Our Work Chosen for Gallery Show!

Juliet's Big Sur "Collision" was chosen! (all rights reserved)

In what was enormous good news around our camp, Juliet and I had images selected by a professional jury for the 3rd Annual Gallery NRC Mobile Phone Photography show in Denver Colorado. All images must have been taken and edited (preferably) with a mobile phone. As many of you know Juliet was in the show last year with this amazing shot of Venice. The show runs September 26, 2013 – October 19, 2013 and is free to the public. We will have framed images and prints for sale at the exhibition. We are fully committed to continuing our lives in this creative pursuit and one day hope to operate a gallery of our own.

Please enjoy viewing these images as we enjoyed capturing and editing them.

Cheers,

M&J

Photo trip to Puglia - The Time is Now

Capture Images Like These

Only one week remains to join us for The iPhone and Puglia trip to Italy Oct 22-29. Click Here to See Trip Details. 

The iPhone Puglia is an 8 day - 7 Night Journey with me, The Blissful Adventurer, and iPhone Photography Icon  Sam Krisch to the must-see region of Puglia, Italy. From October 22-29 of 2013 an intimate group of passionate travelers will experience the most authentic journey into the heart of Southern Italy. Equipped with iPhones, passion, and lots of local wine, we will document one of the last remaining realms of traditional Italian living. Southern Visions Travel, the most authentic operator in the region will be managing every detail for us on this trip, and trust me, they are the absolute best in the business

You will get to experience Puglia like Juliet and I have experienced it for years. You will explore thousand year-old olive groves, a 19th century converted fortress now making some of the best wines in Italy, and even hang out with local octopus fishermen cooking their morning catch just for you.

Each guest or couple will have their own unique apartment in the whitewashed hillside town of Locorotondo. Wine for a $1 a liter can be filled at the local shop, coffee aromas fill the air each morning giving way to the smells of fresh drying laundry under the bluest afternoon skies. You will eat, drink, and love like locals, while learning to create gorgeous images on your iPhone, worthy of the memories they represent.

We will dine together in local places serving food farmed, harvested, or raised often a few steps from the restaurant. We will walk in the footsteps of  Romans, Greeks, Saracens, Normans, and other Blissful Adventurers that have swooned under the languid days of luxurious life in Puglia.

Unlike any other vacation in Italy you will spend your time each days with an eye towards experience and creation. You will be seeing Italy the way it wants to be seen, and while there is a plan, there is no script. Your images will make this an experience completely your own.

The Beautiful Baroque of Lecce

I will be there each day shooting as well, eating, drinking, and laughing along with you. This is a vacation from the banality of of life and canned Italy tourism. Memories, built here in Puglia, will shape your travel lives for years. After my first time in Puglia I knew it would be hard to find its equal, and I have not.

Follow this link  for the full itinerary and pricing. Contact me directly at michael@blissfuladventurer.com with any questions, or feel free to fill out the contact form here on my site. We have limited spaces available and Sam, Juliet, and I would love you to join us.

Post-Process Evolution

Stage 4 of the Process

Post-Process Evolution is a short photo essay documenting the process by which I transform an image into my creative vision. The first image above is Stage 4 of the process and I displayed it here first because few people would have opened the post had I used the Stage 1 image as my lead photo :-) In essence, I am offering a little insight into the magic I use to mess up my images. Feel free to experiment messing up your images and there is a world of discovery good, bad, funky, and unique waiting for you. (Messing up images I borrowed directly from the teachings of Sam Krisch)

I begin the discussion by saying all work was captured and processed here directly on my iPhone 5 and that no animals were harmed in the making of this post.

The shot above was taken in the early afternoon inside the Cafe Venetia at the Palo Alto Cal-Train Station. This bank of glass brick receives little light with a noon-ish sun and so this plant which appears to me as an ancient semi-petrified grapevine has only a bit of light illuminating its craggy branches. (Hipstamatic Jane Lens Pistil Film)

Here in stage 2 I load the image into Snapseed, the magical photo editing app now owned by Google and a whopping 3 bucks from the app store. Snapseed is my favorite club in my bag and it has allowed me to transform my work into my dreams.

With Snapseed I increase the ambient light buried in the digits of code and immediately the window appears to be illuminated as well as the vine. I crop out the Hipstamatic border here because I have further plans for this image and the border would not function in those plans. All of this is done with finger strokes along the touch screen of the iPhone through Snapseed.

In stage 3 I take the processed image from Snapseed and run it through an app called Old Photo Pro I think the intention of this is app is rather self-explanatory and the wonder of it is it allows one to tune the degree of age, edges, and intensity of the program. Here I wanted to give the entire image an antique look as if from silent movies. The light from the windows is now ethereal and the dreaminess along the wood on the bottom left draws the eye pleasingly to the vine which now seems to have a bit of face in the twisted section midway up the stalk.

Stage 4 of the Post-Process Evolution is really a final point if I wanted to keep the image somewhat in the realm of realism. I took the image from Old Photo Pro and re-processed it in Snapseed to lift the window to afternoon direct light and wash out a bit of the saturation. I added a frame back to the image (which I really do not like) to show what kind of finished product is possible in Snapseed.

I saw something in the image from Stage 1 though that I really wanted to explore. The final 2 stages are the results of this experimental vision.

With the help of an app called Symmetry  I took the image from Old Photo Pro and mirrored it along its Y axis. I liked the dimension now in the window which appears to be a lamp and the vine is now an identical piece of sculpture. Symmetry is a little tough to manage and it can get rolling on you pretty good as you are scrolling so take your time with this one. I was not in love with this image and took it one step further to the effect I was seeking. You can see why I needed to remove the border as it would have thrown off the symmetry and ruined the illusion.

In this final stage of my Post-Process Evolution this grapevine has become  a sinister sculpture or the skeletal remains of some otherworldly creature on display in front of this back-lit glass brick. Antique, macabre, and curious I enjoy looking at this creature and am happy with the results of the process.

One of the most important things to keep in mind with all iPhone photo processing is to make certain all the apps used are set to process and save to the photo roll at the highest possible resolution. Any diminished resolution will create "noise" and other unwanted results in your images.

Most Influential Blogs 2012

True for me and these fine bloggers

The Most Influential Blogs of 2012 is my tribute to some of the finest work on the web done by caring curators of quality and passion. These individuals and their work gives me cause to pause on my birthday today to celebrate along with them because of what their influence means to my work. For those of you looking to find truth in advertising, look no further than these fantastic sites.

Honest Blogger of the Year  Mike Fiveson: Mike's Look at Life - If Mike does not post something I get worried. Prolific in his posts and deliberate in his commentary, Mike is one of my blogging heroes. I found Mike early this year and his no-nonsense no gimmicks or tricks approach to photography, travel, and life are constant reminders of how to live well on this planet. Mike responds to comments timely and always with wit and charm. This is a blog about being alive and what it means to see beauty in that life everyday. Most of all Mike has become my friend and someone I cherish and respect.

Poet Foodie of the Year Barbara Bamber: Just a Smidgen - Barbara is easily the kindest person I have never met in person. When my work was in its doldrums and I was not feeling up to the task, she found me and engaged me in the most supportive dialog I truly needed. Now, add to that the sheer fact that this woman can cook, write, and blog like nobody's business and you have a real recipe for success. I would imagine that 2013 will be the year that The Smidge goes big time! Jump on this very happy bandwagon and thank you Barabara for making many of my days.

Connecting Blogger of the Year Susie Lindau: Susie Lindau's Wild Ride - If there is a single person who may have rescued my blog from a death sentence it is Susie Lindau. Known for her irreverent humor, dance videos, and the wildly successful Use Me and Abuse Me days, Susie is one of the most original bloggers on the net and one of the most connecting. Susie wants her readers to succeed as much as she wants to succeed herself. She curates her work and inspires others to do the same. Susie and I met in Colorado and she has even more energy than her blog suggests. Susie's Wild Ride has a real chance to become syndicated in my opinion and I would not be surprised to see Susie hosting her own Wild Ride Live show sometime soon. If you do not know this blog, you should.

Photographer of the Year Sam Krisch: Just Tango On - Sam is a special person to me as his work with iPhone photography has inspired my developing plan for the future. Sam's writing in his blog which details his travels is excellent and his photography on his website I linked to his name is truly spectacular. I am rarely moved to simply run out and find someone but when I saw his work in the Denver photography show that Juliet entered I knew I had seen something unique and gloriously spectacular. I owe Sam for inspiring me to keep learning this craft and continue to let my voice come through in my work. Sam's work will be coming to a museum near you in 2013. I urge you all to meet him on the web before then.

Most Influential Blogger of the Year - (Here it is folks, the big one). My award of the year goes to....... George Weaver: She Kept a Parrot - Known as Granny by those of us that love her, George is easily the most influential blogger for this aspiring author. Granny pulls no punches, hides no opinions, and will not hesitate to tell me if something I am doing is bullshit. Granny and I have a familial relationship without having ever met and there is a reason for this: her work. From her stories of local heroes in her town to the edgy, gritty photographs she gleans from rusty scrap yards George constructs stories of real life that LIFE magazine only hoped to deliver its heyday. If you want to read words and experience images that will transform you and take your mundane and make it magic, follow George Weaver. She has expanded to include the stark and beautiful photo site The Fuzzy Photo so although technically retired she is one of the hardest working women in the blog biz. I have such fondness and love for George and I am not alone. I have never seen so many awards and accolades heaped on anyone and all of them utterly earned by her prodigious efforts in the field of photography, writing, and friendship. Big Love to you dear friend and congrats on influencing the hell out of me!

There you have it and Happy Birthday to Me!