Ok so today I’m posting about my soon to be released iPhone App Frizoo. We’re getting really close to a release date now, in fact so close we can smell it, but before it’s released into every App Store across the world I’m asking for your help…

I’m looking for a number of people who would like to test and review what should now be the final release version of Frizoo; an app which I believe has been designed to be used by anyone regardless of age, profession, etc…

So if you’d like to help out and get hold of a copy of Frizoo before it’s officially released all I ask is that you are active on social media, have your own blog (although that’s not entirely essential) but also that you head on over and ‘Like’ the official Frizoo Facebook Page. Drop me an email to: glyn@glyndewis.com and just let me know whereabouts you’re based in the world and any links you want to share.

I’m looking for 25 reviewers/testers in total so those who receive the app will do so in an email along with details about the App including the background, what it is, what it does etc…

Thanks for your help folks and I’ll catch you soon,
Enjoy

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Now I did intend to post a complete walk-through of the recent soldier composite ‘Homeward Bound‘ today but to be honest a couple of things i needed to do have taken longer than expected and I’ve not had time. But…I will be posting it on Monday and will cover the complete lighting set up and walk-through each of the editing stages.

In the meantime though there was just a couple of things I wanted to mention…

Are you Mobile?
For about the last 2 years I’ve had a WordPress blog designed and set up using ProPhoto Blogs which I have to admit are a dream to work with, easy to use and darned good price too.

In this past week they’ve introduced quite a major upgrade to their software and as well as all the other bells and whistles they’ve now introduced one thing I’ve quickly fallen in love and that’s the ability to customise how your blog/site appears on mobile devices such as iPhone, iPads, Android etc…Whereas before the mobile version worked it was just a little on the dull side to be honest but this latest upgrade allows you to really customise the look and feel plus the new way that it deals with images means pages loads that much quicker…

Anyway on this subject checking Google Analytics lately I’m noticing that more and more visitors to the blog are doing so from mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Android; in fact proportionally more than I anticipated. Clearly making your blog/site look good and easy to navigate on mobile devices is important and as we move on into 2012 and beyond clearly it’s going to become even more so.

But what about you…Are you mobile ready? and if you are, are you noticing this same trend from your visitors?

Shout out to my mate Dave
On a completely different subject I just wanted to take a moment to give a shout out to my mate Dave Clayton affectionately known as Lord Jollybottom; the UK NAPP Evangelist, Designer extraordinaire and darned fine fellow!

Having now introduced a series of workshops and with a few other projects on the go such as putting a book together Dave has been the ‘Go to Guy’ for all my design work. I don’t quite know how he does it but no sooner have I discussed a concept with him, he’s come up with a draft which each and every time never fails to blow me away…

So keeping it short and sweet this is to say a huge THANK YOU to Dave for everything; an incredibly talented designer, a great friend and a nicer more genuine bloke you couldn’t wish to meet! Cheers Buddy

That’s all for now folks, so have a great weekend and I’ll see you here in a few days time,
Enjoy

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Those of you who follow me on Facebook, Twitter and/or Google+ will know that I’m in the middle of having an iPhone App built. Originally called ‘Smee’ but now with a new name of ‘Frizoo‘ I’ve not actually publicised yet what the App does or indeed who it’s targeted at. Well, although today I can’t actually tell you what the App does, and believe me there is good reason for this, I can tell what it isn’t having had a number of pleas requests to tell more…

What it isn’t:

• About me or my business
• A ‘Training’ App
• A Game
• A ‘Business’ App
• Targetted at a specific group of people i.e. the App is for anyone and everyone (Adults, Kids, Business Folk, Non-Business Folk etc…)

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and I have to send out a HUGE thanks to Alex from Analysis21 Ltd [Link] who are designing and building the App and doing an incredible job too; geez I thought I put the hours in but these guys are unstoppable and not forgetting to mention their Customer Service which has blown me away! Seriously folks if you’ve ever thought about having a mobile App built then go speak to these guys! [Link]

Anyway, back to the main reason for this post…

I’ve created a Facebook Page for the Frizoo app and that’s where I’m going to be posting regular updates on how the App is coming along, expected release date, pricing and so on, so if you’re a Facebook user why not head over to the page, click the ‘Like‘ button and keep up to date with the progress: [Link]

I’m kind of anticipating a release date sometime in October once the website has been put together along with a video and of course the testing has been done. Talking of ‘testing’ I’ll be looking for a number of people to be Beta Testers so if this is something you’d like to become involved in, feel free to make it known in the comments section below.

Right that’s all I have for today so thanks a lot for stopping by and lending me your ears for a few minutes,
Enjoy

• • •

Frizoo on Facebook [Link]
Frizoo on Twitter [Link]

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For those of you who are regular followers of this blog, I think it’d be fair to say that when it comes to artistic flair, my lighting diagrams are..ahem…’interesting’ to say the least; sure they get the information across but I’ll certainly not win any awards for my drawing skills

I asked folks a while back on Twitter if I should keep them as they are or if I should look to using some of the lighting diagram utilities that are out there, which at the time were mainly for use in Photoshop. The response was mixed..some saying that I should keep drawing them as they are because they add personality to the posts and some saying I should use the ‘corporate’ style ones…

Anyway, there’s been a lot of developments lately in the Lighting Diagram department, particularly as Apps for the iPhone and iPad and one that’s really caught my attention is “Sylights”, which I originally saw reviewed over on Terry White’s BestApp site [Link]. One thing in particular I like about “Sylights” amongst other things is that it doesn’t have the ‘corporate’ feel of other utilities but maintains that ‘drawn’ feel…

I’ve installed “Sylights”, which incidentally is FREE, on my iPad and it’s incredibly easy to use making the process of putting a lighting diagram together both quick and fun…

Once created you can keep a library of your diagrams together and also share them via email with as much or as little information attached as you like. I could go on about this great little App and do a review but rather than do that I’m going to point you again over to Terry’s fabulous BestApp Site where he’s done exactly that [Link].

Anyway, I guess what I’m saying here is…this could well be the end of my freehand drawing career,
Enjoy

Sylights: FREE on iTunes for iPad [Link] and iPhone [Link]

>Incidentally if you have an iPhone or an iPad I highly recommend subscribing to Terry’s superb sites and making them part of your daily read … BestApp Site [Link] and Terry White’s Tech Blog [Link] for all things Gadget related; both are updated on a daily basis with Terry’s unbiased ‘hands on’ reviews and updates.

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Personalising your iPad so that you can have your own individual graphic as the Home Screen background is incredibly easy to do and takes just a couple of minutes using Photoshop…

Creating your own background
The screen on the iPad measures 1024px x 768px so you wouldn’t be wrong to think that all you need to do is create a document with those exact dimensions. However, as we know the iPad screen is able to rotate so to allow for this all we need to do is to create a new document in Photoshop measuring 1024px x 1024px as shown below (note that the Resolution is 132 ppi):

In my case once I had the right sized blank document open I then placed onto it my own graphic which just happens to be the exact same background and logo that appears across my website, this blog and all other branded material:

The only important thing to remember here if you’re placing a logo into this background is that it needs to be placed centrally so that it displays correctly in both Portrait and Landscape orientation:

Setting your new graphic as the Home Screen couldn’t be easier. Once you’ve saved this document/graphic and then synced your iPad so that it appears in your Photo Albums, all you need to do is to go to SETTINGS…BRIGHTNESS & WALLPAPER

As an added extra I also made up a graphic for the ‘Lock Screen’ which was identical all except for the text identifying who the iPad belongs to and some contact information:

There are some Apps you can get such as SecureLock that  allow you to simply select an image from your Photo Albums and then add in the text. Now this App does a great job and very quickly however there were a few things I didn’t like about it which is why I’ve gone about doing this myself in Photoshop. With SecureLock I found if I used an image from within my Photo Albums it would come up too big on the screen so quite a large portion of it would be missing and also the text fitted perfectly in ‘Portrait’ orientation, but not all of it showed up if the iPad was held in ‘Landscape’ orientation.

Right, that’s all for now so I’m going to make a move and set at reducing the Turkey Mountain that still remains,
Enjoy

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1. Friday night was Mixer Night in London Town with Zack Arias, his wife Meghan, youngest son Hawke and Studio Manager Dan. We’d managed to book the basement lounge known as Bar 43 at the superb BBar, 43 Buckingham Palace Road, London thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend if you get my meaning. Anyway as expected it was a fantastic night with a great turnout of folks from all over. Unfortunately the BBar didn’t serve Zack’s beloved ‘Newcastle Brown Ale’ so he resorted to drinking Mexican Beer, incidentally in a South African themed bar in London Town; proof I guess that London is diverse if nothing else

2. Apple have released an update to iOS4 for the iPhone (now iOS4.1) which introduced amongst a whole heap of enhancements and tweeks a built in HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography facility.

I’ve not had much time to give it a good run but here’s a couple of comparison shots from Zack’s OneLight Workshop in London this past Saturday:

Admittedly it’s not going to set the Photography world on fire nor is it anywhere near as effective as proper HDR photography using your DSLR and Photoshop (or whatever you prefer) but it does seem to produce better photographs by boosting the midtones of the image. More to come…

3. The ‘Run for Alfie‘ event has had to be postponed for approximatley 1 month due to one of the runners sustaining an injury through training. I’l keep you posted with the progress there but also on the subject of the ‘Run for Alfie’ I did intend last week to be posting the ‘walk through’ videos of the editing for the final picture.; they’ll now be posted in the next few days so be sure to check back for those.

4. The Monthly Guest Feature on the blog is going full steam ahead with a superb list of folks lined up. This month I’m really excited about an upcoming interview I have in place…not mentioning any names but what this guy from Germany (hint, hint) does with Photoshop is mind blowing

5. Finally, just for a bit of fun check out this video … ‘A World Without Photoshop’ …

That’s all for now; have a great Monday and I’ll catch up with you in the week.
Enjoy

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Last week I headed off with my wife Anne for what felt like a much needed bit of R&R down in sunny Dorset.

Staying on a working farm in a little village called Musbury on the outskirts of Axminster we had a wonderful week of sea fishing, visiting friends, house/location hunting and plenty of good eating.

Being away for some 10 days I had all the best intentions of getting out and doing a little bit of ‘shooting’ but if I’m honest I didn’t get the camera out of it’s bag once; cue the sharp intakes of breath … I did however do a little bit of shooting every day with my iPhone which I really enjoyed and which also helped to keep me ‘in the zone’ but more as a way of documenting our time away.

As someone who likes to keep up a regular blogging schedule I did have reservations about taking 10 days out for a couple of reasons…

1. Not being sure if I’d have any finger nails left from biting them away with the anxiety
2. Ok maybe a little paranoid about with this one but being a regular 3x weekly blogger and then going quiet can be a bit of a clue that maybe you’re away. However, thanks to WordPress there’s the facility to schedule posts to be published at future dates and times so no need to worry

Anyway here’s just a few shots that I took with my trusty iPhone; all of which were edited ‘in phone’ using a couple of Apps: Best Camera and Adobe Photoshop Express:

Eating out costs were kept down thanks to a bit of nimble rod work

How can you possibly tire of views like this???

Staying on a Working Farm in Musbury; fresh air, peace & quiet and surrounded by animals…bliss!

Catching up with great friends Sean & Ashley (top left) and Anne with Author & Foraging Expert John Wright of River Cottage…

So, now we’re back and fully recharged and focused it’s time to hit the ground running; lots to do…

Enjoy

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First of all this weeks #photoshopfriday is a Photoshop tutorial by my good friend A.J. Wood over at Media Cats. In this tutorial A.J. demonstrates how you can use the Content Aware function to realistically stretch or squash an image which is extremely useful for photographers and designers alike when it comes to making an image fit a certain dimension. I had been planning on recording a tutorial for this technique myself but when I saw that A.J. had done exactly that, I thought I’d leave you in his very capable hands:

Other Stuff

1. Carrying on with the tutorial theme, for all you Lightroom users out there Matt Kloskowski recently wrote a post about the difference between the Exposure and Brightness sliders on his Lightroom Killer Tips Blog. It makes for quite an interesting read and you can check it out by clicking here.

2. With the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk kicking off next Saturday 24th July, Dave Cross of the N.A.P.P. wrote an excellent post on his blog giving some useful advice for those of us taking part covering all manner of hints and tips from how to keep safe, what kit to consider taking along and so on. You can check it out by clicking here.

3. For all you iPhone users out there Scott Kelby has just released his very own App which is basically a pocket sized, go anywhere version of one of his most recent books ‘Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes‘.

The book/DVD combo (now also available as an App) is pretty much like a live seminar in a box. It brings you along with Scott as he takes you through a live photo shoot on location at a New York loft studio. Scott walks you through the necessary steps to pull off a successful model shoot without breaking the bank plus lots more. If you’re interested in seeing more ‘behind the scenes’ of photo shoots then I’d certainly recommend you give this a look by clicking here.

Ok so that’s all for now so have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week,
Enjoy

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1. To say a HUGE thank you to my good friend Matt Kloskowski.
2. To give you an explanation as to why.

The photograph you can see Anne holding is of a Lighthouse in Portland, Oregon USA taken by Matt Kloskowski; Professional Photographer, Photoshop Guy for the N.A.P.P. Photoshop Instructor, and owner of a VERY big heart.

So what’s the deal?
Not wanting to go into too much detail, on a personal level this year has been quite tough for my wife Anne. My Mother in Law’s need for closer supervision and care has accelerated at what seems like an alarming rate with short term memory problems and a generally confused state getting progressively worse. Clearly seeing your own Mother in this state by itself is stressful and upsetting enough but that combined with what I shall only refer to as ‘family issues’ where your siblings let you down on a mammoth scale could have very easily been ‘The straw that broke the Camel’s back.’

So why a Photograph of a Lighthouse?
A few weeks back, Matt posted a series of photographs on his very popular Lightroom Killer Tips blog asking for feedback; one of those photographs was of a Lighthouse. Naturally I left some feedback saying that my favourite of all the images he’d posted was in fact the Lighthouse and went on to tell Matt the reason why: With all that Anne has gone through over the past few months she very sweetly calls me her Lighthouse; keeping her safe and protected when it feels that all around her is harmful…just as a Lighthouse does to passing ships. I went on to explain to Matt that Anne had asked me to photograph a Lighthouse and was so planning to make a trip to Portland Bill along with my good friend Noel Hannan to do just that, so that we could frame it and have it on display in the house.

Matt’s response to this has blown us away; friendship and kindness that knows no limits, as I received an email from him saying that ‘something’ would be arriving in the post. Well, you guessed it…Matt sent us the very same Lighthouse picture that he’d posted on his web site, printed at 24″ x 16″  on Foamcore, and it’s absolutely stunning. Needless to say, we’re now sending the print off to be framed by a company we use on  a regular basis for our clients, Kaleidoscope, so that we can then hang the photograph on the wall taking pride of place symbolising “Safety, Love and Friendship“.

Becoming involved in the world of Photoshop and Photography, I’ve received many benefits and apart from the obvious, the biggest of all has been the friendships that I’ve gained, and continue to do so, along the way; friendships that I may never have experienced and it’s during this time I’m constantly reminded of the phrase ‘You can choose you friends, but….’ well, you know the rest.

I speak for both Anne and myself when I say that we feel extremely blessed for the friends we have in our lives so here’s raising a glass to many good times ahead spent in very good company

Finally to you Matt, ‘Thank You’ just doesn’t seem enough but I guess from what you already know, we are so incredibly grateful for your friendship and your generosity. Needless to say a return trip over to the United States is in the pipleline and the drinks are definitely on us

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During Derek’s speech, in which I found it a real challenge to hide the tears, he made mention of their photos that had appeared here on the blog and of the comments you’d all sent in. To say both he and Dorothy are overwhelmed by your kindness is an understatement. They are both clearly emotionally moved that people they don’t know from all around the world had written a message to them. Needless to say Derek & Dorothy have said that they will write a message back to you all and I’ll be sure to post it here on the blog along with some photos from their very special day.

For those of you who haven’t read Derek & Dorothy’s story here on the blog, I’d recommend you go take a look. In my opinion they set the standard that all should follow; their view on life, love and friendship is inspirational and should you ever need to be reassured that there is such a thing as ‘True Love’ you need look no further than these two wonderful people.

Incidentally the photo above is one that I took at Derek & Dorothy’s Wedding of two of their closest friends Steve & Gilly Duffy; a couple of people I have to thank for recommending me and for also introducing me to Derek & Dorothy.

Before I sign off I just want to say a BIG thank you to my Buddy Vince Callaghan who was second shooter and assistant on Saturday and who despite the 30+ degree heat and my constant ‘Can you hold the light just there, left a bit, down a bit’ demands was an absolute star and took some cracking shots of his own too.

The photo of Vince above was taken and edited with my new iPhone 4, and yes I admit I was one of ‘those’ people that got up at silly o’clock to cue in line on launch day

Talking of the iPhone 4 I’m really pleased with the upgrade particularly around the built in camera and HD video recording; so much so I’ll post about it later in the week and as well as showing examples of photos I’ll also show you an example of some of the movie editing you can do with the iMovie App which is the iPhone version of Apple’s Desktop Movie editing suite; very impressive stuff.

Catch you later

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