There are so many cool things to photograph in Iceland. One place I love is an earth covered church. I have shot this place many times and over coffee this morning decided I’d make it look a bit different and dark. Shot with my iPhone and then I used a few apps to get this look. Sometimes it is just fun to play.
You always need to be looking. This was an image I shot in nearly a dark room in Silo City. It was made on the iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. Just a simple shot.
It’s pet time. A number of years ago I adopted a kitten on impulse. Well, maybe not impulse. I was visiting an animal shelter with my wife because she wanted to adopt a kitten. She found one she liked real quick and went off to the get to know your cat room. I was left to wander around and in one cage I saw the cutest kitten I ever saw. She was tiny. I asked the volunteer to let me hold the kitten. I put the kitten in my hands and she looked at me and closed her eyes. She had me. I adopted her on the spot and named her Pixel. She has been bonded to me ever since. She is quite unusual in many ways. She is a great companion and hangs with me all the time. Today I was working on an upcoming camera review and she decided the letter tray on my desk was a good place to take a nap. Frankly, it just doesn’t get any better than this. Pixel is my little buddy.
I was in NYC a few months back for the introduction of the Leica M10 camera. After the official meetings with Leica, I was sent off with the new camera to give it a try. It was a fun camera to shoot with and I enjoyed using it and the images from it. However, like I do many times I always take images on my iPhone. I did a whole series of images about Being Square and Seeing Double. Article coming soon on that project. I also did a few Pano images. The place is an architectural marvel so how could I resist doing some panos. This image is one pano made there. I’ll share more in the future.
As you may know, if you are a regular reader, I am big on rust and big metal things. This is an image from the waterworks pumping station in Buffalo, NY. This place is very interesting. Kind of a steampunk kind of place. Big pipes and pumps. The pump house takes water from Lake Erie and was built around 1920. It’s a great place to shoot images. This image was made with an iPhone.
I’m starting a 12 day workshop in Iceland. It’s a smaller workshop than many I have done. Good for Daniel and me as we can work closer with clients. My goal is to make Iceland look different than all the tourist and iconic images being made my a ton of tourists. So today I took images of the Sun Sculpture and created these. Part of my Being Square – Seeing Double series. And there were a ton of tourists there so this was one way to work around them.
I’m not sure why, but every time I prepare to go to Iceland I get excited. I have been to Iceland dozens of times. Photographed just about every location there is and watched the country change over the last 14 years. It used to be you could go anywhere in Iceland and not see a soul. You could be the only photographer on a beach or at a waterfall. Well, these days there are tour buses and lots of Asian tourists that have no regard for anyone else or even the landscape they are fortunate enough to see. And, there are other photographers too who will walk right into your shot with no regard for anyone else. Yes, this happens everywhere and not just Iceland. Kind of a sign of the time. So, I have decided that this year is the last year I will go to Iceland for a while. It’s time to explore other areas and there are plenty of them. I plan to have a good time this trip and then again this summer. We have god groups put together for each trip, I am going to try to do a lot of long exposure work and hopefully catch some northern lights night like we had in Norway. So, stay tuned and I’ll share images as I go.
In Buffalo, NY there is a cool old turn of the 20th-century water plant. It’s ana amazing structure and a privilege to shoot inside it. I have been there many time and find all sorts of things to shoot as well as interesting compositions. This image was made with my iPhone using an app that does double exposures. Lots of fun to shoot this way. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. That is also the fun. This one I like a lot. I made a sepia tone image and a regular one. Which one do you like best?
I have been working on a personal project for the last two years and I am now at the editing and selection stage. This is a project of square format images made as double exposures. Lots of fun and something different. I’ll show a major selection of these at my gallery at the end of April. I’ll share more over the coming weeks.
I hope you had a safe and happy New Years eve. I had a nice dinner out then a quiet celebration at home with Debra and my son Scott who is visiting for the holidays. Today will be a day and as matter of fact the next few days of testing a number of new cameras that have come my way. I’ll be finishing up a review of the DP Quatrro O, RX100iv, Sony A7s II. I’m starting reviews on the Leica SL, Sony RX100rII and two top secret cameras. Never a dull moment.
Today image is an architectural abstract. This was made in Chicago and done on an iPhone. I challenged myself on one of my morning walks to shoot only with the iPhone and this is one of the many nice images I captured that morning.
