Happy Halloween

Today is the day!  Keep your eyes open for all the wild and crazy costumes you may see and prepare for the massive wave of sugar that will hit your kids over the next few days.  Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Retouch, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Balancing Act

Today the laundry room, tomorrow Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon.  Joe has been practicing his high balance skills lately (me too--you should have seen how long it took me to balance Joe on this pvc pipe for this photo opp...).  Sort of a little Nik Wallenda wanna be this week.

Balancing Act

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Retouch, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

original image

Blog memorialized

As I quickly approach the two year mark of posting a daily picture from my iPhone onto some internet location, it dawned on me that I don't really have an easily accessible, permanent record of my daily creativity challenge.  After putting so much sweat equity into this project I decided there must be a better way.  Enter Blog2Print.  I did not want to create another long-term project spending time creating this permanent record so I found Blog2Print.  A simple way to dump my first 365 blog posts into a nice published book 8 inches by 11 inches.  It only took a few minutes to pick my options and download my blog history to the publisher.  Then a rather sizable credit card charge (approximately $100 after applying a coupon code) is all it took to get it started.  Okay, after a year of my life what is the price of memorializing the results?  Well, in this case it was worth the $100.  All 267 full-sized, glossy pages.  It arrived yesterday.  Sweet!  A book of remembrance of those first 365 days...

Blog memorialized

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Retouch, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio, dining room table


Original image:

original image

Tender Underside

The leaves are falling everywhere now.  Next week I am going to have to break out the rake for the beginning of its autumn work out sessions.  So I picked up a leaf, taped it flat to a sunlight window so I had some strong backlight filtering through the to the leaf's tender underside.  I actually really liked the original image below.  However, I also decided to play with a little post processing including some vertical symmetry and this final image is the result.  The images look so different that I could have easily made each one a separate daily post.  Although showing them together demonstrates just what a bit of creative post-processing can do.

Tender underside

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Ollo Clip close-up lens, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Water storage tower

Nothing special about today's image.  Rather it is just photo to document completion of my recent handyman project.  A corner of the garage, three 55 gallon water storage tanks, a metal shelf tower and plumbing to hook all three barrels together.  Now I can fill the top barrel and they all fill up.  To easily drain I just hook up a hose to the bottom valve and all three barrels drain.  Complete with an interconnected venting system in the rear.  How sweet is that!  No more worries about short-term municipal water issues and no more need to fill the basement with gallon water jugs for emergency storage.  This set-up replaces 165 of them.  The one thing I have learned from being close to disasters and emergencies is that access to drinkable water is one of the first and most important priorities.

Water storage tower

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio

Nighttime drive (well, early morning actually)

Some people go out for an early morning jog for their exercise.  This morning it was an early morning drive for me.  I took my wife to the airport to head off to be the mom and grandma for our daughter and new grandchild (#7) all the way on the other side of the country.  What is this anyway that kids have to move so far away and take the grandkids with them?  Didn't their parents teach them any better?

Nighttime drive

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Ghost Shopping

'Tis the season.  The season where you just don't know who, or what, you may find when you are out shopping.  This must be one of those ghost shoppers that goes around testing out just how well the store staff is performing--all while being undercover or invisible.  I mean, after all, if the NSA can listen to our cellphones you just never know who may be watching you as you walk the merchant's isles....

Ghost shopping

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Sleeping on pins and needles

Joe has been complaining of being tired throughout the day lately.  He has not been able to focus and maintain his daily energy.  Doctors could not find any physical ailment on which to blame his condition.  Recently I came by his place while he was still in bed.  Aha!  Problem solved.  Joe has been sleeping on a bed of pins and needles--something he learned from reading up on new ninja skills.  His restless nights were causing the problems.  I did not have the heart to tell him that a real ninja would sleep on a bed of pin and needle tips.....

Sleeping on pins and needles

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image--for comparison to post-processed, final image:

original image

Evidence of a long night

Sometimes the workload demands extra effort.  At times, around certain parts of our company, that extra effort turns into all night binge work parties.  After all, a significant number of people involved with our company work half way around the world in India.  The morning after evidence is clear, it was a long night....

Evidence of a long night

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image--taken before I realized I had not changed the camera app back to the 1:1 square ratio that I normally use for my daily blog pictures.

original image

Black cat conspirator

Holidays are tough on my blood sugar levels.  Here we are still 10 days from Halloween and I have already had more than my fill of sugary treats.  I think it's a plot by my wife to fatten me up, kill me off early and take all my life insurance proceeds off into the sunset.  So if the autopsy shows I died a slow death due to sugar overload, don't blame my weak willpower, just know it was a plot to slowly kill me off.  This little black cat holiday tin can is one of those involved in this plot.  It contains some of that poison and sits out on the kitchen counter just taunting me to binge out--and it does not quit until it is empty.  Then it's accomplice in crime fills it right back up again.  I tell you it's a plot....  No wonder I really dislike cats....

Black cat treat can

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio, kitchen countertop (some work in curves, saturation, contrast and sharpening just punches up the subject and helps it pop in the image)


Original image:

original image

Shift into gear and move out!

It's Monday morning!  Time to start your engines, shift into gear and move out!  The weekend is over.  Your entire life is ahead.  Adjust your seat.  Adjust your mirrors.  Start your engine.  Turn on your tunes.  Shift into gear.  And let's get moving...

Shift into gear and move out!

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image 

Country road precision

Be careful driving down this country road.  With this kind of precision they must mean business.  Actually this country road is a county road--the road to the county landfill.  It sees plenty of traffic and loads full of trash.  I have seen fractional speed limit signs on private property but never before on a county, state or federal road.  I had to stop and record this one for my posterity.

Country road precision

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio.  I was using the new ProCamera app and had not yet changed the format to capture only square images so I had to crop more than normal.  Post-processing consisted of cropping, curves, saturation and sharpening work in Filterstorm.  Then finishing touches in PhotoStudio for the vignette and the framing.


Original image:

original image

Long-time trusty Luminox casualty. Sad, sad day!

My trusty companion for some 15 to 20 years has finally had enough.  I guess I should have removed it before reaching down into the motor to tighten a screw.  A little torque, pressed against some metal part and I heard the crackle.  Smashed the face right in.  It really did not seem like much pressure at all.  This was not the original crystal but a replacement after the original got all scratched up over the years.  Must be a "no-name" brand replacement. Sad, sad day!

The real problem is that Luminox no longer makes a watch like this.  Now they are all really thick, very few have a stainless steel band and they are really expensive--about double what I paid for this one.  I tried many different watches before settling on this one.  My criteria are very specific--a stainless steel bracelet band, a stainless steel back, waterproof, and glows in the dark all night long without fading (I need to see it without my glasses at night).

Long-time trusty Luminox casualty

Details:
iPhone, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio, blank white typing paper for background under window lighting


Original image:

Original image

Baseball is getting old...

Here it is going on the end of October.  Fall is well underway.  Winter is closing in fast.  Baseball still goes on as the playoffs continue.  Not that I am a big baseball fan but by now baseball is getting old--at least for me.  That is the feeling I got when I saw this antique baseball mitt recently.   But then again, I am getting old too.After a little post-processing, the photo took on the aged look which seemed more appropriate for this glove from days gone by.

Baseball is getting old

Details:
iPhone, ProCamera, Snapseed


Original image:

original image

Things are going dark....

Today's photo of some hanging lights was taken in the lobby of a retirement center.  Although quite simple, the more I experimented in post-processing the more this image reached back into the memory banks in my mind.  Back in those cobwebs somewhere there is the vivid memory of being wheeled into the operating room laying on my back on the the operating room table, being given the anesthesia and quickly drifting out of consciousness while watching things go dark and the lights fade out...

Things are going dark...

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Snapseed


Original image:

Original image

One of these things just doesn't belong here....

Look up, my boy.  Look up.

That is how I found today's subject--looking up at a hanging chandelier in the lobby of a local business.  When I sat down and examined the image, I noticed that one of the light bulbs was burnt out.  When cropping in for a closer look the old Sesame Street verse came to my mind--"one of these things just doesn't belong here...." When you raise five kids you have a lot of Sesame Street background noise stored in your head.

I headed to the Snapseed app to start playing around with the graphic design and look of the chandelier to give it some pizzazz.  This is the image that I finally liked the most.

One of these things just doesn't belong here...

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Snapseed


Original image:

Original image

Fall is creeping in...

First we saw it on the mountain tops.  Then it gradually made its way down the mountain sides.  Now the changing colors of the fall foliage are finally upon us.  Right in our own front yard.  Yep, fall is indeed creeping in and taking over in all its splendor.

Fall is creeping in...

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Here's looking at you babe...

Think carefully if this guy is following you around.  Then again it may just be your significant other during this Halloween month.  It's a time for everyone to be a little spooky.  There is only a bit over two more weeks for me to figure out what costume I will wear this year.  This one looks a little claustrophobic to me--plus this guy can't enjoy any of the party treats....definitely not the costume for me.

Here's looking at you babe

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:
Straight from the camera before a little post-processing work to remove the background color, add the yellow tint to the eye sockets and punch up the contrast.

Original image

Halloween season is everywhere.... Boo!

Halloween is everywhere!  It is a major season.  Even the fast food hamburger joints are into the decorating mode.  An entire month of fun and varied Halloween "stuff" at every turn.  A few post-processing tweaks turns the mundane into a nice example of what I am talking about.....

Table top spook

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

It's a Gerber Daisy kind of day

Flowers make for nice photos so I could not pass up this opportunity that was just begging to be noticed as I walked by.  Nothing spectacular other than the absolute miraculous beauty that is present in a full Gerber Daisy bloom.  Nope, I could not walk by without pulling out my trusty sidekick iPhone camera and shooting this little guy.  I hope you enjoy!  May it brighten your day today!

Gerber Daisy

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:
Image straight from the camera before about 60 seconds (if even that much) of post-processing work.

Original image

Sign of the Times

Truly a sign of the times.  Even the restaurants are fully involved in the season.  This lunch special-of-the-day sounds awfully appealing, especially the desert!

Speaking of appealing, today's images really demonstrates just how much more appealing a photo like this can become with a little contrast "punch" (I use Curves in Filterstorm) and some additional saturation (again I used Filterstorm).  These adjustments can be made in most basic post-processing apps and they really add some pzazz to a lot of images.

Sign of the times

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Iced

Today's image started out as a rather plain, ordinary picture of a glass of water full of ice as you can see from the original image below.  I was spurred on by the challenge of attempting to see if I could do anything with this plain photo.  I had no idea of what the outcome might be and even wondered if I was just wasting my time.  After playing with cropping, curves, saturation, and sharpness in Filterstorm and then moving to PhotoStudio where I played with a variety of effects this is where I ultimately ended up.  It is not anywhere close to what I had started with yet I am happy with the end result.  Moral of this day's experience is:  sometimes the creativity is in the post-processing rather than the image capture.  

Iced

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Morning rays

Early morning sunrise with the sun rays streaking through the sky.  This one I had to take with the "dashcam"--I was driving so the photo taking was done pretty much blind while holding the camera up to the windshield but not looking at it since I had to pay attention to the road.  I just snapped away and hoped at least one would turn out okay.  I ended up with over a dozen shots in just a few seconds.  Although not perfect, this one did capture the sun rays and was not too blurry.  A little touch up removed the windshield bug splatter, lightened up the road, saturated the sky in two separate layers (one for the brighter area and one for the rest of the sky), added a vignette and the frame.

Morning rays

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Retouch, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

Original image

Sprayed out and clogged up

This is what is left over after a late night touch-up painting project--a well used, all sprayed out and clogged up paint can.  The only problem is that this enamel paint takes some 24 hours to fully dry.  My patience wants it dry in about 30 minutes.  After all it looks good now, it just can't be touched yet.

All sprayed out and clogged up

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Retouch (remove stray mark on counter), Filterstorm (curves, saturation, sharpness), PhotoStudio (vignette and frame), under kitchen lights on the kitchen counter


Original image:

Original image

Homemade apple pie. Can you smell it?

Hot apple pie!  Fresh out of the oven.  Homemade from-scratch flaky crust.  Oh, the sweet aroma is killing me.  Get the Breyers all-natural vanilla bean ice cream out of the freezer... Apple pie a-la-mode coming right up!

Can you smell it?

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio


Original image:

This is the photo right out of the camera.  Post processing included some tweaks in curves, saturation, and shapness with a vignette and frame added at the end.

BTW--it tasted even better than it looks....

Original image

Clear vision once again

The headlight lenses on my 2002 vehicle were pretty cloudy and faded.  I was beginning to wonder just how light from the bulbs even made it through the lenses.

So being a do-it-yourself type of guy--well sometimes--I decided I could fix this.  Based on some Pinterest and You-Tube educational instructions, I tried the toothpaste method.  After almost a full tube of toothpaste, lots of elbow grease and plenty of sweat, I finally concluded that the magic toothpaste method was not going to work for me.

So off to the auto parts store.  $23 later I had a headlight restoration kit--one that utilized an electric drill attachment for each stage of the process.  Boy, that is much easier than the manual method.  The clean-up, restoration process went quickly after that.

Conclusion, get the drill attachment restoration kit.  The process is easy and the results are spectacular.

Clear vision once again

Details:
iPhone 5, ProCamera, Filterstorm, PhotoStudio