Here's a little something in honour of Dundead, Dundee's first horror
movie festival, which I was fortunate enough to attend over the last
four evenings.

I've been using photography apps on my smartphone a lot recently. The
instant effects they can achieve are so satisfying and easy that
"vanilla" photography starts to feel boring by comparison.

Though it's fun and satisfying to get results like the above shot of
Tentsmuir forest straight out of the camera, it's probably a sensible
idea to try and refrain from using these apps too heavily in case they
permanently detract from the pleasure of taking "normal" photographs.

I Googled my name a few nights ago and came across this Smashing Magazine roundup of "Public and State Building Sign" photographs. It was a competition they ran last year. I forgot that I'd entered it and I was a little shocked (and very delighted) to see that the first photograph on the submissions page is the one that I entered. 

I just rediscovered my Posterous blog tonight after Googling my name. I really enjoy using it so I'm not sure why I stopped.

I thought I'd resurrect my photography blog since the world has now produced Android smartphones that have decent cameras and handy apps for sharing everything, making it easier and more fun to do this kind of thing.

To set the ball rolling, here's one of the first pictures I took with my new Nexus S phone. I was walking to work and came across a Seagull sitting on the wall separating Dundee from the Tayriver. I tried getting as close as possible to photograph it but it took off as soon as it sensed what I was up to.I panned my phone to the right, trying to match its speed, and here's the result.

The golden tones were achieved using Vignette, a rather nifty Android photo app.

(I just noticed that my first ever post on this blog featured a photograph of a Seagull and its chicks, so it seems that the subject of this resurrection post is rather fitting.)

It's nice to be back. :)

(download)

Click here to download:

2_pictures_for_you.zip (65 KB)

I'm coming to the end of my 3-week vacation in California, which is why I've not posted for a while.  I've taken hundreds of pictures and have been forced to use Picasa to perform quick edits while I'm away from my home PC.  This is no bad thing, as I'm a big fan of Google's free image editor, so I'm posting a quick tutorial showing how Picasa can be used to create some interesting effects with very little time/effort.  (Ideal for when you're on vacation or otherwise short on time).

Above is a picture I took of a bathroom window, which has been edited with Picasa.  Click on the second image above to see the original photograph.  (I was bored while my fiancee was taking a nap and decided to shoot some random things around the house). 

I wanted to desaturate the image, leaving colour visible in only one of the window panes.

After selecting the image in Picasa, I opened the Effects tab and selected Focal B&W, which desaturates the image around a central focal point.  I dragged the focal point to the bottom left corner and played around with the Size and Sharpness sliders until the coloured area roughly filled the bottom-left pane of glass.  Then I clicked Apply to save the alteration. 

Picasa is a non-destructive editor, and creates backups of the original photos you edit.  This means that you can revert your edited image to its original state, regardless of how many modifications you've made.  (Picture > Undo All Edits).

Next, I wanted to blur the edges of the image slightly to draw more attention to the center cross formed by the four panes.  Under the Effects tab, I applied a Soft Focus and changed the Size and Amount until I was happy with the result.  This achieved the creative effect I was looking for - all that was left to do was to "clean up" the image a little.

I felt that my photo was lacking any strong horizontal or vertical lines.  Using the Straighten tool under the Basic Fixes tab, I created a straight vertical line from the central join of the window panes.  Finally, I cropped the image using the Crop tool (Basic Fixes) then Current Ratio, which creates a draggable box that keeps the proportions of the original photograph.

The end result is a pretty cool image that won't win any awards, but isn't bad for a basic photograph edited for 10 minutes on free software.

I've been busy moving into a new flat these past few days.  Damn, is moving stressful.  Painful too!  3 days later and my calves are still aching from carrying all of our possessions up to the new (4th floor) flat.

I wore my turquoise Crocs through the whole move and can heartily recommend them as moving shoes.  They were comfortable and surprisingly sturdy when carrying heavy furniture up long, winding stairs.

The picture above is the view from my kitchen window.  These towers of flats make up the skyline of Hilltown in Dundee.  I'm amazed by these giant buildings whenever I walk by them and find the sheer volume of life playing out inside almost incomprehensible.  I plan to use them as a subject for a future photography project, but for the time being I chose to post this snap, taken with my lovely new Canon Ixus 100is.

When I lived in Edinburgh, the Union Canal was within a stone's throw of our flat and it was my favourite place to walk on a sunny day away from work.

In springtime the canal teemed with new life - mainly ducklings and cygnets.  I was amazed at the difference between duck and swan parenting habits.  Ducks are chaotic parents, apparently ensuring their offsprings' survival through pure chance, whereas swans are model parents in every respect: careful, alert and protective (sometimes aggressively so!)

The swans were a main draw and over the course of a few months, these graceful creatures quickly became one of my favourite species of animal, hence this shot (and about 200 others on my PC). 

I love the implied authority of the swan here, and the legs in the background, which I imagine to be frozen in apprehension for fear of alerting the Speed Patrol Swan!