Morning Ice
Sunday morning, I was inspired as I walked my dog in the early morning hour. It was 6 am, and as I stepped out the door, there was not a soul in sight. Everyone was still in bed, recovering from their Saturday night activities. The weather has been somewhat up and down. One week it's 70 degrees and we're all wearing t-shirts, and the next minute, it's 25 degrees and the cold winds have us bundled up and praying for warmer weather. On this particular morning, it was very cold. It was quiet. So quiet that I could hear the crunch of the frozen grass as I made each step. The frost was dense on every surface, and looked as though glitter had been sprinkled everywhere.
Later, as the sun came up, I decided to defrost the car and head out for some breakfast. While I waited for my car to warm up, I snapped this photo of my windshield:
(Original) Frost on the Windshield - January 2013
I often take photos of different textures, as I think they might be useful later. But on this occasion, I wanted to make some new artwork. I decided to experiment with CameraBag 2, which is the new version of CameraBag, but FREE! You can upgrade to the Pro version, but even the lite version has quite a bit to offer.
I cropped my original to a square, as best I could. Unfortunately you're meant to eyeball it, and there are no preset crop sizes. Perhaps the Pro version has presets? I added the Skater filter to bring out more of the blue hue of the ice. I then darkened the contrast by using the slider, saved the image and opened the saved image in Picfx.
Editing with Picfx
I wanted to then add that feeling that I had from earlier that morning, with the sparkle of the glittery frost and darkness of the early morning sky, so in Picfx, I added the Ocean Urban filter, and saved it. This added the vignette and darkness I needed. I then reopened the saved image and applied the Bokeh 3 light filter on top of that. There was that sparkle that I wanted!
I just love to snap a photo and just see what happens. That's the fun part about iPhoneography. The exploration!