The Gryphon's Feather Studio

Give your computer photo editing moves like your iPhone's!

Ever wish you could edit photos on your laptop or desktop as quickly and easily as you do on your iPhone or iPad?  You can! 

My inbox had an email from the Nevercenter folks this morning advertising a HUGE sale on their CameraBag 2.5 app for Mac & Windows.  

It is normally $20, but is on sale for a very limited time for $8.  

Nevercenter also has a free, 15-day trial version, so you can check it out before purchasing.

I'm not affiliated with Nevercenter in any way.  I've purchased their apps for my computer, iPhone and iPad.  The original Camerabag app was one of my favorite iPhone apps when I started shooting with an iPhone in 2009.  It was the third app I purchased, and a version of CameraBag has been on my phone ever since!  Their apps have been winning awards for years.

The computer version is available for Mac & Windows (PC) systems.   It offers 150 filters, and the ability to create  and share your own, as well as access the shared filters of other users.  There are a number of great features, but the best part is you can keep it simple! You can just apply their filters, and play with your photos!  Or, if you are interested, you can go in-depth with creating filters and using the photo editing tools. The computer version also supports the use of RAW image files, if you shoot your images in that format. 

 

In my opinions, one of the best thing about Nevercenter's products is the information they include in the "Support" section of their website. I took a quick screenshot of their website from my phone.  You can see they have tutorials and videos for whatever level of experience you have using these sorts of applications.  I clicked on "Getting Started with..." which led me to a page that even explained how to open the app.

 

I had CameraBag 1.5 on my laptop. When Nevercenter updated to 2.0, the update was so huge, and offered so much more, you had to purchase the update.  It wasn't expensive, but I didn't want to spend the money at the time.  When I finally wanted to update, the offer had expired.  I didn't want to pay $20 for the new version, so I just kept the old, which of course, I didn't use as much. 

But, $8?! Heck, yeah!  That's a hella deal! (it's what? 60% off?) I thought I'd pass the info along to all of you, just in case you might find $8, for a terrific piece of photo software, appealing! 

If you are using a Mac, then you already know about the Mac App Store.  You can buy it there for $7.99 using your iTunes account.  If you are PC/Windows, you can buy it directly from Nevercenter, and use the sale code SPRINGSALE when you check out. You can pay via credit/debit or Paypal.  I used the Mac App Store. What? It's a penny cheaper there!  Just kidding, using the Mac App Store was easier - just needed to enter my iTunes password instead of entering all my address and billing info into the Nevercenter site checkout form.  (yes, I AM that lazy.)

You're welcome!

a very (n)ice time

I loved ice skating when I was a tween/teen.  All winter long, you could find me, as often I could be there, at the ice rink at Buhl Park. We wore pompoms on our skates that matched hats & mittens, or sweaters, since we didn't wear coats. We went at night, and sometimes, we'd look up and see the stars in the ink dark sky.

I've missed a lot of family fun this winter due to responsibilities.  I had steeled myself to miss this outing also since, I am as they say, up to my eyeballs.  Joe was bravely going to take three children by himself. But, I loved ice skating. loved. loved. loved. I even loved the smell of wet mittens and sweaty skates that permeated the lodge.  I treated myself, and to the delight of my littles, I went- it was a short trip- just a couple of hours, but that was all I needed. 

After one attempt at going 'round the rink, I assumed command, ordered everyone back inside where I swapped everyone's rented, ancient, figure skates for rented hockey skates, and back out to the ice we went! 

I remembered.... gliding, forwards, backwards, in circles, and was working on my figure-8s... in between coaching the big littles away from the boards. Convincing my older children to believe me that if they stayed off the wall, they would be able to skate by the time we left, was the only hard part of teaching them to skate.  The older two have gone skating before, just not with me, so as soon as we stepped onto the ice, the wall hugging began.  One at a time, I wheedled them away from the boards, my left hand in theirs, my right at their elbow.  Glide, glide, left, right, left right, bend your knees a little, find your balance, glide, glide.  Don't look around yet.  Just move your feet.... 

By the time we left, both of my older littles could make their way around the rink, solo.  I was so tickled.  I can't wait to go again.  Or, roller skating... my mom was a competitive roller skater, so I learned to skate early, outside on sidewalks.  I can't do all the stuff I can do on ice, but I like roller skating, too! Maybe that will be next.... 

In college, I was one of those crazy people who took extra PE for just for fun. Once, I forgot to drop a PE class that was a single credit - I realized I just wasn't going to have time for a fun class with work and studying.  The class was a half- term class and somehow, I had forgotten the dates for dropping those classes were different.    So, imagine my chagrin, when I realized I was going to eat a one credit 'F' in ice dance, for goodness sakes!  Now, imagine my relief, when grades came, and I earned a 'B'  in a class I never attended.  never. not ever. not even once. I can only guess that anyone whose name the teaching assistants recalled earned an 'A.'   (I'm thanking the Universe still to this day.)

ART & SOUL PORTLAND!!!

 

REGISTRATION OPENS TODAY FOR ART & SOUL PORTLAND 2011!!

I'm teaching several workshops, including two very new ones!  My classes include Natural Beauty, The Big Time Book, iPhone-ography, and iPad-ology!  Yep!

I've put together videos for the iPhone and iPad classes, as well as one for The Big Time Book class.  Enjoy!!

 

 

 

Signposts for the Journey Through the New Year- Weekly Holiday Assignment

Year's end, all

the corners of this

floating world, swept.

~~Basho  (1644-1694, Japan)

 

Life is like a journey,

Each year a new milestone,

But where is there a signpost? 

A guide to the lost life wanderer?

~~~Theodor Fontane

 

This week, the final week of 2010, create the guide for the lost life wanderer.  Make photos that serve as signposts.

What are the truths you want to carry forward?  Skip the resolutions unless they speak to more of the same and the true.  Affirm what was right, what was good, what was real, what you enjoyed- dig up those images from this past year.  They are your signposts, their addition to your journal creates your guide.   Instead of resolutions to fix what is wrong, affirm what is right, what you need more of in your life... Carry positive energy forward into the new year.

Celebrate your beloved family and your true friends by choosing images to place into your journals.

Welcome 2011!

The Holiday Classics-The Weekly Holiday Assignment

Your archive assignment is to look for those photos you shoot every year.  A family dinner, the Christmas tree, everyone dressed up for services, a celebration, candles lit... what gets photographed every year?  Look through your archives. You may want to look at photo albums.  Not surprisingly, some of the holiday classics I am seeing are the same genre of holiday classics my parents photographed. 

 

Your photo assignment is to continue the tradition with intention.  Make a list of must have shots based on what you have seen as you looked through your archives.  Maybe shoot a different angle on the same subject.  Take detail shots of what you really want to remember.  Get in closer to faces when you can. 

 

Your journaling prompts are to tell the stories, to recollect the details photos lack- sounds, scents, what happened just before, and just after. Are any of your "holiday classics" photos also part of tradition?  How did it begin? 

The Light of Anticipation & Celebration - The Weekly Holiday Assignment

 Oh, the gift of faces lit up with the joy of anticiaption and celebration!! I love photographing joy, don't you?  Remember the anticipation of the holiday? The sheer excitement of it?  What an irreplaceable feeling!  What a gift!  Light shines from inside people this time of year, bringing us closer to what we are truly to be. 

Your archive assignment this week is to choose images that illustrate: 

1. the anticipation of holiday joy. Look for the excitement in the photos, the power of knowing something joyous is to come.
2. celebration- the joy of being together. It is time for gatherings- family, friend, colleagues, schoolmates.

Your photo assignment is to photograph the faces of your family and friends as they anticipate and  celebrate.  You are assigned to photograph laughter, hugs, shrieking, smiles.  USE YOUR ZOOOOOOOM.  Step FIVE steps closer!!  You are not assigned photos of the shoes people are wearing!!!!  In other word, get closer to your subjects heads.

Your journaling prompt is to gush on about the positive nature of anticipation- it is good for you to journal about excitement in an excited way.  Write illegibly if you feel odd about it, and just let it flow!

 

 

The Light of Home - Weekly Holiday Assignment

There is a magic in that little world, home: It is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits.

Robert Southey

Home.  We take it for granted most of the time, yet without it we are lost.  It can be our compass rose, our nest, our shelter from the storm, our place of rest.  And, if we ponder home, it is not our address, not the wood, the stone, the block, the drywall... that makes our home.  What our makes our home is, of course, the people inside the house, and the way we have arranged the gathering of things we treasure to make a place of comfort, and of refuge.  We are grateful, within an instant of pondering it, that we are so fortunate as to have a home, with heat and water and doors and windows.  We know; we are blessed.  Let's honor that blessing by celebrating that blessing, by lifting that idea right into the Light.

This week your archive assignment (meaning delve into all those stored/archived images)  is to look for images that speak to your heart of the light of home.  You can make use of your scanner to go back to that home you carry in your heart- the home of childhood and memory, or your first family home as an adult.

Your photo assignment may require some reflection.  Photograph the light of your home.  Consider multiple meanings of the word light.  Interpret the words of the assignment in multiple ways.  Where is the light? In the faces of family or pets,sunlight streaming into a favorite spot, cozy rooms, a moment in time, the windows light from within in the darkness... some place else?

Draw the written portion of your journaling from your reflections on the photo assignment, on the process of chooisng your archived images...

 

The Light of Service: December 1

On this day, a celebration begins.  Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, celebrates that long ago (more that twenty-one centuries ago) one day's worth of oil burned for eight full days. 

There is one extra candle lit first every single night of Chanukah. This is the shamash, the service candle, the candle that lights the others. It is not part of the eight candles that celebrate the miracle.  

On a menorah, eight candles are lit to commemorate the eight days the fuel burned, when there was only sufficient fuel for one day.  The shamash sits apart from the other eight, in the middle, raised or lowered depending on the confiiguration of the menorah. 

The shamash is the candle that serves the others. 

On this first day of Chanukah, and through the coming week, let us use our photography to be the shamash- the candle that lights the others.

We can use photographs to show others the miracle of light, and the idea of serving with the gifts we have. 

Preparing for the Light - Weekly Holiday Assignment

This first week of December is when preparations for the holidays really seem to begin.  It is also the start of Advent, if you are Christian, and Hanukkah begins, if you are Jewish.  Regardless of your religious denomination, the weeks or days leading up to the holiday are filled with errands that must be completed, correspondence, phone calls, planning, and perhaps holiday shopping.

I love the holidays. The hype doesn't affect me at all- it is simply background noise. Don't let it distract you.

I love the feeling that blooms this time of year, despite the cynics who say we've all forgotten the meaning of the holidays- the meaning of the miracle of light in the dark.  Whether we are talking about the light that burned in the darkness for eight days when it should have lasted but one, or the Light of the World being born to lift us out of darkness, or the light we must keep burning within as the wheel of the year moves to the darkest night and the return of the light as the days grow longer, the season is about light.

Candles, menorahs, holiday decorations, our windows lit with warm incandescence against the dark night...

And, the love that is shared this time of year- families, friends, even strangers act differently- with more compassion for others.  Ignore the person in the mall parking lot who cuts you off from your space.  Remember all those people who are tossing change into the kettles of charities who really do work to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless.  That is light, too, shining at it's brightest.

Consider the faces of children as they play in the snow, wait in line for Santa, or hear the tale of their spiritual history. Memories are light in the darkness, too. Remembrance is a gift.

It seems fitting to me, that we work with photographs at this time of year.  Photographs are, by definition, a record of light.  So, we'll work each week for the month of Decmber, with assignments that you can use to pull content for your journals that is a an enjoyable task. 

Holiday Photo Assignments- week #1

Archives:

In looking through your archives of photos this week, cull for photos of the time of preparation for the light that comes in your tradition.  Look for the light of this time. Don't forget many families choose a tree at this time, or gather for Hanukkah, or attend church or school activities.  Perhaps this is when you decorated?  Maybe there are things you need to remember to feel the coming light?  Choose images to reflect that.

Photo Assignment:

Photograph some aspect of preparing for the light.  Preparation. in your home, in your life, in your heart.

Journaling:

Examine the concept of the light in your journal.  Look to your personal spiritual beliefs and your intuitive response to the idea of light being made manifest this month. Journal your thoughts.

 

Encourage anyone you know who takes photos and journals to join in recording the light.

 

 This blog will host weekly assignments like the one above.  In addition, you will find posts in this season of growing darkness on sharing the Miracle of Light.  

Purple isn't a typical predominant color for me, but since I somewhere along the line I painted a page using layers of purple, here we are - along with a found poem from a page out of an antique children's primer.

This journal spread comes from an image I manipulated for a class lesson for my Techniques class.  

 

The found poem:

I don't know which way to go

(a found poem)

 

I turn my back to the sun.

See that?

It seems

it is now time to go.

Now, tell me,

will you

let me hear you

in the way of those

that think

the words,

those small

hard words?

Which way, then,

Which way is

good?

 

go with me.