The party's over...

After a fun-filled week in Golden Bay, South Island, the family and I returned to Wellington on the evening ferry.
This shot, as we were about to leave Marlborough Sounds was treated with a 'spot' filter in the app RetroGram.

Get the message!

The Mussel Inn near Takaka does a good chowder, but if you yak on your phone it may get nailed to the post.
This shot was very pink from the sunlight coming through a red sunshade do I converted it to black & white using Photo fx.

Make my day

Cruising around the remote upper South Island we had a moment of excitement when spotting this classy caravan of caffeine consumption.
It's been parked up at various events and locations around Wellington for a few years so it was a complete surprise to see it at Collingwood... but wonderful to get a sublime coffee fix (of Sublime Coffee).
** also shown in the 'Frametastic' posting.

Photo safari

Using the app Frametastic I grabbed a few images from my photo-wandering today.
Although the iPhone screen tends to pick up unwanted reflections in the sun, as long as the brightness is up high enough the screen makes a surprisingly good viewfinder for general photography.

Photo with flare

I thought this hanging shell ornament in the setting sun was bound to make an interesting image.
This hasn't been edited at all, the iPhone 4 has a tendency to flare quite strongly with a light source in the frame but this time the flare has taken on a flower-like pattern.

Day trippin'

Dropped off the scooter for a service in town so hopped on the bus home.
Kinda liked the colours and composition of this, so no editing at all.

Acting cool

"Go ahead.... make my day" - this guy was taunting the poor mouse - pretending to take no notice, but pouncing as soon as it moved away.
Cropped and graduated with PhotoForge2.

Summer in the city

Trying out yet another app on the iPhone - 'Frametastic'.
There are a few options of layout, frame colour, shape & background, plus it allows you to organise a printed card to be posted (very old-school).

On the red carpet...

The local 'Christmas Trees' are shedding their decorative crimson flowers and colouring much of the landscape beneath.
I ran this image through one of my old stand-by editing apps - The Best Camera.

Boo!

Ah, holiday spirit on the streets of Wellington.
This image didn't really need any treatment, but I imported it into Snapseed and tweaked it with a couple of filters and a border.... just cos'.

The party's just begun...

So we've had Christmas and we've had New Year's Eve - time to crack into a brand new calendar/diary/notebook and take down the decorations. Exciting.
This shot was cropped and given a bit of 'fill flash' with the Camera + app.

Follow the star

The decorations will be coming down soon, but this local house with it's simple light show worked well.
Imported into Instagram & given the lomo-fi treatment.

Baubles

These Christmassy decorations are hanging from a chandelier and the image was treated with a couple of filters from an app called Pixlromatic. Awkward name for a app, but it has a pretty impressive set of options - and it was free.
Merry Christmas - keep shooting images with that iPhone.

Beachy

Early morning light has been taken to extremes with a bit of filter overload. I imported this shot into Foto fx app and applied about 4 layers of haze/tone/focus, etc. errr.... just because I could.

Monsters in the garden

I don't know where this huge dragonfly came from, but I'm sure it was a long way from home - I don't think I've even seen a normal sized dragonfly in Miramar. The thing was quite awe inspiring and could have been a piece of garden sculpture.
This shot was cropped, treated and framed in Camera+.

Overseeing the bay

This South American totem sits beside Lyall Bay and gives a fairly exotic look to this slice of Wellington.
I treated this shot with a few different filters & effects courtesy of the app Snapseed (a very comprehensive editing tool, as recommended by www.robertcatto.com).

Salads of Summer

There's just something about all those colours and textures glistening in the sun that always seems to have me reaching for a camera just before grabbing a fork.
This shot was imported into Instagram before being uploading here.

Getting close

A local of Karaka Bay, who happens to direct a film or two, has had coloured lights adorning this rather impressive pine tree for the last few years. Recently the lights seem to have been replaced with a brighter and more vibrant set (possibly LED lights). They certainly brighten up the bay.
The iPhone 4 does a fairly good job of very low-light situations and I've added a selective focus effect in Camera+.

She's a mod

Dropping off our daughter at high school made me realise that I really should get myself a cool jacket... or at least a green anorak for when I'm on the scooter.
Another 'Camera +' edited photo.

mmm...bacon!

OK, maybe the T-shirt is exaggerating slightly but this guy is obviously aroused by the thought of sizzling bacon.
The photo was put through the Holga filter in CameraBag.

Is it art...?

Well, it was at the Dowse Art Museum (as it's now called), but this was a wall outside the gallery, on a Saturday morning... so I'm guessing this was just a Friday night trophy left behind.
The photo was treated with 'Tilt Shift' app and then the 'CameraBag' app.

Ice, ice, baby

A temporary ice rink that's been set up on Wellington's waterfront has been incredibly popular. I've watched people zooming around over a couple of weekends and I've been impressed with how skilled many of the skaters are - very few tragedies.
This shot was run through CameraBag and given the Holga look.

Sound Pattern

This display at The Dowse gallery is a bit of audio-visual ingenuity. A long handled feather duster is supplied so people can run around knocking the bamboo chimes and create their own soundtrack.
I put this shot thru' Pro HDR to increase the detail in the shadows.

Technology shuffle

I've been huddled near the glow of my computer this rainy afternoon, printing some images of people dressed in gear from the 1800's, photographed on a digital camera, toned in the computer to look 'old school', sent wirelessly to an inkjet printer sitting next to an old illuminated sign from the 1950's. Of course this image was shot on a new-fangled phone/camera and manipulated within the phone to also look retro... as someone discussed recently - soon it will be hard to identify which era photographs were taken in.

From above

An interesting vase of flowers always makes for a good photographic subject. These peonies were given the classic SX-70 look with Polarize on the iPhone.

mmm... pudding...

When Stephanie couldn't find the right recipe amongst her notes and photocopies out came the iPhone. A quick Google and there was a glorious-sounding sticky date pudding recipe. Yes, an iPad would have been better, but the desert would have tasted the same.
Image cropped and given the 'Helga' treatment in CameraBag app.

Low tide

Another shot taken at Lyall Bay Beach on a calm morning recently. The shot was imported into Cool FX and given a 'bleach warm' effect.

Secret code

I found this message on a local beach - clear enough for any NZ'ers, but probably obscure for any others - "kia kaha AB's" = "forever strong All Blacks".
I edited the shot with Fotoforge - rotated, as I'd held the phone flat to shoot straight down it was in the wrong orientation, and then I gave it the 'gothic' treatment.

Important #11

They're pretty serious about where people park at one of the city churches... that eleventh commandment must be obeyed! They even have a 'smite zone' where you may be struck by lightening for parking there.
This shot was given the 'toy camera' treatment with Camera+.

Blue moon

This shot of the old court building in Wellington shows how well the iPhone 4 handles low-light situations.
The camera has adjusted the white-balance for the tungsten light source of the building, which has caused the colder colour of the moon to shift towards blue.

Grab shot

I noticed this guy in the rear vision mirror, seemingly drifting up the road behind me. I grabbed the iPhone & snapped this quick shot of a YikeBike whizzing past ( http://www.yikebike.com ).
It'll be interesting to see if they become more popular than the Segway - this one certainly seemed much louder than a Segway.

Sign of the times

Wellington has sprouted a new 'Hollywood-style' sign to greet new arrivals to the airport. This one is supposed to be temporary - for the duration of the Rugby World Cup and the debate of the virtues of putting up a 'Wellywood' sign.
While stopped on my scooter to snap this photo, I had two people remark to me that this was better than 'Wellywood'.
Pretty good dynamic range from the iPhone 4 camera, although you probably can't quite make out that the sign is made of corrugated iron.

Country charm

There are still plenty of character-filled buildings up and down New Zealand, playing a part in community life. This lovely old hall is in Ohariu Valley just outside Wellington.
I used the Best Camera app to knock back the colour and give the shot a more timeless feel.

The tide is high...

Yes, it does bring to mind a certain Blondie song, and it does allude to flooding in the States, but this is a boat house (converted for living accommodation) in Evans Bay.
A much-photographed icon, this is my first image posted from my iPhone 4 (yeah, just before the iPhone 5 hits the shelves!). This was shot with HDR (high dynamic range) set to 'on', which brought in some tone to the sky.
Loving the camera in the new phone.

Wacky Wellington Weather

We've had an interesting couple of days, with sleet, hail and snow hitting the Capital. This isn't strange for some parts of the country, but Wellington hasn't had this kind of weather for 50 years.
Seeing people step outside to watch snowflakes with a huge smile on their faces is so funny - it's just such an unknown experience for Wellingtonians.

Lift or stairs?

In some buildings it's not really an option to take the stairs, but I'm often pleasantly surprised when I do opt to use my legs - many of Wellington's buildings have really attractive stairways.
This shot was tweaked a bit with the app Photoforge2 (detail increased in the shadows and a slight soft focus effect).

...aaaand it's gone

A pretty amazing cloudless day gives way to a pretty amazing cloudless evening. Snowy peaks of the South Island are just visible behind the distant hill line towards the left.

Winter sun

Wellington is having a pretty mild winter so far.... long may it last. I haven't been inspired to shoot much on the iPhone lately, so I decided to take a few snaps while heading down our driveway. Using the Hipstamatic App is kind of frustrating, but it's also interesting in an old-school way - you don't quite know what your image will be like until after you've 'processed' the shot.

Location, location

Great spot for a time-lapse sequence - views of Wellington CBD, the harbour and Lower Hutt. Now, to the editing suite...

Spot news

Driving through the suburb of Kilbirnie a couple of nights ago I was drawn to the flashing lights of 5 fire appliances. There was a small fire in some sheds behind the shops which didn't seem to take too long to put out.
Yet another occasion when I was out with only one camera... the iPhone. The 3GS doesn't handle low light conditions too well - perhaps the iPhone 5 will be a worthwhile investment for the citizen reporters out there...?

Rain forest

Well, rain garden really.... but some of the weeds are rather forest-like.
This shot was taken after a downpour and then given the 'blue tone' treatment with the app Film LAB.

New clique?

I noticed this sticker on a car recently and wondered about the need to be 'categorised'. I guess we all like hanging out with like-minded people, but a lot of people fall into many different groups... how many bumper stickers could we all have?

Ash Wednesday

Ok, I'm not actually sure if the Chilean volcano ash cloud is still hanging around, but last night's sunset seemed a little more colourful than we usually get at this time of the year.
No apps were used for this image, although I shot some different exposure settings by tapping on different areas of the screen to bias the exposure from light to dark.

Work THIS out

This Rubiks Cube is hanging near a couple of art galleries in Auckland. A cool and bold sculpture that's about 1 & half metres across.
I gave this image a bit of a treatment with one of the dozen or so photo apps on my phone... but I can't remember which app I used!

Clinging on

The last few remaining leaves are hanging in there on our oak tree. I think they've usually all fallen by now, but we haven't had a windy winter so far.
I haven't used the Instagram app for quite a while, so that was the one I chose for this image. This was treated with the 'lomofi' filter.

Morning clean-up...

 A damp Monday morning in Parnell, Auckland, has a feeling of "goodbye weekend, here's a fresh start to the week".

This was shot with the Hipstamatic app, but it took me about 6 shots to get the framing I wanted - the tiny viewfinder just doesn't correspond to the image captured. Maybe there's an option to fix that... or maybe it's about creating art..?!

Crazy lights

While in town one evening recently, I decided to try out one of those apps that I thought sounded useful, but had tucked away in a folder on the iPhone and not got around to using.
Called Slowshutter, it gives the 'effect' of using a slow shutter speed on a regular camera (something the standard software doesn't do). It seems to work as it should and combined with the rainbow effect from the Adobe Photoshop app it ended up looking pretty much like this...

Early birds

A beautiful morning on the harbour. Seagulls on Seatoun Wharf given a bit of treatment in the multi-faceted image app Fotoforge2.