The original image is of an old sign near Barstow taken in 2009. For this version I used photogene, Jazz, Painteresque and ArtistaOil.

Jazz is a new iPhone app that is similar to Plastic Bullet. It automatically generates four different random versions of an image. But unlike Plastic Bullet, Jazz gives me controls over every special effect. I love this.

Call me a control freak.

This morning I worked up this image of a Manzanar guard tower. I started with a good contrasty black and white. First I used DynaLight HD to lighten shadows. In Laminar made one version with hard wood special effect. Then made a second version with Painteresque. The two versions were combined in Blender at 35% normal with Laminar version on right. Then took this version into Phototoaster and used Pale setting.

Flickr Apr/May/June 2012 pic of the day.

Last month I visited the Manzanar National Historic Site. I arrived late in the afternoon with a storm closing in. The weather reminded me of all the iconic Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams images from Manzanar taken during World War II. So I took my time and made a series of 55 black and whites trying for a dark and contrasty mood.

Photo above is of the famous monument at the Manzanar cemetery.

Link to my flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/harrysonpics/sets/72157629597475536/show/

Last week I posted the Los Angeles Times From the Archive images on Manzanar: http://wp.me/pT9sV-fri

For one of my pics of the day, I gave a photo the shock treatment. The original image of Salvation Mountain, a pano, was shot on April 9th with the You Gotta See This app on my iPhone. To make this version, I started in Photogene using auto histogram and bleach preset. Then used Shock My Pic app. Final version made with Ripped From Reality.

My April/May/June 2012 pic of day Flickr set.

This morning played with Olloclip macro lens on my iPhone and took this image.

Last Monday, during a full week road trip around California, I stopped at the Cabazon Dinosaurs alongside Interstate 10 west of Palm Springs. In 2010 I posted this "Dinosaur builder" LA Times From the Archive post on Claude K. Bell, the builder of the original two Cabazon Dinosaurs. It's been about 20 years since I've stopped to visit Dinny and T-Rex.

Today, the site has been landscaped and many additional fiberglass and robotic dinosaurs added inside an open-air museum that promotes creationism. I'm just glad the site has been preserved and has grown. Fun place to take photos!

Image above of original Dinos Dinny and T-Rex taken with You Gotta See This iPhone app.

My Cabazon Dinosaur flickr set slideshow. I found one of my images from about 1990 and added it to the flickr set.

1959 Chavez Ravine evictions photo gallery.

Tonight I posted my 430th From the Archive blog post for the Los Angeles Times. Two years ago the planning and research started for From the Archive, with the blog going live in early August 2010. I started with about 75 posts ready to go. Today, its day to day with about 25 future posts in various stages of research to finished Draft mode.

Just for the fun of it, tonight, when I looked back at just the last week of posts and made frame grabs and links.

Enjoy

Scott


1952 Cross for Easter services


1965 Bunker Hill fashion shoot


1941 New black leopard at Griffith Park Zoo


Boris Yaro reflect on the 1968 R.F.K. assassination

Last week I was playing with the Olloclip fisheye lens on my iPhone. Of course I had to try a frame using Slit Scan iPhone app. Here are the results. Above is the straight image taken with Camera+. Below is the same image taken with Slit Scan.

During the last week I've been doing several images in Photoshop Touch and iPhoto. For me — each has strengths and weaknesses.

First - gotta point out, I love to turn my old images into illustrations. So right out of the box — I mean iTunes app store — iPhoto struck out. It has a good selection of special effects, but two I was interested in, Oil Paint and Watercolor do not have adjustment options. I only realized this after an hour of digging around. iPhoto help files do not state this. Other special effects have some options, but only by searching other web sites was it confirmed: Oil Paint and Watercolor have no options to control their effects.

The photo below was done in iPhoto app. First I lightened used contrast/brightness sliders — good feature — then applied the water color special effect. But with no controls, I could not dial back the effect. I also tried the oil paint effect on this image, but it hardly made any changes.

So out of the iTunes app store, iPhoto had two major negatives. Lack of special effects filter options and poor help files with no tutorials. But other features in iPhoto are good, just takes time to figure them out.

Meanwhile Photoshop Touch has both good layer options and tutorials. After doing a couple tutorials, I was quickly applying effects to images. Above is one example. I simply lightened the image with curves, made a duplicate layer, used graphic pen special effect, set opacity to 75% and used overlay mode. Done.

Now, not all is great with Photoshop Touch. It has a file size limit of 1600 x 1600 which is about a 2.5 megapixel file. My iPhone 4s shoots an 8 megapixel file. Also at times, I find Photoshop Touch is not responsive on the iPad. I have to slow down.

So for my work, I like Photoshop Touch over iPhoto. But both programs I only give three out of five stars. Many other iOS photo apps have many more options at cheaper price. (iPhoto $4.99, Photoshop Touch $9.99)

Both photos taken at the Hays Antique Truck Museum in Woodland, California, in 2011.

This year, I'm really getting into old fashion black and white. I just finishing posting a 55 image flickr gallery on the Oakland Aviation Museum - all in black and white. In Lightroom, I played with black and white presets, going for older snappy look with burned down edges.

The Oakland Aviation Museum has several great aircraft — the center piece is the four engine Short Solent Mark III flying boat featured in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I also had to take shots of the Soviet MIG 15.

I took many images framing a US Navy A-4 Skyhawk jet framed through the old hanger windows, photo above. Of course, I had to shoot some with my iPhone.

My Oakland Aviation Museum flickr set slideshow.