Columbines in Gold

Columbines in gold 

It started with a new cellphone and a thought of what I could do with a then unheard of cellphone camera of 5 whole megapixels. It was a personal challenge to see if I can take decent pictures with a cellphone camera. I've upgraded my cellphone camera a couple of times and now 41 megapixels later, I'm hooked again on photography and all that it offered in digital manipulations. The best part now is seeing what I can do on my iPad and phone. Instant editing and so very portable. Apps are getting so good and so sophisticated that the line between computer editing and editing on the go has almost disappeared. When I see an effect done with Photoshop, I think of how I can duplicate the same effect on just the iPad or phone.

The picture above was editing directly using an editing app in the Lumia 1020. The textured overlay was another photo edited in the phone and blended with the columbines. 

Something I learned...

Gastown alley

...through the eyes of a camera to find beauty in my surroundings, no matter where.  I learned this from my dad.

...in a corner.

...in a corner.

...in a corner brings to mind the old saying "painting yourself into a corner." Getting yourself into situation with no or very limited options. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and walk out onto the wet floor and hope for the best.

For this picture, this was meant to be a twist on the saying. The photo was taken of a favourite corner of our house. The photo was then edited on the iPad using several filter apps.  I wanted the painted effect and the splatters to say yes, I painted that corner...I'm in control...good or bad.

Fly

Fly

I'm not sure if this collage will make any sense. It's a head, lying on the walkway, looking wistfully up through the trees at the sky. This was for a Photo a Day challenge.

No real heads were harmed in the making of this picture. The head was cropped from another photo with the photo of trees overlaid on top then put through several filters.  The photo of the walkway was put through an app called Glaze, then through iColorama to highlight the colours and set as the background. All the pieces and the drop shadow effects were put together in Sketchclub.

Game Face

Game Face

Although I don't wear make-up anymore, every morning I wake up and put on my "game face". It's something everyone does, whether or not they admit to it. It's a way of protecting our inner thoughts and our vulnerability. 

Photo was manipulated in Sketchclub using the transform tool, mask was painted on a separate layer and feathered. Butterfly brush for the hair was created in Procreate. Hair and background was erased using a soft edged brush with the opacity down. I turned down the opacity in small increments as I worked into the figure to soften the blending and to make sure there were no harsh lines. Once everything was done, the picture was imported to Snapseed for the grunge effect and the border.