munchies

munchies, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Lancashire, England.

Taken on a lovely summers day. Hmm well no, it was taken in November believe it or not and the day was gorgeous. Beautiful weather.

The location is geo-tagged on flickr. I love northern England as we have some beautiful rural areas for nice walks :)

burscough

burscough, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I shot this one alongside a canal walk in Burscough which is a little town in West Lancashire, England.

Processed on my Mac using Snap Art and Apple Aperture. Thanks!

toon

toon, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Had a play with Snap Art on my Mac. What a fun app!

dacre castle

dacre castle, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

A digital painting I've only just created today from an iPhone shot taken back in August during our road trip of northern England.

This is Dacre Castle in the Lake District - Cumbria, England. A beautiful and majestic part of the world.

I've included 3 links on the flickr page for lots of cool infos about hauntings and the history of this castle that dates back to the 13th century!

creepy crawly

creepy crawly, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

As you can see from the hefty crop, I've not got a macro lens but I still like the end result. It's quite a creepy little spidery thing!

I added in the sun light and flare afterwards to make up for the dull background.....

After taking this, I ran away like a scary girl. Screaming, I was... Quite pathetic! ;^)

barb

barb, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I didn't want to simply upload this as is... I thought it was pretty ok but dull as heck too. So I applied some textures and made it look old.

I like it now...!!

big crack!

big crack!, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

My latest flickr upload is of Shap Abbey. Taken on a beautiful day in August of this year during our road trip of NW England.

Cropped and processed in Apple Aperture and then textured in PSE9. I then applied a little extra and that frame using PhotoStyler. All in all - a Mac multi app adventure to get the painterly effect!!

Thanks for any comments / hope you like!

big crack!

big crack!, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

My latest flickr upload is of Shap Abbey. Taken on a beautiful day in August of this year during our road trip of NW England.

Cropped and processed in Apple Aperture and then textured in PSE9. I then applied a little extra and that frame using PhotoStyler. All in all - a Mac multi app adventure to get the painterly effect!!

Thanks for any comments / hope you like!

big tree

big tree, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

This flickr posting follows on from yesterdays as that barn is just off picture behind that fence... I textured this in photoshop and then tinkered with in Aperture to make it a little more olde or vintage maybe...

Love that big tree! Thanks for viewing.

open door

open door, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I found this rural gem on a lovely country walk near Tockholes in Lancashire, England.

Processed it on my Mac using Exposure 5 and then tinkered with some more in Aperture for a few finishing touches. Also added a tad of texture using PSE9 as the sky was boring without.....

All in all, I enjoyed playing to create this! ;)

Christ church

Christ church, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I shot this picture along Parbold Hill in Lancashire, England. It's looking up, across farmland, to Christ Church Douglas-in-Parbold.

The processing was done on my Mac using Snap Art and then layered and tinkered with in PSE9 with some final adjustments made in Apple Aperture.

bye bye november

bye bye november, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Adios to November!

...... but at least you went out in style. Gorgeous day for a nice walk out. So we did just that and then went for a slap up meal at Little Chef. Great day!

Taken with my iPhone 5 in pano mode, of course.

1879

1879, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

This image was taken in 2007 by somebody that knew nothing of photography (probably still doesn't!) but was eager to snap away a zillion times in this outstanding place.

Yup, I shot this. The place is a favourite of ours - Tombstone in southern Arizona, USA.

I've processed it to look really old.. like it was taken during the days of Ed Schieffelin.

What a venture this was - a great place with dusty streets, floor boarded sidewalks and cowboys walking around. Haha this is a guys perfect dream place (even girls in the saloon). Loved it here.

Must - go - back - someday !!!

bastrop

bastrop, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Taken in one of my favourite places during our 2009 road trip - Bastrop, Texas.

A real small-town feel here in this old downtown region and it was so lovely too. Great weather, nice shops and good to walk these beautiful streets. Like a modern day wild west town!

I was playing in a photography app using the sketch feature and liked the results... it was cool but nothing that I'd really end up posting to flickr. Then I thought to myself, why not apply it as a filter in photoshop and see what happens. Looks all wintery now!

I like the fx and I hope you do too :-)

smoke

smoke, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Any Texans out there in West Texas, pretty close to Del Rio? I would love to know if this tourist attraction / movie set of John Wayne's The Alamo is still up & running.

It was a wonderfully unique experience to walk around this western style town. Just like something outta the movies? Sure was - and is - as many movies and tv shows have been made here. (but see my flickr page for some links)

Processed to look old and crusty deliberately for your pleasure. I love to play!

H2O

H2O, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

An old image from 2007 and one I fiddled about with in photoshop eons ago now .. but I only just found it tonight. I was about to scrap it and re-process tonight but then i figured why not save myself a load of time and upload this?

I would like to think I could photoshop this far better today then I did back ... whenever I edited this!! I'm sure I could actually - but - I still like this as is. So it's on flickr right now for all to laugh at....err I mean enjoy!

IF anyone reading this is ever in this part of New Mexico then I would strongly advice a visit to White Sands. It's an awesome place - looks like the north pole but in blistering hear (even in April when we was there).

Been twice + love it here.
Bring water with you!

buggy

buggy, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

life on the ranch

life on the ranch, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

A scene from the old wild west .... Fort Davis in West Texas. Taken back in 2009.

West Texas

West Texas, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I'm no professional photographer ... but I am 100x better today then I was when I first started to find an interest in cameras back around 2008/9.

This image was a point+clicker taken in 2009 - Terlingua, West Texas. Of course, I'd give anything to test out what I've learned about photography so far and see the kind of picture I could now take.

But .... that ain't gonna happen anytime soon (£££) .... So I'll have to make do and tart up some old pics!

So, here is a part of West Texas that I hope somebody somewhere likes! I do :^)

terlingua

terlingua, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Continuing on with my resurrection of my old pictures .... here is a shot from Terlingua taken back in 2009.

This is a famous Texas ghost town that is based right besides the beautiful Big Bend National (and State) Park in West Texas.

I loved exploring here in the scorching heat. A fascinating ghost town that covers a large area of Terlingua - I sure hope to go back one day and taken lots of better pics!

Better get saving . . . .

today

today, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

My latest piece of photography on Flickr ...

It seems to be a hit judging by the kind comments there. Hmm now I'm wondering if I should mention that the colours and sunlight are all fake and something I manually created in Apple Aperture and then Snap Art 3.

Sure the scene itself is nice but the world always looks better after a little post processing :^)

All created on my Apple iMac.

butterfly

butterfly, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I shot this back in August..

No idea for an identification but it is beautiful and I love it’s colours. Taken in Lancashire, England.

fx

fx, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

My latest flickr upload - taken at the reservoir in Roddlesworth (Lancashire, England) a few weeks ago.

Post processing done in Apple Aperture and then some funky fx produced in Snap Art 3.

All made on my iMac ... what else? :^)

3

3, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Learning to use Alien Skin's Snap Art 3 is proving to be so enjoyable. What an amazing piece of Mac software this is.

Extra post processing was done, as usual, in Apple Aperture. Just to complete the image...

FWIW, I did use Photoshop also. But only to remove the boring sky with a little texture layer...

blockade

blockade, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Somedays you'll come up against all kinds of problems & daft hurdles that life throws at ya.... Still, this day, I certainly didn't expect four grumpy sheep lol

They didn't move and made us walk around them. Very odd as they're supposed to be so timid lol

Still, made a lovely shot to painterly - up !!

thru a ropy view

thru a ropy view, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

My latest flickr upload today. Taken through a farming gate that's literally held together by rope! The views are of the lovely English countryside in Lancashire and it's a lovely place to walk.

Geo-Tagged in flickr for all interested :-)

phishing

phishing, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

For this image I used Alien Skin Snap Art for the basic painterly feel but later felt like it was too much... so I layered it with the original in Photoshop to achieve the results you see.

I enjoy fiddling in Mac apps like Alien Skin, Topaz, Photoshop and of course Aperture! All good fun :-)

river roddlesworth

river roddlesworth, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

My latest Flickr upload was shot in Roddlesworth woods in Lancashire, England. It's actually part of the West Pennine Moors area and is a great place to go for a good walk.

This was shot on a lovely September day with lots of sunshine and blue skies. Something you're not gonna see much of in November (in England!!)

I processed this very simply using Aperture for basic tweaks like White Balance, contrast, vibrancy, etc.. Then I exported it into Photoshop where I applied a painterly layer as a multiply layer style.

I kinda like the shadows... nice scene!

gotcha!

gotcha!, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I shot this "macro" pic of an Hoverfly a few weeks back outside the cafe in Tockholes. In fact, I got quite a few food snaps here in this big plant pot lol

Just a good day for taking pics....

parbold hall

parbold hall, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I shot this image yesterday using my iPhone and it's default camera app (set to the instant filter). Cropped it in Aperture on my Mac and added a little extra Definition ....

It's taken south of Parbold Hall, looking northwards across the rural landscape. Awesome place for great walks here.

I love Lancashire, England.

barn

barn, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

I love Hipstamatic on iPhone

....and I love old abandoned buildings too! lol

country walks

country walks, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

Looks like there's quite a few tools and plugins available for Photoshop that create that lovely digital painterly look and feel. I've seen one that does lovely watercolour - like fx to your photographs (the name escapes me atm!)

So... what do you do when you're poor and cannot afford these juicy plugins for PS? (and by PS I really me PSE v9) lol

Well, you get to work and create your own! Or try....I'm no Photoshopper expert but I do enjoy having a play with filters and textures in layers.

Here is the first of a small run of painterly images I've created. The next is more textured and the one after will be a more oil-like painting..... as and when I get chance to upload :)

Any comments or tips on this topic gratefully appreciated!

last light

last light, a photo by AppleCrypt on Flickr.

It's not that often I get chance to be let out my dungeon by the mistress of pain! Especially during sunset as I might just turn into a monster or something? (lol or am I just a Dad with so little time to spare?)

But..... when i do .... I take my camera :-)