30×30 Nature Challenge – August 2017

For the first day of this challenge, I enjoyed some time photographing wildflowers and my garden’s flowers.

I’m slowly getting to know my ‘new’ phone/camera. Here’s a sample of most of the filters for my Asus Zenfone 3 Laser.

 

Filters: (start top middle – clockwise) sepia, romantic, pencil, greyscale, edge, pixel, hue, negative (centre) IOMO –  Asus Zenfone 3 Laser

 

30×30 Nature Challenge

Join us this August for a challenge that will get you back into nature and tuned into your senses.

Studies show that being regularly immersed in nature can prevent short-sightedness, while listening to nature sounds can decrease stress, and the scent of fresh pine has been known to reduce depression and anxiety. It’s time to get back to your senses and make nature a habit!

Ontario Parks challenges you to spend 30 minutes in nature every day for 30 days.

It said “Drink Me”

 

 Perhaps I should not have tasted it?

Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual. ~ Edward Weston

I adore my coneflowers and I can’t resist taking photos of them. However yesterday I was really aware that I take the “same” photo over and over.

While trying different angles it occurred to me…the front facing camera to see what I was aiming at while under the bloom. Taking flower ‘selfies’ are definitely unusual for me!

A piece of Patchwork Ponderings.

“There is only you and your camera. The limitation in your photography are in yourself. For what we see is what we are”. – E. Haas

A patchwork/collage from my photography. Thank you for visiting. 

monarch butterfly

east coast South Africa (photo by Our Rumbling Ocean)

ballet

American Falls from USA side

Mill at Balls Falls, Ontario

Finally discovered….Snapseed !

In May I had to get a new phone which meant getting used to a few new features. Primarily getting used to the camera app.

I had a Samsung Galaxy S3 previously and loved the camera functions. The settings menu was easy to use.

I haven’t played much with my new phone/camera’s settings much. I have tried when I’m ‘in the moment’…trying to adjust to get a better photo but the settings menu is not straight forward and I get frustrated. It’s time to look on YouTube or somewhere for a “how to”. That’s not to say I’ve not got some great photos with my Asus Zenfone Laser 3. I’m happy with the quality but… I want to do more.

Asus Zenfone 3 Laser (camera) [cropped]

Moving on to why I’m posting today…

I’ve heard about Snapseed before but thought it was just for iPhones. I’ve only just begun playing with this app but already I’m loving how easy it is to use. And I’m thrilled with the features.

Features such as auto tune / fix and crop are easy and effective. The healing featured helped me ‘find’ the photo I was trying to get with my phone. ❤

But the feature that I find fascinating is the perspective feature. I used it, the auto-tune and crop on the below photo. I also like the text feature. 🙂

 

 

 

 

It’s a bit more obvious that I used the perspective and auto-tune features for the cone flower. I also used the curve feature to deepen the colours.

 

 

 

 

I’m looking forward to playing more with this app. It’s been a long time since I was this happy with an app!

 

What do you use to enhance your photos?

 

 

Focus: WP Photo Challenge

I’ve always been fascinated with the determination and focus that bees have. They spend their lives collecting pollen from the flowers in their area…even the ones that are too small to hold their weight!

I’m still not sure which photo I like best. The cropped photo, focusing on the bee or the one with the out-of-focus background. (taken with Asus Zenphone 3 Laser phone)