up close

up close, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

I've always like the whole depth of field lark and getting those distant objects all nice and fuzzy!

A couple of prior shots using trees failed but I was quite pleasantly surprised by this one. Oh and the sky is totally fake, with thanks to a little texturing and gaussian blur!

Hope you like !

wallpaper

wallpaper, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

This is just something I made in Aperture with help from a plugin called Topaz Detail. I wanted a new wallpaper for my iMac...

What's your favourite plugin for Aperture 3 & why?

sunup

sunup, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Of course, the sun was already up but I just wanted to attempt a little sunrise - in photoshop!

;o)

detail

detail, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

I'm always on the lookout for something new and cool to play with. Over the weekend, I stumbled upon Topaz Detail and installed it as a plugin for Apple Aperture 3.

This piece of software looks really nice and this pic is my first attempt. Comments welcome :)

Anyone else using plugins for Apple Aperture ?

dreamy

dreamy, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

With this upload I thought I'd have a change from all the textured images. So here is a simple cropped photo with a little gaussian blur thrown on a layer :)

Made in PSE9 and Aperture 3 on my iMac.

whereabouts

whereabouts, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

After a week - long illness, I finally feel bothered to make a flickr posting! It's been a rough week...

Hope you like this shot into the sunlight at Farleton Knott, Cumbria. I used textures blurred which helped somewhat on the rocks.

All done on my iMac using PSE9.

St. James's Church Burton-in-Kendal

St. James's Church Burton-in-Kendal, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
On our way home from Farleton Knott, we pased through a little country village and I spotted this incredible church. Converted it to b/w and textured… I'm going to visit this place again when I've more time. Looked really nice - camera on standby! :)

I've more to come but at a later date as I want to continue on now with the shots from Farleton Knott. Just needed a break! ;-) I've still loads left to tinker with. :-)

For more information on this lovely church, www.stjamesburton.org//index.html (geo-tagged)

Textures I use are often made by these creative people :
Laura, skeletalmess, vintage memento, Playingwithbrushes, Brenda Starr, ifdezelle, Lenabem-Anna, Parée, JoesSistah, DyrkWyst, Clive Sax, Sunset Sailor, osolev, darkwood67, Distressed jewell, xalamay, cathairstudios, Telzey

dolly

dolly, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
More textured sheep !
Thanks for viewing everyone, appreciated :-)

Textures I use are often made by these creative people :
Laura, skeletalmess, vintage memento, Playingwithbrushes, Brenda Starr, ifdezelle, Lenabem-Anna, Parée, JoesSistah, DyrkWyst, Clive Sax, Sunset Sailor, osolev, darkwood67, Distressed jewell, xalamay, cathairstudios, Telzey

plymouth satellite

plymouth satellite, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
An image I shot a very long time ago … Merry Christmas Eve everyone! This is Santa's busiest day of the year today - so lets wish him well for the festive season ahead †

View on black (press L) & have a great day everyone.

Textures I use are often made by these creative people :
Laura, skeletalmess, vintage memento, Playingwithbrushes, Brenda Starr, ifdezelle, Lenabem-Anna, Parée, JoesSistah, DyrkWyst, Clive Sax, Sunset Sailor, osolev, darkwood67, Distressed jewell, xalamay, cathairstudios, Telzey

eoy

eoy, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

I've only just realised that I've not updated this photo blog of mine for ... well... a very long time!

So, here is the very last image i worked on last year. Taken in the country village of Burnsall, England and processed in Adobe Photoshop Elements on my iMac. Hope you like it?

Thanks for viewing. Comments and questions always welcome.

Who needs a real camera?

Lately I've been finding out just how cool photography with an iPhone 4 can be.

As u can see, it's just getting better and better! Not strictly 'sooc' as I've done zero processing to make this Hipstamatic shot even better.

muddy puddles

muddy puddles
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Somebody has been watching too much peppa pig lately ;)

Hipstamatic

This iPhone app is so cool. Finally supporting multitasking and coming with some cool lenses and films. It's fun finding out what works best for you.

Here I'm using the Lucifer lens with the float film :)

shadows

shadows
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Taken using an old 4mpix Fuji compact camera back in 2007 when all I did was point & click.

Processed on the iPhone using Photo Studio app. Grand Canyon West Rim.

Regenerating old shots

The mighty Grand Canyon, Arizona.

I shot this back in the day when all I knew of photography was to hold the camera at the object and click. Yup, a real point & clicker guy I was! lol However, owning a new iPhone 4 (grin) has helped me to turn a lot of these disappointing images of our happy memories into something really cool.

Check out this image on flickr - it’s amazing, even if I do say so myself. But what makes this even better is that I used the camera’s hopeless digital zoom too! I cannot appreciate my iPhone 4 anymore.

This amazing device has taken some of our old crabby shots and made them so AWESOME! Hope you agree :-)

bamburgh castle

bamburgh castle
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Photography and post processing on the iPhone never ceases to amazing me!

Incredible iPhone 4

Having an old 2003 model Power Mac has meant many things over the years. Firstly, I had an awesome (if expensive) computer for a few years!

This beast ran everything and ran it FAST. Unfortunately things do change and computers get 'slower' lol

Life changes also and today I'm with a beautiful woman, amazing kids and a horrid mortgage! So long story cut short there's no change of a new Mac anytime soon.

I've loved photography for years and now I'm left to struggle along with an ageing computer running a wonderful (if out of date) app called Aperture.

So where is all this nonsense leading?

The Apple iPhone 4. Wow, this mobile device is so awesome!! Finally, after years of putting up with Sony & Nokia, I've a piece of equipment that actually works!!! And works so well too.

I've discovered lots of wonderful photography apps on the AppStore. All with their own unique styles to get a different perspective from your shots.

This image is an old shot i made using a Fuji compact camera. It was taken during our American road trip to a ghost town called Texon, in West Texas. The HDR was done on the iPhone using an app called Dynamic Light. Incredible results!

There are a wedge of other apps too, try: PhotoWizard, PictureShow, PhotoStudio, Camera+ and Camtastic. (Camtastic is my main iPhone camera app).

Needless to say, it might be a little weird to edit your images on the iPhone, at first. But you will get great results whilst you saving for your new computer :)

St. James Church

St. James Church
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Having a play with Picnik in Flickr today..

Walkies!

Shopping

Some ppl dress so bad while I'm enjoying s morning out shipping ;) Grrr shopping! Pah

St. Aidan's Church

St. Aidan's Church
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Beautiful & historic Christian England.

the island store

the island store
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Check out my flickr stream for other shots from Holy Island :-)

Aidan of Lindisfarne

Aidan of Lindisfarne
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Holy Island, the birthplace of Christianity in England.

River Raid

River Raid
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

I personally love this and consider it one of my best.

crop

crop
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Playing at macro photography without actually having a macro lens.. !!

Bees!

best for last
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Lots of flower and bee shots recently uploaded :-)

pride

pride
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

One from our garden

just use flickr !

resting
Originally uploaded by  Steve

use flickr.... click the image ;-)

Catch me if you can

Catch me if you can
Originally uploaded by Steve 

Finally, we get chance to have an hour out and stretch our legs because the ice has finally gone. It's been a death trap around here for about a month now lol. The one good thing about the missing white lands....

Plus I got to have a good play with my new camera and the brother in laws 80/200mm zoom lens. Coooool!! Here are the first few shots - I've got lots more on the way! :o)

Flickr is all that's left...

photoshopped
Originally uploaded by Steve_Gregory

Hello and Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm sorry for the void that this blog has become over recent months but that is life getting in the way! So, along with AppleCrypt Mods, Twitter, MySpace and many other blogs & social networking sites, I'm going to kill this one off also.

I simply do not have the time with having a mega busy family life...

I guess I'll post the occasional update here, directly via Flickr, but it'll be nothing more than to advertise my latest images :]

So, after all these years of numerous websites, blogs, etc, etc, etc I'm now winding it all down to simply Flickr and Facebook. My friends from recent Mac / AppleCrypt years are already with me on Facebook so I don't really need to advertise that.....? But, as photography is my main Mac usage these days, I shall inform you all once again to follow me here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/applecrypt/

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a very happy New Year !!

Mauled at Christmas

Savaged!
Originally uploaded by Steve_Gregory

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!

Arizona's own Wile E. Coyote!

Arizona's own Wile E. Coyote!
Originally uploaded by Steve_Gregory

I've uploaded quite a few new images lately... check out my flickr site !

Welcome to Antarctica!

Welcome to Antarctica!
Originally uploaded by Steve_Gregory

The weather here is so bad lately (for about a month now it's been raining almost daily. Lots of flooding too!). I'm also incredibly busy with the new family too, so this means I rarely pick up the camera over the last few weeks.

However, all is not lost. No new images for my flickr site means I've a little more time to upload older images from road trips and other events. Things that I should have uploaded to my flickr stream ages ago!

So please do check out my flickr page and you'll see a few older images from White Sands (New Mexico), Tombstone (Arizona), Colorado and more.. Keep coming back each day as I'll try to upload a new one each evening!

The image, above, is from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. If there was ever a place on Earth that looked like you was in Antarctica, then this is it! A rather hot version though - 300+ sq.miles of white with only the distant mountains visible. Quite spectacular.