Number Two-Hundred-And-Seventy-Five: SO Random

Today's picture started as a grainy attempted shot of last night's sunset in Ottawa. We drove up there for the long weekend and while all three of us were varying degrees of sick Essie's cough was getting worse and worse. We took her for a drive to get her to go to sleep and while out saw things like fireworks, people celebrating and of course the gorgeous sunset.

None of the pictures I took of any of those things with Camera+ turned out well. I imported one of the sunset photos into PhotoWizard just to play around with it and noticed that there's now a Random Effects filter in the Effects menu that will generate random border/colour effects. I played around with it a bit and was surprised at how pleased I was with the results of a few of them. It was like getting a little gift from my app.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Seventy-Two: Eyeing The Sumac

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.

Number Two-Hundred-And-Twenty-Eight: I Bwow It, Mommy!

Today's picture was taken out in the backyard. Essie's cousin Rowan has taught her the joy of blowing dandelions that have gone to seed and she spent a lot of time doing that today. I think there is nothing cuter in the world than a toddler working very hard to blow the fluff off of a dandelion.

I took the picture with Camera+ of course, then used the Fashion filter from the Effects menu. I loved this shot; the composition and the mood feel just right to me. Essie had a bug bite on her cheek, though, that I thought distracted from it. So I imported the processed picture into PhotoWizard where I used the Clone tool from the Tools menu to remove the blemish, then created a selection in the Mask function where I used a Gaussian blur from the Effects menu to smooth things out.

It might not be the most expertly done retouch but it worked! Here's the original for comparison:

Number Two-Hundred-And-Eighteen: Stylish

I recently bought this pair of sunglasses on a trip home when I was doing a fair amount of driving and finally admitted to myself I wasn't going to find the pair I lost a long time back. Essie decided to try them on today and had a great time modeling them for me. Lately when I take out the camera she immediately says, "Say 'smile'!" I don't correct her because that there is funny.

I took the pictures using the iPhone camera but had it off of HDR so they weren't great quality. I imported them into PhotoWizard and cropped them then used the Mixer 5 setting in the Cross Process filter to get this processed effect. After that I imported the pictures into Diptic and made a tetraptych out of them.

Number One-Hundred-And-Forty-One: Dissolving

This started as a picture of the bare branches of the apple tree in the backyard. I took the picture with the iPhone camera and used a mix of BlendCam, Snapseed and PhotoWizard to get it to this point.

Be sure to click to see this one at full size!

Number One-Hundred-And-Thirty: Unexpected Inspiration

I really like making wallpapers for my iPhone and try to keep an eye out for interesting textures and patterns I can play with. Last week I was making sweet potato fries and after I'd taken them all off the foil I looked down and was struck by the pattern they left behind. Yes, weird, but it reminded me of petroglyph art or something. So I took a few shots with the iPhone camera and figured I'd play around with them.

I imported one into Snapseed and used a Drama filter on it, then opened up PhotoWizard and used the Lava setting in the Thermal Camera filter from the Effects menu. I liked that it kept it connected to its baking hot roots!

Number One-Hundred-And-Twenty-Two: Golden Glass

Here's a nice warm piece to distract us from the spate of snowy pictures I've been posting. It's an iPhone wallpaper that's actually based yet again on the photo I used as a basis for day 106 and day 115.

I imported it into Camera+ and used the Expired filter from the I (Heart) Analog set on it. After that I imported it into NPtR and used a spotty brush on the erase setting and took a screenshot with the original image showing through. After that I used the Illustration filter in Corel's Paint It! Now. After that I imported it into PhotoWizard and used a bokeh Filter from the FX menu, then finished it off with the Bathroom Glass filter from the FX menu.

Number One-Hundred-And-Eight: Emily On The Stairs

On our last day in Toronto we visited Andrew's aunt and uncle for dinner. His cousin Emily was also there and it was a great visit. Essie enjoyed herself despite being pretty exhausted from a week away from home and had a great time climbing on the wooden staircase. She doesn't get as much chance to play on stairs here at home so when she does it's always fun. She and Emily had some quality time there toward the end of the evening and I snapped a few shots.

Unfortunately not many of them turned out well. Essie was moving a lot and I couldn't use Gorillacam since there seems to be no way to turn off the flash and it decides to use it when it thinks the light is too low (even if I don't.) I used the iPhone camera which seems to be happening more and more often these days. Anyhow; one photo in particular caught my eye because of Emily's pose so I decided to use PhotoWizard's mask tool to change the background while leaving Emily alone. First I masked out the background, inverted the selection and used the Bathroom Glass effect on the background. After saving that I used a Drama filter from Snapseed to finish it off.

I loved the result. Emily seems caught in some odd parallel universe or something.

Number One-Hundred-And-Six: Abstract Oil Bokeh

Today's piece started as another that I took of a bedroom wall while we were in Toronto. The light was coming through the blinds and making interesting lines on the wall but after fiddling with the results for a while I just wasn't coming up with much I liked. While playing around kind of aimlessly, though, I ran it through the Pointillize filter in PhotoWizard set to the largest size and liked the rows of coloured dots it gave me. I saved that and imported it into Snapseed to see what else I could do with it and ended up using a Grunge filter on it. I liked it but still wasn't quite satisfied, so then imported it into (you guessed it) Corel's Paint It! Now where I used the Oil filter on it.

I like the result so much that I'd totally hang it on my wall if it were a real painting!

Number One-Hundred-And-Five: Perfect Colours

Today's piece started as a photograph of the bedroom wall in the apartment. I was going for something artsy and minimalist that included the shine on the paint from the overhead light. It wasn't as visually interesting as it could have been on its own, though, so I decided to play around with it.

First I imported it into NPtR and used a brush on it on the Erase setting, then took a screenshot of it with the original picture still showing through. I imported the screenshot into Corel's Paint It! Now and used the Illustration filter on it, then saved that. Finally I imported it into PhotoWizard and used the Thermal Camera effect on it on the Orange Flood setting.

I can't even express how much I love PhotoWizard. I especially love the masking ability and have plans to post some pictures soon that make good use of it! It's a very strong editing and special effects app and the full version is so, so worth the money.

Number One-Hundred-And-Two: Essie On Tichester

So we're in Toronto for a few days. I am a bit of a wimp about traveling with Essie, especially now that she's at that funny age where she understands a lot but isn't convinced that 'no' really means no when it's about something she reeeeeally wants to do. For the most part, though, she's lovely and game and excited about seeing and doing new things. We're here to help pack up the apartment we used to live in and there's not a whole lot for her to do here, so last night when we left to go do some shopping she ran excitedly ahead of us down the hallway and I whipped out my iPhone to get a few shots with Gorillacam.

I was pleased with the pictures and picked the one with the most movement. I opened up PhotoWizard and used the Straighten tool, the Sharpen filter and then decided to use a Light Leak effect on it just because I liked the way it looked. The end result gives me kind of a 'The Shining' vibe.

Number Ninety-Eight: Fluid Mood

I created today's picture using a neat app called Fluidity, inasmuch as taking a screencap of a pleasing design is called 'creating'. Fluidity is meant as a "beautiful interactive realtime fluid dynamics simulation" and it is definitely that. What it does is generate fluid that moves as fast or slow as you set it and in it are glitters and bubbles and various flashes and colours. You use your fingers to manipulate the fluid and bits of pretty stuff and it's all very hypnotic and soothing.

Of course my goal with apps like these is always to create lovely patterns that I can save and use for artistic purposes. My first thought with Fluidity was the promise of many lovely iPhone wallpapers and this is one of the ones I've made. I saved it, then imported it into PhotoWizard where I used the Clone tool to erase the menu toggle at the bottom left hand corner. I have a few of varying colours so when my mood changes so can my wallpaper.

Number Ninety-Five: Emergency Pull

Today's piece is sort of a companion piece to Day Ninety-Four. After taking yesterday's picture I turned and took some shots of the light coming through the blinds against the wall. I cropped this one down to include just the emergency pull cord in PhotoWizard (we were staying in a senior's residence for the night) and used the Thermal Camera effect on the Orange Flood setting. I feel like it really did give it some panic.

Number Ninety: Door Number Ten And A Half

Today's picture was taken on our drive home from Ottawa after the fondue party and overnight stay. We had to stop in Smiths Falls and when we parked in front of these interesting doors I couldn't resist snapping a few shots with Gorillacam.

Shadow of Shadow A Day posted a link to an app I hadn't yet discovered. I was thrilled to find that it's exactly the kind of photo editing app I've been looking for and downloaded the full version immediately. It's called PhotoWizard and has a ton of effects and editing capabilities all packaged into an attractive, easy-to-use app that is worth far more than the small amount they charge for it. I used the Pop Art effect on these doors to make them even more interesting, and was happy that this particular filter retained the red and green paint.