You can change this…
…to this.
Using the Preview app…that’s built into a Mac. It’s got just about all the controls most folks will need.
With only a few clicks…
Lap top portraits…
My little friend likes to sit or lay down on my lap. Aside from not being able to move for a while the experience is very pleasant, especially since it makes it easy to take extreme closeup portraits like this one.
All it took to take this portrait was a knee (that I supplied), an iPhone (that I supplied), and a model (who was very willing. The only difficult part is holding the camera. With a little practice that’s not hard to learn. Incidentally, no apps were used. Just the iPhone’s native camera. It’s always good to have a Pug around. They are known for being lap dogs!
It starts with an idea…
I looked up and saw the image on the ceiling. I took a picture of it. And then I used the DistressedFX app (for iPhones) to see how the image could be interpreted. Here are some of the possible ways…
Color or Black-and-White…which do you prefer?
Ruby always looked good…only question here is which one made her look better.
Favorite lens?
A post on Instagram made me think about simplicity. I was thinking about how much I enjoyed shooting with my 35 mm Nikons, especially with a 50 mm 1.4 lens. I still think of it as the idea.
You had to move in close.
It was very fast.
It was sharp.
Yes, I miss it.
What do closets, drawers, and shoe boxes have in common?
Closets, drawers, and shoe boxes can and do hold many old photos. What do you have hidden away?
Find the best photos and digitize them so that future generations will have them to admire.
Preserve your old memories…before it is too late.
How to ID a plant…with your iPhone…
My wife is an avid gardener. She loves cactus and succulent plants. Sometimes, there are no identifying tags that come with plants. Many, at least to me, look alike. To identify a plant she recently got, we used an iPhone app. I took this photo of it.
The PlantSnap app idenifitied it like this.
That’s it … Aloe pratensis. Nifty app for gardeners.
According to the manual…
While looking through a camera manual I came across something interesting. With today’s digital cameras and smartphones we look for ways to manipulate the dials and buttons. The manual I’m looking at is a bit different. It was written in 1888. Yes, that’s 1888. It’s the manual for the original Kodak Camera.
That camera was loading with enough film to take 100 photos. It was meant to be returned to Kodak to be unloaded, developed, and returned to the owner. Yes, unloaded. They wanted you to send the whole camera back.
If you didn’t want to actually return the camera, they provided what was needed to develop the film yourself. 
Next time you complain about how difficult it is to print a picture think about how easy it is to get bromide potassium, hyposulphite soda, and Eastman’s collodion.
It’s OK to look a little dopey if…
I don’t mind looking a little dopey for this Fathers Day photo. The family came through with some gifts I really appreciated. The photo shows some of them. During the pandemic, my favorite hand soap was appreciated.
Looking a little dopey was fine with me because…it shows me looking at the camera (actually iPhone). Years from now, it will mean more. Although there were some photos of me looking down at the gifts, I think this one will be the best because it shows me.
Make sure you get photos with the subject looking straight into the camera. You’ll want to remember what the people looked like…more than anything else…in my silly opinion.
It also is important to make sure the metadata explains the photo. We don’t usually write on the back of photos as we did in the past. The metadata helps tell the details. Here’s what I wrote on the metadata for this digital image.
Make sure the “backs” of your family memories are carefully written!
In just a few clicks…using DeluxeFX
Although I usually don’t often use photo apps, I do like to experiment. Today, I was determined to use a popular app, DeluxeFX, on a photo I took last night. Here’s the way it came out of my iPhone XR…
And with a few clicks inside DeluxeFX I had this version…
Although I prefer the original, I can certainly see how some people might like the altered version.
Most photo apps are free or very inexpensive.
Experiment!!!!