I just left the AT&T store after upgrading to the iPhone 5s and was taking my sister home when we crossed over the railroad tracks here in Madisonville, Ky and I saw that CSX Maintenance of Way crews were out in force starting to upgrade the tracks through town and redo the crossings. I almost made my sister wait as I stopped and shot my first pictures with the 5s, it’s not like she’s had to do it before, but she only lived a couple blocks from where the work was going on. After dropping her off I made my way back to the parking lot of the newspaper where I used to work and I captured this photo for today’s challenge. I’ve had a love of trains and railroads ever since I can remember. Not sure where it started, but I do know when I was little and we lived in Fletcher, Ohio the steam trains ran just down the street from our house. I like to think that’s where it started. Anyway, if you have something that you totally enjoy then that’s probably what you should be taking pictures of.

So far, I’m in love with the quality from the iPhone 5s. The camera is higher in resolution than the 4s and that’s the reason I upgraded mostly. I understand the video quality is outstanding also, but I’ve not used it as of yet.

Photo was shot with the iPhone 5s with the built-in camera and post processing was done in Photoshop CS6 and Topaz.

I just couldn’t resist this photo. I was out today with a friend and we were waiting for a train to photograph at a crossing in Kelly, Ky and I had noticed these porta-johns sitting in a field when we arrived and kinda thought they were interesting from a visual standpoint. However, when my friend payed a visit due to a nature call, I knew I had my picture for the day.

Photo was shot with my iPhone 4s using the Hipstamatic App and Claunch 72 Monochrome Film with the Lowy lens. Post processing was done in Photoshop with some dodging, burning and sharpened using Topaz.

We had a board meeting after church today and Gracie took care of Elaina for most of the meeting. I’m not really sure which one was enjoying it the most though. One of the things I really like about my iPhone is that it is always with me, so when pictures like this present themselves I can capture them. People often ask me what is the best camera to use and my reply is always, the one you have with you. Even if the quality isn’t perfect and perhaps you can’t blow it real big, but at least you’ll have a picture to capture that special moment in time such as this one with the two girls smiles!

Photo was shot with the built-in camera on my iPhone 4s and post processing was done in Photoshop.

You just really never know where you’ll find a picture. Today my sister and I went to see the new movie “Non-Stop”, which we both enjoyed a lot. As we were leaving the theater I decided to shot a photo of one of the lights on the red wall along the hallway. I love the graphic look of the photo and the bold colors, which is what attracted me to the picture in the first place, plus the square within a square within a square didn’t hurt the composition either!

Photo was shot with the built-in camera on my iPhone 4s using the square format. Post processing was done in Photoshop and Topaz Adjust.

Today’s iPhone photo challenge picture is a panorama that I shot this morning on my exercise at the Madisonville, Ky city park. It’s a great place to walk, jog or run that’s as close as you can get to the country, but still be in the city. This view is probably about 200 or so degrees. The path at the left is where I came from and to the right is the direction where we were headed. The weather was cold, but the clouds and the early morning sun was begging me to take a photo, but it was hard to come up with any single photo that gave a true feeling of how the scene looked until I remembered that the iPhone has a panorama feature that allowed me to capture what you see here.

If you’ve never used it it’s one of the options that are available when you use the built-in camera. You have Video, Photo, Square and Pano. Slide your finger across and select Pano and when you press the shutter button you start moving your iPhone in the direction of the arrow on the screen and the phone captures a sweeping picture. Be sure to keep the arrow on the line on your screen to insure the best picture. Instructions are on the screen below the line. Many folks probably don’t realize that you can stop the sweep anytime you want by carefully pressing the shutter button at any point.

If you click on the photo you can see a larger view of the picture.

Post processing was done in Photoshop with some dodging and burning along with Topaz Adjust.

Well, the title of this post should give you a hint of what I’ll be talking about. I inadvertently deleted all the photos from my shoot today, thinking I had already downloaded them. Now, I can’t ever recall doing this before and try as I may using three different recovery programs for the iPhone I wasn’t able to retrieve the deleted photos where I could download the full resolution files to my computer. Well, I could with one program if I wanted to pay $69 and so instead I decided to turn this moment into a teaching one.

Always, always, make double sure your pictures are on your computer, iCloud, GoogleDrive or somewhere before you delete them from your iPhone. The one program that found copies of the pictures I shot with my Hipstamatic Camera App could restore them from there, but that was going to run $69, and the recovery program didn’t see anything in my Camera Roll. It also saw all kinds of other data such as address book entries, ect, but nothing from the camera roll. If your interested in a program like this of the three I Googled this is the one that worked the best. It’s Wondershare Dr.Fone for iOS and is available for both the Mac and Windows.

So, how did I get the photo you see here? The iPhone has the ability to do a screen capture on your iPhone. To do this make sure what you want a screen capture of is on your iPhone Screen and follow these two steps.

1. Hold down the Power Button on top of your iPhone 4s (I’m sure it works on the others as well).

2. Press the Home button on the front of the iPhone and you’ll hear a clicking sound to indicate that the screen has been captured and saved to the camera roll.

So, Hipstamatic does save copies of the photos, as do some other camera apps, in it’s own camera roll, but I couldn’t find any way to export these images back to the camera roll. So, instead I did the screen capture of the photo and then after I exported it to my computer I opened it up in Photoshop, where I did an image size to make the photo larger so it could be used. Now, when you do this you do loose some quality, but when you don’t have anything else to work with, it’s better than nothing. Also, Photoshop does a pretty good job of sizing up an image as long as you don’t try to make it too large. I’m sure there’s some programs out there that will do a much better job, but I used what I had.

Now, I could have taken out the icons and black screen from around the capture by cropping and most folks may or may not have been able to tell it was a screen capture, but since I wanted to make this a teaching and learning experience I decided to leave it the way it was captured.

I only shot about six photos with Hipstamatic and a lot more with other camera apps, which I think might have been better than the one I’ve chosen here, but those other  apps don’t have an internal camera roll, so I work with what I have.

I did some burning in on the sun in Photoshop and also applied some touch-ups using the Topaz Filter set for this final photo.

During my walk this morning at the Madisonville, Ky city park I captured this interesting silhouette of fellow photographer and friend, Ron Elliott, as he attempted to warm his hands a bit over a burning stump that the park was working on removing along the trail. The temperature was about 19 degrees with a pretty good wind when we passed this spot and when he bent over and I saw the silhouette he and the burning stump was making I new I had my picture for the day. I really like shooting silhouettes as they are usually very clean and easy to read.

Today’s photo was shot with the Hipstamatic App with the Lowy lens and Claunch 72 Monochrome film. I did do a little post processing in Photoshop to work on the shadows and highlights in the picture.

Today’s travels brought me past this old station wagon sitting in a yard here in Madisonville, Ky. I like the way the old tire was just laying on top of the hood and the tarp that used to cover it was wasting away. I also love the grill work on this thing… they just don’t make them like this anymore. I also think I may have found a new lens and film combination in Hipstamatic that I’m going to really enjoy, which is what I used for today’s picture.  The film is Claunch 72 Monochrome and the lens is Lowy.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve passed this pink elephant on US-41 just South of Hopkinsville, Ky and thought to myself, I need to stop and get some sort of a picture, but till today, never have. This is actually one of two along this stretch of road, with the other at a convenience store just outside of Guthrie, Ky about 15 miles farther down the road. The latter is a bit older and a little more cluttered than I like so this younger one won out for my interesting iPhone photo of the day for my year-long photo challenge.

Photo was shot with the built-in camera app on my iPhone 4s and post processed first in the Snapseed app to boost the colors and for a square crop and the final effect was applied with the ShakeItPhoto app.

I’ve been retired, more or less, for just about 8-months now and one of the greatest joys I have these days is the ability to photograph the things I want to and not have to worry about adhering to someone else’s desires or needs. Don’t get me wrong, I have always enjoyed my job, but as with most things in life there have been moments I would have rather not been shooting pictures. Talk to my past Editor, Don Perryman, and he’ll be the first to tell you how much I enjoyed shooting basketball mugs!

I do miss the newsroom and the people, just like I missed the Air Force and the people I left behind when I retired. Right now it’s all about catching those fleeting moments of my newest nieces and nephews in the process of growing up. I missed a lot of that with their parents as most of them did so while I was traveling the world shooting pictures. Don’t get me wrong, I loved what I did then and the travel, but now it’s all about the kids, and the things I want to photograph, such as this shot of Damion today at lunch.

Shot with the built-in iPhone 4s camera and post processed in Photoshop CS6.

This old coke sign is on the side of a building in downtown Madisonville, Ky and myself as well as others from our local photography club have all photographed it from time to time. This morning I decided I wanted a photo of something that had shadows and interesting lines and I ended up here and used the corner of the building to actually end up making two photos in one.

Photo was shot and processed using the HDRPro App on the iPhone 4s.

Tonight’s photo is the early morning sun obscured by gathering clouds over a swampy area that I pass through every time I’m headed to or from home. I’d really like to do a bit more shooting here, but there’s no place to stop or really park on either side of the road for quite a distance. I made sure there was nothing coming in either direction before shooting this one as I stopped the car in the road and shot from the window. Don’t normally recommend doing your shooting this way, but I really liked the scene and clouds. I guess I’ll have to park and walk to this spot during the spring.

Photo was shot with the built-in iPhone and processed with Snapseed.

After doing some grocery shopping at Ft. Campbell, Ky I stopped by the Aircraft Displays behind the commissary and caught this shot of a helicopter gunship on display there. I really like the way the Hipstamatic Tintype Film and Lens combo helped to make the photo look “Metal” which I thought worked out really well with the subject matter of the picture.

I did do some post processing in Photoshop CS6 with the Topaz Adjust filter which helped to bring out the metal look in the photo.

As I was setting today at lunch with members of the local photography club I spotted this scene right across from our table and knew I had my picture for the day. I love the graphic design and reflections on the shade of the lamp from other light sources in the restaurant. It only took about 4 exposures before I had the picture I wanted. You should always keep your eyes open for the pictures that are right in front of you as you never know when they’ll pop out at you. It also pays to always have a camera of some sort with you!

Shot with the HDRPro App on the iPhone 4S with some slight post processing in Photoshop CS6.

I love old things, buildings, machines or what ever and this place in Manitou, Ky caught my eye today. I love the contradiction on the sign of the old store, that’s been closed for sometime. I’m not sure there is such a thing as a New Antique, but what ever works. I also think American Pickers would enjoy a stop here as well.

Shot with the iPhone 4S with the built-in camera and processed using the Snapseed App.

When photographing small children it makes for a better picture if you get down on their level, as I did with my great-niece Stephanie and great-great niece Elaina today at church. Elaina is in the process of cutting a few new teeth and was restless so Stephanie brought her out to the lobby for awhile during the sermon, where I was. They sat there quietly for awhile as I watched and shot a few pictures from my seat till I decided I needed to move in closer and get down to their level. This was the first photo of three exposures I got off before she got distracted. With small children you really need to be quick and have a lot of patience to get good pictures.

Shot with the built-in iPhone Camera and post processed with the Snapseed App.