Urban/Distant: Joe's Coffee Shop

These four people at Joe's on Lexington Avenue in NY are all sitting close to each other--but they could not be further apart.

Camera: iPhone 4s, Hipstamatic app

Urban/Night

The city of Hartford from the 20th floor.

Camera: iPhone 4s Processing: PSE

Urban/Wet

A raw, rainy day in Hartford.

Camera: iPhone 4s Processing: Noir, PhotoGene2

Urban/City Life

Queens, New York.

Camera: iPhone 42 Processing: PhotoGene2 and a few other apps...I played so much I forgot which ones!

In the City

In the City, on St. Patrick's Day after the parade around the bars on the East Side. (A good time was had by all...)

Angles

There are many angles to be found in this picture taken below the overpass of I-91 in Hartford. It was processed in the Swankolab app.

This is the version of Hartford at Evening that I prefer. I don't know why it wouldn't upload properly from the iPhone as everything else has worked well, even the earlier version of this shot.

I know I've featured this scene before, but it just looked different in the crisp light this afternoon--bright and clean and almost utopian. Pencil Sketch gave it a more wintry feel, but retained the lines. making it look rather like an architectural conception of the way the city could be.

This is the view of downtown Hartford from the parking lot at my office building, which is located way on the outskirts of the city by the Connecticut River, taken as the sun was dying in the west. There are fences, trees and a junkyard between us and the view. Cutout is becoming one of my favorite filters, especially for images like this one--it has a way of reducing it to the basic elements of light and color.

We were down in the nearby city of Middletown this evening. We had an appointment, so I didn't have much time, but I snapped this picture of the main street just as evening was setting in. I altered it only in a subtle way--when we were there, the street was still suffused with the glow of the setting sun, creating a yellow cast to the light. The camera didn't capture it, so I tried to to add it back using the warming filters.

A side street in Hartford at early evening...Dry Brush softens the edges a bit, but diesn't dilute the color or the quiet motion of a city settling down as the sun sets.

Today, we visited my husband's sister in Queens. This is the view from her small backyard. It was the laundry on the line that attracted my eye. Given the brightness of the clothes on the line and the dull urban surroundings, I thought that selective coloring would be perfect.

I was lucky--they're using a different sedation these days, so I'm conscious, if a bit groggy. And here's how dedicated we get about the Challenge--the photo was taken from the garage of Hartford Hospital as we were heading in early this morning. My husband was a little incredulous that I was whipping out my little P&S, saying, "Look at that light! I need this picture for my blog!"

The light was magnificent, and I loved the juxtaposition of the old brick buildings in the foreground with the neweer office towers in the back. I know I use the Accented Edges filter a lot; but combined with a Warming filter, it helped bring out the sleepy glow of a city waking up to the morning.

I've been trying to find ways to use some of Elements' odder filters. This photo took well to lots of different filters, so it seemed to be a good candidate for more radical experimentation. I ended up with the Note Paper filter. Once I'd reduced the opacity and played around a little with levels and contrast, I ended up with something rather like a silk screen.

When the sun sets, a golden light is reflected from the windows of the buildings in Hartford's city center.