Category: photos

Dresden in Black & White

On By Rick McIn photos, travel1 Comment

Faux-tography. 😀

What I liked best about Dresden, Germany was how few tourists cluttered up the great sights. Of the languages I heard, almost everyone spoke German. A few Russian. And a few spoke English.

Early or late in the day — or, especially, in the rain — I had the huge plazas nearly to myself even at the end of August.

Unlike Florence which is swarming with tourists at all times, my photos were mostly unpopulated.

For fun I decided to experiment with editing in black & white (Noir filter) and see if I could capture a feeling of the old East Germany.

AI photo editing

On By Rick McIn photosLeave a comment

Artificial Intelligence photo editing is getting scary good.

Here’s a recent photo of myself on a good day. Followed by one IMPROVED with the old Lensa photo editing app.

Processed with Lensa with Auto Adjustments & PT2 filter

Bigger, brighter eyes. Smaller nose. Fewer wrinkles on the face, if not on the neck. 😀

This is the regular Lensa app on MacOS. First 4 photos are free.

All the rage as I post is the Lensa AI app on iPhone and Android. U.S. $35.99 a year, with an extra charge of $3 to $12 for packs of avatars. Price has been going up.

You might be able to try it for a week, not continuing with the annual subscription.

I haven’t tried it. …. YET. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Visiting Seville, Spain 2022

On By Rick McIn photos, travelLeave a comment

This was actually my 3rd time stopping in Seville. It’s the essential transit point between southern Portugal and Andalusia, Spain.

I really do enjoy the city.

Seville got very, very rich after being named the royal monopoly port for trade with the growing Spanish colonies in the Americas and the influx of riches from them.

I’d walked the famous Cathedral in the past, so this time signed up for the rooftop tour. Very cool.

The technology in how they made this massive structure is fascinating.

I’d recommend rooftop over the regular tour as you actually do walk through the Cathedral coming and going to the top, as well.

My guide swears this is the REAL tomb of Christopher Columbus. But there’s another in the Dominican Republic. One or the other might be the brother of Columbus.

Wikipedia list of largest largest church buildings in the world:

  1. St. Peter’s Basilica (Rome)
  2. Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady Aparecida (Brazil)
  3. Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba
  4. Milan Cathedral
  5. Seville Cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral is in the top 10, as well.

On this short trip I spent the most time at the magnificent Plaza de España and surrounding parks.

The building was built 1928 to showcase Spain’s industry and technology at the Ibero-American Exposition World’s Fair 1929. What a legacy!

There are free Flamenco shows all the time at this plaza.

Another highlight of this visit was getting some fog, quite unusual in a city that has near non-stop sunshine.

I don’t shoot many creative shots, thinking myself more of a Fauxtographer than Photographer.

But I will try to play around more with urban black & white. I do like the feeling they give me.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Liverpool PHOTOS

On By Rick McIn photos, travelLeave a comment

Liverpool was once one of the wealthiest cities in the world.

A major shipping port — including being implicated in the slave trade.

Over time, many warehouses were abandoned. The citizens impoverished. Thatcher and the Conservative government were seen as being indifferent to the industrial decline in Merseyside.

The Beatles started a thriving music scene.

And in 2022 Liverpool is one of the most popular tourists cities. There’s much to do and see.

Click any of my photos below for a larger version. They may take a while to load as they are high resolution.

I NOW own 2 Drones 🤔

On By Rick McIn photos, travel, video3 Comments

In December 2021, I gambled CAD $349 for the low end DJI drone.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it.

As DJI is close to discontinuing — and the latest, greatest replacement costs at least 3x as much — I bought a second one. But this time with the full kit. CAD $592.20 including tax and two year warranty.

In fact, it seems I bought the last Mini SE in Canada. It’s been out of stock on the DJI Canada store ever since.

When one eventually dies, I can use the accessories with the other.

Quality and features are good ’nuff for my YouTube hiking and cycling videos.

Click PLAY or watch a sample on YouTube. Moorecroft Park is my favourite place to drone near Parksville, Vancouver Island. It’s legal and not crowded.

Most important to me with the NEW kit are the 3 batteries plus charger. With my original battery, I now have 4 total which is more than I can imagine using in one day.

Warranty is essential as it’s very easy to crash these things. I’ve crashed about 6 times already, the drone surviving each … SO FAR.

My old Mini SE will be the back-up. I’ll carry both on cycling trips. Just the new combo on hiking adventures.

Click PLAY or watch some samples of my footage on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch a review on YouTube.

Lisbon photos 2022

On By Rick McIn books, photos, travelLeave a comment

BACK in Lisbon to have a tooth implant installed, I posted some Instagrammy pics on Instagram.

Having visited most of the major tourist sites last year, I looked for less visited photo ops this time.

For example, I caught the ferry over to the former industrial suburb city Barreiro. I saw no other tourists wandering the streets that day. Augusto Cabrita, local photographer, cinematographer and film director is celebrated with this massive wall portrait.

Like last year, I took most of my larger meals at Time Out Market.

Many of my photos are of street art. I tried an experiment taking pictures of street art alongside REAL LIFE. One example.

The installation of my tooth implant was delayed by a couple of weeks. So I’m still not smiling in any photos prior to June 9th.

World’s oldest bookstore – Livraria Bertrand – Chiado, Lisbon

I finally got out to the Cascais beach area, about 45 minutes by train from the city centre.

Last night in Lisbon.

I feel more like a local than tourist.

Here are my Lisbon photos and video from November 2021.

iPhone LIVE Long Exposure Photos

On By Rick McIn Apple, photosLeave a comment

There are many ways to create long exposure photos, but none on iPhone are as super easy and quick as LIVE:

  • use the native iPhone camera
  • make sure LIVE photo is ON
  • use tripod to keep it solid
  • set the self-timer so the camera is not BUMPED when you click the button
  • using a 10 second timer you could put yourself into the long exposure (don’t move!)
  • once the photo has processed, in your camera roll click the photo. Click the LIVE icon. Choose the Long Exposure option.
  • you can edit to Long Exposure either in the iPhone or in the EDIT mode of the Photos app on a Mac (easier to see detail on the Mac)

Top Bridge Park, Parksville B.C.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Curves Adjustment Tool for Photos

On By Rick McIn Apple, photosLeave a comment

I’m enjoying experimenting with this way of editing photos in Pixelmator Pro. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. 

It does feel easier and more precise than other tools. 

Actually I start with the default Machine Learning quick fix. Move to Curves Adjustment IF I want. Finally I might tweak specific colours. 

This pic was much improved, for example, using Curves Adjustment. Cluttered, I played around to make the texture of the art work on the wall more 3D.

Here’s the photo before being uploaded to Instagram. The Instagram version is compressed. Lower quality.

I’m still using the Apple Photos app to move pics from cameras ➙ to folders ➙ to my Flickr master archive.

In fact, Apple Photos is a surprisingly good photo editor now. Less powerful than Pixelmator, but fast and easy for those I’m not posting online. It does have Curves Adjustment, as well.

In fact, Apple Photos has an Extensions tab where you can quickly pull up all the Pixelmator tools without opening that more powerful app. Cool.

DJI Mini SE Drone Test #1

On By Rick McIn cycling, hiking, photos, travel, video4 Comments

I tried and failed to fly a DJI Spark drone when it was released 2017. Did not once get it off the ground. It was a dead weight on my Patagonia trip that year.

In 2021 the (Mavic) Mini SE is their entry level model. CAD $349. … How long before I break it? 😀

I’ve either gotten a lot smarter — or their drones are much easier to operate now.

Click PLAY or watch the 1st flight on YouTube.