Number One-Hundred-And-Eighty-Three: Rocks

Out on a picture-taking expedition today we ended up at the waterfront across from Kingston General Hospital. It's a gorgeous stretch there and there's tons to see. I took a few shots that will be featured over the next few day but this little installation caught my fancy. Someone had put together a few little found-object displays with rocks, twigs and other lakefront detritus. I don't know what orientation this particular arrangement should have been viewed from (I suspect sideways from this) but I liked the smiley feel this has.

I took the picture with the iPhone camera but imported it into Camera+ where I cropped it then used first the Clarity filter from the scenes menu and then the Vibrant filter from Effects.

Number One-Hundred-And-Eighty-Two: Gotta Eat To Live

This image is kind of small but I had to crop it down a lot. There were a ton of seagulls flying around the other morning because it was garbage day. I LOVE me some seagulls and tried to get as many shots as I could but they were wary and kept their distance.

I used Camera+ to take the picture (which I've been doing a lot of these days.) I cropped it, used the Backlit filter from the Scenes menu then the Nostalgia filter from the I Heart Analog set in the Effects menu.

Number One-Hundred-And-Eighty-One: Overnight Rain

Outside with Essie again this morning and I took this shot of the bicycle seat. I'm glad she didn't ask to sit on it today because I didn't have anything with me with which to wipe off the seat and I didn't want her to get her butt wet!

I took the shot with Camera+ and cropped it. Simplicity.

Number One-Hundred-And-Eighty: Growing Up And Away

We put the kids' bikes out in the driveway when the recent warm spell hit. Essie was excited to sit on the bike especially but tried both it and the old tricycle. The other morning, though, she wouldn't touch the trike; preferring instead the 'big girl' bike. Every time I asked her if she'd rather try the trike because it might be easier she just said, "I ride the bike."

Man, she is getting all these ideas about the world and how it is! Stop growing up so fast!

I took the picture with Camera+ and when I got back in the house used first the Clarity filter from the scenes menu and then the Vibrant filter from Effects.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Nine: Juxtaposition

Today's piece was unexpected, to say the least. I took the top picture in the dyptych this morning while Essie and I were outside. It was around eight thirty and the sky was amazingly clear and blue with only the barest wisps of clouds. I took a shot not really expecting it to be much of much but the blue was so beautiful I just had to.

The bottom half was taken this evening. The brush area near the waterline that catches fire every year caught fire tonight and was burning away, causing huge clouds of smoke and a bright glow over the houses across the street. You can see the glow I'm talking about in the bottom right but it didn't show up as well as I would have liked. I took the top photo with Camera+ and the bottom with the iPhone camera. I edited the bottom one in Camera+ but didn't feel like the top one needed anything at all. After that I combined them in Diptic.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Eight: Good Old Mang

There are cats and then there are cats. Mang is a super cat. She's been with the family since 1998 and we weren't exactly sure how old she was then as we adopted her as a stray. She'd already had a few litters of kittens by the time we got her. Since that time she has been the (spayed) Queen of the cats and no other cat has ever brought her down even a single peg. We're pretty sure she has a healthy amount of Maine Coon in her blood. She's got the looks and the attitude! She's pretty deaf these days and stiff in the limbs but she'll still smack you if you offend her. And she doesn't put up with crap from Mongkut especially. Mostly, though, she just wants you to pet her and let her sit on or near you if she's in the mood. Mang is a one in a million kind of cat.

I took these shots with the iPhone camera and did some editing on a few of them with Snapseed, then brought them together in Diptic.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Seven: That Way!

Today we took another trip up to Ottawa; this time to visit with some of Essie's cousins on her dad's side of the family, plus her aunt and second cousin. It was a great time watching the kids play together and we ended with a trip to a park nearby. Essie (who had resisted the trip to the park initially) of course did not want to leave when it was time so Andrew put her up on his shoulders to make it more fun. Here she is, riding high.

I took all the park pictures with the iPhone camera, but imported this one into Camera+ for editing. I used the Backlit filter from the Scenes menu, then the Faded filter in Effects.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Six: Fenced

This is a gorgeous old wood fence that I wanted to get a shot of when we were turning around on a country road after taking a wrong turn. I have a major affection for fences like these. I think they're beautiful.

I took the shot with the iPhone camera and when we got home I imported it into Camera+ and used first the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu then the Vibrant filter from Effects.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Five: Just Being Three

Gosh, it's difficult having such an adorable kid. I just want to post every cute picture of her that I take. This one is particularly nice, you have to admit. I caught her with the sun behind her looking up at birds and it's just so her, if you know what I mean. Or at least I think so!

I took the shot with Camera+ and after we were done outside I used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu, then the Magic Hour filter in the Effects menu. I'm digging the Magic Hour filter recently in case you hadn't noticed.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Four: Tilting At Trees

The frighteningly unseasonably warm weather has made playing in the backyard fun again, at least! Essie has been enjoying exploring all the little things she liked to play with last year and one 'toy' in particular; a wiggly plastic plant hanger, has become a favourite again. She likes to poke at things with it and I caught her in this Don Quixote pose with the apple tree.

I took the shot with the iPhone Camera and then imported it into Camera+ where I used a Clarity filter from the Scenes menu, then the Magic Hour filter in the Effects menu.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Three: Warm Sunset

This is the last of the Slow Shutter shots that I took on the way home from Ottawa on the weekend. The sunset was pretty and I tried for a few shots of it but this was definitely my favourite. The iPhone 4 camera often makes the sun look kind of like a fried egg so it was only the Slow Shutter pictures that I was really happy with.

I cropped it in Snapseed and then used a Drama filter on it to make it even nicer.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Two: Blurring The Highway

Oh, I have really been enjoying Slow Shutter recently. I took this one on the road home from Ottawa the other night and really fell in love with the clouds especially. I cropped it a little and used a Drama filter in Snapseed but I loved it even before making improvements.

Day 171 Bonus: Essie Watching A Train

This was shot on my iPhone, of course. Essie loves trains and was pretty happy to sit and watch the train go by yesterday!

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy-One: Ghost Train

On our drive this weekend we ended up stopped at a railway crossing. This didn't bother Andrew and Essie in the slightest, of course, and I took the opportunity to take lots of pictures. The train actually stopped at one point and sat there for a while, started up, stopped again, then finally slowly meandered past. While it was moving at one point I used Slow Shutter to get some perspective shots to see what would happen. I had it set to Light Trail which I didn't realize when I took the pictures but I liked the result anyhow. When I got home I imported this one into Snapseed, cropped it and used a Drama filter on it.

Number One-Hundred-And-Seventy: Essie To The Rescue

We went for a drive today in the nice warm weather. Essie got tired of the ride at one point so we stopped near Tweed at a park with a play structure so she could work off a little pent-up energy. We noticed a bug crawling near the top of the tube slide and once I pointed it out to her and the fact that it was having trouble crawling up she was determined to rescue it.

She tried to find a stick that it could crawl on and the little pieces of bark she picked up were breaking. So I got her a good sturdy stick and she held it out for the bug, let it crawl on and then carried it down to the ground to safety. Such a big heart for a three year old!

I took the photo with the iPhone camera, then edited it in Snapseed with a Drama filter and a Black And White filter.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Nine: Like Painted Clouds

I feel pretty sick tonight so just a quick note about this one; I took it on the road on the way home from Ottawa using Slow Shutter. I imported it into Camera+ when I got home and used the Vibrant filter in the Effects menu to warm it up a little. I love the painted effect that Slow Shutter gave the clouds.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Eight: Limitless

Another starling picture. They're all over the lawns and trees right now and Essie gets excited to see them so near. I took this one with Camera+, used the Night filter from the Scenes menu and then finished it with the Fashion filter from the Effects menu.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Seven: Swing, Swang, Swung

I've featured part of this basket before in the project but really liked this picture I took of it the other day. I thought the composition would be nice if I cropped it a bit, but especially liked the colours and how they contrasted after I used the Drama filter in Snapseed.

I'm not a plant person and don't like fussy plant holders. I do like textiles and the art of weaving so that's probably a big part of the appeal of this one for me.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Six: Essie And Kitty

It's so hard to see your child sick, even if they're good natured about it. Essie has been surprisingly sweet about this flu and has alternated between chilling out on the sofa for hours and working up the energy to play with her trains or dance around a bit.

I caught this shot of her on the sofa today. She relapsed a bit after a good day yesterday and wanted mostly to snuggle up on the pillows under a blanket with her kitty and juice. When things are at their worst Kitty always helps.

I took the photo with the iPhone camera, then imported it into Camera+ where I cropped it, used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and finished it off with the Fashion filter from the Effects menu.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Five: Spring Starlings

Oh man, the last few days have sucked so much butt. Essie was scary-fever sick and I was awfully distracted by that, then as of today I myself felt like I was dying and ugh ick I could complain all day. I will not. But I could.

Suffice it to say that taking pictures or doing any other kind of iPhone art has been lower priority than usual as a result and posting has been later than usual as well. I'm still keeping up with it and it's bothered me a lot to not have them done earlier in the day. Hopefully I'll be back on the ball within a few days.

Today a lovely photo opportunity presented itself when Essie and I were watching birds out the living room window. I was trying to get the ones on the lawn but they kept moving too much then I noticed these guys hanging out in the tree and got a couple of nice shots. I took them with the iPhone camera and then imported this one into Camera+. I cropped it, used the Vibrant filter from the Scenes menu and then finished it off with the Magic Hour filter from the Color Effects menu.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Four: Big Beautiful Tree

I took today's photo a couple of weekends ago. It was actually a reference photo for another project I'm working on but I liked this one enough to use it here as well. I did an Instagram version of it, too. For this, though, I first started off by taking the photo in Camera+. When I got back home I used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu then the HDR filter from the Special menu in Effects.

I didn't notice how the bark had been chewed off the bottom of the tree until I inspected the shot later. I looked it up online and it seems like it was probably the work of a porcupine since it looks more like bark stripping than rodent lumberjacking.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Three: Good Food

I really enjoy using Diptic to bring together pictures that I think might not stand up quite well enough on their own. I use it for other reasons, of course, but in this case I really liked the combination of bright colours and textures. You may recognize the carrots and raspberries from past entries but the broccoli was from a meal last week and I wanted to use it somehow. So here it is!

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Two: A Strange Light

Yesterday evening there were flurries. It was kind of crazy; the light snow from earlier in the day hadn't been sticking but then all of a sudden there was a really heavy snowfall for about half an hour and it made everything go white. Then just as suddenly it just stopped and the clouds started separating. I was trapped on the rocker with Essie but had my iPhone so held it up to the window and took a few shots just to see how they'd turn out.

I liked the way these trees were posing together. I imported it into Snapseed, cropped it and used a Drama filter to highlight the light coming through the clouds behind the trees.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty-One: Being Thankful

OK, so over the last few days I've been mildly grumpy to myself about the fact that I got the iPhone 4 before knowing that I was going to start this project. If I'd held out for a 4s the camera would be a bit better and I'd be even MORE excited about all this photography. Then today I read this entry on Dooce's Daily Photo and was reminded that I'm pretty lucky to have what I have! The camera in my iPhone is better quality than the first digital camera I ever owned and I'm having a great time exploring its capabilities.

That said, I took some more shots of the rose bushes along the side of the house before they get cut back for spring. I liked how this one looks like an angry scarab beetle about to attack. I used the iPhone camera to take it, then imported it into Camera+ where I cropped it then used the Silver Gelatin filter from the I Heart Analog filter set.

Number One-Hundred-And-Sixty: Red, Black and Green

Sometimes the strangest photo opportunities present themselves. Yesterday I was roasting red peppers and after I'd had them steaming in a bowl under plastic wrap for twenty minutes or so to loosen the skins I looked at it and saw the condensation that had collected under the plastic. I loved the tiny individual beads and got my iPhone to take some shots.

I used the iPhone camera but imported this one into Camera+ to edit it. First I cropped it to a square, then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then finished it off with the HDR filter from the Special Effects menu. I'm really happy with how this one turned out.

Number One-Hundred-And-Fifty-Nine: Bird In The Grass

I mentioned the other day that I took some accidental shots of the crows with Camera+ at the waterfront while shooting architecture. I cropped this shot down to just the bird and grass but the quality was pretty poor so decided to see what it looked like if I ran it through the oil filter in Corel's Paint It! Now. I loved the way it still looked so birdlike even with most of the detail gone.

Number One-Hundred-And-Fifty-Eight: City Hall

Here is one of the pictures I took of City Hall down at Confederation Basin over the weekend. I used Camera+ to take all the pictures I shot that day, and did most of the editing of this one in it as well. I used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Vibrant filter from the Color filter set in Effects. I liked it a lot and it wasn't until I had actually uploaded it that I noticed it was off-kilter a bit, so used Snapseed to tweak that slightly and then re-uploaded it.

I'm not sure what the sculpture at the bottom left is called or who the artist is. It's two metal stick figures engaging in a bit of wrestling or some kind of struggle.

Number One-Hundred-And-Fifty-Seven: Martello Towers

Today's photo was another of the pictures I took down at Confederation Basin, this time of a few of the Martello towers. I liked the composition of this shot and after using it as an Instagram photo liked it even more! I took the original photo with Camera+ but was very happy with how it turned out on Instagram.

Number One-Hundred-And-Fifty-Six: Bye Bye Birdie

We went out on a picture-taking trip yesterday. I wanted to get some pictures of Kingston city hall in particular and so even though it was the windiest day of the year we got out of the car down at the waterfront and walked around a bit. Essie was delighted and I think she would actually have jumped into the water if we'd let her, crazy kid.

There were these crows hanging around and I got a few of them in some shots accidentally. Then I noticed a couple up in a tree and wanted to get a nice picture of them. Just as I was pointing the camera, though, Essie ran up so this is the shot I got. I still liked it quite a lot, though. I took all the pictures in Camera+ and when I got home I used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu, then the Expired filter from the Effects menu.

Number One-Hundred-And-Fifty-Five: Three Years

Today's entry is posted much later than usual but it was on purpose this time. Today is Essie's third birthday and I wanted to post a special moment from the day, so had to wait until most of it was over as a result. I did manage to capture that special moment, though I took a lot of pictures in the attempt. Thankfully it was one of the best moments; Essie blowing out her candles.

Three years ago I didn't know how close I was to losing her. I didn't know until we got to the hospital, me twenty-eight weeks pregnant, that my persistent headache was really a raging case of pre-eclampsia. Then as soon as she was out all of my focus was on her, not the fact that I'd been just a few hours from seizures and death if we hadn't sought help. Later when things calmed down and I'd healed up a bit from the pre-E and surgery I just didn't have a lot of energy to spend on mulling it over what with the months of NICU visits. It was a crazy time and doesn't seem quite real, even now.

So, seeing her blow out those candles (and she did it without any help) means a lot to me. She's healthier and happier than anyone thought she could be back when she weighed just a kilogram. I'm not the best mother in the world but I'm one of the luckiest.

(I took the picture and did all the processing with Camera+.)

Number One-Hundred-And-Fifty-Four: Emo Utensil

Today's picture was taken in the kitchen. I was playing around with photographing reflective surfaces and liked the way the cupboards reflected off the back of this pasta spoon... thing. (Seriously, I don't know what it's called. Pasta ladle? I'm not a cook.)

I imported it into Snapseed and cropped it to a square, then used a Drama filter. After that I played with the Grunge filter with the blur focus set not to show until I got a look I thought was neat. I know this one is kind of artsy and weird but I liked the colours and patterns in it.

Number One-Hundred-And-Fifty-Three: Smooth Stones

Today's photo could make me think it was taken on a nice warm, rocky shore somewhere except for the dead leaf reminding me that it's really just winter. I took this closeup of some rocks in a bucket near the back door using the iPhone camera the other morning.

I imported it into Camera+ and first used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu, then the Vibrant filter from the Effects menu. After those I applied the Dark Grit frame from the Borders menu. And that's it!