Tag Archives: mobile photography

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!

Wordless Wednesday

Flying Away

A fellow Instagrammer, @randommarcus or Marcus Carlberg, let me know what app he used to shoot one striking photo in his stream. It was Fotor HDR. I tried it out this week on a flight. Here’s the color image as shot but cropped square using the rule of thirds to place the wing tip:

There are a number of HDR filters in the app to apply. The black and white filter in the Fotor HDR app looked pretty fantastic and a little retro:

Another app, TangledFX has great capabilities to make a photo fly away in a new direction. I gave 4 filters a whirl just to see what happened:

Swirls:

Brush Strokes:

The Dark Side:

Cartoon:

These interpretations reminded me of a verse in a bluegrass hymn called “I’ll Fly Away” sung by Alison Krauss:

Some bright morning when this life is over,

I’ll fly away;

to a home on God’s celestial shore,

I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

The day before I took this image one of my 17 year-old cats wandered off to “fly away”. The day after I took this image, the other 17-year-old cat would “fly away” in her sleep at home. I hope both of them are at home on God’s celestial shore.

Sticky Notes & Quotes, Positive

Does Your Contrast Show

I found a great app through Geri Centonze’s Art of Mob. In mid-February she profiled John Hornbeck’s app called Contrast. I really liked the look of the images so decided to experiment with it. Here are a few images.

The Lines of our Lives by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

One of the things I love about this app is the richness and certainty of the blacks. There’s no mistaking it for navy or a shade of gray. Likewise, there are some clear lines that definitively guide our lives and choices.

Where Above and Below Collide by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

Again, the rich blacks countered by the shiny white of the reflection of sky in water. Above and below seem to collide on the surface of the water.

Growth by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

This last photo has an eerie spider web quality around the sun and sharp focus on the new growth coming from the tree trunk.

Messing with this app made me think about the contrast that Christian behavior is to be. The I Corinthians 13 love passage is a good example:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Today we talk a lot about “brand”. This kind of love and other characteristics are supposed to be the Christian’s brand. When Jesus was asked

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

This is the contrast we are to offer. Anyone who’s tried knows that apart from Him we can do nothing. We are the surface of the water upon which the above and below collide.

White Iris in Full Bloom by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

The Power of Perspective

It’s a question that doesn’t get asked and answered once. It’s one that pops up as many times as people ask a pregnant woman when she’s due but instead of for a few months, it’s for a lifetime.

How am I going to look at this? This circumstance.

What are some circumstances? (all hypothetical):

I lost my job
My wife / husband died
My tax bill is more than I can pay

How am I going to look at this?

For some reason, two pictures I took while experimenting with different apps cast this question in sharp relief. The subject is the same in both photos but the results are very different.

The first, a Hipstamatic shot using Ray Mark II and Irom 2000, is bright, airy, with strong black, and reminds me of the sea side:

Joy and Beauty at Noon by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

The second, taken with the app Contrast by John Hornbeck, is dark, dramatic and reminds me of film noir:

Dark and Dramatic Day by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2014

Two very different approaches yielded two very different results. When I looked at them to edit, I realized they spoke to me about the choice of perspective. How am I and how are we going to view this circumstance, whatever it is for us?

Am I abandoned or will He reach down from on high and take hold of me and draw me out of deep waters? (Psalm 18:16)
Am I alone in this fight or does He rescue me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me, like He did for King David? (Psalm 18:17)
Am I a victim in these circumstances or is He a God who arms me with strength? (Psalm 18:32)
Am I without skill in this fight or is He training my hands for battle so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze? (Psalm 18:34)

These are just a few examples but the list goes on. What’s on either side of the “or” may look different for us. The question for us remains, “Which perspective will I chose?”

Selected for Painterly Mobile Art Monday

Southern California Art of Mob blogger Geri Centonze selected my image below for Painterly Mobile Art Monday #15. Thank you Geri!

Mail at 252 - a Redux © Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson

I edited this image once and went back to it some months after the US Post Office financial woes made these mail boxes seem like certain future antiques. My intent was to push this image in a more painterly direction. The mailboxes were a focal boundary between the idea and reality of neighborhood and home. The light on the flowers in the background seemed just right for a softer blurred and scumbled texture that scattered the light.

Geri curates images submitted to her Painterly Mobile Art Flickr Group. Click here to see all the fantastic images selected and to learn more about apps that lend a painterly feel.

Thanks again Geri!

Blending painterly elements with photography (flickr.net)
Mobile Photography Flickr Group Showcase – TheAppWhisperer (TAW) – October 27, 2013 (theappwhisperer.com)
Explored on Flickr (jenniferhartnetthenderson.wordpress.com)

8 Years

Matte Cutting Reunion by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

It had been 8 years.

I gripped the straight cutter and pulled the sharp blade hard toward me along the metal edge and through the creamy thickness of the 4-ply matte board .

8 years.

I penciled the math for the cut out like pouring a glass of water. 12″ is 11 16/16″ less 7 12/16″ equals 4 4/16″ divided by 2 is 2 1/8″. That’s it then. A 2 and 1/8″ border. I used a mechanical pencil to mark the cut lines on the back of the matte board.

8 years

I pressed my thumb in the ready place on the bevel cutter, slid the blade into the corner angle and pushed firmly down and away from me along the straight edge coming to a stop precisely at the next perpendicular pencil line.

8 years since I cut a matte. 8 years since I matted a print. 8 years since I had a print in a show. 8 years since I cut my artistic pursuits out of me like the center of a matte.

I cut a perfect matte on the first try. No nicks in the corners, satin-smooth bevels, simple white and only one or two cuss words. I handled the tools easily even after such a long absence. The resonance in my body with each motion felt good.

I let art back in 4 years ago, step by step, first by creating a blog, then by taking photos for my blog, then by taking photos all the time with my increasingly smarter phone, then making books out of all those photos, then a job shooting interior design photos, then having a photo published in a magazine, while increasingly using my graphic facilitation and visual note taking skills at work.

December 2012 I began again to submit images for shows. This year, my work was accepted into three:

3 of my images earned Honorable Mentions in the Mobile Photography Awards 2012, New York City, NY. Soho Gallery for Digital Art, New York, February, 2013.
F2 Sociedad Fotografia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 30th 2013
Newspace Members Exhibition, Newspace, Portland, Oregon, October, 2013

Having my work exhibited completes the cycle. The cut out center of the matte is filled now by the picture of a working artist who uses her visual skills in service of work and works at her art at home. Welcome home.

What has your journey been like?

Share this with others:

Like this:

Share this with others:

Like this:

Share this with others:

Like this:

Share this with others:

Like this:

Share this with others:

Like this:

Related articles

Share this with others:

Like this:

Share this with others:

Like this: