Tag Archives: iPhoneography

A New Look

I was playing around with some apps and found a new look. An IG friend @tesswyatt told me she thought it looked like Polaroid emulsion transfers and encouraged me to do more.

So I did. Using Snapseed to set the base, TangledFX to create an over the top version and Blender to blend detail with abstraction, I played my way through a series of close ups.

Each one turned out a bit differently depending on the level of detail native in the original photo.

I also used Shock My Pic to add texture and sometimes an Instagram filter. Warning: Shock My Pic cuts your photo size in half.

While the subject matter is similar, flowers and plants, the results of applying roughly the same apps yielded surprising differences.My next step is to have each of these images printed through Artifact uprising, assemble them into cards and send them to friends.

If you had a favorite image, would do me a favor and let me know in the comments? Thank you!

Bridge Cathedral

On a recent misty morning, I went for a run to scout the East side of the Fremont Bridge for a photo shoot. What I found in the fog was yes, a bridge, but also a soaring cathedral, full of skyward arches and graceful lines. Made of cement not stone so a modern day church, a gorgeous resonant hymn to transit, the Fremont Bridge, Portland, Oregon.

Wordless Wednesday

Scenes from Padova Italy, Part 2

Our guide-book warned that visits to the Capella degli Scrovegni in Padova are by reservation only. We didn’t have one on Thursday morning but, at our guide-book’s suggestion, we showed up anyway and asked if there were any spaces left. Fortunately, we were able to get in one hour later.

At the appointed time of 12:40 we were ushered into a small glass walled room just off the Capella to watch a 15 minute video. There we learned that Enrico Scrovegni built the chapel in 1303 to atone for the usury of his father Reginaldo who was so famous that he was mentioned in the 17th canto of Dante’s “Inferno”.

Enrico commissioned Giotto, the first painter to move from flat 2D figures to 3D, to paint the chapel with frescoes. After the educational videos the doors to the Capella opened and we were able to go in for 15 minutes only. The Venetian blue was immediately stunning. Sumptuous gowns with voluminous shaded folds adorned the figures. Three rows of panels with ~6 scenes across each panel rose to the high ceiling. The perspective was fascinating: the roof in one of the top panel scenes sloped down so that you could see the front unlike how it would seem from the 2 stories below that we were standing.

There were no signs saying that photos were not allowed and no sign in the educational videos. Planning to make the most of my 15 minutes I immediately reached for my iPhone and switched the sound off in this sacred space to shoot an HDR. I got one silent capture before the eagle-eyed guard told me to stop. So here’s my accidentally clandestined capture. Sadly, it’s the only one. See the roof in the top panel? Three stories down, you wouldn’t see that view. The perspective makes you feel almost level with the painting so very far above you.

Capella degli Scrovegni by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

This was the best example of Venetian blue that I saw during the week in Northern Italy. For that alone it was worth the visit.

Next up: Scenes from Lake Garda, Italy, Part 1

Scenes from Padova Italy Part 1

Orto Botanico or the Botanic Garden of Padova is just off busy plaza Prato Della Valle. Tucked away from busy roads even in 27C heat, here it is cool in the shade. It’s perfect for a jet-lag nod-off on one of the benches.

Focused on rare plants in the Veneto region of Italy, the garden dates from 1545 and is one of the oldest botanic gardens still in existence.

Statuary Detail Orto Botanico by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

Orto Botanico is laid out in a circle divided into 4 pie slices centered around a lotus pond with fountain.

Lotus Pond at Orto Botanico by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

Eighteenth century stone hothouses flank one side of the garden.

Stone Greenhouse by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

The skylights in the stone roof lend a wistful air to the hothouses.

Moody Skylight by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

Inside, tender sprouts prepare for an outdoor life.

Sprouts by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

While the long buildings include one octagonal hothouse more than 3 stories high that protects a 350-year-old date palm, outside the flowers that I recognize don’t look that rare or that old. Artichokes, purple coneflower, a datura, a clematis are all familiar.

Clematis by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

However, in the aquatic and carnivorous plants section I’m quickly out of my depth.

Carnivorous Plant by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

The history of things that were and are no more shows up in the architecture.

Walled Doorway by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

The things that are available now but were not in 1545 look out-of-place but covered in what looks like grime, they fit right in.

Grimy Greenhouse by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

I started photographing the garden using HDR. However, I quickly switched to the Hipstamatic Diego (lens) and Robusta (film) because of the patina and border they added. The borders look like the stone edging that surrounds each plant even in the hothouses. The patina shifts emphasis away from a correct rendering of a beautiful flower to the age of the garden and its focus on plants of the past.

Next up: Scenes from Padova Italy, Part 2

Scanning Negatives to Your iPhone

If you want images now on a negative to be available on your iPhone there are a few ways to get there for low volume efforts.

I tried an iPics2Go portable scanner for the iPhone 4 and 4S recommended by Dan Burkholder in a recent workshop I attended (and will soon right about). The gizmo is on fire sale and costs less than $15 on Amazon. It looks like this:

The scan (after inverting in Photo Studio) looks like this:

It’s a little muddy. The copy on the box boasts high resolution picture scanning but I was only able to get a file of ~150KB. I also tried the Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner I had written about before. Their gizmo originally offered on Kickstarter costs $50 on Amazon and looks like this:

Lomography Film Scanner by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson © 2013

The scan, inverted in the app, looks like this:

The colors are more saturated and the image is sharper. However, the file size is still really small at 155,928 total pixels and that includes all the white space.

If you know how to get a larger file size out of either of these scanners please do tell.

My next step will be to scan this negative using my Canon MG8120 for a 16MB resulting file, edit some in Photoshop on the large screen and then transfer to my phone for further editing.

What’s your strategy for scanning small numbers of negatives to your smart phone?

Meditation on Good Friday

Meditation on Easter by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

I don’t have the right words for this photo yet so these will have to do for now.

This photo reminds me that often there are (at least) two different realities going on at the same time, the physical and the spiritual. For example, how can a day be called “Good” that was the death of Jesus? Because His physical sacrifice allows us to be reconciled to a spiritual God. The death was IRL. The reconciliation was on another dimension.

In but not of the world

Living by faith and not by sight

Traveling a glimmering path

Reflecting His light

A journey made possible because

One death, for all

Made it right.

He inhabits the praises of his people.

Praise Him!

App List in order of use