The Art of Mobile Photography by Justin Balog - Save $20!

Last year I signed up for Justin Balog's course in Snapseed, The Magic of Snapseed. I was a beginner at the time and this course took me through all the ins and outs of an app that has now become my first stop with nearly every edit.

Justin has just launched a new course The Art of Mobile Photography. As a reader of Art of Mob, you are entitled to a discount on the course. Regular price $39, Art of Mob readers $19 when you use this link. This course has lifetime access and offers a 30-day money back guarantee!

 

Here's what the course will cover:

The Camera (iPhone)
Get to Know Your iPhone
Creative Composition
The Creative Lens
Panoramas - The Big Picture
Creativity in Motion
The Sharper Image
Creative Exposure - Silhouette
Creative Exposure - High Key
Creative Exposure - HDR
Quick Tips
and more!

More info from the course description:

This course is like nothing that has ever been offered before! Mobile photography IS photography. In this course you will learn basic principals of photography and creative techniques that you can apply to your mobile device, point & shoot or new DSLR camera. Although I teach the course on a phone, everything you learn will benefit you throughout your entire photographic adventure! Here are a few reasons to join....

• Street Cred - Taught by Justin Balog, a National Geographic award winning photographer and Mobile Photography pioneer.
• Bonus Videos - Go behind the image and learn new techniques with free monthly bonus videos.
• Interactive - Join the conversation, ask questions and I will get them answered.
• Beyond HOW-TO - This course takes you beyond simple 'click here' and 'do that'. This course is all about learning creative principals that will serve you in every situation.

I signed up - I'm always eager to learn something new! Well, what are you waiting for, head over to Udemy and sign up today!

The Whole Story - Photo by Dionisis Kosmatos

This week in the U.S. we are celebrating Thanksgiving. This is a holiday that tends to focus around food, family and football. Since family plays a HUGE part of this holiday, I think it's appropriate to feature this wonderful image by Dionisis Kosmatos and share The Whole Story behind it.

For a chance to be featured just tag your Instagram mobile photos with the hashtag #the_whole_story.


The Photograph

© Dionisis Kosmatos

The Whole Story by Dionisis Kosmatos

This is my mother in the kitchen of my family house. She suffers from Parkinson's disease and because of this, it is very difficult for her to move. The only thing she does everyday for the whole day is knitting. And she does it with persistence and patience as it's very difficult to make the fine moves that knitting needs. It hurts me when I look at her because she was a very strong and active woman, the person that could solve every problem in short time and effectively. And now she struggles to do things that we take for granted such as to speak or eat. When I look at her I am thinking what she thinks, what she feels, how much patience she has.....

All I know is that she is my hero because despite all these difficulties she struggles to do the only thing that maybe reminds her of the good old days.

The Photographer

Dionisis Kosmatos- I was born in Kefalonia in 1971, a small Greek island but now I live in Athens, where I work in a hospital. I study interior architecture and design by distance learning. I love cinema, reading, painting and of course photography, especially black and white.

As regards to my relationship with photography, I have always liked it. I still remember when my father gave me my first camera which he had found, and wanted to learn more. So around 2003, I took lessons in black and white photography for 8 months, of course I'm talking about analogue photography. The most important thing I learned wasn't the technical issues but the fact I was introduced to the masters of photography such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Arbus, Atget, Evans, Frank, Kertesz, Lange, Winogrand and so many others. After the end of lessons, I used to take pictures with a Pentax camera but the cost of development was too high and I stopped until I bought my iPhone4 two years ago. All photos are taken on iPhone and edited with Snapseed.

Apps Mentioned:

Snapseed

Find Dionisis:  Instagram 

Painterly Mobile Art Monday - No. 17

paint-er-ly 
adjective
of or appropriate to a painter; artistic

This group was formed because I love to edit in a painterly fashion. There's something satisfying about starting with a photograph, seeing it differently in your mind's eye and then replicating that new vision through the manipulation of pixels. It's magical! We're now 219 strong in the Painterly Mobile Art Flickr Group - I hope you'll join us!

Human Nature © Erika Brothers

Certainty © Geri Centonze

Coffee Break Remix © Mike Bowers

evening paper © jun yamaguchi

Lone Wolf © Roger Guetta

Tea Pot © Craig Huller

Untitled © Jane Fiala

Studying Rothko © Karen L. Messick

Last Week's Still Life © Brett Chenoweth

Round © Kristin Moeller

Migraine and the Visual Arts © Michael Manza

Sunflower © Gerry Coe

My Soul © Patty Larson

Resentment © Pu the Owl

Delicious Autumn © Armineh Hovanesian

Restless Void © Federica Corbelli

Memory of Wuthering Heights © claudinedefayartiste

Fear and Loathing © Sarah Jarrett

Win a Copy of The Art of iPhone Photography

This is one of the biggest giveaways I've had to date. One lucky winner will be sent a copy of the new book by Bob Weil and Nicki Fitz-Gerald, The Art of iPhone Photography. Due to the awesomeness of this prize, the raffle will run for a full week, so you'll have plenty of time to enter.

The Art of iPhone Photography contains 314 pages in a gorgeous softcover book with tutorials from 45 of today's most creative iPhone photographers. You'll not only be able to view their artwork, but you'll also be given detailed tutorials by each artist. While reading, you'll glean tips for taking and editing fabulous photos with your iPhone. Bonus Appendix includes all of the apps used in the book along with a brief description of their capabilities.

Sign up below using Rafflecopter. The lucky winner will be chosen on Friday, November 29th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creative Block? OKDOTHIS might help - Coming Soon!

Do you ever run out of inspiration for your next great photo? Well, soon there will be an app for that. It's called OKDOTHIS - a collaboration between celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart and app creators Aloompa. I could try and describe the app but I think it's easier to just watch the video. Now the question is will is steal any of Instagram's users? Time will tell.

The Whole Story - Photo by James Neame

James Neame is one of my favorite street photographers on Instagram, in fact he contributed to "Tips From Ten - Street Photography" earlier this year.  Keep reading to find out The Whole Story of "The Lady and the Tramp and the Baby".

For a chance to be featured just tag your Instagram mobile photos with the hashtag #the_whole_story.

The Photograph

The Lady and the Tramp and the Baby © James Neame

The Whole Story by James Neame

For this photo I happened to notice the homeless guy standing in the rain watching the televisions in the shop window. I thought this was an interesting moment and showed the power of the moving image over us weak humans! So I lined up the shot and this lady appeared, looking unimpressed at this poor guy, which added a bit of social commentary to the image. During the editing process I noticed the baby, staring in at the televisions as well, which kind of brought this little scene full circle. A bit of good fortune goes a long way sometimes! 

As for editing, I try to keep it minimal these days; I want the photo to work because of the composition and subject, rather than how it's been post-processed. I generally don't wander outside of Snapseed - crop to square, tweak the brightness, contrast and saturation if required. Maybe lay a vignette in the corners and sometimes one of the vintage filters works to accentuate the image, but that's about it! 

The Photographer

James Neame - I've been interested in photography for about six years now, the usual attempts at landscapes, sunsets and some architectural compositions. It was only when I downloaded Instagram that I started to get into the whole street photography genre. This was a new and fascinating world to me, and once I'd started following the likes of Ian (@iangarrington), Dilshad (@italianbrother) and Patrick (@candidcameraman) I realized this was the style I wanted to pursue. Various books and other research duly followed!

Until recently I was playing around with the composition of basically two-dimensional pictures, with a lone figure properly placed to add to the overall effect (the well practiced "peoplewalkingpast....." tags started, as far as I know, with my #peoplewalkingpastdoors). These days I'm more interested in trying to capture a story-telling moment, although I think this is a very difficult thing to do. Hopefully practice will make it easier! I really admire those who can portray humour, sadness or really any distinct emotion in their photography; Bryan Stoke (@bstoke) and Elizabeth Huey (@elizabeth_huey) spring immediately to mind as newer discoveries for me.

Apps Mentioned:

Snapseed

Find James:  Instagram / Tumblr / Facebook

@dadseyeview on Instagram

IPA Quarterly Exhibit Extended Through December 14th

Due to the popularity of the IPA Quarterly exhibit, the gallery extended the stay of the installation until December 14th. If you are in or near the Los Angeles area, you still have time to visit the Santa Monica Art Studios.

It was quite a thrill for me to see my photo, "The Recital" exhibited along with the works of many of my friends.

Me and The Recital © Geri Centonze

Gateway by David Ingraham

Leaves of Grey by Stefanie Le Pape (Top)
Sans Souci by Stefanie Le Pape (Bottom)

Channeling Atget #7 by Michelle Robinson

w o n d e r m e n t  by Catherine Restivo

The road to Mrs. Johnson by Nico Brons

Wheat Road by Cecily Mariece Caceu

Longing by Lola Mitchell

The Exhibit

iPhoneLife is Giving Away an iPad Air!

Click on the image below to enter to win an iPad Air! Contest Ends December 2, 2013.

Daguerreotype and Ambrotype Inspired Mirror and Glass iPrints

Thought I'd share this exciting new Kickstarter venture by Nate Parks and Daria Polichetti. You may recognize those names as the founders of iphoneart - a vibrant, creative community of mobile artists. I'm happy to be a supporter of their new venture which will give us wonderful 3D options for printing and displaying our photographic art.

Please watch the video featuring the very charming Nate and please join me in backing this project. If you've never backed a Kickstarter project before here's the way it works - no money is exchanged until the project is fully funded. If for some reason the project doesn't reach it's goal in the time set your credit card will not be charged. It's all or nothing, so I hope you'll pitch in and help Nate and Daria make this happen - they've given so much to all of us!

Ambrotype

Daguerreotype

Painterly Mobile Artist - Christianna Pierce

As the Painterly Mobile Art Flickr Group continues to grow, it gets more difficult to select a single artist to feature. As an admirer of Christianna Pierce's work, it is my pleasure to highlight one of her favorite images.

Please visit the group to see more from Christianna and all of the artists! Do you like to edit in a painterly style? Please join the group, we'd love to have you!

The Artist 

Christianna Pierce - I am a 52-year photographer/digital artist living in Portland, Oregon. Married to my high-school sweetheart, I’m the mother of two grown sons, I have been a vegetarian for 35 years, and I am passionate about creating photo paintings and digital art.

I began exploring photography about 5 years ago, when I purchased my first DSLR camera (Nikon 

D40). About a year later, I got an iPhone 3G. I currently use the iPhone 5 for the vast majority of my shots and I do most of my processing using apps on the iPad 3. 

The Work

Steady Winds © Christianna Pierce

Christianna's Commentary

I chose this painting because it represents a fun holiday my husband and I recently spent in San Francisco, California. One afternoon, we took the ferry across the Bay to Sausalito. It was a wild, windy summer day and dozens of sailboats were darting effortlessly across the water. I love to sail, and I found these beautiful sailboats against the backdrop of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge very inspiring.

I took this shot using the iPhone 5/ Camera+. On the iPad, I painted it using:

1. Iris to flatten the image and saturate the hues.  
2. Aquarella HD and Glaze to get the painterly effect
3. Image Blender to blend various iterations of Aquarella HD and Glaze
4. Repix to soften the clouds
5. Brushes to add fine line detail to the bridge
6. Tangent and Mextures to adjust hue and texture
7. Big Photo to up-res to 2048 x 2048 pixels
8. A+signature to add my signature

Find Christianna: Google+ / Flickr / Twitter


Links to apps mentioned:

Camera+
Iris
Aquarella HD
Glaze
Image Blender
Repix
Brushes
Tangent
Mextures
Big Photo
A+ Signature

The Whole Story - Photo by Michael Manza

Photos for The Whole Story series are chosen from images tagged on Instagram with the hashtag #the_whole_story.  However, sometimes I see an image that is so interesting that I contact the photographer to find out more about it. That's exactly what happened with today's photograph by Michael Manza. Michael was happy to oblige. I was surprised to find out he works in the entertainment industry and has contributed to several of my favorite films! You never know who you're rubbing elbows with online!

The Photograph

Harlequin Girl by Michael Manza

The Whole Story by Michael Manza

My Saturday morning began with an invitation to join friends for the day and explore Fort Langley, BC. The plan right from the start was to take (or what we hoped for ) some great photos. It was a cool, overcast fall morning with a little bit of fog. The town village was bustling with crowds, both visitors and locals. Apparently, it is like this every weekend year-round. I can see why.

Already, by this time I had taken a bunch of pictures and then I noticed a little store called "Cranberries Naturally!" To give you a tiny bit of history, this area is well known for their cranberries and recently celebrated a cranberry festival. I'll have to remember that for next year.

Getting back to the story. I opened the store door and almost immediately upon entering... I noticed "her" on display, sitting in a bathtub. So beautiful, already posing as if she had been waiting for her photo shoot. Right at that instant, I was mesmerized with her and just had to take her picture. After receiving permission from the store owner to take her photo, first, I eagerly snapped photo after photo, hoping to get something I can eventually work with. I did end up buying some very delicious dried, candied cranberries and by doing so I ended up getting a few more minutes with her before I had to go.

I hope you are as captured by her beauty, like I was.

Apps used for this image was 6x7 for iPhone, Snapseed for detail, tuning and toning. For texturing, PhotoWizard, PhotoToaster, Mextures, ScratchCam and Picfx. Finally, Superimpose to add all the wonderful layers together.

The Photographer

My name is Michael Manza (AKA: Fixit_inPost). A Canadian, a Visual Effects Artist and an iPhoneographer. I like to think that my style is like an actor who doesn't get typecast. When working on a photo, my instincts and heart take over resulting in something different every time.

Originally, a graphic artist by trade but I have been doing art since I was a little kid. For the past 18 years, I have been in the entertainment industry working on feature films as a Lighting Technical Director. Some of these extraordinary films included are: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Fight Club, Shrek and many, many more.

My passion is photography and more recently mobile photography. I have been chosen featured Artist of The Day on iphoneart.com 3 times in the past year. Also, I have had several photos published in popular mobile photography sites.

All work is 100% shot using an iPhone and edited on either my iPhone or iPad only!

Apps Mentioned:

6x7

Snapseed
PhotoWizard
PhotoToaster
Mextures

ScratchCam 

Picfx
Superimpose

Find Michael:  Flickr / iphoneart / VSCO / IMDb

Psykoo, A Visual Search Engine - Try it You Just Might Like It

Have you heard of Psykoo?  It's a visual search engine which displays search results in images rather than a description (like Google).

Below is what I got when I searched the word "iphoneography" on Google:

Google Search

And here's what I got when I searched the same word on Psykoo:

Psykoo Web Search 

When you click on the Pictures tab in Psykoo, you have the option of searching Tumblr, Instagram (this tab didn't work for me and I've reported it to Psykoo), Flickr, 500PX, Bing, Google.  **UPDATE** Instagram search is now working.

Flickr Search in Psykoo

And a really cool feature is when you search the Video tab you can view videos right from the Psykoo page!

Video Search in Psykoo

Here's a video that shows you an overview of the Psykoo experience. What do you think?