Spring Flower

Some days I just want to create. 

I don't know if it is spring fever or that I keep seeing wonderful images on Facebook, but today I just wanted to create. Thanks to my friend Karen Messick I discovered BrushStroke. 

I combined it with Tangled, Filterstorm, ImageBlender and a Snapseed to create this water color image. 

How fun it is!

The original. 

A Day at the Beach with my iPhone

A day at the beach was great for my heart and soul. 

iPhone capture ProHDR 

Processed with Snapseed, Image Blender, Glaze and Filterstorm - a favorite combination

Hiking in the Columbia Gorge

The spring always brings an array of weather to the Pacific Northwest. Somedays it is down right difficult to get out to exercise with a 90% chance of rain. 

However yesterday was glorious with breaks of sunshine among the rain sprinkles. The rainbows even made their appearance. 

This is a stitched image of 3. Captured without a tripod with ProHDR ( that in itself is impressive with my tremor.) 

I processed it with AutoStitch, Snapseed, Tangled FX, Filterstorm, ImageBlender and Snapseed again. 

Hope to go out again today. 

Floating Market -Thailand and my iPhone

To me, Life is about 'being there in the moment'. Americans live to work when they shoulSpent time with my iPad tonight in front of a warm fire listening to great musicd be working to live. Think about it! When is the last time you did something that you have wanted to do your whole life? 

Live...

Spent time with my iPad tonight in front of a warm fire, listening to great music with my fellow artist creating in the next room!

Top Photography Apps for 2014 - iPhoneography

Five of my favorite images from 2013

I had a chance to visit the Palouse again this year. The famous lone tree was surround by a magnificent storm. Processing it in black and white made it that much more dramatic for me. 

Jefferson Park has become one of my most favorite backpacking locations. This sunset is one to remember. 

This year was spent mostly in Portland Oregon where I worked at Portland Urgent Care as the clinic manager and now the marketing manager. More recently I have discovered my artist self in the way I dress. Socks have become my theme. This is the first of my Portland Socks series.  

The Columbia a Gorge has been a backdrop for my health and many iPhone images throughout this year. The Gorge is full of water and green moss. I would love to take a hike with you there. 

In April my dad and I visited Washington, DC and the East Coast to the south. We were fortunate to arrive during the peak of cherry blossom. We arrived early to Tidal Basin to capture this image of the Jefferson Monument. 

I am so looking forward to 2014 as I know it will bring wonderous times of love, travel and adventure. 

Here is my list of photography apps I currently use. Happy New Year to All!

My top five must have photography apps:

ProHDR

Snapseed

Filterstorm

ImageBlender

Autostitch

My top five blending apps for photography:

All Artista

PhotoStudio

OldPhotoPro

Glaze

Tangled

My other five must have apps for photography:

Photosync

Impression

ProCamera

TouchRetouch

Hipstamatic

Other items of necessity:

Lightweight Tripod

iPhone camera holder for tripod

Car charger

iPad

Screen protector - no cover however

Eleven Pipers Piping - iPhoneography and Percolator

This weekend I looked up some ideas to enjoy the Christmas Spirit and decided to go to the Portland International Raceway where the largest drive thru display of Christmas lights in the Northwest was held. So tonight Mark and I left the house about 7pm and drove through traffic, yes there were still cars commuting, to the north end of Portland. I hummed songs to myself to get in the spirit and prepared to play Christmas songs on my iPhone while we drove through the highly anticipated displays. 

We paid the $16 entrance fee and proceeded for the next hour to drive along the track bumper to bumper with tail lights glaring as we past brightly colored yard art covered in Christmas lights, scattered throughout the grass. After we drove under the Reindeer tunnel we finally crawled toward the 12 Days of Christmas displays. I was so excited when the 11 Pipers Piping were actually on my side of the car so I could capture this Kodak (ok iPhone) moment to be remembered for the rest of my life. 

After that thrilling moment, I became The Grinch and broke the one car behind the other formation and started passing cars, buses and vans full of people merrily sing carols. Mark slide low in his seat so he couldn't be seen as I cleverly took my place back in line just in time for the grand finale, The Tunnel of Lights! Ohhh, ahhhh!!! 

After all this excitement I could hardly wait to come home to process my life long memory. So here it is in Peculator fashion. 11 Pipers Piping among the stars. I hope this moment is just as memorable for you as it was for me. 

So if you are in Portland and want to see the Lights of Christmas, I suggest you try something other than the raceway, so you can actually enjoy your holiday moment. 

Photography Tour of the Palouse

The best times to photograph the Palouse is in June for the rolling hills of green and August for the golden waves of grain! Ask me for more info as private tours start for as little as $500 per day.

Thanksgiving Morning Hike

Started this Thanksgiving connecting with nature. My dad, Mark and I hiked through the moss covered trees to a abundant waterfall while the sun warmed us. It was a great way to start our day!

Snapseed, Filterstorm, Glaze, Image Blender, Artista Oil

Tangled Tree is Shined Upon with Love

Somedays more than others your mood goes into creating an image. Today I ended with the warmth of love surrounding me. 

The sun shining through is thanks to the app LensLight in the image. My light came in the form of candles being lite by the man I love while soaking in a wonderful warm tub of bubbly water. 

I am grateful for recognizing and appreciating that little jester. I will hold it close and allow it, not the negativity in my head, to shine through all day long. 

Filterstorm, Snapseed, ImageBlender, OldPhotoPro, Artista Oil, Tangled, LensLight, Impression

Processed with Tangled and Artista Oil

I enjoyed the image process so much yesterday I thought I would repeat it again today. 

Hiking the Sierra's with my iPhone - Tangled

While trying to decide which image to post today, I came across this lovely scene from the Sierra Nevada mountains. I spend 6 nights in this beautiful range surrounded by high alpine lakes backpacking last summer. What a wonderful way to stay health and feel carefree. 

I find it sometimes hard to process detailed landscapes. I usually an happy with just adding a few adjustment with Snapseed. Today however I wanted to try a few apps that I have in my "check it out" folder. I decided Tangled would work well for this scene. This app not only gives a unique look from other apps but the image can be saved up to 12 mp in size. Within the app there are several preset filter choices and then the users can customize from there with a large variety of slider choices from: Stroke Size, Smudge Size and Color Boost to name a few. 

As I usually do I used the Tangled layer to blend with.  I then used Artista Oil to create the while framed canvas look. Filterstorm was used to vignette mask two images together. My final step was to use Structure in Snapseed to add sharpening. 

Enjoy! 

Junk among the Lilacs - iPad processed

This is another image from Cle Elum, however this one was captured a few springs ago when the lilacs were at full bloom. The car unfortunately is no longer there, I assume it was taken to the scrape metal yard. 

When processing this image I spent a lot of time making sure the detail in the car was sharp and defined. I didn't crop into the image tightly because I wanted to give it a sense of place. 

Old Cle Elum Farm III - iPhone Capture, iPad Processed

As promised here is the painterly version of the Cle Elum Farm. I always struggle with the overly painted to realism. This image has many layers. 

Snapseed

Image Blender

AutoPainter 3

Filterstorm

Glaze

Old Cle Elum Farm

Last week I was home in Cle Elum for a typical quick visit. For the first time saw an image as I drove past this scene on my way to a friend house.  I processed it in a way that captured the essence of a scene years ago. 

Snapseed, Filterstorm, Noir, Old Photo Pro, Image Blender

Apple Goodness

Spent last evening making lots of apple goodness at my daughter Suzanne's with her husband Tyson, my Mom, Rex and Beth. We canned 10 gallons of apple goodness. 

Snapseed

Filterstorm

Image Blender

Dynamic Light

Grungetastic

Snapseed HDR, Teri Lou, and an iPhone 5s in Portland

Sunday I purchased the new iPhone so today I treated myself to a photo shoot in Portland on the waterfront. A beautiful autumn day it was too. I had a great time, feeling the familiar passion run through my veins. I posed in 'The Backside of Teri Lou' fashion while on lookers watched this crazy girl taking photos of herself on her iPhone. It made me smile. 

However the best part was coming home to process the image. Letting my creative juices flow in ways that have been lacking. I was surprised to find Snapseed had been upgraded. A great addition is the HDR folder. Makes me excited to take some of my old truck images and reprocess them again to see the effect. Another addition is the option in Image Tune - opening up the shadows. WOW! I must say that my disappointment of losing White Balance soon disappeared when I saw the results of 'Shadow'.

If you haven't yet added Snapseed to your Top Photography Folder, you must add it and it is FREE!

ProHDR

Snapseed

Glaze

Image Blender

Filterstorm

Original

After Snapseed HDR

Last Days of Summer

This photo was captured with my iPhone as a self portrait while enjoying the last days of sunny warmth in the Valley of Fire state park. I enjoyed processing it on my iPad with Snapseed, Filterstorm, Moku Hanga, Image Blender and Touch Retouch. 

Yes I captured most the the images that day with my Olympus Pen however I must say that I am still an iPhone photographer at heart. It has been 3 years since I took my first serious iPhone photo using the app ProHDR and I am still hooked and enjoying it immensely. 

I bought the Olympus Pen because I wanted the option for sharper images and compression with a telephoto lens. Both are available with the new camera and I am sure I have several wonderful images that I took with the Pen but I have only looked at a few and processed a couple since I got it early this summer. However, as usual, I have actively processed and posted many images from my iPhone or iPad to Facebook on a regular basis all summer long. 

Why am I not connecting to the Olympus? Simply because it is only a camera without the ability to process and post. As with many photographers I have many things to do other than photography when I return home from a trip. Day to day business needs to get done and processing an image falls at the bottom of the priority list. However many of my iPhone images have been captured, stitched, transferred, processed, posted and backed up instantly. One of my most enjoyable things to do while out shooting is to stitch a HDR image together, process and post it while sitting on a rock still soaking up the view. 

As I think about it, even if the Olympus was capable of processing and posting it still would be too bulky to be intimate like the iPhone. 

Time Away

I just spent a few days way from the clinic, finally! I went to Suttle Lake. Unfortunately I was enjoying being warm and cozy in the cabin too much to be very inspired to go outside among the freezing winds and hard crusted snow. So I barely took a photo. However on the way home I captured this group of trees near the rivers edge.
After playing with many apps I used Picturesque, Artista Oil, Snapseed, Image Blender and Filterstorm to create this image. I felt a little rusty but enjoyed the process and played.

iPhoneography at Night Moon - iPhone 5 - Before and After

Night Moon 

I heard that the iPhone 5 took better night photos with less noise, so when I woke up in the middle of the night and saw the moon peering through the clouds I thought I would capture the drama of it all.

The original photo has no, I mean no drama of the scene I saw. What a pity! However with the magic of a few apps I was able to process the image into the scene I had envisioned.

Snapseed, Filterstorm and Glaze

Night Moon Camera Capture

The message is don't give up on your photo. Have faith that your processing technique can create the image you were out to achieve. I must admit I was impressed that I could pull so much information from the captured image with out it totally falling apart!


COMING IN FEBRUARY! NEW VIDEO COURSES Teri Lou is busy creating MyiPadLive processing videos that will be available for purchase in January. They can be purchased separately or as courses. Stay tuned for more information in the coming days.

Improving an Old Image

Sometime it is just fun to be creative!