Two of my favorite things to photograph are trees and clouds. Sometimes I get the urge to be a bit more creative when it comes to the final picture and this is one such photo.

I captured this today as I was leaving the Veteran’s Center in Hanson, Ky after shooting a portrait for my upcoming exhibit at the Anne P. Baker Gallery. On a side note, the opening for the exhibit has changed to around Veteran’s Day. There’s going to be a Center Stage Show at the Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, here in Madisonville, Ky, that they think the Veteran’s Portrait Exhibit would be perfect for. I’ll get the exact date out when it’s nailed down.

Anyway, back to today’s challenge photo. I used several apps on my iPhone 5s to create this final image you see here. I started out using the Pro HDR app to shoot the original photo with. I then opened the photo with the Snapseed App and the Drama filter to bring out the clouds more. Next I opened the photo from Snapseed into an App called Paintersque and applied the style called Painteresque 1. That photo I opened into the App called ShakeitPhoto to produce the final result you see here. All done on my iPhone 5s.

Today after church we stopped at Arby’s to eat lunch and after he’d finished eating Damion pretended to go to sleep as I was taking his picture. He turned his face away from me and so I moved the camera over to where it was facing him and captured this shot of the two of us, with me wearing his hat. While he’s not in focus, it’s still my favorite photo of the day! He wanted his hat back pretty much after I got this shot. He loves his catchup also!

Photo taken with the iPhone 5s with the standard camera app. Post processing done in Photoshop CS6.

Today I spent time in Grand Rivers, Ky photographing a new, at least to me, Eagles nest Josh Morgan, a fellow member of the photography club showed me. This is my second year of photographing Eagles in the Land Between The Lakes Region and the second nest I’ve photographed. You can’t see a whole lot of the eagle or nest in this shot of my camera setup, but I wanted to use my iPhone photo of the day challenge to talk a little bit about my take on shooting eagle pictures.

For me, and it’s different for other people, I like to setup and frame the eagles in a way where I can catch them entering and leaving the nest. This means leaving a bit more framing to allow for movement of the bird. Other key’s to success for me are, high shutter speed, wide open f/stop (the extra depth of field at 300mm doesn’t help a lot, where the shutter speed does), a good sturdy tripod and a whole lot of patience. Also, it’s good to study the birds so you can anticipate when they are going to take flight.

Photo shot with my iPhone 5s and processed in Photoshop CS6 as a RAW file.

Sometimes I get a shot that I like that was actually a mistake. Today’s photo was taken with the Pro HDR app on my phone and I got so wrapped up in shooting the scene before it disappeared that I forgot that I was using an app that took two photos, one right after the other. I moved the camera between the two exposures and the resulting picture was this. I must remember to add this to my bag of tricks for doing multiple exposure creative things with my iPhone.

Shot with the iPhone 5s using the Pro HDR App and no post processing was done other than adding my credit.

Damion was playing on a slide today in Owensboro, Ky and I capture this picture of him trying to climb back up the slide, seems like it’s something built into all kids, because we didn’t really teach him to do this. I like the leading lines of the slide and the shaft of light coming from the left through railings that gave this nice graphic design. That combined with the placing of his body really makes this picture for me. Just a simple, easy to read photo.

Photo was shot with my iPhone 5s using the built-in camera. Post processing was done in Photoshop CS6.

This is a shot down my driveway where the AT&T repairman was supposed to come up today. You notice I say supposed to.

I setup an appointment for them to come out and see what was causing my DSL internet connection speed to vary so much from day to day and the appointment is between 1-5pm (this photo was taken about 6pm) and they called at 6:40pm to say they wouldn’t make it and I needed to reschedule. Like I didn’t have anything better to do with my time.

I did however get a lot done on several projects including my Veterans Portrait exhibit, and was able to update several clients websites while I was waiting. Here lately my connection to the internet has gone from snails pace to that of a rabbit, and since they were supposed to be here to fix it yesterday, it was working nice and fast. Now they’ll be here Friday morning between 8-12noon. We’ll see!

Photo was shot with my iPhone 5s using the Pro HDR app and post processed in Snapseed.

Ok, I wasn’t the first person to bring Damion to Subway for lunch, I know that’s hard to believe by the people that know me, but it’s true. His grandma Jeanne and grandpa David were the first. However, it didn’t stop me from taking him again. He actually enjoyed the wheat bread more than the Turkey and Cheese, but that’s fine. I captured this portrait after we had finished eating with him and his hoodie. He actually loves them almost as much as he loves his hats. By the way, this was the Tuesday photography club lunch… still part of his training in the love of photography! ;0)

Photo was shot with the standard camera on the iPhone 5s and post processed in Snapseed.

Firsts are always a good thing to photograph for kids and adults alike. Today’s photo is of my niece Elaina getting her first haircut. Actually it was more like a trim than a haircut, but none then less a first. I used the mirror to include all those involved in the process and myself and Damion taking the picture. I always find this shot interesting and rather Norman Rockwellish. She did really great!

Photo was shot with the iPhone 5s using the built in camera. Post processing was done in Snapseed and Photoshop.

These two crack me up sometime… Damion had crawled under the train table I bought them to retrieve a fallen train engine and his cousin Xaiver was giving him a helping hand by pulling him back out from under it every-time he was about to reach the toy.  It’s times like this that I’m glad I always have a camera of some sort with me.

Photo shot with my iPhone 5s using the standard camera and post processing was done in Photoshop.

Today’s challenge photo is of too friends and fellow photographers, Rennan Quijano, left and Steve King (yes it’s his real name) who are participating in the Spring Photography weekend at Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park here in Dawson Springs, Ky.

Ray wanted to try something different so he bought this large red weather balloon and with Steve’s help, they attached Ray’s GoPro Camera to the bottom of the balloon and tethering it with heavy duty kite cord they filled the balloon up with helium and set it aloft for a time over the lake here at the park. Ray set the camera to take a picture every three seconds and left it up long enough to record over 600 images. After editing them he said he only got about 5-6 that he was happy with, but in my book… for a first time test it turned out great. He’s turned in one of the images in for the contest tomorrow and I’m excited to see what it looks like and how well it does.

Photo was shot with my iPhone 5s and post processing was done in Snapseed.

Today’s iPhone challenge photo is a selfie with two of my best friends and fellow photographers, Tom Wortham, left, and Lowell Mendyk. We’ve known and shot pictures together since the early 1970s! In fact, Lowell was my mentor my junior and senior years in high school and with out the knowledge I gained from him those two years I very well might not be the photographer I am today.

Because of the mentoring I was able to take a test when I entered the Air Force and bypass the photography technical school, which had no openings when I got out of basic, and allowed be to go directly to my first duty assignment as a photographer at Eglin AFB, Fl. The first time I got leave from the Air Force and came home for a visit in 1972 I first met Tom and we’ve been lifelong friends ever since.

This weekend we’re all three at Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park for their annual Spring Photography Weekend. The two of them were the presenters for the program tonight and I’m a participant in the Masters Division. Over all we’ve got 37 photographers that will be traipsing all over the park and forest shooting picture for the competition. It’s always a great time and good to see old friends that come every year for the event.

Photo was shot with the iPhone 5s with the front facing camera and post processing was done in Snapseed.

I found these railroad signals sitting next to the tracks in Slaughters, Ky and decided to do an industrial type shot of them for today’s challenge photo. All bright and shinny just waiting to be installed along the CSX Henderson Subdivision, replacing the older, outdated signals.

Photo was shot with the iPhone 5s with the built-in camera. Post processing was done in Photoshop using Adobe Camera RAW and Topaz Adjust.

This morning I stopped by my sister’s to kill some time as I was waiting for another Veterans Portrait appointment. I wanted to post a train video I shot yesterday to Facebook and my nephew Damion of course wanted in my lap because I was “watching” a train. It warms my heart to know that him and his cousin Xaiver both like trains a lot. Of course I may have something to do with that, but hey, I’ve got to keep the railfan fires burning. Just wait till the girls get old enough and I’ll start in with them as well!

He was sitting there watching intently what was happening on the screen and I got my iPhone positioned and ready, then I said his name and he turned and looked at me… love that expression! I think he knew what was coming as he’s used to me sticking a camera in his face. I can’t wait till he’s old enough for me to get him his first “real” camera. I figure about 4 or 5!

Photo was shot with the iPhone 5s using the built-in camera. Post processing was done in the Snapseed App.

My great-great nephew Damion loves his hats and I love pictures with him in those hats! I grabbed this shot today after I put him in his car seat on our way to church. When photographing kids you never know when you’re going to grab one of those shots that just tugs at your heartstrings so always be alert for those things that make for great memories. I don’t know if he’ll like or love hats as he gets older, but at least we’ll have a record of it in pictures.

Photo was shot with the iPhone 5s using the Hipstamatc App with the Lowy lens and Claunch 72 Monochrome film.

Man, photographing kids at this age can be really tiring! Today we took, Xavier, Adriana, Elaina and Damion to a “Relay For Life” Easter Bunny fundraiser event hosted by a fellow photographer, Laura Armstrong here in Madisonville, Ky. Hopefully she was able to capture a shot of all the kids with the rabbit, but for me this is my favorite shot.

We never were able to get Damion to pose that well next to the bunny, even though his mom and I tried. All four of the young ones are my great-greats and I went along to capture a picture for today’s blog post and to take part in the adventure! After all, taking part in moments like these make for great memories.

We were able to get Damion to give the Easter Bunny high fives, point to all the parts of it’s head such as the eyes, nose, ears, ect… as he knows all those quite well, but anytime we wanted him to stand next to the bunny he wasn’t having anything to do with it, which is comical in it’s own way as he sat on his lap last year and as most of you know they all are very used to having their picture made.

You just never know what kids are going to do and when it comes to photographing them it’s important to remember to go with the flow as even though you may not always catch the picture you thought you wanted. I just love the expression on Xavier’s face and how Damion is looking to his mom for protection and comforting and then you have the two girls that could care less about the whole thing.

Photo was shot with my iPhone 5s using the built-in camera. Post processing was done in Snapseed with a touch of work toward the sharping in Photoshop using Topaz Adjust.

While I was waiting for one of my interviews to show up today, for my Veterans Portrait Series at the Joseph “Eddie” Ballard Western Kentucky Veterans Center in Hanson, Ky, I captured this scene. This is the chair that four veterans sat in and told me the stories of their time of serving their country. It was an honor to listen to them today, as it has been for all the vets I’ve photographed so far.

Photo was shot with my iPhone 5s using the Pro HDR App and the post processing was done in Snapseed and Photoshop.

I’m a big sucker when comes to storms, clouds and especially lighting. While I didn’t get out in the driving rain last night to shoot the lighting, I did capture this scene I like this afternoon between Madisonville and Richland, Ky. I like how the road leads your eye off into the distance and then the dark clouds of the impending rain. Clouds are one of my favorite things to shoot using High Dynamic Range (HDR) which is what this is.

Shot with the iPhone 5s using the HDRPro App and then processed using the Snapseed App.