Renewing my interest in mobile photography!
I’m just back from Portland, OR where I shot only with my iPhone 12 Pro. Even in lower light, this camera is delivering some stellar images. Check them out!
I’m just back from a quick trip up to Portland, OR - and all I had was my iPhone!
Years ago, I shot with my iPhone all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME. I loved it. I always had it with me, of course, so I shot away with it. Eventually I ended up with an iPhone 7, which at the time I thought was great (this was 4+ years ago when I got the iPhone 7). After a while though, I just felt like the image quality was not up to par for me, unless it was in pretty great lighting. Time after time, I would look at the images, zoom in, and be disappointed. Eventually I just quit shooting with it altogether.
A few months ago, I upgraded to the iPhone 12 Pro (yes, I know the 13 just came out, but I had to get a new phone at the time, and couldn’t wait). I had read so much about the advancements in the camera, and I couldn’t wait to try it out. It’s just so much better than what I had (granted, it’s several years worth of advancements, but still). I have been pretty much blown away with how good the camera is.
So when this trip to Portland came up - and knowing I had limited free time to go shoot - I decided to forego my usual Sony stuff and just shoot on the go with my iPhone. It also happened to be peak Fall season, so there were lots of amazing colors in the trees, and additionally we were able to visit several different parts of town, so I ended up shooting quite a bit!
The thing that impressed me the most is how well it performs in low light. Now to be clear, it doesn’t compare to my full frame Sony in that regard, but still it does a pretty darn good job. The images look amazingly crisp to my eyes, and I am quite happy about that! And of course, this has renewed my interest in mobile photography, which is great fun! I’ve missed it. It’s good to be back at it! And now I will be using my iPhone much more often when I am out shooting!
And as far as editing goes, I edited all of these photos in Luminar AI. Just a few quick adjustments is all it takes!
Oregon - Still my Favorite State
I’m just back from a trip to Oregon, and I captured some beautiful shots while I was there. This is a little teaser of coming attractions - all shot with my new iPhone 12 Pro!
I just love Oregon, and can’t seem to get enough of it.
Arriving into PDX during a stunning sunset
We just returned from a trip to Oregon. It was part business and part fun, so it wasn’t entirely a photo trip, but of course I was able to squeeze in a little camera time here and there. Although we spent a fair amount of time in Portland, I didn’t really shoot there. I enjoy that city, but for me the main draw to Oregon, photographically speaking, is the coastline and the waterfalls. Basically, nature itself. I am often in cities, and I love to shoot them, but when I get a chance to spend time in nature and photograph it, I’m in.
We spent a few days down in Cannon Beach in the early part of the trip, along the northern coastline. This is my favorite spot in the entire United States. I find the rocky coastline and tide pools essentially irresistible. Every time I visit, regardless of the weather, I come home with some beautiful photographs. Add in the sense of serenity and calm from wandering along the coast, and it just can’t be beat. That was on the front end of the trip.
Sunrise in Arch Cape, just south of Cannon Beach
Sunrise on Cannon Beach
Tidepools are just awesome!!
Then, we were in Portland the rest of the time, but did spend one long afternoon/early evening hiking and shooting along the Columbia River Gorge, east of Portland. This is home to a long list of beautiful waterfalls - something I love to shoot - and is well worth a visit if you have the time (it’s about 45 minutes from downtown Portland).
A view over the Columbia River Gorge
I haven’t had time to really dig into my photos yet, so all of these were taken with my newest camera - the iPhone 12 Pro. My old iPhone 7 was really falling apart (I had it for over 4 years), so right before this trip I upgraded to the 12 Pro and WOW what a difference in that camera. I can’t believe I waited this long to upgrade, but I am glad that I finally did. I will be sorting through my “real” photos (taken with my Sony gear) here soon, and those will start appearing on my Flickr page and likely in some YouTube videos, but for now I leave you with a few iPhone shots.
Thanks for stopping by and see you again soon!
Create Stunning Mobile Phone Photos in Luminar!
Have you used Luminar yet for editing your mobile phone photos? Maybe you should! It can help overcome some issues these little cameras face. Here are my thoughts on just that.
Here's a recent video I did, showcasing how I edit a recent iPhone shot from my trip over to London and other parts of England. Though I love shooting with my iPhone when I travel, the small sensor does cause a few issues, which I can use Luminar to overcome. Check it out!
iPhone fun at Moraine Lake
How about a group of iPhone shots from Canada? I was here at Moraine Lake last Friday night, and the sunset was INCREDIBLE!
A stunning sunset at an incredible location!
We are in the midst of a lengthy family roadtrip, and spent last week in Banff, Canada. It's a beautiful little mountain town with an incredible amount of beautiful scenery to photograph nearby. One of the best spots is Moraine Lake, which is less than an hour away by car.
We spent last Friday night there, with me standing on a large pile of rocks firing brackets into the sunset. It was pretty awesome, I will admit it. Most of the visit to Banff was under clear, blue skies and somewhat colorless sunsets, but this one lit up nicely and I was a very happy guy!
These are just a few of the iPhone shots I took, while also firing like crazy with my Sony camera. I haven't had any time to slow down and process my Sony shots, so I thought I would share a few iPhone shots for a change. These were all taken in the ProHDR app (it blends two exposures to make the HDR) and then some minor adjustments were made in Snapseed. Enjoy!
iPhone fun in LA with my daughter
I spent most of the last week in LA on a fun trip with my daughter. We laughed, toured, ate and photographed quite a bit of the City of Angels. It was fabulous. Here are some iPhone shots to prove it. ;-)
I'm just back from a fun week in LA with my daughter.
My 14 year old daughter and I just spent the last week in Los Angeles, CA and had a blast. We walked a TON, shot a bunch, and just enjoyed the city. It was great.
We have been talking about doing a Dad-Daughter trip for a long time, but for various reasons we just now got it done. It was awesome. We walked and Uber-ed all over LA and had a great time. We went to museums, shot graffiti, went up to the Griffith Observatory and over to Malibu and the Santa Monica Pier.
Since this was a trip for my daughter (and thus, not for me to shoot a lot), I opted to just bring a single prime lens and no tripod. I wanted to be able to travel light and shoot fast, even at night. So everything was quick handheld shots with the lovely combo of my Sony A7ii and my new lens, the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4 prime lens. It worked great. As soon as I have more time with this lens, I will likely write up a review of my experience with it.
I certainly feel like I took some great shots, but readily admit that I haven't even looked at them yet (other than chimping after a shot), since I am writing this from the airport prior to departing LA and heading home. So today's post is all iPhone images, edited in Luminar by Macphun. It's a killer combo. Now that I use Luminar on everything, I have also started editing my iPhone shots in it, too. It works so well.
So this is a quick tour of some of the fun we had and these are in no particular order whatsoever. We got rained on a bit the first day, but otherwise the weather was just cool enough (high 60's) and I had some nice clouds, too. As soon as I am able, I will get some LA shots up here from my Sony camera, too. Enjoy!
Street art in Florence
I found myself on a quest while in Florence, Italy - a quest to capture as much of the work by street artist "Blub" as I could find. I discovered 16 works by the artist, so here they are. They all feature either a famous work of art or a famous person (real or imagined), each fitted with a swimming mask. It's a fun diversion from all that other art in the city!
I found myself on a quest while in Florence - looking for street art by someone named "Blub". This is WAY better than Pokemon Go.
I'm a fan of street art (some call it graffiti, or urban art, or a million other things) and find myself photographing it just about everywhere I go. It's always interesting and beautiful. When I was in Florence, I found myself on a bit of a quest, chasing works by the artist known as "Blub".
You see, we spent over a week there, and while the town is amazingly beautiful and full of possibly the best art in the world, you can get "art fatigue" as they call it. You see so many historic and famous works that after a while your brain just wants to melt. Or you need a beer. Or gelato. Yeah, gelato. Florence has the best gelato.
Anyhoo, as I walked around the town I started spotting these works in all sorts of places. Generally they were pictures drawn of a famous person (William Shakespeare, or Santa Claus), or a famous work of art (Mona Lisa), all with a swimming mask on their face. Something about it just got me interested, so I took a photo the first time I saw one.
Then, I saw another one, and another one, and so on. The quest had begun. I ended up capturing the 16 photos you will find here today. And FYI these were all shot with my iPhone. It's always with me, and especially for a quick snap it's hard to beat. And these aren't great shots, just quick snaps of something interesting. I wasn't trying to create art here - it's already art, anyway - but rather just a quick capture of cool street art.
Sadly, in some cases someone had marked on these, or torn them, or otherwise defaced them. I hate when people do that. This is still art and should be treated that way in my opinion. Enjoy it with your eyes, take a photo, and leave it alone people!
So if you find yourself taking a trip to Florence, take a break from the famous art and go on a hunt of a different sort, chasing these also beautiful and interesting works of art, scattered on street corners and tucked away little spots all over the city. It's quite fun and a great diversion from the art browsing you will do in places like The Uffizi.
I sent one of these pics to some friends and told them I was chasing these all over the city, and they said it was like some "high brow" version of Pokemon Go. I don't play that game, but I get the reference and definitely got addicted to this quickly! And it was way more interesting to me.
By the way, I found this artist's Instagram page if you want to follow their work. You can find that right here: https://www.instagram.com/lartesanuotare/
Click any image to embiggen...
iPhone highlights from Florence
There's something special about Florence, Italy. We recently spent over a week there, and I loved it. Here's an iPhone photo summary of some of the great things we witnessed!
Thought I might do this again, sort of a teaser of coming attractions!
After our time in Venice - which I shared here - we headed down to the lovely town of Florence (or Firenze to the Italians) for 9 wonderful evenings. We camped out in an apartment just a short walk to the Ponte Vecchio (that is the famous and often-photographed bridge), which is very central and made it super easy for me to get EVERYWHERE.
Literally, I went just about everywhere in town and photographed it top to bottom. I love it there, and I find the city very photogenic. I had a list prior to getting there of all the spots I wanted to shoot, and I made it to every one of them.
So this post is just a sampler platter, or a teaser of coming attractions, or whatever you want to call it. But basically here's a preview of what I shot there, except that these pics were all taken with my iPhone 6. I still shoot with my iPhone A LOT when I travel, and usually my faves end up in this set on Flickr. So if you go check out that set you will see a lot more from all of Italy (and elsewhere, of course - going back a few years actually!).
Sunset over Florence
Just a typical street scene, though this happens to be where our apartment was
The view from atop The Duomo
The ceiling inside the Baptistry, next to The Duomo
Sunset with Florence in the distance, as seen from the little hilltop village of Fiesole
Inside The Uffizi, which is a great museum and possibly my favorite museum anywhere
The famous sculpture of David at The Accademia
Watching the golden light of sunset hit the Ponte Vecchio
A daytime closeup of the Ponte Vecchio
The Basilica of Santa Croce, which houses many famous tombs, including Michelangelo
iPhone highlights from Venice
We recently spent 5 nights in Venice, Italy and I captured nearly 3,000 photos. Today I share my 5 favorites from my iPhone.
We recently spent 5 nights in Venice, and I left with about 3000 photos. Here are 5 of them, all from my iPhone.
If you follow me on Facebook, you will know that I am traveling around Italy with the family right now. We are on a multi-week trip around the country, exploring a lot of great cities and photographing the heck out of them. Well, I'm photographing the heck out of them. :-)
We arrived in Milan and spent 3 days there, and after that it was off to Venice for 5 nights. If you haven't been, it's beautiful. Let me just say that. Sure, it's a lot of twisting and turning as you try to navigate the streets, but boy is it fun. And if you wear a FitBit, charge that thing because you will be walking a LOT.
Since we are still on the road, I thought I would toss some of my favorite iPhone shots from Venice out there today. I just haven't had time to get to all my "real" photos from my other cameras. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, enjoy these iPhone shots from that gorgeous city in northern Italy. I already want to go back.
And if the photos don't quite show it, I had a couple of amazing sunsets there. And yes, these are all shot on my iPhone. It's all I have found time to edit thus far.
More coming from the rest of Italy as we continue exploring. Right now I am in Florence, and capturing even more Italian goodness here! Come back soon for a taste of it!
iPhone fun in Nashville and OKC
Last week was a busy one for me, traveling to Nashville and OKC and firing quite a few shots along the way. Today's post is a summary of that trip, with all photos taken and processed on my iPhone. I haven't had time to process anything from my real camera yet, because I am on the road again. Pop on in and see what's cooking!
Last week I was in Nashville and then Oklahoma City - 6 flights, 2 hotels, 2 rental cars, and countless photos!
My first night of the trip and I was rewarded with this stunning sunset over Nashville!
I couldn't resist taking out the iPhone when I looked out the plane and saw these clouds.
It was a great week, although I was extremely busy. Luckily I found time each day to get out and shoot (even though I had a conference call one evening during sunset - doh!). I enjoy my visits to both of these cities. I have been to both of them many times, and still find plenty of new stuff to shoot. They are interesting cities, and beautiful in their own ways. These (clearly) aren't the "big name" American cities, but I still find a lot to like about them.
I stumbled across this in an alleyway in Nashville
A different view of that first night's sunset in Nashville
So today's post is a quick iPhone highlight tour of my travels last week. There is no theme, other than they are all iPhone shots processed in Snapseed. I hit my usual haunts in those cities and found some new ones. I shot some cityscapes and skylines. I was (mostly) out at sunset. I stumbled through some alleyways and found some new graffiti. It was a good week, all around.
I am on the road again, but this time with the family, and heading West instead of East. More to come from this current adventure (and I will find some time to process shots from Nashville and OKC that were taken with my lovely Olympus). I have already captured about 1000 photos this week. You can take a look at my current iPhone shots on Flickr. We are currently in Arizona and heading further West. More to come about our grand summer family adventure! (and yes, I will find time to process all the photos I am capturing, and there is a lot more shooting coming my way!).
Also, I am only planning this single post for this week. With it being a short week for those of us in the US, and with me being on the road with sketchy wifi access, I figured it would be easiest to just spend time with the family and my camera and enjoy life a bit. So follow me on Flickr to see current iPhone pics from the road, and come back next week because I have a lot to share!
I hope you enjoy the shots, and thanks for stopping by today!
another alleyway find in Nashville
on Route 66 in OKC
part of a mural in OKC
golden hour over LP Field in Nashville
the OKC Memorial
where the thunder rolls!
cool stuff i found in nashville - of course it is music-related in that city!
i love trains and graffiti - shot this in the gulch in nashville
another view of Lp field in nashville
from okc, another part of an extensive mural downtown
i spent some time driving along route 66 in okc - not a lot of great finds but loved this spot!
another scene from another alley in nashville - i just love grungy scenes like this. and i love peanuts too!
the golden hour over lp field was impossible to pass up!
iPhone fun in San Francisco
I spent last week in San Francisco, and despite being really busy at work, I still got out and fired away quite a bit! I came home with around 1100 photos, which is a pretty good haul when my time is limited. I shot all over town, too, and hit some new spots. It was great. Today's post is a bit of a teaser though, as these are all iPhone pics from the trip, since I haven't had time to process anything yet. More on that later. For now, enjoy the beauty of the City by the Bay!
I spent last week in San Francisco, and it was great!
This is the Bay Bridge, which I love to shoot!
I go to San Francisco several times per year (I work for a company that is based there), and I always enjoy the visit - even if I don't bring the camera. In fact, I have been there many times without the camera, and just shoot with the iPhone, assuming I have time. Even that is fun, although of course I prefer to have my camera with me!
And although last week was very busy with work (and I knew in advance that my shooting time would be very limited), I did find some time to get out and shoot. I brought along my trusty sidekick on this trip, my Olympus OMD EM-1 mirrorless camera, and just because I wanted to travel super light, I only brought one lens: the Panasonic Leica Summilux prime lens.
Some cool graffiti I found while walking along market street
one of my favorite spots in chinatown - i think i have shot here at least 5 times! and I will probably shoot it again some day!
I love the combination of that lens and camera - both are very light and quick, and having the prime lens really makes me think about what I am shooting. Obviously there are some things you just can't get to with a prime (this one is a 15mm, so not-quite-wide but pretty-far-from-zoomed), but I still find it very versatile. It may be my favorite lens. Being able to shoot all the way wide open at f1.7 is one of the many great things about it (and in using it, I don't use a tripod, allowing me to further travel light).
However, I have not had any free time since returning home to process the photos (I took about 1100 with my Olympus), so today's post is a bit of a teaser: these are some of my favorite iPhone shots that I took in San Fran last week. As usual, I took a bunch of iPhone pics, and since I have the ability to process those on the go, I obviously have quite a few to share. These were all taken with my iPhone 6 and processed in Snapseed, which is just about the only app I use for processing iPhone photos these days. It's that great.
a closer look at that graffiti from chinatown
that is the ferry building - just loved the light here!
how cool is this? this was in clarion alley in the mission district.
this is city hall, and it is magnificent!
looking down from the 2nd floor of the ferry building
these stairs were in the embarcadero complex, and i loved them!
In terms of subject matter, I shot a lot around the Ferry Building (my favorite spot in SFO) and along the Embarcadero, including the Bay Bridge. I got a great new vantage point of the Ferry Building from my hotel, too, which was awesome. I wandered one morning over to Chinatown, which is always fun for me. After work one afternoon, I took a taxi over to the Mission District. I have always heard there is some great graffiti there, and there really is (it's in a spot known as Clarion Alley). It was a gold mine. I walked from there over to City Hall, which has an incredible staircase. Lots to come from there. And I ended where I began the week - shooting the Ferry Building, although this time at sunset (and I have a little story to share about how I got a better view there). So I guess I did have a little time to get out and shoot, after all. Yay for me LOL!
You may have seen these on Flickr already, if you happen to follow me there. If not, then these will be all new to ya! Either way, I hope you enjoy this little visual tour of what I encountered while wandering around the City by the Bay last week. As soon as time allows, I will be processing and sharing a bunch of stuff from last week, so stay tuned!
Thanks for clicking by today! Let me know if you have any questions!
a shot of the city hall stairs from down below
this is the second floor of the ferry building, which is fun to wander around, although it's not really a public place.
ah yes, isn't this a great view of the ferry building?!! and isn't that a lovely sunset?!!
here's a pic from the same spot as the last shot, although under lesser conditions - still a beauty of a view, though!
i found a lot of stairs to shoot on this trip! these were in the embarcadero center somewhere. I was just wandering and looked down - click!
4 weeks, 3 trips, 9000 photos
I have spent the last four weeks on the move, and in that time I fired about 9000 photos. It's been productive, amazing, fabulous, and a little tiring. I drove a long way, and flew even further. I have so much to share here that I fear I am already behind! So today's post is an iPhone summary of these 3 trips and all the fun that I had on them. Enjoy!
The last few weeks have been pretty crazy - in a good way!
As the title of this post implies, I have been a little busy over the last month or so. Ok, more than a little busy. I have been extremely busy. I drove about 1500 miles and flew over 20,000. I have hiked, climbed, walked, ridden in planes, trains and taxis, and generally been a whirlwind of activity. I have been to parks, pubs, museums, libraries, train stations, castles, palaces, 3 foreign countries, 1 vacation home, 5 hotels and more airports than I care to think about.
And I have taken photos. Lots of photos. And it has been great.
In this time, I fired almost 9000 photos with my Olympus mirrorless camera, which I am absolutely loving by the way. It's been about a year now that I have had it, and I have really gotten into a groove with it. It's perfect for where I am with my photography right now. It's becoming very well-traveled, which is good for a camera (especially one so small and light!).
But as I have done for years, I have also fired a LOT with my iPhone. I continue to share my iPhone pics in this set on Flickr, but I just don't really do much sharing of the iPhone goodness here on the blog anymore. I have sort of gotten away from doing iPhone posts here.
So I thought that today I would change that.
On these trips (which I will detail below), I also fired hundreds of iPhone shots and put my faves out there on Flickr. But since I have literally 9000 photos to go process - and knowing it will take me forever to get them ready and published here - I thought it would be fun to do a little recap of my recent travels as seen through my iPhone, and thus share some iPhone pics to illustrate everything I have been doing. Which has been a lot.
One thing to note: I just selected a few pics from each location, because honestly, it would take all day to get all the iPhone pics I have from all these spots into this blog post, and I am way too lazy for that! Plus it was kind of fun to pick a few that sort of summarized what each trip was about. But it's always hard to do that; it's sort of like being asked to pick your favorite child.
So here it goes...(and you can click on each pic to view larger in a lightbox)
Week 1: March 13-20, Abiquiu, NM (1800 photos)
It was Spring Break here in Texas, so as a family we decided it would be fun to head over to New Mexico and see some sights (and this was the driving I refer to above - it's a long way from Austin to New Mexico!). We have been there many times, as it's sort of the closest place to go if you want to see mountains and other interesting landscapes. But since most of the past trips have been to Santa Fe (which I do love), instead for this trip we decided to rent a house in the little town of Abiquiu, NM which is about an hour northwest of Santa Fe. It's best known as the former home of the famous American painter Georgia O'Keeffe, and the landscapes there are just incredible. Interesting, strange, beautiful - and incredible. So we hung out and relaxed, and hiked, and explored, and just had a great time. And I took a few pics (ahem). We even saw a few animal carcasses - fun!
Week 2: March 22-29, Copenhagen, Denmark (3200 photos)
Ah yes, lovely Copenhagen! I returned home from New Mexico, spent a day washing clothes and repacking my bags, and then hopped on a plane to lovely Denmark! Copenhagen is a beautiful city, and this was my 3rd visit there. I really do enjoy the place. It's just awesome. This was a business trip, but even so, I was able to squeeze in plenty of photo time in my off hours. I truly saw so much here that it is almost hard to remember. I shot all around Nyhavn, their historic harborfront area, and of course all through the city center too, with lots of architecture and street scenes and churches and palaces (all high on my list of things I love to shoot!). But I also made a visit out to the little town of HIllerod, where I spent the afternoon wandering around and shooting at Fredericksborg Castle, which was awesome. So plenty of great pics coming from this trip.
Week 3: March 30 -April 5 - home for a week of rest and to see the family! Yay! (0 photos)
Sleep. Must get sleep. Oh yeah, and the Easter Bunny came to town too! I devoured some Peeps. Yum.
Week 4: April 6-14 - Dublin, Ireland (1800 photos) and Glasgow, Scotland (2000 photos)
After a week at home (and some much needed rest), I was off again, back to Europe (oh darn). This was another business trip, and it started in Dublin, which is a place that is absolutely near and dear to me. I love that dang town! The Irish people are just wonderful and the Guinness honestly tastes better there. It's true! Ask anyone who's been, and they will tell you the same. So in my off hours in Dublin, I hit all the sights I intended to hit: churches, the University, lots of street scenes, a few pubs (you get thirsty with all that walking!) and even a little trip out to the seaside village of Howth, where I walked on high cliffs next to the Irish sea. Good times!
And so after about 5 nights in lovely Dublin, it was off to Glasgow for the last leg of this business trip (and the end of this crazy 4 week period). I arrived here on the Saturday, which gave me the full weekend to get out and shoot this awesome Scottish city. I also had the good fortune of meeting up with my good friend Mike Murphy, who came up from London for the weekend. We shot like crazy here, and it was excellent. On Saturday we hit a bunch of spots in the city, dodging a little rain here and there. On Sunday we headed out to the nearby town of Falkirk, where Mike's old friend Steve met us, and the 3 of us spent the day firing like crazy at the Falkirk Wheel and The Kelpies. This was a great day, both because of the company and the sights. You just don't get to see stuff this interesting very often. And it'a always nice to wrap up a good day of shooting by stopping in a pub for a couple of pints.
Mike took off back to London on Sunday evening, and I was left to my own devices that evening and Monday evening, and so both nights I hit the streets around dusk and blue hour with my favorite little toy, the Panasonic Leica Summilux 15mm f1.7 prime lens. It's great to walk around and fire that thing in low light - without a tripod, mind you - and get great results. I only wish I had a prime lens years ago! Where was I when that memo went out??
In fact, I went without using a tripod ON ALL 3 TRIPS. I actually brought it with me to New Mexico and Copenhagen, but never even got it out. So when I was packing for Dublin and Glasgow, I decided I may as well leave it at home. And guess what? I never missed it! (Though I will say, I do love my tripod, and have no plans to get rid of it.) Obviously there are some things you prevent yourself from being able to do without a tripod on hand, but I have found that for much of what I do, it isn't necessary. I may write up a future blog post about that, as I continue to evolve my style of shooting. It sure is great to travel light. I actually only had the camera and two lenses the whole time, so that all fit in a small backpack. It felt great!
And speaking of future blog posts, since I now have this collection of 9000 photos to process and share (really, isn't that a few years worth of work??), I also have a huge (or, huger than before) backlog of blog posts to write up. In fact, I was going through my folders for the images from these trips, and have counted - no exaggeration here - about 40 different blog posts that I want to do, covering different sites on these various trips. And yes, each post would contain a good 10-20 photos. So yeah, I have my work cut out for me, don't I?
Well, that's a little summary of the last few weeks of my life. It's been great, and it's been fun, and it's been productive. But it is nice to be back at home with the family, and I hope to find some time to process a lot of these photos, and to share them here. In fact, you'll see the first one in a few days, so please come back!
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed this post!
iPhone fun in Paris
How about some iPhone shots from my recent visit to Paris, France? Sound good? Great! Here you go! This is 10 iPhone pics from that beautiful city we all love. Take a look and let me know your thoughts!
Ah Paris, you are so beautiful!
Paris is one heck of a beautiful city! It has quickly become one of my favorite spots. Now I have heard everyone else say that too, and always discounted it a little bit. I mean, everyone knows Paris is beautiful. That's all you ever hear about the place.
And whenever possible, I like to visit new places, because I guess I have a thing about seeing new stuff for the first time. I love that feeling. And I was in Paris about a year and a half ago. While I was looking forward to this return visit, it wasn't like some OMG I'M GOING TO PARIS thing.
It was more like a "nice, this will be enjoyable" kind of thing. But it turned into an OMG thing I guess. I just really, really, really liked it a lot.
It helped that I was able to see and photograph a LOT of new things, which always helps. But there's just something about Paris, and well, I guess it's gotten ahold of me somehow. Oh well, there are worse things, aren't there?
And as I said before I took about 4000 pics in Paris, but I have barely even started on trying to process and share them. I just haven't had time. So today's post is a little iPhone summary of some shots I took at various points over the week or so I spent in Paris.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them! You can click on any photo to enlarge it, in case you want to see it a little bigger. And all of these were taken with my iPhone 6 and adjusted in Snapseed (which is the best iPhone editing app in my opinion). Enjoy!
Inside the lovely Notre Dame one evening
the main hallway in the Musee D'Orsay
Sacre Coeur
the entry to Versailles
The chapel inside Versailles
The ceiling of the cafe inside the Musee d'Orsay
Outside the Louvre waiting in line
Inside the Paris Opera Garnier
C'mon you know this spot right?
the dome inside Les Invalides (Napoleon's tomb)
iPhone fun in Montpellier, France
I was in Montpellier, France last week and found it to be awesome. As you can imagine, I gunned a MASSIVE amount of photos, but I am still in France (yay!) so today's post is a collection of 10 iPhone shots from last week in the lovely southern French city of Montpellier! I think you are going to enjoy these!
Wow, what a great little town in southern France!
As this post goes live, I am wrapping up what has been 2 amazing weeks in France. Yes, you read that right. I have been in France for almost 2 weeks, and it has been incredible. What a country!
The first part of the trip was down to lovely Montpellier, near the southern coast, for several days, and that's what this post is mostly about. But I am writing this from an apartment in the Latin Quarter of Paris, where I have been ever since, and which I am loving. Paris is amazing, but more on that later. Today I'm talking 'bout Montpellier.
Before I traveled to Montpellier, I did the usual internet searches for cool stuff to shoot and all that, and really didn't turn up a whole lot. I just couldn't find very much written about the town, and thus my expectations were set pretty low.
But I have to say that I really loved the place, and hope that I can return some day. It's a beautiful town and the historic town center is fairly compact and easily walkable, which is great with me. I love to walk with a camera and check out places.
It didn't hurt that I was treated to two fabulous sunsets in a row, with an incredible sunrise coming in between them. I was awed at having such incredible light on several outings!
So here are some iPhone shots from the road (I rarely take my big laptop and process my "real" photos on the road). I took all these over the course of a few days last week in Montpellier, and processed them all in Snapseed, which is pretty much all I use now on my iPhone. That app is hard to beat.
I will be back soon with a LOT more from here as well as about 2 million photos from Paris!!
(click any photo to enlarge)
And by the way, to all my American friends, please enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday!
iPhone fun in Sydney Australia
Well hi there! I made a reasonably quick trip over to Sydney, Australia last week, and came home with a LOT of photos. But, today's post is a bit of a teaser - just iPhone shots for ya. I haven't had time to get my Olympus shots processed. So come back, ok? There's a lot more coming! But for now, enjoy these photos and this quick tour of my little adventures Down Under! G'day mate!
I popped over to Sydney last week - fun!
Ok, that's a slight exaggeration - coming from Texas, you don't really "pop" over there like it's a 30 minute flight. It's actually the LONGEST FLIGHT IN THE WORLD. That's not a joke. The Qantas flight from Dallas to Sydney (using the new Airbus A380) is well over 16 hours, covering north of 8,500 miles/13,800 km. That's some serious butt time!
And I was in coach. My ass is getting numb just thinking about it again.
I am actually writing this while in Sydney, on my last night here (Saturday evening, Sydney time) and scheduling it to go live on Monday morning, Texas time. The beauty of the internet. I will spend all day Sunday on the return flight. By the time this post goes live, I will be home again and hopefully still sleeping soundly! So read on, while I snooze a bit.
Well enough about all that, how about some pics?
I took a LOT of photos while in Sydney, and obviously haven't had any time to process them (much less even get them off the memory cards!). So I thought I would do this iPhone post and hit a few of the highlights. It's a beautiful city, though I will say the big draws are the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge - which are both beautiful. Outside of that, I of course explored quite a bit, including hunting down some of the awesome graffiti that I Googled (found it!).
You'll be seeing quite a few Sydney shots here, as soon as I can get to them. Hope you enjoy this iPhone teaser, and thanks for stopping by today. G'day mate!
Some thoughts on the iPhone 6 camera...
And by the way, these were all shot with my new iPhone 6 and processed in Snapseed. I haven't shared much iPhone stuff here over the last year or so, but I still take a bunch of them. I was slowing down quite a bit, but now that I have this new iPhone 6, I am getting pretty fired up about mobile photography again!
I previously had the iPhone 4S, but it was well over 2 years old, and showing a lot of signs of age (and tons of usage). It wasn't always working great, and now compared to the new one it feels like it was made in 1975 or something. This shiny new toy is a total blessing. While the camera is great (especially considering this is a phone), I do love the bigger screen. It's just crisp and gorgeous.
And no, I did not get the iPhone 6 Plus. Perhaps if I was 6'5" tall and had banana hands, then I would consider it. But no, I'm not, and that thing is too unwieldy for me. The iPhone 6 took a little getting used to, because even the smaller new one is still considerably larger than my old iPhone 4S, but after a couple of weeks we are very happy together. :-) Ok, on to the pics!
I grabbed this one from the Harbor Bridge. A good walk up there, but worth the view!
On my 2nd night here, I was treated to an absolutely FABULOUS sunset. So awesome!!
Just some shopping arcade I ran across - thought it was pretty nice looking!
See what I'm saying?? AWESOME. GRAFFITI.
If you've been here before, you know I love train stations...so I had to visit their Central Station. Grungy goodness.
And one more of the opera House, during that killer sunset. Such a photogenic building!
St. Mary's Cathedral - very beautiful!
Here's an angle on the Opera House you may not have seen before...
Walking around Circular Quay, headed to the Harbor Bridge. This is before that crazy sunset happened!
Yep, it's the Opera House again - big surprise! But I did like the sunset light here...
And a word of caution - as a tourist, you may be tempted to try Vegemite, because you remember that Men At Work song from the 80's (and sorry, I know it's stuck in your head now) but DO NOT TRY IT. It's a prank that is foisted on unsuspecting tourists, especially Americans. I do not believe that it is actually even food. It tastes like what I imagine tar or axle grease to taste like, but with more salt. It's completely horrible (sorry, Aussie friends, but come on, you eat that?). I tried it one morning at breakfast, and seriously wanted to spit everywhere. You may vomit. I had to leave immediately so I could brush my teeth. STAY AWAY FROM IT. :-)
Instagramming a trip to the mountains
Today I share a collection of Instagram photos from my recent family vacation up to the little mountain town of Red River, NM. Lots more to come from this trip!
Do you Instagram? I'm enjoying that site quite a bit!
I’m just back from a family vacation to Red River, NM - a great little mountain town that sits high in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It’s small, peaceful, and beautiful there. It’s also a great place to take photos, which as you can imagine I did a fair bit of while there (with both my Olympus mirrorless camera and my iPhone).
I have done a lot of iPhone photo posts here before, showing a summary of a trip as captured by my iPhone. I haven’t done one in a while though, mostly because I have changed the blog format a bit and instead of 5 posts per week (each with a single photo), I am now concentrating on 2-3 posts per week but each with multiple photos.
So I thought it was about time to share another iPhone post, but this time, with a twist: these are all photos that I shared on Instagram while on the trip.
If you are interested, you can find me on Instagram here.
I hope you enjoy the shots! I have a bunch of shots that I took with my Olympus camera that I will start to process and share, as soon as I get time to catch up on things.
Stormy skies at Fawn Lakes - Red River, NM
At the Taos Pueblo - Taos, NM
Crossing a creek - loved this little bridge!
Fairy mushroom I found on a mountain hike.
The wild open road out West
Tubing down a mountain - Red River, NM