Some iPhone shots from Europe last week
Running amok with my iPhone in Amsterdam and London.....good times.
I spent last week in Amsterdam and London - and the shooting was great!
I just took along my new Olympus, as I mentioned in the last post here, and it did great. I haven't had enough time to work through all my shots, so I thought I might as well put out an iPhone summary of a few of the spots I visited in those two wonderful cities.
I had a great sunset in London - love this spot!
It was a pretty quick trip - 5 nights total, with the 1st night spent in an airplane. So that was 2 nights in Amsterdam, and then 2 nights in London. I was up early most mornings for work meetings, and I was moving fast, supported by caffeine and excitement, mostly. I don't recommend that for more than a few days. :-)
Probably my favorite spot to shoot the canals in Amsterdam.
One thing I found was that now that I am carrying around the Olympus, and since it is so small and light, I am not using my iPhone quite as much as I did in the past. I used to take iPhone shots when I was too lazy to get the NIkon out, or too lazy to change lenses.
Mind the Gap - caught this in Paddington Station.
But I found on this trip that with the Olympus and the 12-50mm lens attached, I was able to get wide enough for most shots, and zoom in as well when needed - a great combo! This allowed me to look at things differently, shoot a little differently, and experiment a lot.
The weather and clouds in London were just so cooperative!
The other reason I used the 12-50mm most of the time, apart from the great range, was because I have shot both towns before with the Nikon, and have previously been to many of the spots that I visited this time around. In other words, I have already shot them quite a bit with the wide angle lens. So this was a chance to try something new, and I absolutely loved it. I'm really digging this little camera!
Central Station in Amsterdam - always good for the grungy treatment!
I guess that's about it for now. I will be working on some photos to share with you soon from these two awesome cities. And if you haven't seen my lists of "Best Places to Shoot" in London and Amsterdam, here are the links. And yes, as soon as I process some of this new stuff, I do have some new spots to add to both lists!
Thanks for clicking by today!
Had some great clouds in Amsterdam one afternoon!
iPhone fun in Copenhagen
I recently spent about a week in Copenhagen - what a town!
I first visited Copenhagen, Denmark about 2 years ago and found it to be beautiful, historic, easy to navigate....and easy to photograph! There really is a whole lot there to aim the camera at, that's for sure! In fact, at the time, I added a list here on the blog of the best places to take photos in Copenhagen. As soon as I can find the time, I will be adding several more spots to the list, because I definitely captured some new (to me) spots!
But as you may know from visiting here before (you have been here before, yes?), I also take quite a few iPhone shots when I am out and about, especially in Europe. I just love shooting all this stuff, regardless of what I am shooting with.
And yes, I am WAY behind on sharing these little iPhone posts from my trips...
My last iPhone post was over a month ago, and I have been so many places since then. The big spots were Dublin, Glasgow, Copenhagen (which I am covering today) and around various parts of Oregon. But going back a ways I have stuff still to share from London, a different Glasgow trip, Amsterdam, Nashville, Germany and some more from France - trips that all happened last year. See what I mean? I may never catch up.
So take a few minutes and enjoy these iPhone shots from Copenhagen. All of these are single exposures taken with my iPhone 4s, with adjustments made in Snapseed. If you aren't using Snapseed, you are truly missing out. It's the only app I use any more - it's just so powerful and gives you so much creative control. Ok, enjoy the shots and thanks for stopping by!
iPhone fun in Amboise, France
Well, hot on the heels on my last iPhone post from France...here's another one: this time, lovely Amboise!
As I mentioned last week in my iPhone post, I am way behind but I am sure trying to catch up. I'm sure that happens to all of us photographers. We shoot, process and share...then realize we have skipped over a bunch of stuff!
It happens to me all the time. Since I process my photos out of order, I am always in my Aperture library looking at shots that I have taken on all sorts of trips to all sorts of places...and I frequently find some real gems and wonder why I didn't get to them sooner.
It's really the same with my iPhone. While I don't have nearly as many iPhone shots as I do Nikon shots, there are still quite a few. As of this moment, I have north of 2,000 photos in my iPhone camera roll. That may not sound like a lot, but in the last 2 years I have removed at least that many 3-4 times, so the total iPhone library is something like 8,000-10,000. That number is a guess since I am too lazy to look it up, but it's at least directionally accurate.
The cool thing is that I always find stuff to process on the iPhone, and I always find things I love when I do that. There's just a lot of content that I am carrying around, and it's awesome to be able to take a few minutes and crank out some artistic stuff. That's one of my favorite things about iPhoneography - processing photos is not a big production requiring dedicated amounts of time. I can get a few shots done in 5 minutes. That's awesome.
Anyways, these shots are also from the family trip last summer to France, but from the little town of Amboise, which sits alongside the River Loire as it winds its way through the Loire Valley. It's a picturesque area and the town is rather charming. I loved it there, and would love to go back.
In addition to shooting various street scenes, of course I was happy to find a little mural showing good old Leonardo da Vinci, who famously spent time here in his later years. In fact, his tomb is here, up at the castle/chateau which sits on the hill above town. I'll save that spot for another iPhone post at some point. It's pretty wicked.
And of course, I went out a couple of times in search of a great sunset...and WOW was I ever rewarded for that idea!
Well that's it today folks, thanks for stopping by, and here's one last look at the arch and tower which sits squarely in the historic town center. So much charm here, you really must visit. Have a great day!
iPhone fun in Bayeux, France
It's about time for another iPhone post, don't you think?
As I mentioned here in a previous iPhone post, I am way behind in sharing all these little images I grab with my iPhone when I travel. I was going through my iPhone photos recently and started counting up all the trips that I have taken over the last year or so, but haven't done an iPhone post on yet. It's about 10. That's too many.
So today, I am taking one off the list: Bayeux, France.
Let me start by repeating that I am WAY behind here. This trip was in June last year. See what I mean? I'm way behind, but hey at least I'm trying!
You might not think it from my inability to be consistent with these posts, but I actually enjoy them quite a bit. It's fun to run through 5-10 iPhone photos, process them and remember the scene, then relive it in my mind. It's like a miniature virtual vacation, but without the cramped airplane seats.
But since I travel pretty frequently, and also of course I have my "regular" photos that I share here 5 times per week, plus I am starting to write more articles...well, I just get behind on things.
Anyways, Bayeux is a great little town and I really enjoyed staying there for a few days. We chose the town due to it's proximity to Normandy/Omaha Beach, since we wanted to go to the American Cemetery there. Talk about a thought-provoking place. Wow.
But in addition to the World War II stuff, we just wandered and enjoyed this little town. I definitely recommend it as a base for Normandy, but you should absolutely have a car while there. You won't need it in town, but it makes it so much easier to get to the places you will want to go.
There is a beautiful cathedral (the first picture) and of course I just love shooting street scenes and the little shops that are scattered around. They're just so inviting looking to me.
Also, if you haven't seen it here before, I created an iPhone gallery on the site so you can just check out some of my favorites. I continue to upload more photos there as I get to them. Here's the link: http://nomadicpursuits.com/iphone-gallery
And by the way, all my iPhone photos are taken with the built-in camera app, and adjusted with Snapseed. Snapseed is so powerful and is basically all I ever use anymore!
Thanks for stopping by today!
Exploring Chinatown with my iPhone
Do you ever take a trip and use ONLY your iPhone?
I have done that at times, but not because I don't want to lug my full-frame NIkon around. I've done it when I think there is absolutely no time for me to shoot on a trip, so I leave my big ole boy at home. It sucks, but it happens.
Last week is a perfect example of this. I work for a company based in San Francisco, and we had our annual kickoff last week, which is another way of saying that my days and night were all full. But being who I am (and needing a little break one day!!) I slipped out for a little walk late one afternoon, and since we were in Union Square, I decided to head over to Chinatown for a little while.
If you haven't been, Chinatown is very interesting and a great place to walk around. I have shot there once before, early one morning a year or so ago, and found it to be quite beautiful and interesting. I hope to get back with my Nikon on a future trip. So I wandered around the back streets and alleys, which I highly recommend doing, and also along the main drag, and took quite a few iPhone shots.
These are all single exposure iPhone pics (as opposed to shooting with ProHDR, which takes two exposures and combines them), and all are adjusted with Snapseed. Snapseed is by far my favorite iPhoneography app, and you can see my quick review of it here. I plan to write more about that later. :-)
So, enjoy the pics and let me know if you have any questions!
God Bless Johnny Cash
An iPhone tour of the Johnny Cash mural in Nashville, TN
(click on any image to enlarge)
Ok, first things first: I’m not a fan of country music. Ok, good, I got that out of the way early. But I will say that despite that admission, there are plenty of things I love about Nashville, TN (which is famous for its country music stars and venues), and I do recognize some of the better-known country songs. Not many, but a few.
I know a couple of tunes by Johnny Cash. Who doesn’t know “I walk the line” or “Ring of Fire”? Willie Nelson has a jingle or two that I remember. I’m partial to “On the road again”. There’s even a David Allan Coe song that I love, and it’s even on my iPhone. But country music as a genre? Not for me. I am more of a heavy metal rocker. What can I say? I love rock music, and grew up on it. We all know that we still love what we loved as teenagers, right?
I’m not sayin’ that country music is bad, it’s just not my thing. I completely understand if you are not into heavy metal. I could crank up some Ozzie and love it, but you might want to strangle me if I did. Differences are good, right? It makes the world a more colorful place.
Anyways, Nashville is a great town and I love to shoot there, despite the music. It’s really a photogenic city, but unfortunately some of my trips there are without my camera. I simply have too much work to do and too little free time, or the trip is really short (I’ve had two 1 night trips there in the last couple of months - both without my Nikon).
So in those situations, I go with the next-best thing: my iPhone. It’s always with me, and it does a damn fine job, most of the time. If you have been here before, you probably already know that I love that thing. And if you follow my Facebook page or Flickr stream, you have seen my iPhone posts - probably more often than you want to. But I can’t help myself - I love to shoot and share, a lot. I even wrote a little article about that once.
So on my last trip to beautiful Nashville, I came across this entire wall mural dedicated to Johnny Cash. And I didn’t have my Nikon, with my favorite thing attached to it: my wide angle lens. Poor me. I may have cried for a few minutes, but hopefully nobody saw me.
Thus, I did what I always do anyways: I shot away with my iPhone. And here are the shots. This mural has been there for over 10 years now, and is 150 feet long and 12 feet high. It’s pretty impressive! Plus, let’s face it: Johnny Cash is one cool dude. Or, was.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed these photos, and thanks for stopping by!
iPhone fun around Central Texas
I still shoot a lot with my iPhone - how about you?
I am really happy that I have an iPhone and that with a few apps, I can create some artwork just about anytime I want to. It's a fabulous creative tool and I totally enjoy it. In fact, I shoot with my iPhone very often. It's just that I don't share the photos here that much anymore. I should change that.
I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and trying to figure out why that is. I still take a lot of iPhone pics, and I share some on my Facebook page and even put some into this set on Flickr, but I haven't done many iPhone posts here this year.
The last one was back in August, after I returned from France. Prior to that, it was in May. See? I am way behind here.
So, I figured I would do a little catching up with this post today. While I could almost do one of these each week, that's not my intention. I will continue to do some of these on a random basis, but I have so many HDR photos taken with my Nikon from my travels over the last couple of years that I will be working on those for a long time (and that's a good thing, in my opinion).
Plus, shooting HDR with my Nikon is pretty much my favorite thing in the world, so I have to keep doing that, for my sanity if nothing else. :-)
So, these photos today were all taken either here in Austin or up in Fredericksburg, TX in the Texas hill country over the last few weeks, and of course they were all taken with my iPhone 4S. Also, the three main apps I used on these photos are Snapseed, ProHDR and Camera+. I used at least one of those apps on each of these, and maybe all 3 on 1 or 2 of them. I can't remember, to be honest about it.
Now I just need to find some time to share the iPhone pics I have taken lots of other places. Stay tuned!
Since my last iPhone post, I have taken trips to Nashville (3 times!), Germany (Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin), Amsterdam and Brussels, Phoenix, London and Scotland (both Glasgow and Edinburgh), and probably some other places that I cannot remember right now.
And yes, I took iPhone pics in every one of those spots (plus more Nikon images than I can count). So maybe I should get busy, because unless I am mistaken I haven't done an iPhone blog post from any of those trips.
And I even got out on Thanksgiving Eve here in Austin recently (with a couple of family members) and got some shots during sunset. It ended up being a pretty nice evening!
Well thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you enjoyed viewing these iPhone pics as much as I enjoyed taking, processing, and sharing them! Come back soon for more! I will try and be a bit more regular about these iPhone posts! :-)
iPhone highlights of Paris
I have not posted an iPhone trip summary in a LONG time. Looking back, it appears the last one was in May, and was from a London trip. Since that time, I have been back to London, to several places in France (Paris, Loire Valley, Normandy), to several places in Germany (Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin) and even San Francisco.
Suffice it to say, I have quite a few iPhone shots to share here. Truth is, although I enjoy doing these posts, they take a while and I find I am always in a hurry, so they get backlogged. Then again, I have about a million things I want to do here on the blog, so I am backlogged on lots of stuff. Don’t get me started on all the photos that I want to process! :-) (ok, all that is a good problem, so I shouldn’t gripe about it)
This post is just a few of the many Paris shots I took with my iPhone, so it’s sort of the highlights of Paris: Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower. It’s sort of a tourist reel, so to speak. Hope you enjoy them!
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY AND HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE TOUR OF PARIS!
iPhone fun in London
An iPhone tour of London!
As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent last week in London and Dublin. I love both of those towns. They are very different, but equally awesome in my opinion. As I tend to do, I snapped a lot of iPhone shots through the week, and thought I would share a few here today from London. I will have to do the Dublin iPhone shots another time. So, in no particular order, here's a quick iPhone tour of cheery old London!
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY - HOPE YOU ENJOYED THESE!
iPhone fun in Maui
My wife and I recently returned from a weeklong trip over to Maui. It was fabulous. I love the place. My previous visit was over 10 years ago, and ended basically on the first day when I took a stick in the eye. No, that is not an expression. I actually took a stick in the eye. It tore off 75% of my cornea and I wore a patch like a pirate for at least a week. That sucked.
But, that was 10 years ago and I was eager to return to actually see it for the first time. It’s beautiful, just like you expect it to be. And though this was not a “photo trip” for me, I did manage to squeeze in quite a few shots, thanks to my wife being supportive of this passion of mine.
I have already posted a couple of shots from the trip, but thought I would share a quick iPhone post with a few of my iPhone pics from the trip. I took 320 photos with my iPhone that week, so this is likely the first of several iPhone posts from Maui. :-)
Sunset on our first night there...that was a nice welcome to the island!
Here’s another view of that sunset from just behind the hotel.
Sunrise on my first morning there. It was easy to get up. At 3am I was wide awake, thanks to being 5 hours off my normal time zone! But hey it was obviously worth it!
This was on the beach behind our hotel, again on the first night, but before the sunset got all dramatic like in the first shot.
I grabbed this one while climbing around those rocks and getting soaked. But what fun! As long as the gear stays dry...who really cares?!
That’s it for today - thanks for stopping by!
iPhone fun in Panama City
I spent last week in Panama City, Panama - my second trip there in 6 months. It’s a very interesting city, with all the fancy skyscrapers jutting out of seemingly nowhere, and the absolute poverty surrounding it. Although I like it, I am not sure what to make of the place. It’s both rich and poor - vibrant and dirty - busy and calm - beautiful and ugly. It’s all the good and bad of progress wrapped into one. Like I said above, it’s very interesting. I think I will stick with that as a description.
While I haven’t had time to process my Nikon shots (though you can see my previous shots from Panama here), I did want to share a little iPhone summary of some of the sights that I encountered there.
Plus, I haven’t shared an iPhone post in a while, and I like to do so. I have a huge backlog of iPhone shots, so there’s no time like the present. Hope you enjoy them!
This is a view down the Cinta Costera, their walkway along Panama Bay...I spent a couple of hours walking here down to their old town known as Casco Viejo.
This is just a street scene in Casco Viejo...
And this is another one...
This is just someone’s cat. :-)
This church is beautiful, but old and falling apart. I loved the altar here....
This is some sort of derelict old thing that I just found interesting, especially with the graffti...
And of course, no visit to Panama is complete without the Panama Canal. This was a sunset I shot there, looking out towards the canal. It was a beautiful evening!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the tour!
iPhone fun in Waco
I drove up to Dallas on Monday this week (from Austin), which means I had to pass through Waco, TX en route. Waco is not a town I would normally stop in, but I had my camera so I decided to check out their suspension bridge which I had seen pics of online. It’s pretty awesome!
I have a thing for bridges anyways, so any excuse to fire some brackets at one works for me. Of course my iPhone is always with me, so I also grabbed a few quick snaps with it as well.
As you can see, had some pretty exciting clouds in the skies...and maybe I went a little heavy on the processing with Snapseed. But, that’s half the fun of it, right? I find with the iPhone I enjoy going past reality on the processing at times. How about you?
When I was leaving the bridge, I took a wrong turn and happened upon a beautiful little church. So, I ventured in there for some more bracketing and iPhone fun as well. I left a couple of $ in their collection box, which the sign indicated was for preservation of the mural. Believe me, the mural is awesome and well worth preserving. Glad I could help!
Thanks for stopping by today!
iPhone fun at The Bellagio
It's Las Vegas! You're so money, baby!
I spent the first few days of this week in Las Vegas on business, though I did find a little time to get out and shoot, both with the Nikon and of course with my trusty little sidekick, my iPhone. It has been a couple of weeks since I shared some iPhone pics, so I thought I could give you a little tour of The Bellagio.
If you want to see all my “iPhone fun” photo posts, you can find them all by clicking here: http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/blog/category/iphone
The Bellagio is an incredible hotel/casino located right at the heart of The Strip in Las Vegas, NV. If you ever make it to Las Vegas, be sure and stop into The Bellagio, even if you are staying elsewhere. It’s just a beautiful property. It's fun just to walk around and see it all (and take some pics, too!).
One of the most well-known parts of it is the big lagoon out front, which hosts a water fountain show ever day. It’s pretty awesome, though I was shooting all these pics in the morning (my preferred shooting time, especially in Las Vegas when all the tourists are asleep), so it was relatively calm.
Here’s part of the hotel reflected in their big lagoon out front...
This view is sideways across the lagoon, and you can see just the left edge of The Bellagio, then Flamingo, Bally’s and a smidge of Paris on the far right. I am always looking for still water to get some reflections.
As I was walking up to the Bellagio entrance, I looked back and just liked this view. At this point the Bellagio is behind me, and I am looking out across the lagoon, where you can see the Paris Hotel and the bottom of their Eiffel Tower. I stayed in Paris this time - pretty cool spot. And the nutella/banana crepes were fabulous!
This is the covered drive-up entry to The Bellagio. It’s a grand entrance, but being rather busy (even at an early hour) I opted to focus here just on the ceiling, which is beautiful.
Once you enter, one of the first things you will see in the lobby is this wonderfully colorful ceiling full of glass done by artist Dale Chihuly. It’s impressive!
I walked through the lobby, and there was a huge display set up for the Chinese New Year which is right around the corner. It’s the year of the snake...so they had this massive snake on display, along with a bunch of other stuff like flowers, a boat (!) and a Chinese money tree.
The shopping in The Bellagio is rather expensive extensive but thankfully the stores were all closed. I just grabbed this shot of the hallway, as I found it pretty inviting. So much attention to detail here!
Lastly, I walked back to the front of The Bellagio to head out, and stopped to shoot this fountain, with Paris in the background.
I edited all these shots with either ProHDR or Camera+, or maybe both. You can find my mini-reviews of these products here:
ProHDR review: http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/prohdr-app-review/
Camera+ review: http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/camera-app-review/
Well, that’s a quick tour of The Bellagio in Las Vegas! I will be sharing my Nikon pics of this place too, as I find time to process them. Thanks for having a look!
iPhone fun in Chinatown
Last week was a very busy week for me, and although I spent the entire week in San Francisco, I did not even bring my Nikon. Nope, just way too busy. I did catch an hour's break one afternoon though, and decided to take a little iPhone stroll in Chinatown, which was a few short blocks away.
If you have never been to San Francisco, then be sure and put Chinatown on your list for when you do get there. It's a very interesting place. Enjoy the tour, and thanks for looking!
This gate sits at the main entrance to Chinatown...
There is a LOT of graffiti to be seen there, if you look in the right places. Here is some that I found:
There are also quite a few Chinese grocery stores. They sell lots of interesting food things.
Do some people actually eat starfish? News to me.
A sign at some store...
In case you haven't noticed...dragons are a big deal here.
And this mural just caught my eye. I guess Chinatown has been here a while!
Well, that's it for this "iPhone fun" installment! I have plenty more planned, so keep checking back!
If you ever get to Chinatown, be sure and bring your camera...or at least your iPhone!
Thanks for looking!
iPhone fun in London
Lovely London as seen through my iPhone!
There is just so much to photograph in London - really, it’s a full time job when you are there to just try and capture what you can. During my free time on my visits, I am snapping away like crazy on the Nikon, but of course I always find a few moments to break out the iPhone as well. I just love shooting with my iPhone.
My last trip to London was back in September, and I ended up with lots of photos, of both the Nikon and iPhone variety. Although I have shared a number of my Nikon shots, I just realized I never did an iPhone post for the trip. So, let's fix that right away, shall we? (And guess what? I am keeping up my with 2013 plan to share more iPhone posts - yay!)
You can read about my favorite iPhone photo apps here, if you are interested in what I use to process these: http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/top-iphone-photo-apps/
And if you want to see all my shots from London, you can either scroll down under "Categories" on the right side, and click on "London" , or just click this link to go straight there: http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/blog/category/london
This is the back of Winston Churchill...well, a statue of him, that is. He's kinda hunch-y. Look, Big Ben!
The incredible interior of the Natural History Museum - yes, it really is this awesome. Reminds me of Hogwarts. Can't you picture those staircases moving around?
You may have seen this thing before...and here it is again! I think I pushed every slider all the way on this one! What the hell - it's art!! I actually shot this from a cab while leaving London.
Straight out of Harry Potter...it's Diagon Alley. Wait, I mean Leadenhall Market. What a place!
Some random graffiti...I love me some graffiti. Good advice, too. Click.
I love signs, trains, and train stations. A sign about a train line in a train station? Gimme some of that!
This was in Baker Street Station, around midnight. I was headed home from a big photowalk I hosted there. But, there's always time for one more shot...even when you're sleepy.
I was walking around The Tower of London in broad daylight...this is a side entrance. I didn't see any prisoners. But tourists? Yeah, I saw a TON of them things.
Well, that's a quick virtual trip across the pond! Hope you enjoyed these, and thanks for clicking by! Isn't London just awesome??!