Great Photo App

While I primarily process my photographs using Adobe Lightroom which has amazing capabilities, I've come across an iPhone/iPad app that's pretty amazing in and of itself.  Its called Snapseed, and it is quick to learn and really easy to use. I took one of my favorite coastal photographs, shot in color with my Nikon D300 and transferred it to my iPad. I then converted it to black and white and used the yellow filter to bring "snap" to the final photograph.  And like all good photo software, when I saved it, Snapseed created a new file and didn't override the original color photo.  While I'm still really happy with the color version, the B+W version is pretty cool as well.  The app is free is available for for both iPad/iPhone and Android users.  It was available at one time for PCs/Macs but that version is no longer available. Too bad. 

 

Panoramas

While I've had my iPhone 5 for a while (early adaptor for a change), I didn't realize that the phone's camera had a panorama feature until more recently. I've been experimenting with the feature and have a few thoughts.  First, its pretty cool.  Second, you need to pay a lot of attention to the foreground which can take on unexpected prominence. Third, you need to move the iPhone steadily to maximize the usable vertical space (if you don't hold it steady as you sweep the scene, you get black spaces on the top or bottom that then need to be cropped, further reducing the usable vertical image). Fourth, don't overdue it! Panoramas are really designed to capture an overall horizontal scene and are quite effective at it. But those are pretty isolated cases.  Fifth, panoramas make good banners for your website (see this sites banner!) or your Facebook timeline. Sixth, experiment!   

The beach just north of the Santa Monica pier.

Window Rock, Navajo Reservation, Arizona

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Opens

Bainbridge Island has always been a creative community - dance, music, theater, writing.  Now you can add the visual arts!  The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art opened this past Friday, at the corner of SR-305 and Winslow Way, just a short walk from downtown and from the ferry terminal.  And I'm pleased to say that I have nine photographs included in the opening show - six in the community gallery on the 1st floor and three additional ones near the classroom upstairs.  Its great and a bit humbling to be included among the amazing artists represented in this space.  Hopefully you'll have a chance to visit the museum this summer (the opening exhibits will be up until sometime in September).  More info on the museum can be found at: http://www.biartmuseum.org/