Day One v2

Day One 2 for OS X

Day One was released in 2011. An outstanding journaling app, it quickly won the hearts of many including receiving App of the Year in 2012 from Apple. It has been one of my favorite apps both on iOS and Mac. It is both a powerful and beautiful application on both platforms.

While this isn’t really a post about photography or filmmaking, per se, I find the journaling app to be a valuable asset to me as a photographer. My photos tell my story or I tell a story with my photography. Wherever I travel, whatever I am doing, I find ways to fit photography into my life. One of my most favorite activities when I travel is simply to roam around photographing the places I go. Day One is a companion for a photographer to journal particularly special photos and places one has been; a map view will show you locations where one was when the entry was created of the geotag of the photo. 

I find it relaxing to write down a few thoughts, add a photo, or even just geotag my entry for later review. Journaling was never part of my life until I had the access to a digital one; no matter where I was or what device I had with me, I could add an entry. As Day One has a sync service, I can quickly add an entry from my Apple Watch, just a sentence or two or a location. I can write from my iPhone or my iPad. Or, if I need to write even more, I can do it from my Mac and all my entries will be found on all my devices. Sometimes it is just a photo, sometimes just text, and sometimes a combination of the two.

An entry in Day One 2 for iOS

I write this post on the day a new version of Day One is released. Day One 2 rebuilds an already great app. I have only had moments to work with it but it has already proven to be a worthy upgrade. Probably my favorite new feature is the ability to add multiple photos to an entry. Before, it was only one but so many times I found that I my journal entry was incomplete, not telling the whole story with only one image. Now these entries are more dynamic with a digital scrapbook feel. Perhaps a landscape photo where I travel can remind me of the beautiful site while another photo reminds me of the time with friends or family. Day One 2 becomes not only a journal but also a living news feed of life.

As one goes through daily life, it is easy to think we’ll remember everything when, in fact, we won’t. Day One helps piece together our lives with photos, written entries, geo-locations, weather, and even what kind of locomotion at the moment of the entry (train, car, walking, sitting, etc.). A year, ten years, or decades from now, one can open their digital journal and time travel to remember photos, places, faces, and more from long ago.

I highly recommend Day One 2 for Mac and iOS to anyone but for us photographers, this journaling app is a close connection to our passion. Both can be purchased now; the Mac version here and the iOS version here. A timeline of life is something that one can appreciate forever. It is always a pleasure to rewind and reflect on something that might have been forgotten.

P.S. They are 50% for the next week. Ge them at the discounted price while you can!

The New Olympus 300mm f4 PRO Super Telephoto Lens as Reviewed by Robin Wong

Tiger by Robin Wong, © Robin Wong 2016 

I am not a nature photographer. Or, perhaps more accurately, I'm not a telephoto nature photographer. I imagine it is more or less because I don't have the right gear to do it. I don't own a 600mm f4 for my Nikon (it's a $12,000 lens!). I also don't have a 600mm equivalent lens for my iPhone or Olympus E-M5. 

Come to the rescue: Olympus 300mm f4. If you've followed me, I really enjoy shooting with Micro Four Thirds. One of its advantages is the "crop factor" (though I dislike that term; it is a bit of a misnomer). A rule of thumb is multiple by 2 the focal length of a Micro Four Thirds lens to give you the 35mm equivalence focal length. You'll read a whole lot of nonsense about this but it gives you a general idea of the field of view between the two formats.

Coming in at about $2400, the Olympus 300mm f4 gives you the field of view of a 600mm but super (or relatively) compact. And as Robin Wong writes:

“If you have scrutinized the sample images as shown above, I think you can predict what I am going to say about the lens sharpness. It is extremely sharp. The sharpness was so incredible you can immediately tell the difference in terms of details clarity just by reviewing the images on the camera LCD screen (was on an E-M1). The level of fine details captured was beyond anything I have witnessed so far coming from Olympus lenses. Yes, someone will ask how does this 300mm PRO lens compare with the two sharpest lenses from Olympus, the 75mm F1.8 and 40-150mm F2.8 PRO. The 300mm F4 PRO beats both the aforementioned lenses.”

— http://robinwong.blogspot.com

While I haven't shot with this lens, as a fan of incredible technology, this lens is really impressive. Perhaps it is the sharpness of this lens, the image stabilization that will synchronize with you E-M1 or E-M5II camera's 5-axis IS, or that it is both compact (relatively) and weather sealed, or it is a pseudo macro lens with its 1:4 magnification (at 300mm!) but the enthusiast in my would dearly appreciate using such a lens.

Whether you shoot with M43 or not, I'd highly recommend reading Robin's site and read his review and view is impressive photos. While Robin is an Olympus employee, his reviews always seem quite even handed an overall objective. Is casual writing style and qualified observations always give me an impression of non-bias and high-quality reviews.

I hope one day to have my hand at this lens and put it to the test. However, I've always been impressed with Olympus lenses and can't imagine that this lens could possibly disappoint me. Of course, the equipment isn't what takes the picture, the photographer does but having some bad ass equipment always does seem to help!

Head over to Robin's review and give his site some traffic to say thanks for allowing me to share some of his photography and review on my site. 

All images in this post were shot by and are the property of Robin Wong and viewable here.

Photos Tips and Tricks: Fade Filter with Adjustments

In 2014, Apple announced iPhoto and Aperture would not longer be developed. iPhoto was released in 2002 and weighed in at well over a gigabyte. It was an old, slow, and clunky application. While it served many of us well for many years, technology is about new ventures and evolution, not stagnation and rigidity. Aperture was newer, much more powerful in both editing and organizing than iPhoto but also a bit more of a learning curve. But, alas, these applications gave way to a new, singular, more powerful, more efficient, and intuitive application: Photos.

No doubt this ruffled some feathers. People dislike change but when it comes to technology, change is most definitely the constant. Even for technology wizards like my colleagues and I, we still have to learn these new tools. Personally, I was excited. I love to learn a new application, see what it does, how it was designed, and how it will fit into my life.

This was not without growing pains. I had used Aperture since before the public; I beta tested it and was one of three selected to champion it. I wrote training curriculums, taught classes, and used it both personally and professionally; hand to hand, I would put my knowledge of Aperture up against anyones. It was powerful and had some really impressive editing tools. I loved Aperture, as did many others. The end was near, however, for Aperture, so when Photos was announced, I quickly made my way to beta testing it.

The challenge: use Photos exclusively, from day one, and do everything photographic with it for six months. It was time to explore and venture into the unknown and put it to the test. As those who know and follow me, I love a challenge with my creative tools. In fact, I’d go as far to say that I prefer limitations and challenges; it makes me more creative, try harder, innovate, and push my technology and self to new limits.

It little time to feel comfortable with the application as it works nearly identically to its iOS sibling. Photos on OS X is definitely more powerful within the realm of editing and organization but the general functions are the same. If one knows Photos for iOS, one knows Photos for OS X. One might then ask, “How did you fare, Adrian, having used a set of tools that wasn’t as powerful as Aperture’s?"

It was a challenge as first but, while photos starts out with a simple editing toolset, one can expand the tools for more control. It makes general adjustments simple for users looking for quick and easy editing while more advance editors can take a deeper dive. I found that Photos was getting a bad wrap because there were some really powerful tools, some of which aren’t even in Photoshop, and with a little creativity and ingenuity, there was real opportunity to do some great work.

One of these toolsets is Filter. There are eight total: five color and three black and white. On first approach, these filters seem rather simplistic; they emulate certain film stocks, polaroid, or film processing technique, etc. Initially one might question the validity as they can be rather “bold” in their adjustments to a photo (though, I really like Noir). And when it comes to filters, eight is child play. VSCO has dozens. Instagram, Afterlight, Enlight, and many other also give tons of filters for one’s photo filtering needs. But, there in lies the problem; these apps give people a false assumption of how one could work in Photos. Generally, filters in apps are tap and go and maybe with a little extra fine-tuning; find your photo, add a filter, share it. Done. In Photos, one needs to be a little more creative and leave behind the simplistic nature of a lot of that general mobile photo editing app experience. (Note: there are plenty of iOS editing apps that are very powerful. I write this in general terms.)

Photos Tips and Tricks is a series launched from this very observation. The tools available to us in Photos are not just to be used in exclusivity but in tandem with others. And that Photos is, in fact, much more powerful than iPhoto, and a lot can be accomplished if one actually takes advantage of the tools. So let us start with the inaugural tip: Fade Filter with Adjustments.

This filter became a favorite of mine but I didn’t care much for it when I first applied it and generally find it too plain when applied alone. I needed to take my editing into the Adjustments section of Photos to make it work.

Down and to the Right (original), Olympus E-M5, Panasonic 14mm f2.5 at f5.6

Fade Filter with Color Adjustment

Above is the original image for Down and to the Right. It was shot using the Olympus E-M5 with a Panasonic 14mm f2.5 lens at f5.6. The image itself is rather flat and needs some processing to make it pop so let’s start with the Fade Filter.

Step 1
Entering the edit mode by clicking on Edit in the upper right corner of Photos' window, a list of tools will appear on the right. The fourth toolset it filters.

Step 2
Clicking on the Fade filter, the image loses a fair amount of its color. It does not appear to be a simply reduction of saturation; the color values seem to roll off with the characteristics of being on a curve. Some colors, like green, also fade more with a shift toward yellow.

Image with Fade applied.

Step 3
With the Fade applied, switch to the Adjustments toolset. This is the very next button below Filters. Initially, you’ll only see a few adjustments: Light, Color, and Black and White. You may notice this looks much like the tools in Photos for iOS. Try dragging the color adjustment to the right. You can make significant inroad with the slider and the photo will hold up.

Image with Color Adjustment applied.

Final
The above photo is processed with Fade plus a 60-70% increase to the Color Adjustment. The enhanced photo has a whole new appeal to it; a little filmic, a little more stylized. 

Not all photos should one apply this series of steps. Photos with a lot of blues, indigos, violets, don’t hold up well to this method; those colors tend to over saturate with the Color Adjustment, however, it is possible to fine-tune that as well with the Color Contrast adjustment. That is the beauty of such a creative workflow; it opens one to exploring other options and integrating one tool into another. And this doesn't have to be the end of the editing process. Levels, quarter tones, definition, exposure, etc. are all other tools available for continued processing of a photo.

Feel free to explore the editing possibilities. This is only the start of what can be accomplished in Photos. The best news is, one, Photos never adjusts the original image so playing with a photo, it can always be reverted back to the master. Two, while Photos does have more power than many will give it credit, as with all tools, it does have limits. If more manipulations are needed, Photos in El Capitan (OS 10.11) supports extensions and thus, other editing applications can build into Photos expanding its capabilities. The Mac App store has a section for Photography where extensible apps can be found.

I hope this simple but powerful tip help you edit your images. I hope that I have dispelled a few myths that Photos isn't powerful. It greatly eclipses iPhoto's editing tools and allows for much more flexibility.

I would love to hear your feedback on this tip and if you have any you'd like to share, reader would also welcome your insight. Visit again soon other Photos Tips and Tricks posts.