this, Letters to the Blogger, it just would not have the same kind of snap to it.  
  I have received numerous letters lately, coincidentally, all written on crisp $20 bills, asking me the following questions:

$20 Bill #1:
"Jimmy, why do you keep posting a "Picture of the Week" - what gives?  Are you on a secret mission or do you have writer's block?"
  Thank you, Bill, for your excellent question!  The truth of the matter is that I have been terribly busy lately and have been unable to compose a new post that would get those neurons of yours to fire like a Fourth of July fireworks show in the park, but I have been able to post some of my most recent pictures on Instagram (I am jimmy1963).  I try to post my favorite pictures for the week, but to be honest, I kind of like them all so I really need an outside judge to make an astute determination as to which pictures are the best, then post some of them.  If you see one of my pictures you like, or one you completely hate and despise, write and let me know, and I will post it, along with your diatribe as to why you hate it, or I will post your beautiful poetic musings as to why you love it.  


$20 Bill #2:
"Jimmy, I love your work - you have such a fascinating style.  How do you create such vivid pictures, and how do you give it such a unique look?"
  Thanks, Mom, for the kind letter!  By the way, I have some more crossword puzzles and books to give you next time I come over.
  As for how I create them, well, if I tell you, then they will not be so special anymore.  But it is really pretty simple.  First, you need to start with a good picture.  By good, I mean interesting.  The quality is almost irrelevant, because the quality can be repaired and man-handled.  Does the picture have anything interesting about it?  Is the subject matter unique, cool, colorful, show motion, or show texture?  Is the subject matter something you wish you had shot a picture of?  If so, then it is probably interesting enough to proceed further.  If not, go back and shoot a more interesting picture.  
  Second, Mom, I start with a unique or interesting picture, then import it in to one of my favorite apps on my iPad.  Mom, an iPad is an electronic gizmo, about the size of a book, about as thin as an Alzheimers medication tablet, and it works magic on a photograph I take.  No, Mom, the picture is not a Polaroid.  No, Mom, there is no place to put the photograph in to the iPad.  Mom, I don't know why they call it an iPad and yes, I know it sounds like something a girl... hey, I really do not want to have this conversation with you Mom, this is getting weird and I am still traumatized from my youth when you dressed me, oh, never mind - that was a long time ago and my mental wounds have healed.  Look Mom, the best way to explain it to you is that the iPad is like a miniaturized photo laboratory with all the smelly, wet chemicals that you dip your photographic paper in to, you look at the picture with the red light on, you expose some light to it here and there, and like magic (but not real magic, because that is impossible), it creates a stunning photograph.  No Mom, the iPad does not contain any harmful chemicals and it will not leak if I carry it in your Toyota.  
  Nevermind.

Original:  This picture was so boring, drab and dark that I almost deleted it on my beloved iPhone before I took another picture.  I am not even sure what possessed me to take a picture of a motorcycle's butt, but I did.  Don't tell anyone - this is just our little secret.  

Final Masterpiece:  It is a really neat feeling to create something and be impressed with the results.  I would say that it is like when I won an Oscar for my portrayal of Jebediah in "Citizen Kane", but I was not in Citizen Kane, I have never won an Oscar, and there was no character by the name of Jebediah in Citizen Kane.  If I had won an Oscar for my portrayal of Jebediah, this is what it would have felt like.  Using my favorite iPad app, Snapseed, I created an HDR, blew out the Ambience and Saturation, then dialed it back so it was not too much.  Then I toned down the Noise with Photoshop.  The lack of noise gives it the nice smooth look, but too much noise reduction gives it too much of a smooth look - there is a fine line you have to figure out for yourself.  Notice how the HDR brought out features (in the dark shadows on the underside of the bike) that were not observable in the original - truly magic, and I stand corrected about my position on magic.  Unfortunately, Instagram crops pictures in to a square shape, so the picture did not receive justice when I posted it - I had to crop it so much that you could not tell what you looking at, and the coolness quotient was diminished.  Coolness Quotient (QC) on the Masterpiece is an obvious 11, on a scale of 1-10, however on the Instragram cropped version, the QC was just a 5 (officially rated at a 5.375).  Enjoy.

Picture of the Week

Finished Masterpiece:  Shelby Cobra meets Snapseed, then meets Photoshop Express on my beloved iPhone, then back to Snapseed for further magic.  Snapseed is my current favorite app, but like most photo apps, it doesn't do 100% of what I want it to do, so I also like to use Photoshop Express for some tweaking.  Or I should say, some much-needed tweaking.  t tried to bring out the pizzazz and kapow! possessed by the car, but not go overboard.  What I like to do is take the oomph! and kapow! up to the limit, then dial it back a little so I do not create a picture that looks amateurish - nothing looks worse than going overboard with an iPhone photo-magic app, such as taking an HDR image way past the limit.   I don't understand people that do that - surely it is obvious it is too much of something.  But that is just me.   Interesting how I was able to bring out the shimmery green at the front fender - a real nice touch I was not expecting.  I posted this on Instagram [@jimmy1963] and it was a crowd favorite.

Original:  When you see a one-of-a-kind car, try to do better than I did and take a one-of-a-kind picture.  I saw this beautiful Shelby Cobra (probably a replica) and had to snap a pic of it, even though it was parked in a parking spot on the main drag of Fredericksburg, Texas.  An old man was in the way, as he too likes Shelbys, so I had to artfully shoot the picture without him in it.  If you look closely you can see the trail of broken hearts this car has left behind.   

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.

Sunset Over Hutto

Original:  To the bottom left you can see the farm house that did not belong, the dark areas at the upper corners, and an overall film covering the picture.

Final Picture:  The farm house has been cropped, the picture slightly rotated, minor cloning performed, the dark areas fixed, and the colors enhanced.

     Being in the right place at the right time is always a great feeling - being able to capture an image that you would have missed if you had been 5 minutes early or 5 minutes late.

     And then there are those moments where you wait to be in the right place at the right time, like taking a picture of a sunrise or sunset.  

     One such moment for me was shortly after I bought my first digital SLR camera, my formerly beloved Pentax K100.  Currently it is my knock-around camera - the camera that I take with me in bad conditions - but previously it was the camera I constantly had with me to capture every exciting moment of the day.  I only had it for a few weeks when I captured a beautiful sunset over Hutto, Texas.

     At the time I was visiting family, and the visit eventually turned in to an all day event.  Anxious to use my new camera, I became decided to wander around and take pictures.   The area of Hutto I was in was located on top of a large hill that overlooked farmland and houses.  To the west of my location was a small farm, and as the sun began to set I had the idea that it would be great to capture that moment.  It was a cold, crisp day, no wind, and perfect weather for shooting pictures, minus the cold.

     The problem I had was that it was a new camera and I was not yet familiar with all the functions, and I was unsure what settings to use to perfectly capture the moment.  I did not want to take a few pictures and believe I had caught the image perfectly, so I decided to take lots of pictures at different settings, knowing that eventually I would have a perfect picture.  Which it turns out is a good way to shoot pictures - if you are faced with being in the right place at the right time, but you are not sure if you have the perfect settings for the shot, take lots of pictures using different settings, and hopefully one of those pictures will be perfect.  Part of the problem I had was that I was shooting straight in to the sun, so the reading I was getting was going to throw off the contrast in the rest of the picture.

     I came back home, eager to see how my pictures turned out, and was surprised that I had been correct all along - sure enough, the first pictures I shot were not the correct settings - I either overcompensated for the bright sky and it came out too dark, or I undercompensated and it came out too light.  Luckily, subsequent pictures had different settings and I was able to tame the bright sun and bring out the blue in the sky.  But like most pictures, only after taking it in to Photoshop was I able to realize how beautiful it really was.

     In Photoshop (I currently use version CS4) I started off with a beautiful image that just needed some color tweaking and minor retouching.  Photoshop always reminds me of the old Irish Spring soap commercial, where the actor writes in the soap film on the glass shower door to show the layer of film and grime you would have with a different soap.  When I use Photoshop, my goal is to remove that layer of film and grime that the picture has naturally.  The layer of film and grime is most evident if you do a split-screen comparison of the before and after picture - no matter how beautiful the picture is that you start with, Photoshop can remove that layer and make you wonder what was so beautiful about the original photograph to begin with.  

     To start, I changed the IMAGE (go to IMAGE, down to IMAGE SIZE, and change the dimensions to 10 inches width and 8 inches height, and resolution to 300) to a standard size I like to use - 8 x10 inches, 300dpi - and did some minor cropping.  In the original there is a farm house at the bottom left, so I cropped this out as it did not work in the image I wanted to create.  I also did a minor rotation of the picture by using the ROTATE function (go to EDIT, down to TRANSFORM, then select ROTATE; this will only work on a layer that is not the background layer; to do this, go to LAYER, and select DUPLICATE LAYER).

     To tweak the colors, I tried different settings to see what worked best.  Photoshop has lots of great color adjustments, so there is not any one particular setting to recommend.  Some times using the AUTO TONE, AUTO CONTRAST, or AUTO COLOR will be better than what you can manually do yourself (go to IMAGE, and down to AUTO TONE, AUTO CONTRAST or AUTO COLOR), and then other times they will not give you the desired results and you will need to adjust colors manually.  Using LEVELS and CURVES  (go to IMAGE, and down to LEVELS or CURVES) requires a very detailed explanation of how they function, but if you go there and either play around with the controls, or select the PRESETS they provide, you can see how the minute adjustments will dramatically change your picture.  The best way to learn Photoshop is just use the various functions - play around with a picture and see what the different tools and functions do.  If you are good at following instructions in a book, then pick up a User Guide for Photoshop, otherwise, just start playing around with all the functions in Photoshop - eventually you will start learning how they work.  Also, a great resource that I like to use is located at the Photoshop.com website - they have lots of short videos you can watch and learn how an expert does something - how the CLONE tool works, how the MAGNETIC LASSO works, and so forth.

Next Up:  Aliens Strike Llano!

When Butterflies Attack

...but they look so harmless in Grandma's garden.

     Most people are unaware of the inherent danger imposed by those delicate, wispy, bird-like creatures - butterflies.  They look harmless and beautiful flying around flowers and dancing about in a garden as the sun shimmers off their iridescent wings, but do not be fooled by their disguise - they are dangerous.

     The next time you are sitting outside and one flies near you, or gasp, lands on the head of a playful child, beware. They are not flying for your amusement - they are probing your defenses - looking for weaknesses in your perimeter. 

     At least that is story that led to my photograph, Attack!

     Armed with my beloved orange Pentax Kx, lots of time, and a fertile imagination, I set off one day to create a whimsical picture of what those dastardly creatures could possibly do if nature were left unchecked.

     Drunk on Starbux coffee, I started off with a concept - butterflies sweeping through a city and carrying away cars.  The idea was simple, and the execution took a modest amount of Photoshop ability.  Believe me, if I can do this, you can do this too.  

     The picture can be broken down in to several different parts - the skyline, the cars, and the butterflies.  The most difficult part of the picture was creating the butterfly in the foreground, as it needed to show motion.

      This is typically how I create my artwork - I develop a story first, then go about trying to illustrate the story. This is a good way to breathe life in to your work. If you find that your work is staid and lacks freshness, try this approach:  what is the story you are trying to tell, and does the image you create tell the story. The story does not have to be complicated and it can even just be a thought, such as what would the entrance to Heaven look like?  What would it look like if I were in a small town shopping one day when a 20-story robot from outer space attacked Earth?  

     Back to, Attack!

     In Photoshop, I created the base layer - a park surrounded by skyscrapers downtown - and used this to determine what else went in the picture, such as how many butterflies, what direction they traveled, and how big or small they appeared.   In the background, faces needed to be changed and altered to protect the innocent and the sky needed to be cut out.  Most pictures I go to this much effort on I will change out the sky, as usually I will get a good shot of the target (in this case the downtown park scene), but the sky will be blah.  The original picture had a nice blue sky, but a more vibrant and exciting sky needed to be added.  So the background base picture was cleaned up, sharpened, and the colors enhanced.  In Photoshop, I like to use the Unsharp Mask (go to FILTER, down to SHARPEN, then select UNSHARP MASK) to sharpen, as it gives more control over the degree of sharpness.  

     To delete the sky, I used the LASSO tool to select the majority of the background and delete, then blew up the picture and by hand I deleted individual spots in the trees so the sky could show through by using a combination of the ERASER tool with the Airbrush setting, and using the LASSO tool to select larger areas.  Deleting the sky around a tree is very challenging and takes a lot of patience, but if you have the patience to do that it will reflect in the quality of your work.

     After deleting the sky I added a layer with a new sky behind the base layer, then maneuvered the sky around til I found the perfect position.  With the sky I tweaked the colors to make them more vibrant, and used the CLONE tool to clean up dust and spots from my lens.  That is one of my biggest pet peeves - dirt on the lens.  It is very annoying and I have a hard time keeping my lens clean.

     Next I created each butterfly and car shot.  This was done by searching through my photo library for butterfly pictures and vehicle pictures.  One thing I do when I am out taking pictures is to just take random pictures of whatever I see - cars, buildings, street signs, clouds, leaves, hobos - whatever my big heart desires.  The reason for this is whenever I have an idea that I want to create, I like to have the tools handy.  It is similar to having a workbench in your garage where you have screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches and so forth - your photo library should be like that too, so you have a folder labeled, Clouds, a folder labeled, Cars, a folder labeled, Robots, and so on.  Then when you want to create a picture of butterflies attacking a city, all you have to do is sort through your folder of, Butterflies, and your folder of, Vehicles, to find all the tools you need to create your masterpiece.  

     The picture of the red car in the foreground was from a museum, for example, so I cut the car out of the background, cleaned up the car, made it more vibrant and fixed the problems with the picture.  For the red car I needed to fix the front window as it had a bad glare and reflection.  What I did was select the shape of the windshield then add in a series of colors with the PAINT BUCKET and AIRBRUSH tools to give it a shimmering window reflection of the sky. 

     After I fixed the problems with the car it was then time to add the butterfly.  I found a picture for each different butterfly, then went about the same process as the base layer by cutting out the background.  I wanted each butterfly to realistically look like it was carrying the car, rather than appear like it was just laid on top of the car, so I had to bend the legs a bit to achieve that.  I did that by using the LASSO tool to create the shape of the leg that I would be adding, then airbrushed in a series of colors to give it a realistic 3-dimensional look.  Next I needed to fix the wings so that they gave the appearance of being in motion.  This was easier than it seemed - I copied the wings on to another layer, then gave it the appearance of motion by using the MOTION filter (go to FILTER, then to BLUR, then to MOTION BLUR).  I then adjusted the OPACITY to approximately 50% in the LAYERS toolbox, so that you could see through the motion blur.  I then attached the butterfly to the car using the different layers, then under LAYERS I merged the layers together by using the MERGE DOWN layer command.  At that point I had one layer that contained nothing but the butterfly and the car.

     After creating 7 different pictures of butterflies carrying cars, it was time to add them to the base layer and position them properly.  The butterflies and cars needed to get smaller in background, so I did that by using the TRANSFORM command to shrink each layer, then rotate the butterfly and car to an aesthetically pleasing position.  The shot of the police car with the door open is a perfect example of why it pays to take pictures to build up your library.  If I had not taken a picture of an actual police car with the door open, I probably would have felt the need to create the door by hand using the LASSO tool.  So it pays to take pictures of nothing in particular when you are out shooting pictures, with the hope that one day you will have a need for a picture of a police car with the door open, or a cloud, or a hobo, or a stop sign.

     When I finish a picture that required a lot of time and effort, I always like to save the original as a PSD (Photoshop) - this way the layers are all preserved, so if I decide I want to tweak a picture in the future, I can pick things up right where I left off.  Once you save your picture as a JPEG or in another format, you merge all the layers in to one, and you can not go back to make changes to the individual layers.

     Next Up:  How to create a sunset picture with KAPOW!