Life as seen through my iPhone camera.
These little ornamental strawberries grow in the backyard and I hope that Essie doesn't notice them because currently she's all about eating any berry she finds. These ones won't hurt her but I really need to discourage her from thinking every berry is safe and delicious!
I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it and used the Sunkissed filter from Effects.
Kevin is a visitor we've been having in the backyard over the last few days. He's a very young black cat who seems healthy and fed and is extremely friendly with people. So far I'm not worried about Kevin but if he starts to look poorly we're going to have to intervene on his behalf. He's too lovely of a little man to be homeless and hungry!
I called him Kevin as kind of a joke (having been inspired by a friend's recent hunt for a dog name) and it immediately stuck. Essie calls for him and when she sees him she's all, "HI KEVIN!" He loves kids (and everyone else) and follows Ess around the yard even though she sprays him with the hose. He likes water too, the weirdo.
I got this shot with Camera+. I cropped it, used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Fashion filter from Effects. They're so cute!
Ess and I went for a walk to the park today and on the way home she was captivated by the sumac lining the sidewalk. She so, so wanted to pick one of the great big red cone-shaped flower things that grow on them but she only succeeded in pulling off one tiny red fluffball from it, which she clutched in her hand 'for daddy' until I persuaded her to let me hold it while she carried the daisy and other wild flowers we found for him.
I took the picture with Camera+, then imported it into PhotoWizard where I cropped it, then used the Red Giant filter from the Classic Effects menu.
PhotoWizard updated with a bunch of new stuff so I wanted to take it out for a bit of a spin again. I forget sometimes how freaky awesome that app is.
My mom has lots of raspberry and blackberry plants growing in her backyard and Essie is already attempting to raid them. There are a very few raspberries ready for picking but the blackberries are still mostly green. Mom bought this blueberry plant a while back and planted it along the side of the house. I don't know why I didn't think to look for berries on it earlier but today I noticed that it has a bunch growing and they're pretty darn big already, even if they are all green as they can be.
I took the picture with Camera+ and cropped it. That's all I did because I felt like any filters I used made the berries lose their delicate green colour.
The peonies have obviously interested me this year in all their stages of growth. I took a shot a bit similar to this just a few days back but now with the stamens dropped off I'm fascinated by the way it reminds me of a type of Carrion Flower on a miniature scale. I remember reading about Carrion Flowers in a National Geographic back when I was a kid and being literally afraid that something like that existed in the world. I'm not sure what freaked me out so badly. It's not like they eat people.
I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it and then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu. I didn't use any other filters from the Effects menu because I liked the colour as it was.
Out in the front yard today. Essie was wearing pink and yellow socks, pink and brown sandals, purple pants and a hot pink sweater. Somehow she made it work! She's decided she loves playing in the front yard lately and since she's been very good about staying on the grass only I'm more than happy to hang out there with her. There's something about the oak tree that makes her happy.
I took the picture with Camera+ and cropped it. I used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and the Fashion filter from Effects.
I was looking through all the photos I took of the bubbles and trying to see if there were any that I could use. I was hoping that there was one with great focus that I'd simply overlooked but it was not to be. I did find myself coming back to this one in particular. I had edited it then set it aside as not being well focused. I liked the composition and colours but it just wasn't quite good enough for AOMi, you know?
I'd cropped it and used a Grunge filter on it from the Effects menu in Camera+ already, but I decided to fool around with it in Corel's Paint It! Now. I tried every single filter on it to see which I liked best and they were all pretty good except the Pen And Ink, which is usually very hit or miss. I quite liked Modern, Oil, Illustration and Impressionist, though, and had the idea to combine the four in Diptic to showcase the different filters.
That looked a little boring so I rotated each square of the tetraptych until I thought it looked cool. And here it is!
Essie is sick. She has an ear infection and some kind of virus that has her feverish and barfy. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, though, she just seems a bit irritated that it's all getting in the way of her ability to play and have fun as much as she'd like to. I know it's the way of the three-year-old but it makes me feel kind of babyish myself when I think of how moany and whiny I get over a cold.
When she realized this evening that her cousin Rowan was going out in the front yard to blow bubbles she HAD to go too. We sat out on the front step and watched her chasing and playing and exclaiming over how pretty they were and how much she loves bubbles. I tried to get some bubble pictures again but those pesky things are so difficult to capture. I got a bunch of shots of the kids as well but this one of Essie jumped out at me for some reason. The only part in focus is around her ear, neck and chin but something about the movement of it appealed to me. It's not supposed to be in focus. She changes too quickly for that. ;)
I took the shot with Camera+, cropped it and used the Fashion filter from Effects.
I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it and then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu on it. I was pleased with the colours the way they were so didn't use anything else.
Only one hundred entries from 365! Crazy! It's going to be sad to wind down this project. I have plans to continue to keep a photo blog, though, so I won't go into shock when this is finished, thankfully.
Today's photo is of the ruins of the peonies after a summer storm had its way with them. Nice stamens!
I took the photo with Camera+, cropped it, used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Vibrant filter from Effects
Why, I guess I DO love images that have lots of red in them. A lot of my favourites have had red highlights or red as the main focus. I was spraying Essie with the hose out in the backyard today and took a few pictures of the hose gun thingie in action. The Soaker setting isn't my favourite but it was good for filling up the bucket with which she was watering plants.
I took the picture with Camera+ and ended up only using the Flash filter from the Scenes menu. It didn't need any cropping or colour tweaking.
At the fabulous wedding we attended a couple of weekends ago I kept my iPhone in my hand open to Camera+ throughout the ceremony in case I was able to get some great shots. I wasn't able to get non-blurry ones but I did manage to get a bunch of nicely focused accidental shots of my feet and the grass and the pattern on my dress. So I picked one of my dress and ran it through the Oil filter in Corel's Paint It! Now to get this effect.
My mom bought the kids all bubble wand/sword things the other day. Essie can blow bubbles on a small wand but these were pretty big so Andrew and Grandma and I ended up blowing bubbles for her quite a lot. I tried to get some shots of the bubbles, which were pretty big, but it was surprisingly difficult to get a good picture. They were either too blurry or against an undesirable background. This was one of the best ones and I liked the colours against the apple tree leaves.
I took the shot with Camera+ and sadly I can't quite recall the filters I used after I cropped it. My best guess is Clarity from Scenes. I'm actually pretty sure I used HDR from Effects for the second but don't hold me to that.
I took today's photo on the Amherst Island ferry this afternoon. We'd originally intended to visit Wolfe Island but after missing that ferry twice due to crowding we gave up and headed out to Amherst Island instead. We'd promised Essie a boat ride and by gum, she was getting one! It was also just a nice way to spend Father's Day and there were dry stone walls that Andrew wanted to have a look at.
So it seemed a little fitting that I got this striking picture of the Ontario flag. What an Ontarian way to spend the afternoon!
P.S. I also took this adorable but grainy shot of Andrew and Essie while we ate our lunch at Lone Star. Happy Father's day, Andrew! Essie loves her daddy (and I do too!)
I took today's photo in the backyard. It's a leaf from the apple tree with the evening sun behind it. I loved the way it made the veins of the leaf glow!
The picture was taken with Camera+. I cropped it a bit, then used first the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Fashion filter from the Effects menu.
The roses are blooming like mad now. While we were in Toronto I was stunned by the numbers of climbing roses I saw on people's homes. There was one street in particular that blew my mind. It was like something out of a fairy tale. I'm not even really a flower person, but getting more interested in photography has given me a lot more insight into why photographers seem to love taking pictures of flowers.
I took this shot with Camera+, cropped it, used the Backlit filter from Scenes and then the Sun Kissed filter from Effects.
I managed to get quite a few nice pictures of the peonies before the rain beat them up the other day. I loved their ruffly petals and excessive fanciness. I was also in the backyard taking pictures of the lichen on the poor cherry tree. After I looked at what I'd taken I kind of liked how the petals and lichen echoed each other.
I took the photos with Camera+ and cropped and edited them (probably with the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu but I don't recall what secondary filters I might have used) then used Diptic to make this triptych with them.
The apples on the apple tree in Mom's backyard are coming along nicely! This one is plotting its eventual flight to earth, hoping my head will be in between it and the hard ground. There look to be a LOT of apples growing on the tree this year and I'm already seeing a few falling, young and green as they are. Why, apples? Why?
I took the shot with Camera+ and cropped it, then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and the Fashion filter from Effects.
P.S. You really need to click on the picture to see it at full size and enjoy its tiny little apple hairs.
It was a very rainy day today. Late in the afternoon before going to pick Essie up from daycare I took a few minutes to take pictures of the flowers all dotted with raindrops. It had stopped raining for a bit so the light was nice but the water was still everywhere. The peonies were weighed down like crazy and facing the ground but I liked the way the drops looked caught in the petals and leaves behind.
I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it to a square, used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Vibrant filter from Effects.
I took this one while we were driving in Toronto. We were stopped in traffic and I looked up and saw this bird graffiti so snapped a couple of quick shots. I liked the combination of it, the sky and the wires above.
I used Camera+ to take the picture. I cropped it, then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu.
After the wedding and reception yesterday we drove from Scarborough into Toronto proper so we could visit our favorite Vietnamese restaurant (Rua Vang/The Golden Turtle.) It has the most amazing pho broth and the cold rolls are pretty good too. We once ate there at the same time as Grace Park which was pretty exciting for the nerd that I am.
Anyhow, it was too crowded there so we went straight to where we were staying the night instead. On our way to the restaurant, though, I had the chance to snap a few pictures of the CN Tower as we were driving past it on Lake Shore Boulevard underneath the Gardiner Expressway. I have such a love for that crazy tower. Just seeing it makes me happy.
I took the shot with Camera+ and used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu, then used the Sunkissed filter from the Effects menu.
(Thanks to Radio Free Vestibule for the title of this post.)
Today we attended the wedding of two very dear friends. It was a beautiful, perfect wedding; just the kind you'd think they'd have, full of love and laughter and lots of happy tears. One of the most cheerful moments came when all the guests and the bride and groom assembled on the front lawn for a group photo. As the photographer was standing out in the middle of the street to take the shot what came along but an ice cream truck! It was hilarious. So of course the bride and groom bought ice cream cones. Wouldn't you?
I had my iPhone handy so managed to grab a number of shots throughout the day. This is my favourite of the ice cream truck pictures, though. I used Camera+, then when we got to Dan and May's place (where we're staying) I cropped it, used the Flash filter in the Scenes menu and then the Nostalgia filter in Effects.
I have a compulsion when it comes to good hair days; I have to try to document them. Then I consistently hate every single picture I take no matter how artsy or MySpace I try to make the pose. I played around with this one in Camera+ anyhow after using it to take the pictures, using the Night filter from Scenes and then the Cyanotype filter from Effects.
I was pretty meh about the picture itself, but decided to run it through a few filters in Corel's Paint It! Now to see if I liked them. I was actually pretty pleased with how it looked using the Pen & Ink filter, so I ran it through the Illustration filter as well (stopping it early on so the 'brush' strokes were still choppy) then used BlendCam to combine the two faux-painted effects using the Darkness Priority setting. And voila! This is what I got.
On our drive home yesterday there were amazing banks of stormclouds in the sky. It alternated crazy rain and sunshine with rainbows and lightning and all kinds of nutty stuff. I was really impressed with the sun shining on these towers and lines and street lights with the darkness of the storm clouds behind.
I took the picture with Camera+. I cropped it, then used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu. I didn't want to change the colours so left it at that.
We drove to Toronto today to take Essie for her annual neonatologist visit. Everything went remarkably well except for the weather. I don't mind the rain, though, so when I wasn't driving I tried to take as many pictures as I could of the amazing clouds and light. Something about this shot through the rain-streaked window really grabbed me, though.
I took the shot with Camera+ and cropped it a bit. Then I used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and the Expired filter from the Effects menu.
The peonies are opening up now, looking all fancy and frilly and over the top. It was pretty windy out when I was trying to take photos of them so I was lucky to get even a couple that were in focus. I liked that there was an ant in this one as well, although they're noticeably less enthusiastic about them after they open.
I took the picture with Camera+ and cropped it. I used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu then the Vibrant filter from the Effects menu.
I took this photo last night as we drove over an overpass on Sir John. A MacDonald Boulevard. The clouds had been doing amazing things all evening and I took various shots to try and capture them. This one was my favourite of the bunch.
I used Camera+ to take the shot, then cropped it and used first the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Polarize filter from Effects. The Polarize filter really made the colours and depth a lot more dramatic.
This is another picture from our visit to Ottawa yesterday. My sister made chocolate cupcakes and my niece decorated them. She has a talent for this amazing Chrysanthemum style, doesn't she?
I took the picture with Camera+ and used the Clarity filter on it from the Scenes menu. I did try a few other filters from the Effects menu but didn't end up using any because I didn't want to mess with the colours.
P.S. Correction: My niece made the cupcakes from start to finish, cake plus decoration! She's amazingly talented.
Today's entry is in just before deadline because I decided at the last minute to go with my mom on a trip to Ottawa to visit with my sister Alannah and we didn't get home until a very short while ago. Well, she lives on the Quebec side but same difference, right?!?
Ha ha! Anyhow; so we went and a fantastic time was had. Alannah's boyfriend has this fabulous cat named Rudy who is just a living embodiment of that poofy, floofy feline that can't help but strike a pose no matter what he's doing. So I took a bunch of pictures of him with Camera+ and he ate it right up.
I edited the three chosen pictures by first cropping them, then using the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu and then the Fashion filter from the Effects menu. Rudy was a Fashion cat, no question about it. After that I combined the three in a triptych using Diptic. Awww, Rudy.
I got Essie a pink bathing suit from the dollar store to keep around as a spare but when she saw it she desperately wanted to wear it, so out we went in the backyard on a hot day. She likes to run around with the hose rather than go through the sprinkler and she keeps herself busy watering the apple tree. Thankfully she has not yet figured out that it might be hilarious (to her) to water me as well.
I took the picture with Camera+, cropped it and used the Clarity filter from the Scenes menu. Then I finished it off with the Chromogenic filter from the Effects menu.
