My GPS Camera Phone

Yesterday morning, we had frost covering everything. It was cold. Really cold. What a great time to visit Paynes Prairie.

Since I live in Florida, I’m not accustomed to cold weather, even though we get some chilly winter nights now and again. In spite of that, I love the freezes. A hard freeze brings with it ice crystals and a white sheet that covers everything – definitely a sight that is rarely seen around here. When this happens, it opens up a whole new realm of photographic subjects, which are a welcome change from the all-year earth tones that Florida experiences.

The overlook was absorbing the growing heat of the rising sun’s rays, quickly melting the frozen dew. I knew this golden photo opportunity was rapidly evaporating, so I hurried the kids out of the house and got them to school.

In the school parking lot, my youngest wanted to finish her snack and then go to class. As we sat in the car, I watched water droplets fall from the tall palm trees next to the road, indicating the fast onset of the brutal Florida sun.

Drip…drip…drip.

With the kids unloaded, I gunned it down US 441 hoping to get a good look at a frozen prairie. As the tree-lined road spilled out into the open prairie, I noticed that it wasn’t too late. Everything had a dusting of white frost. The overlook boardwalk was covered in ice as well, with some parts actually being dangerously slick when walked upon. Better yet, the sun had already melted the ice where it could shine, but anything in the shadows remained frozen, leaving a perfectly angular pattern. Look close at the deck and you can see the lighter frozen parts contrasting with the darker thawed parts.

I left for work after chatting it up with a man on his way to work for a local courier, knowing that there might be more of this waiting for me tomorrow – dead brown foliage blanketed in bright white.

More photos of this adventure to Paynes Prairie can be seen at the Nokia Chronicles site. Photo taken with a Nokia 6650 (courtesy WOM World) and edited with Photoshop CS2 (level adjustments and minor sharpening to highlight the ice crystals).

Its time for another round of new photos with a new phone. The Nokia team at WOM World hooked me up once again, this time with the GPS-enabled Nokia 6650. While it only sports a 2 mega-pixel camera, the quality of the shots are not too bad, at least when compared to the the Nokia 3555.

This shot was taken in the morning at my nature hangout on US441, Paynes Prairie. The exposure color is off a bit and it has quite a lot of noise, but again, not bad for a low-end camera. I would think, though, that a phone with so many features would have at least a 3 mega-pixel camera.

I’m also uploading photos and video clips at the Nokia Chronicles website for their 6650 promotion. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t appear to be fully operational, but keep checking back.

Adjusting levels, saturation and other settings in Photoshop can have a dramatic effect on the mood of an image. Take the image below, for example. What you see is a standard landscape photo of Paynes Prairie in late fall. The lush greenery is becoming dying brownery, accented with patches of yellow flowers. The sky is overcast with no defined cloud patterns. Overall, a pretty plain photo, aside from being shot through a fence. Nice, but plain.

I like Paynes Prairie, though, and I want to save this photo somehow. Photoshop holds the key. It holds many keys, but I’m going to use only a few this time around. Via the magic and awesomeness of adjustment layers, I’ll take the ordinary photo above and turn it into something moody and dark. The same could be done to make it happy and light, but I’m going in the other direction (which some might even call drab and plain!). The beauty of using adjustment layers is that you alter the photo’s appearance without altering the original photographic layer.

Open the photo in Photoshop and crop it to your liking. Using this cropped selection, add an adjustment layer to take out most of the color – in this case, everything except yellow – by going to “Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Hue/Saturation.” Take all colors down via the Saturation slider to their lowest value, then increase the yellow slider a bit to make the flowers pop more. You should have a semi-desaturated image at this point.

Next, add another adjustment layer for level adjustment by going to “Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Curves…” (or adding a Levels… layer). Adjust the levels to your liking. There are endless possibilities with this setting, just like the saturation layer, so don’t be afriad to play around with multiple variations. It comes down to personal preference.

To finish this off, we want to bring those clouds up a bit more, since there’s really no definition in the gray, overcast sky. This can be easily done with the burn tool. Make sure to burn the highlights, midtones and shadows in order to achieve maximum effect.

Now sit back and enjoy your creation!

I love the Nokia 5610.

On my way into work this morning, I took a brief side trip to the prairie overlook to see how things were going. The storm called Fay is not really doing much in the way of damage, but it is dumping a lot of rain on us. I’m definitely not complaining, since previous years have been too dry and fire prone. This year is different.

I’d have gotten out of the car, but it was raining and I didn’t want to melt. You’ve seen this picture before, but in much drier conditions. I’ll get some more photos of Fay soon, since it’s on the way out and much safer to venture in the yard.

In an attempt to redeem myself for the atrocious week named Sepia, I’m posting a photo of the water lily that looked a little sick a few days ago. Note the color this time.

The Nymphaeaceae likes to grow in the warmer months, going dormant in the winter. I had no idea that it is considered an invasive plant, or that it was the national flower of Bangladesh. (Now I do.) Regardless of its reputation, I like it and wouldn’t mind seeing a lot more of them. Maybe it’s time for another trip to Paynes Prairie…

As for a theme week, I’m going to hold off for now, but I think there will be another one next week. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know. It could be any theme, just nothing too impossible.