HDR On The Prairie at Ballyneal

Digital Diva here with a travelogue piece on Ballyneal Golf Club. On a recent trip to Colorado, two hours outside of Denver on a magic golf course in the middle of nowhere (which is really SOMEWHERE special) the Dude and I played golf with 4 other dear photographer friends. And of course, documented the experience with our phones. And the Dude went full on HDR.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography has a specific look to it - sometimes I like it; sometimes I think it looks over the top. Still, I like when we can make the iPhone and other cameras "see" as much as our eyes do.

Dewitt used mostly True HDR app to put two exposures together. He tapped the phone in the shadows to open up detail and then tapped the phone on a highlight to expose properly for it. The resultant two images worked not at all until combined in True HDR.

(And news flash, I hear the new OS for iPHone is due out soon - which will have HDR capability built into the OS. Woo - hoo. Can't wait to try it.)








And if you want to see some really beautiful images by professional photographers Dick Durrance and Sue Drinker, check out the Ballyneal site.

Sending Roses iPhone Style

Digital Diva here. There are some subjects that I have to shoot over and over. I can't help myself. Butterflies and fish. Flowers. Most especially roses. Roses have such symbology wrapped in their beautiful petals. Love. Romance. Apology. Vicious thorns combined with glorious scent. And on and on and on.

This photo was optimized in Photogene, then tweaked in an app called Timeless Photo. I love the vintage look of it.
My same rose photo was graphic artified in an app called addLib. I love it although you have to keep working with it to get an effect you actually want.
I shot this triptych with one of my favorite apps called Mosaic Lite. You shoot three images (or more depending on what "tych" you select before shooting. It takes a little work to get a decent image. This one is a little soft - it could use some sharpness. And yet, I like the dreaminess, too. Especially for the right collage or double exposure (see next photo.)

I combined my little Paris bride (see iPhone Diva blog entry Romance de Paris ) using the DXP app with the soft pink roses for this image. Expect to see more roses - as long as I have my iPhone.

Through The Looking Glass

Digital Diva here with some questions to ponder. What is our personal creative vision? What themes continually drive our photographic expression? Who are we as artists?

Having just finished a fabulous photo seminar here on Molokai called "Rekindling The Creative Spirit" co-taught by Dewitt Jones, Rikki Cooke, Theresa Airey, and Jonathan Kingston, the Diva may be getting closer to an answer for herself. This annual event fills participants and instructors with inspiration and new techniques/ideas for going further in our photos. We come away rejuvenated; our photography gains new life.

Still, when we examine the themes that continually show up in our image-making, even as we explore new creative options, we may discover clues to an artistic identity; our photo vision if you will.

I gave a slide show for the class combining images from 15 years ago (film, what a concept), digital images from the last year and a half, and more recent iPhone images. All these photo media had distinct commonalities. My unifying themes were and are abstraction, simplicity, and other realities. With "other realities" taking top billing. I've always been captivated by the underlying realities that a camera can see even when we can't. Slow shutter speeds, camera movement, multiple exposure continue to dominate how I "see".

Can you look back and find some of your themes? What attracts you again and again photographically? As Rikki Cooke says, "What's turning your head?"

Here are a couple of iPhone photo art images that turned my head. Or were in my head. Or both.

Livin' in Those Little Latitudes

Digital Diva here and life is heating up in the tropics as I keep playing on my iPhone with Toonpaint, and combining images with the originals in DXP. Here's three more images.

Something fishy is going on here. Oh yeah, the blend mode is difference!

Hula dancing at the seashore on Moloka`i.


Anthurium and ferns.