lion and photo booth

And bluebirds of happiness. What more could you ask for? Since I have my new laptop set up and working I am now going thru all the software programs. I've never spent any time in Photo Booth. (This is a program on your Mac, not an iPhone app.) The little bluebirds charmed me so I though I'd share them here. I looked in an older version of PhotoBooth and did not see them there so I assume these are new to Lion.

(The iSight camera on my computer does make things in the foreground larger than they are. I actually have small hands, but not here.)

Toon paint

Starting with a color photo I made it B&W. I then imported it into ToonPaint.

ToonPaint turns your continuous tone photo into a line drawing. Using sliders you can choose how light or dark to make the photo. After this I could having painted the photo. But it was a very monochromatic shot to start with so I decided to leave it as is. More info on Toon Paint below.

computers & lion & gestures

sigh. It has been a month since I got my new 15" MacBook Pro which I do like a lot. But I immediately (without thinking) had the Apple Store install Lion. That then stopped me dead in my tracks as I was trying to finish London Doodles and Lion does not support FontLab or the version I have of Fontographer. So I set up my Air so I could keep working. So I have one of the 3 laptops set up correctly. Whew.

This week I plan get my new one in good working order. I had the Apple Store move my data from my old computer to the new one which was a good move. But I need to get all my software working or replaced or upgraded. So I will be posting bits of Lion info this week as I go.

I got a Magic Trackpad for Christmas which I like. And it matches my keyboard which I also like. I never learned the gestures and every so often I do something and things change. I suspect that the trackpad gestures may be the new Lion gestures. Here is an interesting link. http://www.macworld.com/article/161289/2011/08/learn_gestures_lion.html This week I intend to learn those and see if I am right.

I would recommend not boldly upgrading as I did. Not if you are in the middle of a big project or have no time to figure things out. I would also check and see if your most used programs work with Lion.

hipstamatic and picture show

Plastic 60s toy cameras and lomography give you a distinctive retro feel. I like those strange color combinations. If you like that look than you'll like Hipstamatic. Using your iPhone and the hipstamatic app you get the digital version. More info about the app below...

I then opened the Hipstamatic photo in PhotoShow and got the shot below.

It is fun to use several apps and layer the effects.

Info on PictureShow below if you are interested.

photo fx

sunday morning kayaking and breakfast on Mud Lake.

I took both of these shots with a little Sony point and shoot camera, imported them into my computer and then from my computer emailed them to myself and put them into iPhoto so I could adjust them on my iPhone. For these photos I used Photo FX. The top photo I added fog/blur to the shot. The bottom one I used the lomography filter to get those intense colors. Lots more to play with in this little app. For more info see below.

I am noticing how very, very slowly my iPhone works when trying to add filters to photos or even read Facebook on it. I guess I need to get a new phone too. Maybe before I even get the computers all set up and the new tablet working. Sigh. I only love technology when it is working, perfectly. Preferably set up by someone else.

more art camera

original

two versions with different filters added

August Break is more fun than I thought it would be. I am enjoying spending time in different photography phone apps manipulating photos for new and surprising results. I spend WAYYYYYYY too much time thinking through creative things. Anything I do that appears to be random only looks random. The randomness is always calculated. While neither good or bad it really is fun to just let these programs make something and see if I like the results.

art camera

using my iPhone and Art Camera I posterized this photo and liked the results. You can read more about the app below. I used Art Cam Lite but just downloaded the paid version. I am sure there are many more goodies there.

camera bag app

This is a photo I took last year. It was a soft hazy blue. I put the photo in my iPhoto program so the CameraBag app could access it. I had forgotten all about this app. It offers many different effects. This one is the Colorcross. I like that soft early morning dawn pale yellow color it added. I think it gives this picture a kind of retro Miami feel. You can read more about this app below. And it is very easy to use.

And if I am not in enough tech hell at the moment I really need to get a new iPhone. Mine is 3 years old and slow. I found out that old phones are slow in part because of upgrading to newer OS systems. It is kind of like continuing to put a new OS on an old mac. Eventually it just slows the phone/computer down. I will keep my old phone and use it as an iPod and keep it in the iPod speaker dock. I can listen to Pandora and NPR Chapter a Day that way. Plus I hear the new phone has a 5 megapixel camera which would be greatly helpful. There is a rumor that there is a new OS for the phone coming soon. I plan to hold off until then.