Discovering New Worlds within Water Drops

Aloha dear reader,

Here are my latest photos, of glycerol drops on decomposing leaves.

I hope  you're having a really lovely day today.  That said, it's quite beautiful here where I am.  Tho it's freezing cold it is very sunny Australia this morning, we are experiencing blizzard type weather south of here.   I've been so fascinated with taking iPhone macro photographs of water on various things, and a friend of mine recently suggested a great idea to help me with this, is to use glycerol instead of water, which is more oily, but still as transparent, and has a bit more shine and polish and staying power, so works well for reflections.  So, I've been experimenting.   I've been learning so much, and I am especially keen to tell you how, now that I've learned how important setting exposure and focus is, I'm starting to do a little bit better with both, and seeing my photos improve, which is so great.

My friends on Instagram, are saying all kinds of cool things about my water drops that really tickle me, so I asked if I could quote them, and they kindly said yes.

@yarmentis - instagram
. each water drop is a magical trip in a micro universe!

@msmsgs - instagram
. like a world in a Water Drop

@caroladdassi - instagram
. like a vessel cruising in outer space





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she sells sea shells by the seashore

Last night I thought I'd try something a little bit new with some sea shells I'd collected a long time ago which I have on display in a recessed glass 'window' coffee table, with some sand and other things I've collected by way of sand, twigs and unusual leaves, because I'm doing a 7 week course at the moment run my Emil Pakarklis of iPhone Photography School through his iPhone Photography Academy which is proving to be a wonderful success, I would highly recommend his course to anyone interested in improving their iPhone photography.

We were doing a tutorial about VSCOcam app, so I decided I'd try out some of the filter presets and see what I could come up with, all in all I was fairly happy with the outcome, using in two of them, another app called Stackables and Filterstorm for the finishing touches.

The app I chose in VSCOcam changed the colour from a somewhat too warm colour that had far too much in the way of yellow tones, as I like the more worn beachy feel of the washed out, cooler colours, it seems to suit the theme and the subject better than very warm tones that were there, due to shooting at night with just a lamp for lighting.  As you probably know the iPhone doesn't work as well in low light situations, so using the VSCOcam app to change the look and feel slightly, really helps with colour distortion.

I hope you like my shells! Thanks so much for looking, and don't hesitate to visit the links below to my art gallery, print shop and photography gallery, etc.  Please like my FB page and follow my journey, don't be shy to say hi and introduce yourself to me, and do feel free to share any of my journals on your favourite form of social media with a link back to me.  Have an aloha kind of day!

Karin


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Fungi and Decay

Aloha!  There is something so beautiful about fungi and decay, the fungi I found outside yesterday growing on some old fence posts that were soaked through from the rain, there seemed to be three different varieties or the same variety at different stages of their life cycle, very fascinating.  When I looked at them more closely under the macro lens, they reminded me of sea anenomes and someone thought one resembled a Lion Fish.

The lace is represented here by decaying plant matter found at the bottom of shrubs in my neighbour's garden, to me they resemble things you might find belonging to a fairy, a friend of mine thought the little round fungi resembled a fairy's beanie, and the larger lace one that has sepia tones reminded me of a fairy's bed or cane/wicker chair, and someone else was reminded of a boat or ship with a sail.

I can see how we become so inspired by what we see in nature, you can see that fashion, interior design and all types of creative artists could easily be inspired by the beautiful things in nature, even fungi and decay have their place in the scheme of all things.  I hope you like these images I took with my iPhone 5 and Olloclip Macro lens.  Thank you for looking, please say hello and tell me what you think, and please don't hesitate to share on your favourite social media site (please link to me) and visit the links below.  

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Partial to Water Drops

Guys, hello there.  Hope you're having a great day out there!  As it happens, I am a little bit partial to water drops, water in general, any body of it, anywhere, anytime, yes I'm a sucker for that clear, liquidy stuff, that comes in all hues of blue, green and everything else in between.

This fascination with water has led to less partiality and more all consuming passion, with water drops, reflections in water drops, water drops on plants, insects, all kinds of surfaces and especially dried and used up acrylic paint palettes.   So this is where I'm coming from today, this image before you, is actually a drop of H2O yes, it's just water as clear as crystal from a syringe (less the needle bit on the end).  No tricks were employed here, just natural lighting, and an old paint palette, with some dried up acrylic on it.  I simply dropped a water drop, right on top of what looked like a miniature scene going on, got out my olloclip macro lens, and presto, voila!!  Something new, exciting and certainly different and unexpected emerged from the shot.  To me, it doesn't look like a water drop at all, it looks more like the paint has just been sort of plonked there, now you get different results every which way you turn the paint palette, so is it any wonder I'm hooked, I've collected ten or so paint palettes and old brushes, so that should keep me busy photographing for days, until the sunshine comes out to play and I can return to my first love, nature, insects and naturally formed rain drops and dew drops on leaves and stuff.  I hope you enjoy this one in the meantime.  More coming your way soon!

Aloha from Karin x

Oh yeah and ps, a pretty cool thing happened to me the other day, Olloclip, yes! Olloclip noticed my photos and actually featured one of my worn pencils on Instagram. Thank you Olloclip.com for giving me access to the most wonderful invention of all, the Olloclip macro lens, it's changed the way I look at my world!

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Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog, it's wonderful to see you!  I hope you're having a great day.

I began this blog to record and share my experiences as an iPhone photographer.  My journey with iPhone Photography began not all that long ago really, it started to become a lot more important to me once I had a macro lens and could see the world up much closer.  Since then (perhaps 12 months ago) I've photographed numerous things, all out of curiousity and my love for experimentation.  I'm excited to begin a blog and start to share more of my experiences with you.

I also look forward to sharing about the iPhone apps I use and discover, poetry that I sometimes write to accompany my photographs, talking about the equipment I use, my muse which is nature and sharing my photos with a wider audience. I look forward to getting to know you and walking the journey together.

Tibouchina Bud with natural bokeh in background. Equipment used, iPhone 5,
Olloclip Macro 4-in-1 lens 10x, iPhone apps (Camera+, Filterstorm Neue, Glaze).
Shot in a neighbouring front garden, north east coast Australia.

It's our winter now, but the flowers are still blooming, we have some Autumn colours entering our field of vision, here and there, you see golds and tawny browns, and beautiful reds, mixed in with some still vibrant violets, pinks, blues and yellows that seem to be left over from the late Summer and continuing warm weather we've had so far.  The skies are blue, and then it rains, we are having extremes, lots of thunderstorms mixed with hot and cold weather, so one really doesn't know from one minute to the next what the weather will be like, it's incredibly changeable.  I am enjoying watching the gardens as the seasons change, this is my first year of truly absorbing what's going on around me and it's really interesting to note that a lot of the bugs and beetles, caterpillars and butterflies that were everywhere, are now more sparse and difficult to find, it seems they have been replaced with your common garden variety of fly.  Still, I'm keeping on the lookout for anything new and if I find it, you can be sure I'll be sharing it with you here.

This is what is so exciting, I am almost 50 and am still seeing something new each time I go out.  Today I noticed what looked like insect spit, and I also saw some gorgeous drops of water on red velvety leaves, I couldn't get a photo of this, as the light was too poor.  I'll go back again another day and revisit that garden to see if it's possible to photograph that beautiful image so I can share it with you.

I had the privilege today also of meeting two of the people in my neighbourhood, a lovely gentleman and nice lady who were slightly curious as to what I was doing in their bushes, I often find myself reassuring people that it's fine, I'm just photographing bugs. I've had various reactions, some think I'm suffering from a mental disorder, others (like my new friends today) began searching for bugs to help me and wanted to see my photos, and still others have thought I must be physically ill, as they've seen me all bent over or curled up in a ball on the grass, and apparently I must look like I am in the throws of a hangover or something, everyone's being very understanding though, and perhaps it's a good thing (the curiousity) as I get to meet people I would never normally meet, even though I've lived in this street for almost 20 years, I know barely a soul, but I think that's all about to change!  So don't be a stranger, stop and say hello!  Please feel free to share my blog and journals on your favourite form of social media.

aloha from Karin x


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