CameraBag 2 review

Last week Nevercenter asked if I'd like a review copy of their photo editing desktop app CameraBag 2. I had a look at the intro video on You Tube and thought it looked interesting so said why not and they gave me a copy. Initially I wasn't entirely sure why they approached me but I suspect that they are aiming for the "in love with Instagram (or Hipstamatic) and want to do it on my computer" set - and I admit I've looked for Photoshop filters that would allow me to replicate some of the filters I like on Camera + or Magic Hour. And woah does CameraBag have filters! Filters up the wazoo.  I could put in some screen shots of it in action, but actually the 5 minute 'How To' video is probably the best way to get an idea of how it works and it will save me a lot of explaining!



So, what do I think? I think it's fun and useful but there are some important things that are missing. First the good stuff!

Filters, filters, filters and more filters! I'm sure if you're a Photoshop whiz you can do these things easily enough, but I'm not and I can't - not even a vignette, so I'm pretty excited about these.

This is some of them:


And there's even more of them here:


All up I counted 102 individual filters, and then within each of those there is a huge variety of settings. It's a little overwhelming! Luckily there is the quick look option which lets you see them all at a glance.

There are also the usual exposure settings of brightness/contrast/saturation etc. etc.



Plus some frames (something I've never been able to figure out in Photoshop!)



So all of that's good and great and I'm really enjoying it. But what can't it do? (and I do stand to be corrected on this if anyone knows differently) Well it can't sharpen, and that's a major failing in my books. I use unsharp mask a lot, even on photos that are pretty sharp to begin with. Other online photo editing programs do a good sharpen - Snapseed on my iPhone does a super-good job, so its lack in CameraBag is a bit puzzling. It's the difference between this:

and this:

The other thing that I like to use a lot is a clone stamp or similar to get rid of pesky lamp posts or wires or trees. There are iPhone apps that can do this (eg.Filterstorm) - but not CameraBag. So instead of getting all lovely cloud courtesy of the seriously cool 'content aware' fill function in Photoshop (cloning could do it too, it's just much more labour-intensive):

You get this

Boo - trees and powerlines!

In the course of trying to figure out where sharpening was, I discovered another issue - the lack of a decent help function. The website offers a few video tutorials and some FAQs and that's about it. There is no comprehensive help guide, or any way of searching on a topic if what you want to know isn't contained in the FAQs. This suggests they aren't really expecting anyone to want to use this program seriously, or to experience anything outside the completely ordinary and expected. As a Photoshop and iPhone photo app junkie user it wasn't really an issue for me, and the controls are pretty intuitive, but still.

Overall I'm really enjoying the app and even if I had spent money on it I think I'd be pretty happy and looking forward to using it; but it's not perfect. I suspect what I'll be doing is some basic editing in Photoshop, particularly sharpening, and then taking it over to CameraBag. I've got my iPhoto set up to edit using Photoshop anyways, so it should work fairly smoothly. At the moment CameraBag 2 is US$24 and you can get a month's free trial for either Mac or PC, which seems to me like a bit of a no-brainer - you can evaluate it yourself. And if you find a way to sharpen I'd love to know!

Instagram

I haven't been doing anything interesting lately, though I do try and fake it on Instagram. I love making my life look all arty and cool.

I've yet to try printing any photos off in a serious way - anyone have a good experience with a printing company? I printed a few off on my printer but I think I'd have to glue the photo paper to cardboard to stop them curling in the humidity. I created these mosaics over at instagrid.me, and they link up to printstagr.am who have some cute options, but I haven't investigated the international shipping. One never knows with US companies - sometimes they're fine, other times they seem to regard the existence of the rest of the world as offensive in some way and the shipping is so exorbitant you'd expect the item to show up carried by Daniel Craig in an Aston Marton. I think I've just convinced myself that it would be a good thing if Printstagram was in the latter camp... ;)

Felt finger puppets

We're heading off for my father-in-laws 90th (!!) birthday party this weekend and I thought I'd take along some handsewing to do. I asked Hazel what she'd like out of Kata Golda's Hand Stitched Felt and she chose the finger puppets. So of course I started them last night while watching our weekly dose of surreal tv (Flash Forward and Lost) and I made 3 out of the 5. I finished them off today. Not sure what I'm going to do while we're away! Actually I think might try and make another set for my little niece Rebecca.

The thing I like about the projects in this book, and probably about handsewing felt in general, is how easy it is, nice to work with, and totally and absolutely satisfying! The fact that a little unevenness actually looks great is a total bonus :)

Of course, mine don't approach the rustic feel of the originals because I Just. Can't. Do. It. I try. I try really hard to be wonky. But my innate anal retentiveness won't allow me. It's a total battle as I go, part of my brain is saying in a very James Kirk way "Must. Be. Wonky." and the other part of me is saying in a Church Lady kind of voice "Tidiness is a virtue"

Part of the fun of the finger puppets is that she suggests you make various changes for different animals (as seen in her examples) but the tails are a mystery so I had to come up with my own versions for each animal (except the mouse). From left to right that would be: dog, mouse, rabbit, cat, hamster. I probably shouldn't have placed the cat next to the hamster but on second thought the hamster looks big enough to take care of itself.

I'm feeling a little dissatisfied with my photos recently. I know why and it's Photoshop action envy. I ended up at MCP Actions via Pioneer Woman's photography blog, and I have this horrible lingering feeling that if I could just afford to buy one of those packages then my photos would suddenly be breathtaking. I hate the hazy, slightly faded look they have sometimes and while I can Photoshop them a bit by myself or use the PW action sets I have (limited but great I should add) I really wish they had the depth of colour, clarity and sparkle that the pros manage.

Snow in October?

Well as close as I'm ever going to get here in Auckland anyways :)

Outstanding in their field

Taken by Mat in a field somewhere in New Zealand. I found it on the camera when I downloaded some of my photos.

Moooo.

Weeds

I took a few photos yesterday of the weeds we picked on Sunday because they looked so lovely sitting on the kitchen table in the morning sunshine.

I don't know what these grasses are (and they may be native for all I know) but I think they'd make a lovely fabric print.



There was also a lot of Queen Anne's Lace and it's just so amazingly detailed and complex - not to mention in about 4 different shades of pink! Again, would make an amazing fabric print and I adore the Queen Anne's Lace pillowcase embroidery pattern over at Sew Mama Sew by Alicia at Posy Gets Cozy (one of my favourite blogs!)



I had some focus issues with these shots, I think my depth of field was too shallow and I ended up with weird horizontal bands of focus that looked awful. I obviously need to come to grips with using this technique instead of just doing it and hoping for the best. Miz Booshay I'm not :) Though I'd like to be because she can take a good photo and isn't pretentious about telling how she did it. And if you haven't downloaded PW's action sets for Photoshop from the link above then you're missing something :)

Hebe flower

Hebe flower, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Yesterday Mat had to work so Hazel and I walked down to the lovely trail that runs along the harbour edge and had a picnic alongside one of the settling ponds there. We call it Lizard Island because the little bronze skinks come out to sunbathe on the rocks of the ford across the outlet. We stopped by the bakery on the way and Hazel got a gingerbread man and I got an apple turn-over which turned out to be an apple strudel when we got there and opened our little paper bags, and we shared a cheese and ham roll. Hazel watched for skinks and I took in the view across to the city, and down to the bridge and Rangitoto. It was very nice and even the gorse was looking its best covered in yellow flowers and making the air smell like coconut tan lotion. There's a line in a poem my Dad's very fond of that goes something like "golden furze, unprofitably gay", that's what it was. Then we went hunting for plants to bring home and draw. I felt a bit guilty walking home with a huge handful of various things but kept reminding myself they were introduced weeds one and all. All except for this little hebe flower that Hazel picked from a bush near the park. Tiny and perfect. We haven't managed to draw anything yet but we have it booked in for tomorrow.

Lawn daisies

Lawn daisies, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

There are fancier (and bigger!) flowers in the world but lawn daisies are one of my favourites. So many of them around at the moment, spring is definitely in the air!

At the beach

This morning I asked Hazel what she wanted to do on such a glorious sunny morning and she said "go to the beach!" At first I was a bit reluctant because it's about a 3/4 hour drive, but then I thought stuff it! and off we went. We headed to Muriwai Beach on the West Coast which is where we mostly seem to go. First we stopped at Maori Bay because usually it's fun to potter around the big rocks there but the tide was higher than I'd expected so we just stayed up on top and watched the surfers and gannets for a bit


(all photos and video from my phone camera unfortunately!)

and then we walked around to the viewing platform to see what the gannets were up to at their nesting site. They're at the nest-building stage it would seem.



Then we walked down the other side of the promontory to Muriwai proper and braved the big waves washing across the bottom of these stairs much to Hazel's horror once we were actually doing it. It was actually quite safe!



That effectively killed her desire to be at the beach when there was a tide - any kind of tide, low, high, inbetween, clearly a tide was not to be trusted because it makes the sea move! Aieee! , I think she was convinced we were all about to be washed away if it got any higher. Little landlubber! So we went inland for icecreams.







It truly was a beautiful morning. :)

Autumn and spring

Autumn and spring, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

It's a funny time of year, autumn leaves and spring bulbs.

In an effort to spend my birthday money I bought 'Sewing Green' by Betz White.


It's been lurking on my wishlist over at Fishpond for awhile now and they sent me a $10 off coupon today which clinched the deal. I'm really looking forward to having a read, it's been getting nothing but good reviews in the bloggosphere!

Walking and sewing and writing papers

We went for a great walk up in the Waitakeres on Sunday morning. The weather was only marginally sunny, but it was so wonderful to get out of the suburbs and into the bush. When I only spend time around the neighbourhood or in the city it's easy to forget that New Zealand is a wonderfully different and strange place compared to Canada, and the bush never fails to make me feel both a foreigner and in awe at the same time.



The only problem with wanting to take photos of this amazing place is that it's So. Dark. under the canopy, most of the photos came out blurry or murky. Or both! Perhaps the best way to experience it is to watch Lord of the Rings ;) I have the utmost respect for those professional photographers who can take photos in the deep bush and have them come out! I guess they lug around lighting because seriously, there is no other way. In this one I had to overexpose the sky to get the path to show up. I can't resist the tree ferns and nikau palms against the sky though, like architectural lace.



And a nice stream to walk beside


Hazel had a great time, walked for an hour and a half with no complaining and even a bit of running at the end. Ah to have the energy of a kid! Her main concern was that there might be bears and foxes out there, which we were able to assure her didn't exist here. Here we are at the end of the track, before I collapsed gratefully into the nice warm car. :)



On the home front I'm alternating between working on my talk for the NZAA conference in Wellington on Thursday, and sewing up the Clothkits skirt. It's taking me longer to do the skirt than I anticipated, but it's come together really nicely. The fabric is a lovely heavy yet drapey cotton so I think it'll look fabulous when it's all hemmed up. The talk isn't taking me as long which is worrying me! It's only 20 minutes, but actually that can be harder than doing an hour because you have to edit ferociously.

An Auckland winter

Hazel at the window, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

When the southerly came through on Sunday the temperature dropped, the rain lashed the living room windows, and with the heater on in the living room the condensation appeared almost instantly.

Hazel covered the panes with her name, or in this case, Santa Claus. Oh little girl, you have a long wait ahead of you! Poor thing, with a Canadian for a mother she's so full of ideas of snow at winter that she can't quite get her head around the idea that it never snows here and that it's summer when Santa comes. I'm determined to get her down to the snow this winter though, it's her birthright! It's crazy how much I miss snow. Snow and mountains. Of course I'd probably get my fill of snow in a couple weeks, but I can never get enough of mountains.

Autumn Leaves

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway post is the next one down!

When I was taking photos of my giveaway bunny I ended up being quite taken by the leaves themselves and decided a still-life was in order.



I'm not a 100% sure on the placement of the key things like the rosehips or the manuka blossoms, or whether it could use more white at the top (hello Photoshop!), but oh the colours! You can see it bigger over at Flickr if you select the sizes option.

The inspiration for a studio setting for natural things came from fabulous images of grasses at Oote Boe, check them out!