Fredstuff.com » Pictures

365 Project July 2010

Fred — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:37:51 +0000

365 Project 2010. Here it is, the set for the month of June. Not much to say really — it’s just a bunch of pictures I took. Still doing it though and I’m proud of that. Just five months left of 2010!

Link:
My July 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com

iPhone App: Camera+

Fred — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:05:47 +0000

I love when non-tech (normal) people say they have no need for an iPhone. I have several friends like that. After spending a few hours with a bunch of them they started to realize the power of this device. The slightly mocking “There he goes again showing off his damn phone” turned into “Who wrote that song?”, “Is the game over yet — what’s the score?”, “When is that movie coming out?”, “Hey, show him the trailer to that movie!”, “What song is this?”, “So that’s what Pyongyang looks like from above?!”. Then they start asking about the data plan and the monthly fees, genuinely interested in “that damn phone of his”. I love it!

I’m going to treat you just the same, starting with this post. First up, a photo app called Camera+. Developed by pro photographer Lisa Bettany of Mostly Lisa fame. She wrote a post on her blog about the app. First up, three pics I took with Camera+;

These are straight from the iPhone with no additional editing. Other pics from my Camera+ set (including the 3 above) are available in full size at Flickr. You can take photos inside the app and you can import already existing photos from your camera roll — a feature sorely missing in the inferior photo app Hipstamatic. I even use the app as a time killer digging up older pics from the camera roll when on the subway editing away just to see what I can come up with.

When done editing you can save the pic back to the camera roll or easily upload it to Flickr/Facebook/Twitter. If I decide to do another year of my 365 Project (photo of the day) I’m sure I’ll use Camera+ a lot. This year I can’t since I decided to only use the “raw” pics from the iPhone camera. The included effects are to numerous to mention here, check out the links at the end of this post for more info. Lisa made a promo video for Camera+;

Click here to view the embedded video.

This app is totally worth $1.99. I know this because I have a few other photo apps installed; PS Mobile, MoreLomo, Format126, Polarize, MoloPix and Hipstamatic. To be fair, Hipstamatic is a cool little app and I have a bunch of the extra in-app bought content. I use it from time to time but Camera+ is simply THE best photo app out there at the moment. Love it!

Links:
Camera+ | Site | App Store
Mosly Lisa | Blog

365 Project June 2010

Fred — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:25:59 +0000

Wow. Just, wow. That was a fast one wasn’t it? At least I got some nice pictures out of the month of June. OK, some were bad and uninspired but a few stand out, like the one from the 29:th. That day I realized I had no picture to upload, I had to come up with something so I shot a camera and positioned it so that it had a reflection in the lens of the view from my kitchen window.

I’m very pleased with my Flickr Pro purchase, I’m going to put it to good use and create sets for my Nikon DSLR and another, more random set is already growing. I really like the Camera+ app for the iPhone. It’s on sale on the App Store at the moment — a great buy.

So, hello July, I hope you present me with some great opportunities and try to keep the skies nice and blue, OK?

Link:
My June 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com

365 Project May 2010

Fred — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:23:03 +0000

Five months done — almost half way through the 365 Project! I’m starting to regret that I went for a strict framework, only landscape, only iPhone. It’s a limitation and it’s really convenient at the same time. This thing needs to be simple for me to pull through, might go all crazy if I decide to do this all over again in 2011 — iPhone camera apps, Kai’s Power Tools (with lens flare) and all pics in portrait. Anyway, here they are, my daily photos from May 2010:

Link:
My May 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com

365 Project April 2010

Fred — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:58:37 +0000

Another small win in my year long 365 Project. I present you with the complete Flickr set for the month of April. I think I’ll be updating the blog a lot more now since I’ve finally set up my work space at home — beats sitting on the floor with the laptop on the coffee table!

Link:
My April 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com

The Eyjafjallajökull Sky

Fred — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:44:37 +0000

A volcano prompted me to update my blog. Imagine that. I’ve seen reports from all over the world about the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull volcano spewing murderous clouds all over Europe. John Stewart and Steven Colbert have been making fun of the thing for two days. I thought I’d show you what the Stockholm sky looked like just a few minutes ago.

There. Clear blue sky. My mom told me she put a white dining plate on her balcony to see if it would show signs of stuff in the air. About six days later there are just a few black specks.

A friend of mine is stuck in LA, she was expected back home this past weekend. Due to the volcano she’s currently stranded on Sunset Blvd with hotell, a rental car and $140 subsistence (is there a better word — it’s like a travel expenses thing?) a day plus salary all paid by her employer until next Tuesday. Poor, poor girl. Still, people I know are stranded all over the world from Madrid to Bangkok. Friends stuck in Germany and other places closer to Sweden are pooling up and buying cheap used cars to get back home.

The point of this post? Blue skies over Stockholm, that’s all.

Stuff I Did During Easter

Fred — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:13:18 +0000

A four day holiday. Started out in a bowling alley celebrating some kind of anniversary, twenty years since the first The Stone Roses album. A band with members from different bands performed all the songs from the album. My friends talked me into joining them in a game of bowling.

Last time I went bowling was 2006 — that was the second time bowling in my entire life. If I recall correctly I scored something like a 127 back in ’06. This time I ended up just above the “idiot mark” of 90 points (Dana, the guy in the pic told me this). I came next to last with a measly 94 points. One hour of bowling gave me two days of searing pain in my right leg. Thank you sports.

I’ve been in my new apartment a few weeks now. When I woke up Saturday a truck was on fire down the street. Fire fighters, the police and smoke. I’m used to sirens since the fire department visited my old building about eight times during my two year stay. Turned out all the visits had to do with an old lady using the fireplace in her apartment even though it wasn’t permitted. Trucks on fire — serious stuff.

365 Project March 2010

Fred — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:58:02 +0000

April fools everybody! I thought doing a brand new post would be the weirdest thing possible at this point. The month of March 2010 came and went, my 365 Project is now a part of my daily life and I even have one alarm on the iPhone set to 9:00pm with the note “Picture!” to remind me to upload the damn thing. Even though I’m sometimes tempted to use a third party photo app — like Hipstamatic, MoloPix or MoreLomo — I’m staying true to my initial principles of iPhone camera app, landscape and no additional editing. So, here they are — the photos of March 2010:

Link:
My March 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com

365 Project February 2010

Fred — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:56:58 +0000

Another month has passed. Thank you and adiós to February. My 365 Project is still going strong. As I mentioned in the January post, the artistry is not important — it’s taking one photo every day and send it to Flickr that counts. Enjoy.

Link:
My February 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com

365 Project January 2010

Fred — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:15:36 +0000

Tip: use arrow keys to navigate through the gallery!

Imagine that. I actually took a photo each and every day during this past month. Not only that — I also uploaded all of them to the Flickr photo sharing site for the whole world to see. I mentioned earlier in another post that the quality and the ‘artistry’ of the photos themselves were not that important — it’s the fact that I’ve set out to accomplish something, following through and enjoying the process that matters. It’s a challenge, easy as that.

All the photos were taken with my iPhone 3GS. Some people find it hard to take sharp pictures with no blur when shooting with the iPhone. It’s not hard at all – in fact, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. First off, the picture is taken when you let go of the shutter button, not when you press it down. This is how you should do it; put your finger on the shutter button, frame your shot and chose a focus area (you can brighten a shot by focusing in a dark area), hold the iPhone as steady as humanly possible and let go of the shutter button. Boom, instant iPhone photo skill improvement!

Oh my, this post is getting a bit longer than I expected. On to the last part. How did I go about making this post? Well, the Flickr gallery is generated via the WordPress plugin FancyFlickr and the nice effect that expands the photos and darkens the blog background is non other than the legendary Lightbox 2 plugin. There you go! I might change to another plugin in the future, there’s always better stuff out there that I have to try.

February, here I come…

Links:
FancyFlickr
Lightbox 2
My January 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com