My Own Private Paris

It can be challenging to find  new views of places that have been photographed so much. Even more so with iPhoneography where you have a single focal length and fixed aperture (unless you app it to approximate a larger one). So I'm always thrilled when I can take a photo that I've not seen before of a popular destination. Here are three views of my last trip to Paris that fit the bill.

The Peace Wall was shattered on one side and had not been fixed. It seemed a poignant frame for the Eiffel Tower. Apps: Camera+, Snapseed.

A rainy afternoon in the Latin Quarter seemed a busy colorful blur, so I used Slow Shutter app to capture the feeling. Optimized with Snapseed.

The Mona Lisa in the Louvre in the process of being captured by a Smart Phone. I like the blend of old and new image making. Apps: Camera+, Touch Retouch to remove distracting details like an arm coming in the left side.

A Glissando of Gondolas

If a group of larks is called an exultation, what do you call a bunch of gondolas? A glory of gondolas? A glide? A glissando? OK, maybe I'm going overboard but it is hard not to wax poetic about these slender craft in Venice. I took way too many iPhone shots of them and love them all. I used Slow Shutter Cam to actually paint these moored craft in the dawn light on the Riva degli Schiavoni. I used to think that the light in Titian's paintings was enhanced by a significant amount of imagination but now I see he was just painting what was right in front of him.

I moved the camera during 16 exposures with Average Cam Pro app to create this etched drawing effect.

Simply HDR app help pop this shot of a gondola whispering down the canal.

Dare To Break The Rules With Your iPhone

I love attending the Merrie Monarch hula festival and competition. It's sort of an annual Hula Olympics if you will. As the official photographer for our Halau (hula school or group), I used my "big girl" cameras to document the event each time we participated. And along with the documentation, I got to take loads of artsy pictures - slow shutter speed motion blurs being my favorites.

This year we did not go to Hilo for the competition - not enough young girls nor the substantial amount of funds to make it happen. So I was resigned to watching the 3 night extravaganza on television. This is no hardship, as you can actually see much better when the cameras are zoomed in on each group than when sitting in the stadium in person. Alas, no smell of flowers, no thrum of excitement in the crowd, and no photos. Or so I thought.

Karen Messick, a digital diva in a class by herself (see link to her iphoneography site in my links) took some photos off her TV of the royal wedding. She apped them beautifully. And that got me to thinking....

I fired up my iPhone 4 and began shooting the Merrie Monarch on my flat screen TV mostly with the Slow Shutter Cam app. I shot tons of photos. And loved a lot of them.



Then another great photo master, Tony Sweet, (see link to his site on Visual Artistry in my links) told me about a cool new site called Zapd - where you can create and upload a blog in minutes from your iPhone. It was love at first site. (Although to be a little picky, it crops to a square format, so I'm going to ask them if it might be possible to have one that is a rectangle.)

I uploaded several of my hula motion shots to Zapd - Click here to view the gallery. It took me just minutes. Most the photos were apped only with the Slow Shutter Cam app, with a little optimizing in IRIS app. Two were "painted" with the new Autopainter app. It's obvious which ones. Check them out and let me know what you think. Be sure to download the Zapd free app - what a great way to share vacation photos or family events quickly and elegantly.

As we say in Hawai`i: A`a i ka hula. Dare to dance. And dare to break all the photo "rules".