...in iPhoneography Central's "Apps Uncovered"

Last week, iphoneographycentral.com published the recent installment in their "Apps Uncovered" series...and I'm honored to have two of my 'snapseeded' photos included:

"Red Doors, Sokcho"

Backstory/Apps Used: --like stepping back in time, this seaside district of Sokcho, S.Korea; a relic of the Korean War--the houses of N.Korean refugees and their descendants in the "Abai village" neighborhood (snapseed & colorsplash apps used; this photo among the "Honorable Mentions" in this year's Mobile Photo Awards)

     For "Red doors, Sokcho"--I took this with an iPhone4 a couple of summers ago. Not far from the location of the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics, Sokcho, South Korea has a frontier-feel. (The setting is gorgeous--between mountains and the sea, but lax zoning laws have led to haphazard construction.) The neighborhood where I saw this streetscape is a relic of the Korean War--on a spit of land between a lagoon and the sea, refugees from what would become North Korea built makeshift dwellings, thinking these would be just for the short-term... When the DMZ was drawn in 1953, they found themselves stranded, and this neighborhood has now been home to a several generations of these N. Korean descendants. It feels like a different world from the wifi-and-caffeinated frenzy of Seoul. I used snapseed and the ColorSplash apps for this scene. ColorSplash allowed me to isolate the red doors and shirt stripes, converting the rest of the scene into greyscale. Then I used snapseed's 'tilt-shift' filter and the 'white balance' option found among the 'tune image' options. Combining the 'hyper'-sepia tone and the red accents reminded me of the traditional color scheme used in many older Korean scroll-paintings.

"Bear Canyon, evening"

Backstory/Apps Used: I took the photo with my iPhone5 a few months ago while on a trail-run in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains on the edge of Tucson, Arizona. Winter evening light is just gorgeous in the desert. I used snapseed to convert the shot into a black-and-white scene, then used ''white balance' in the 'tune image' to warm up the scene. I also used the 'drama' filter to play with the contrast. The 'tilt-shift' filter in snapseed and then the "BigLens" app allowed me to smoothen out the sky.

A couple of "Honorable Mentions!"

For the 2013 Mobile Photo Awards "Travel" category,

two of my submissions made "Honorable Mention!"

One from Seoul:

Hyangweonjeon, or "The Pavilion of Far-reaching Fragrance,"

in Gyeongbokgung Palace,

is one of the loveliest spots in Seoul.

(ColorSplash app in addition to snapseed

used for both of these images.)

...and the other from the opposite side of S. Korea,

from the coastal city of Sokcho:

"Red Doors, Sokcho, Korea"

(Abai village neighborhood)

So, if you happen to be in New York City 

February 22-28,

these images will be among those on display

at the SOHO Gallery for Digital Art...

Check out the rest of the winners and runners-up;

so compelling, and all taken and edited solely with mobile devices.

It's such a thrill and privilege to know that a couple of my iphoneographic efforts 

will be on display with all of these great images...

submissions...from a far shore to the backyard

For what it's worth, here are my five submissions for

The Mobile Photo Awards.

From Sokcho, South Korea...

...to Seoul's Gyeongbok-gung Palace...

...to a cactus bloom in the backyard here in Tucson;

ephemeral color among the spikes--

each flower lasts for just a day:

faces, restaurants, landscapes

The first week of October was a vacation-week for me. (The school district I work for tried something new this year: after the first quarter, a week off--a welcome break for students AND teachers.) Good timing, as we had an out-of-town friend and family reunion at our home in Tucson...which led to walks in the desert and eating out...and some iphoneography...

So, a few local highlights for this posting.

First, some Mexican folk-art faces, on the walls and floating above the tables in Elvira's, down in Tubac, about an hour south of Tucson.

And, from what is truly one of the best restaurants in southern Arizona, 

downtown Tucson's Café Poca Cosa:

Close to home--a bloom on a cactus in the backyard:

...out of the backyard, into the open desert...

(fun with the 'grunge' filter  for the AutoStitch panorama above and the 

square shot below)

The other night, on the way to some friends' for dinner, I just had to pull over to get this phone-shot--check out the 'double-helix' cloud on the right:

...and then as the sunset continued to 'ripen,' the strands got taller and pinker:

(PicFrame used to create the 'mosaics'.)

--from down in Tumacácori, the Santa Cruz Chili Co., across from the old Spanish mission.

One of my new favorite apps on my iPhone is ColorSplash; I used it on the above cactus flower and chili sign photos...here are a couple more photos edited with it--these are 'transplants'--photos taken with a different camera that I e-mailed to my iPhone specifically to edit with snapseed and ColorSplash--fun with selective desaturation:

--seeing the landscape through my wife's eyes, 

Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River, just south of Page, AZ 

...and back in Tucson; reflection of autumn color (which peaks in December) 
along the creek in Sabino Canyon

Google just acquired NIK software...and a couple of ColorSplash reflections

Google has just acquired Snapseed. Read more here

So...now Snapseed is to Google as Instagram is to Facebook, it seems...

Interesting to see where this is all going...

A couple of mountain-reflection scenes to post tonight.

I was going through some photos from this past summer on my iPhone; 

thought this scene of Goat Lake in the Central Cascades

would be fun to edit with the ColorSplash app in addition to snapseed:

Below, this is a 'transplanted' scene--taken several years ago at Upper Tipsoo Lake near Mt. Rainier...I e-mailed it to my iPhone in order to play with it using snapseed and ColorSplash as well:

Reflections can be as compelling as what they reflect...like a dream can seem more real than the awakening...

like a cosmic bucket...snapseed + colorsplash

Once in a while, I'll take my iPhone with me on my long weekend run.

This morning, I drove up to Sabino Canyon, on Tucson's NE edge.

With the recent rains, the desert is green:

The typical pattern here in the summer is clear mornings,

with clouds building in the afternoon,

and then evening thunderstorms...

But today began with clouds.

Ominous saguaros...

Some 'paperflower' in bloom...

(I've been playing with my new 

photo-editing 

 'flavor-of-the-month'

in addition to snapseed:

an app called "ColorSplash")

so green!

Running into the canyon,

after about 2.5 miles,

a reflecting pool below Thimble Peak:

Nice to have so much water;

a couple of months ago, this pool had completely dried up...

Plenty of sacred datura blooms

(a.k.a. 'jimson weed' or even 'Indian whiskey')

...and morning-glory:

(another "ColorSplashed" shot)

...as I came back out of the Canyon, though, the sky had turned ominous,

curtains of rain on the horizon...

and then--WHOA!

--like some cosmic bucket pouring out over the vastness...

It's unusual to have a morning thunderstorm;

 this cell came rolling over the Rincon Mountains from the east...

And that was this morning around Tucson.

============================================

And, just one more 'colorsplashed' and 'snapseeded' shot for tonight--

Hyangweonjeon Pavilion

("Far-reaching fragrance")

in Gyeongbok-gung Palace in Seoul: