(iPhone camera; Processed with iPhone Applications – PhotoStudio and Best Camera)
(iPhone camera; Processed in PhotoShop CS4 with Nik Filters – Dfine, Viveza 2, Color Efex Pro and Sharpener Pro)
It’s been a week since I last posted which is somewhat unusual for me. Hopefully with the time change tomorrow, I will be afforded more opportunity to get out in the evenings after work and begin sharing with greater frequency again. In the meantime, I have been doing quite of a bit of reading, thinking and some writing about the creative process as it applies to my passion… photography. I have taken my activity to the point of beginning to plan a presentation/seminar/workshop that I have entitled “Creativity, Composition and the Camera”. I am working on this idea at the same time I am developing another entitled “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: Great Images from Your Own Backyard!”.
Anyway, I have been exploring ways of stimulating our creative juices, trying new things, developing exercises to increase out-of-the-box thinking and so on. To that end, I am incorporating ideas I have learned in books, presentations, seminars and workshops by folks like Freeman Patterson, Bryan Peterson, Nancy Rotenburg, David DuChemin, Brenda Tharp, Tony Sweet, John Barclay and others.
So what does this have to do with the images above? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. It is a very rainy and windy morning here in eastern Pennsylvania. Barb and I were to lead a hike this morning but it was cancelled. It’s too ugly to head out and take some pictures we decided to head out to our favorite local breakfast place. We ended up getting there a little early so as we sat there, Barb pulled out her iPhone and started to play around. I decided to do the same. As I was checking Facebook, I looked up at the rain-covered windshield and the way it distorted the street scene before me. And it hit me up side the head like a two by four. I clicked on the camera application and started to shoot the street scene with my iPhone camera through the rainy windshield just to see what I could get.
Here are two examples both made with the iPhone. The first was also processed entirely with iPhone applications – PhotoStudio and Best Camera. The second was taken into PhotoShop CS4 and processed using Nik filters (Dfine, Viveza 2, Color Efex Pro and Sharpener Pro). So two different looks through the same rainy windshield and a little creative exploration when I least expected it.
ADDENDUM: I should have added that in processing the first image I tried to focus on how the morning felt. It felt dreary almost depressing so one of the things I did was to add a fade filter in Best Camera to try to add to that feeling. With the second image, I tried to focus on how the morning looked so it is a bit more “realistic” looking even with the distortions through the raindrops. I thought I had explained that as the reason for two images but guess not!
Ed… way to make the best of the conditions. It is always good to challenge oneself to be creative, and you are right in that many people overlook the photographic possibilities located in their own backyard. Love the second image presented here – it gives a pretty vivid sense of what it must have been like when you tripped the shutter.
Very nice Ed… interesting and causes me stop and really look a while.
Very interesting captures Ed. They make me stop and look awhile.
Very creative, Ed. I like the second best, while it is likely not as faithful to the original scene, I like the added punch.
Fantastic work, very creative and “impressionistic.” Dang iPhone just keeps surprising us eh?