Category: iPhone 14 Pro Max

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Black and White iPhone 14 Pro Max Menlo Park Photography - Black & White

Sunday Morning Zen

On my morning walk this morning, I came across this young woman sitting on the pavement adjacent to pond at Sharon Park – looking across the water to the fountain and a sunny Sunday morning sky.

The fountain in the pond was just re-activated a few days ago – and it adds so much to the image by creating a point of interest where otherwise there’d just be negative space. It was blessed with great timing – both her being there and the fountain now active again.

There’s a walkway behind where she was sitting which is elevated by about four feet so I walked around behind her on to that walkway and snapped a few photos with my iPhone 14 Pro Max. This is the most peaceful and Zen-like of them – and I opted to post-process into black and white to remove all of the color and focus the eye on just the contrast between light and shadow.

Hope you also enjoy this image!

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iPhone 14 Pro Max Menlo Park Photography

Reflection

Sharon Park – Menlo Park CA

On my morning walk yesterday the skies had some moisture in them that combined with the morning sun to make a lovely pattern. The surface of the pond was smooth because the fountain which is usually running and making subtle waves is still offline due to damage from last winter’s storms. Most of the time I’ve missed the fountain but this morning I was happy the surface of the pond was like glass!

The questions about this image include:

  • Color or monochrome – I tried both and decided the subtle color of the original worked best.
  • The tree limb – there’s a pesky (actually pretty) willow tree at the end of the pond that likes to intrude in photos taken from this particular spot. I debated about removing it in Photoshop or not and decided it was a feature worth leaving in.

This particular pond is among my most photographed locations. I’ve captured it in all seasons and from many angles. It’s truly one of my favorite photographic subjects! Yesterday the light/cloud combination was just lovely! I make the image with my iPhone 14 Pro Max.

See also: Spotted: Gorgeous reflection on Sharon Park pond

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AI iPhone 14 Pro Max Photography Photoshop CC

First try with Photoshop’s new Generative Fill

Earlier today Adobe announced a beta of Photoshop which added an AI-based generative fill capability powered by Adobe Firefly. I have been playing a bit with Firefly to generate images but this new capability integrated into Photoshop is quite remarkable.

On my morning walk this morning, I snapped this photo of Sharon Park in Menlo Park, California. I liked how the sun was breaking out of the morning marine layer and creating some interesting light.

I wished I had taken the image in a 16:9 format so that it was wider – so I brought it into the new Photoshop beta and began using generative fill to enhance the image. Specifically, I added four generative layers which took me about 5 minutes to do (most of that time was me thinking about what I wanted to change!):

  • Used the crop tool to extend the border of the image to the left – widening the image.
  • Selected the sidewalk asphalt pavement and replaced it with cobblestone.
  • Removed the other pavement in the far right of the image and replaced it with lawn.
  • Added some ducks and ducklings to the pond.

Here’s the result:

A very pleasing result! The image is far from perfect but it’s much more visually interesting that the original right out of my iPhone this morning!

I’m looking forward to exploring more of the capabilities of this generative fill feature and look forward to seeing how Adobe continues to evolve it going forward!

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Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) iPhone 14 Pro Max Photography Portola Valley

Redwood Circle No.2

Here’s a second example of slow shutter cam photography using my iPhone 14 Pro Max (here’s my first example). This is a photo of another redwood circle at the Portola Valley Town Center. This one is immediately behind the main town hall building. By the way, both of these redwood circles have picnic tables in the center of the circles making them a beautiful spot to have a quiet outdoor lunch!

As with my first example, this was shot using the Slow Shutter Cam app – by doing a quick short pull down of the iPhone while the shutter was active for 0.5 seconds That provides the blur and also seems to shorten the height a bit. I then open the image in DistressedFX+ and try applying various textures and color backgrounds until I find something I find pleasing. Takes about 10 seconds!

I should have mentioned in my first post that I was first drawn to intentional camera photography by my friend Roxanne Overton. She has a very active Instagram feed with her ICM work – it’s always inspiring to see what she’s doing!

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Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) iPhone 14 Pro Max Photography Portola Valley

Redwood Circle

Yesterday I went for an afternoon walk at one of my favorite local places – Portola Valley Town Center.

The library there is among the best of our local libraries and the campus itself is a perfect place for a great walk. I enjoy walking the big loop around and can easily choose between options for either a half mile or full mile distance.

Yesterday there was a Sunday afternoon’s level of activity with a Little League baseball team out for practice and a very animated girls soccer game underway.

As I walked around the old school building I looked up and saw this circle of redwood trees with the sun behind them providing a beautiful glow. I’ve been experimenting with intentional camera movement (ICM) photography so I opened the Slow Shutter Cam app on my iPhone and made a quick vertical movement to slightly blur the trees. Later, at home, I used the Distressed FX+ app to add texture and color to the image resulting in the version shown here. I like the way it turned out!

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iPhone 14 Pro Max Menlo Park

A Rainy Walk in the Park

Yesterday we had some periods of rain – including a brief spattering of tiny hail. During a break in the rain, I headed out on my morning walk – only to have rain move in again by the time I reached the park. I enjoy walking in the rain – if it’s not too cold and not too windy – so I enjoyed it.

I wanted to play around a bit with Cinematic Mode on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. I made several movies – a couple of them included below. It is interested to see how the water and the splashes from the raindrops made focusing challenging for Cinematic Mode. I didn’t override anything manually – these two videos are straight out of the camera.

Sharon Park in the Rain #1
Sharon Park in the Rain #2