Mt. Hood's Alpine Wildflowers

Let's ride the Train

Bridge over the Stream

“If you know wilderness in the way that you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go….” — Terry Tempest Williams, Testimony

Happy Memorial Day from Lander, Wyoming

A Concrete Love Affair

The kissing statues on the boardwalk in Olympia, Washington during the Wooden Boat Festival.

Fire & Wine

Photo from the North Willamette Wine Trail. Tasting wine on the back patio at Ardiri Winery & Vineyards.

Frozen Spring

Thawing from our second day of spring freeze in Eugene, the melting snow and ice uncovers the beautiful beauty that comes with March’s early buds!

Spring is Here! Well not really…

Happy second day of spring from Eugene, Oregon! This morning I woke up to four inches of snow…and to think it is almost April. With streets closed and slush pending, my roommate and I ventured out in the afternoon to build these two lovely snow-people. The hair on the second one is from the beautiful Cherry Blossom tree that snapped in front of our apartment. Poor flowers!

5 iPhone Apps for Outdoor Photography

As much as I love taking photos with my real camera, my daily photo snapping buddy is my iPhone. With its ease of use and extreme portability, my smart phone is the hidden weapon in my pocket and with today’s advance app technology it is possible to get awesome outdoor photography from this simple little camera.

Do you use your phone as your camera too? What is your favorite photo app?

Here is my top 5 iPhone Apps to use to take and edit my outdoor adventure photos:

Dynamic Light

Do you hate it when you take a photo on your phone and the colors seem duller than reality? With this powerful photo tool, turn your dark and colorless photos into vibrant images. Using the same properties of HDR technology yet with only one image, Dynamic Light brightens shadowed sections of the image and increase the color contrast to bring out the complexity of the image.

To use the app you can either take a photo directly in the tool or upload an image. With the sliding scroll adjust the intensity and use special filters to optimize the scene.

Dynamic light is my favorite app to use for landscape photos on cloudy days. The way the app adjusts the light and shadows of the clouds is always breathtaking.

This app cost 99 cents on the App Store.

Luminance

Enhance, dramatize, and color correct your iPhone photos with this all-in-one photo editing application. Luminance with its simple interface, makes editing your photos effortless yet without skimping on editing capabilities. Offering built-in filter presets like Twilight, X-Process and Cold Tone, Luminance makes it easy to change the look of your photo. But the best part of this app is the detailed sliders its offers to edit with precision. From split toning to adding Vignette and editing contrast, let Luminance be the professional photographer in your pocket.

This app costs 99 cents.

Slow Shutter Cam

This app works just like the title describes. Use Slow Shutter to take long exposure images right on your iphone. From low light settings to beautiful cascading waterfall photos, the app allows you to choose the shutter length to augment your photos further. The one difficultly with taking slow shutter images though is that you have to hold completely still or your photos will appear blurry from the movement.

To capture this photo of Sweet Creek Falls in Oregon with my Slow Shutter app I had to kneel on the ground and prop my hands and phone on my knees to hold still enough to get the shot. A challenge, but well worth it for the photo affect!

This app costs 99 cents.

Snap Seed

Fine tune your photos with this easy iPhone tool to create natural looking photos with the clarity and definition of an expensive camera and editing software. From image sharpening to grid straightening and ambiance to white balance, Snap Seed sets you up for photo success. However it doesn’t come cheap. I scored this app on a special when they were giving it away for free, yet it regularly costs $4.99.

Instagram

Offering a growing number of unique filters that add texture, ambiance and feeling to your photos, Instagram is the granddaddy of iphone photography apps for me – plus its FREE! With a built in social platform, the app allows you to share, comment and create with your fellow iphonegraphers.

So now that you have all these beautiful outdoor photos that are edited with creativity share them on Instagram and add to the growing community of iPhone togs!

Find me on Instagram @KelseyIvey!

Other iPhone photo apps to check out:

• Photoshop Express
• SnapBucket
• Color Effects
• Photosynth

Willamette River Glow

“Here, on the river’s verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left. “ ~ Paul Cezanne

One more reason I love Oregon: The special moments as the sun glistens over the rippling water of the Willamette River while on my regular training run.