To process photos on the iPhone I consistently turn to Photogene, an app that is quick, intuitive and very powerful. Here’s an example of what can be done in a few minutes with a few sliders.

Photogene - before and after

With Photogene you can easily crop, rotate, straighten, and sharpen photos, as well as adjust levels, exposure, contrast, saturation, color temperature, and red, green and blue values. Speech bubbles and fancy borders can also be added. When your photo is just how you like it you can save, adjust resolution, copy to clipboard or share with your friends via Twitter, Facebook or email.

All this wonderfulness is just $1.99. Not bad, eh? [Photogene in iTunes]

Photogene histogram

Photogene straighten slider

Photogene exposure/contrast sliders

Photogene decorations

Photogene sharpen slider

Photogene's Done dialog

To see more iPhone photos I’ve processed using Photogene check out my iPhone Gallery.

When I want a fake tilt-shift look I use the TiltShift Generator app.

What is your favorite photo processing app for the iPhone? If you’ve used Photogene, what do you like about it? What do you wish were different? Let me know in the comments.

Click on the Photography link to check it out.

The new Photography page at BrentDanley.com

The new page, like the old site, uses the phpFlickr library to access the Flickr API. The Flickr API is well designed and the phpFlickr library makes using it a breeze.

The client-side animations are done using CSS and jQuery. The old site used Prototype and script.aculo.us, and I was glad to be able to do the conversion. jQuery is a dream.

This site is powered by WordPress, so all that was required was to upload the phpFlickr files and create a simple template. Caching is done by phpFlickr using a MySQL database.

The photos are pulled in using Flickr’s machine tags, so I can manage them in Flickr without having to access WordPress administration.

Lightbox 2, the plugin that darkens the screen and pulls the larger image forward, was already installed and ready to use.

The page is developed so that if a page parameter is passed in the URL with a page value that corresponds to an actual gallery, that gallery will open when the page loads. For example, brentdanley.com/photography/?page=maine will take you directly to the Maine gallery. The default gallery is Lighthouses.

The old photography.brentdanley.com

I’d love to know what you think of the new photography page. Leave me a message in the comments.

I took these photos today at Bay View Beach in Saco, Maine. Both of them are straight out of my iPhone 3GS’s camera without post processing. The one on the right was taken through polarized sunglasses.

Without and with polarization

I keep a circular polarization filter on my two most used camera lenses. With them I can dial in the amount of polarization I need for the look I’m trying to achieve. The difference can be dramatic, depending on the conditions.

As is usual, the girls and I got to spend time with old friends and make some new ones. We hiked down Scarborough Beach and then along the cliffs of Prout’s Neck Bird Sanctuary. And back.

After our long hike we enjoyed brunch at The Good Table in Cape Elizabeth. It was incredible. My $6 mug of hot apple cider with rum was worth every penny! Hayley’s $2.25 bottle of “real” maple syrup…not so much.

Dune grass preservation at Scarborough Beach, Maine

Do you see random, designless chaos here? It does lack a designer, indeed, but it is anything but random. The patterns are uniform, predictable and created by ordinary geologic processes. Fascinating. Moving. I should have been a scientist.

Random chaos, design or natural order?

So, how old is Earth, anyways? Some think the earth can be measured in the few thousands of years. Those people are kooks. Haven’t they ever seen a rock, I wonder.

The sedimentation/compaction processes that form these types of shale are fascinating!

Earth: old or young?

Photo: Bob Delaney

See the above photo on Bob’s Flickr photostream.

Gwyn is a super cool guy. He has this neat little camera to which he’s affixed an ordinary Pringles can. This setup allows him to capture photos he takes with his D-SLR “through the viewfinder” of the other camera. Cool, eh?!

Gwyn had a super-awesome camera setup

Walking back...

It was nice to see Skye taking her own photographs

Hayley points out an interesting phenomenon for me to photograph

Next time it will be sharp!

Skye composes with a Pringles can

At $2.25 I hope she enjoyed the syrup