POTD: Lake Manyara Sunset

I wonder why when you say goodbye

beautiful colours paint the sky.

Shades of orange, yellow and pink too

all come out because of you.

And although I hate to see you go,

I really do enjoy the show.

I've seen you leave so many times

and still it's a favourite sight of mine.

There'll be no sadness, be no sorrow

because my sun, you'll come out tomorrow.

I won't feel hurt, I'll feel no pain

because on your way down, your colours will reign.

• Adoni Marcano, http://www.poetryinnature.com/nature/poetry.asp?poem=5928#ixzz1fwkCps2P

1)      Panorama - Autostitch

2)      Original – Camera+

3)      ToonPaint

4)      Snapseed

5)      Snapseed – Drama

6)      Photo Toaster – Color Burst

7)      Simply HDR

Apps Featured:

• Autostitch
• Camera+
• Snapseed
• Photo Toaster

Lumiere, a vintage style iPhoneography app, is now FREE for a limited time

It's one of my favourites when it comes to taking/converting photos in/to vintage style.

Van Monet, an iPhoneography app, is now FREE

Camatrix is now available for FREE

It converts your photo into matrix style green tints with strong edges.

PerfectPhoto is now available for FREE

Large Aperture Pro available for FREE

It is an OKish app for adding SLR like Depth of Field to your photos. It is not as great as Big Lens, which is the best in this category, but still quite alright. Maybe future enhancements will make it more competitive.

Magic Lens now available for FREE

It allows you to use concave/ convex mirror reflection image filters on your photos.

POTD: Whopping Wednesday

I took the main picture on my iPhone using the fantastic Autostich panorama app. (this is my 2^nd attempt at panoramas after the St. Paul’s one).

1. Basic Edits in Snapseed

2. Simply HDR version

(edited in Simply HDR app)

3. Grunge version

(edited in Snapseed using Grunge Filter)

4. Monochrome version

(edited in Monochromia app)

5. Camera+ version

(edited in Camera+ app using Clarity filter)

6. Color Burst version

        (edited in Photo Toaster app using Color Burst filter)

7. Retro version

(edited in Lumiere app)

ClassicToy and ClassicInsta apps available for Free

Both of these renowned apps are now available for FREE for a limited time.

Photo Toaster Jr. now available (for Free)

Photo Toaster is one of my most frequently used apps. Their makers, East Coast Pixels, have released a lite version of the app called, Photo Toaster Jr. It will be good app to try before you buy the main version, which I think you surely will it you are serious on iPhoneography.

POTD: Sunset Sky + 2 Reader's Contributions

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

This picture was taken at Hyde Park last Sunday, around 6 ish in the evening. If it were not for my new super zoom camera, I might not have got the close up effect that you see in the picture.

1. Original with Basic edits on iPhone

(taken with my new Sony HX100V zoom camera, edited for a bit of saturation and white balance in Snapseed app)

2. Pocket Monet version

(edited in Pocket Monet app)

3. Paint It! Now version

 (edited in Paint It! Now app)

4. Autopainter version

(edited in Autopainter app)

5. Dazed version

(edited in Photo Toaster app)

Reader’s Contribution(s)

Today we have two readers contributing to our POTD.

6. ICC

First contribution is from my colleague, Loretta Tsui.

(taken with my HTC Incredible S)

In her own words:

“That’s the International Commerce Centre, it has 118 floors, it’s the world’s fourth tallest building by height, second tallest building by floors, and the tallest building in Hong Kong with the world’s highest swimming pool and bar is on the top floor.  BTW this is the view from our office.”

7. Halloween Cakes

Second set of contribution is from my other colleague and a regular contributor, Carolyne Salmen.

 

(both pictures taken with Blackberry)

Yesterday’s Polling Results:

Number 1 (Flame of Joy) was liked most, but by a small margin to the runner up Number 4 (Vibrant Flame)

  

POTD: Flamboyant Skyline

We started the week with a magnanimous 7 pictures. I thought it will be best to end it in the same grand way. I took all these pictures standing on the viewing porch outside the Tower of London museum at around 7ish in the evening, watching the sunset in its full splendour. All the pictures were taken with just an iPhone and then edited in the various apps as specified.

1. Original

(edited in Camera+ for darkening the duller regions of the frame and accentuate the skyline)

2. Stellar

(applied the Stellar filter in PicFX app)

3. Collage

(all 4 pics created through various filters in FX Photo Studio and then collaged in Photowall)

4. Deep Focus

(applied Deep Focus filter in Dynamic Light app)

5. Dazed

(applied the Dazed filter in Photo Toaster app)

6. Serenity

(applied Serenity filter in Photo Toaster app)

7. Lomo

(applied the Lomo filter in Photo Toaster app)

POTD: Towering Monday

I have got so many pictures today that I need not send anything for this entire week - SEVEN in all!

I know the purists will condemn me for this, but I believe it is still an art to visualise reality in a different form and then be able to relay that vision by editing the picture appropriately. In the olden times, artists did this by sketching and painting their own versions of reality. In the modern times, it’s the apps and filters which empower us to do the same – and I am happy to be one such technophile artist.

Often it is difficult to judge which effect or filter will look good on a picture and will do justice to it, but the Tower Bridge is so majestically beautiful that almost every filter made it look magical – putting an artistic version together was totally effortless. I experimented with four different apps and each of them produced a remarkable version of my original picture.

This time I do have the voting buttons added to the mail – so please choose from the options and let me know which version impresses you the most (no reply =none L)

1. Original

(taken with Canon IXUS 310 HS – in the evening around 6:30ish)

2. Black and White

(converted in Lumiere – B&W filter)

3. Monochrome - Sepia

(converted in Noir Photo app)

4. Old Photo

(converted in Dynamic Light app)

5. Blue Tint

(converted in Dynamic Light app)

6. Orange Color

(converted in Lumiere app)

7. Dazed version – used a different iPhone picture for this version

 (taken with iPhone; converted in Photo Toaster app)