...And The Painted Ponies Go Up and Down...

"And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time.

We can't return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game."

from the song, The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell

Hi photo playmates! Digital Diva here. At the Santa Monica Pier recently, the Diva and the Dude were wandering and iPhoning and apping as we usually do. We always visit the Carousel there - it's a return to childhood and days gone by. And maybe Joni's right, we can't return. But we can remember........

I shot this painted pony just straight on my iPhone.

Then of course, I couldn't leave it alone. I used the app 101 filters and used the filter called Dark Contours on Light for this image.

Then I went into a filter called Night Vision, for reasons that are beyond my understanding. I do think it is very interesting here and will likely use it more.


I used the Tritone 2 filter for this patriotic pony image. (Which is actually # 105 of the filter pack, since the updates.)


In the same app, 101 filters, I used the Big Sparkles filter for this whimsical view of the carousel. This is how the merry-go-round always felt to me when I was little - a magical fairyland of golden posts and brightly painted horses.

I moved on to the Art Camera app and used the Picasso filter - I like this effect here.


Finally, back to 101 filters app for the Old Photo filter for a shot that looks like it was in one of my Mom's photo boxes all these years.

Georgia On My Mind

Hi Photo Friends! Digital Diva here. My latest iPhone craze has me painting with my finger in an app called GooeyFaces. Yes, that's right, GooeyFaces. I love the "brush strokes". These shots are my homage to Georgia O' Keefe, one of my favorite artists. She was famous for her close up views of flowers, but also did some wonderful minimalist landscapes. All these images were optimized in Photogene before being painted in GooeyFaces.

I then brought them into Photoshop to clean up the images a little with Topaz Labs Simplify, Nik Sharpener, Imagenomic's Noiseware Professional, and a tad of the smudge tool. The orange flower also has ShockMyPic applied at its lowest setting.

What a night!!!

Photographer and long time friend, Dick Durrance, asked the Digital Dude to join him at an extraordinary golf course in eastern Colorado called Ballyneal. The golf experience overwhelmed photography and my cameras were left in my room....well, almost. Late the first day, somewhere around our 25th hole of golf, storm clouds billowed up over the prairie. I was torn between hitting my drive and staring at the sky.

The vision would have been saved only to my memory if it hadn't been for my trusty iPhone. I shot 12 shots (4 high, 3 wide) and continued on my way. Later I used the app AutoSitch to make them into a panorama. I tweaked the shot in Photoshop when I returned home using Topaz Labs "Clean2" and Niks sharpening to turn it into a lovely 13 x 19 print. Truly amazing. I love this phone!

Confessions of an Appaholic

Hello, my name is Lynette.......and I'm an appaholic. I am likely addicted to iPhone apps in the service of Digital Diva photo art. And at 99 cents to 2.99 a pop, I'm not likely to want rehab anytime soon. I photographed a rose and proceeded to app it every which way but loose.

I started with a straight iPhone photo of a rose.


I then fired up one of my favorite apps: 101 PhotoEffects. I tried making it black and white and adding the rain effect.



I solarized it in the same app.



I embossed it using Bumpmapping 2



I used Water filter in the same app. It's so versatile!


I then used burnt paper to create this old photo look.


Then I went on to use the app DXP - a double exposure app that allows a multiplicity of blend modes! Now I combined the rose with another shot of a white rose.


This is a little more complicated. I shot a photo thru a kaleidoscope -then used Face Melter to make a multi colored pattern background shot. I combined it with the rose in DXP.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

The Digital Dude and Digital Diva were in Southern CA for Labor Day weekend. Standing on Santa Monica pier, the Dude (Dewitt) shot crosses on the sand representing those lost in the war. He combined them in the Double Exposure app with a shot of daisies for this haunting image that he titled "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"