We live in a flat

Many Adults, 1 Boy & 1 Dog's Montessori Life in a Singapore flat

singapore dog blog adopt dog adoption

Search results: "snappy"

Where goes tuesdayChallenge?

Snappy H’appy

As the Snappy H’appy photo challenge draws to a close, I’ve been thinking – what am I going to do with tuesdayChallenge?

First, I’m going to take a break from hosting a photo challenge because a break is a good thing. Hah! The time can be better used to think about and write up the next set of challenge posts so that the challenges will never be late again! Haha!

So anyway, the final set of updated Snappy Happy Photo Grids will be posted in the finale post  3rd June. So please do send to me your links for any outstanding work that you would like to share. Anything after the end of the month will not be included.

tuesdayPhotography

We’ll still look at photography on Tuesdays. I’m going to save this day to look at specific themes in Pet Photography, because I’m personally interested in that topic and hope you will be as well.

These trends could include – minimalist photography, peanut butter series, dog squish, etc. So if you would like to join in the fun feel free to try out some of these types of photography with your dogs and share those photos with me on a week to week basis.

If we have enough people interested, I would love to create a set of photo cards that I can send to you or a print calendar for 2015 available for non-profit sale at the end with a collection of our different photos ;) I’m just throwing out some ideas and not putting pressure on myself ;) So we’ll see how it goes.

weliveinaflat.com (issue April 2014)

 

Was April a great month for you?

It was a pretty intense month for me. The Snappy H’appy posts ended up more time consuming than I intended, but I was also happy with how it helped me to edit some of my travel photos in different ways and the results I got.

The training posts also helped us to be more consistent on training Donna on a weekly basis at minimum :P So that is definitely a good exercise.

Unexpected for me was the amount of interest in the article on the dog’s nose. But I’m glad it was a fun read for you ;)

Also, special thanks to thatmutt.com for mentioning our site in the article Most dogs don’t need a fenced yard. I love that site by the way. Lindsay has pretty balanced views and great information when it comes to dog adoption and ownership. And of course, we have a mutt over here! LOL.

Signing off with a summary of April’s posts ;),
have a great month in May!

 Popular
You’re a pain in the nose Double exposure
High angle shots

MOST VIEWED
High angle shots You’ve not seen a bug before, human? You’re a pain in the nose MOST COMMENTS
 Photography and Photo Apps
You’re a pain in the nose
Double exposure
Text on photos IMAGE EDITING
Selective colour Moody B&W High angle shots BLACK & WHITE
Behaviour
Blissful | butt rubs Excited | tug Relaxed | no prey drive? 
HAPPY. RELAXED

Angry | a pain in the nose

Unfulfilled | human food

Worried | thunder
NOT SO HAPPY
Training
Leg weaving
No rushing out the door
Sit pretty
Back up
Lifestyle
Adaptil DAP collar
Flowering Trumpet trees
Sticky Ixora flower
Safe plants for dogs

See all previous issues and posts by Month

Mobile Photo Challenge Week 10 – Editing for A Pop or Splash of Colour

How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
Picsart Colour Splash effect, black and white, followed by light sepia for the monochrome portions.

It is easy to assume that selective colouring, as a technique,  should be used to accentuate a photo by giving it a pop of colour. This means most of the photo remains as black and white or some other monochrome of a consistent tint, so that the one coloured area/subject of that photo becomes the focus of the photo.

Selective color is a post-processing technique where most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in color…  The selective color technique emphasizes parts of the photo and draws more attention to the subject.

The subject impresses if it’s something eye-catching standing out of the sea of monochrome, like a glowing jewel in the ocean.

How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
PicsArt Coloursplash effect, photo further tinted in VSCOcam to give the monochrome portions a blue tone
How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
PicsArt Colour Splash, with further colour adjustment in Snapseed

But then again, sometimes we like to take a closer look at some of our subjects and they could take up much of the frame. And so we could end up with a sweep of colour, not just a pop. And I think that’s fine too ;) Helps you focus on the colourful subject and helping the background to recede… further into the background ;)

It’s actually a pretty useful tool when you don’t have specialised lens to render a busy background into gentle bokeh that your subject can stand out from.

How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
PicsArt Colour Splash, further adjustment in VSCOcam to warm up the monochrome. How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
PicsArt Colour Splash effect, monochrome colour adjusted in VSCOcam.How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
Picsart Colour Splash effect, green colour

And perhaps in some cases, the colour or lack of it helps differentiate the still from the moving -how the leaves move in the wind, how the duckweed ripples on the water.

Black and white helps create a kind of stillness in the picture, and coloursplash lets you show the viewer the subject in it’s original colour and it’s spatial relationship with the background. The challenge is to find the visual harmony between the two.

How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
PicsArt Colour Splash Effect, temple detail


snappy happy photo challenge logo black and whiteWelcome back to Week 10 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge hosted by weliveinaflat and firebonnet ;)

This challenge asks you to (1) share a good photo that you took or edited last week, (2) run it through a photo app on your smartphone or mobile device and share with us the result. This week we are back to the theme of Colour and we encourage you to explore creating photos with a pop of colour or more than a splash of colour. It’s all up to you!

Let’s look at the Colour Splash function in some apps, shall we?


Camera360

Before when I was using the iPhone, I was pretty happy with Camera360‘s options for black and white with a pop of colour. Mainly because it offers an easy one tap and you’re done solution :P

There were two sections you can go to do this, unfortunately, I am unable to provide the screenshots since I no longer have an iPhone. So fiddle with your iPhone abit and you should be able to find these two sections that let you determine the primary colour you want to colour your subject appear in your black and white.

In my case, I chose black and white with some shade of blue and tada! Pop of colour dog toy ;)

*Note, while camera360 is available for Android, the Android version appears to be lacking one of the two sets of colour splash sections in camera360 for iPhone. So I would not recommend this for Android.


PicsArt

Now for android, PicsArt is the app I like for the Colour Splash effect.

Unlike Camera360 mentioned for iPhone above, PicsArt lets you select up to three colours to show up in your black and white. And that’s cool because most things do appear to be more than one colour. Consider this rosy flower with its sunny yellow heart ;)

How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
Just a screenshot to show you the different colour swatches selected for each photo. 


Get Inspired!


Go Get it!
Photo apps for your mobile phone

iPhone/iPad

Android


Host Challenge Post

Photo of the weekHow to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
Tiny purple flowers using Panasonic FZ35.

App Challenge PhotoHow to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color
PicsArt Colour Splash, followed by PicsArt Orton FX filter.

Here’s the colour swatch selected:
How to edit mobile phone photos to get B&W pics with a pop of color


Now it’s your turn to share!

Create your challenge post from now until Sunday, 27 Apr end of your day. Post your Photo of the Week and your App-ed version of that photo on your blog. (You can follow my format above if you like).

Pic 1 – Your Photo of the Week can be taken with any equipment – a regular camera, a DSLR, a smartphone, hack even a pin-hole camera if you so choose!

Pic 2 – Pic 2 is optional. The theme this week is a Pop or Splash of colour, but if that is not your cup of tea, you are free to choose other app effects for your app-ed photo. In all cases, it would be helpful if you can name the app effect used so we can understand what you are doing ; )

Add the challenge badge and link your post to the host and co-host sites. Be nice and visit with some of the other challengers for this week! :) And do remember to leave me your blog post link in the comments below, in case I do not receive the pingback/trackback from your link.

For more information, you can read in detail more about the challenge and the instructions at the About page here. You can also grab the badges here.

Questions? Feel free to pose any questions in the comments below or email me at weliveinaflat@gmail.com. Next up, what happens after you have linked up? Why you start getting your challenger photo grid filled up!


Challenger Photo Grids

Every week, challenger grids get updated with the new photos! At the end, you get to grab your grid off this blog for your own pleasure. :D Meanwhile, you can view one another’s photos on the blogs by clicking on the linked numbered weeks above each challenger’s photo grid. I will try to keep it up to date as quick as I can ;)

Host| weliveinaflat.com
[ photos tagged “snappy happy” ]
weliveinaflat's Snappy H'appy Photo Grid

Host| firebonnet.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
firebonnet snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| ForestWoodFolkArt.wordpress.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Roxy the Traveling Dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Roxy The Traveling Dog
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Roxy the Traveling Dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| completelydisappear.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
completelydisappear snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| 1stworlddog.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
1st world dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Blogagaini
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Blogagaini snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Zeke’s Adventures
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Zeke's Adventures snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Little Dogs Laughed
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Little Dogs Laughed snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| LivingWithMyAncestors.wordpress.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Roxy the Traveling Dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| sassmuffins.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
sassmuffin snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Claim your photo grid, join the challenge today!

Next week, we’ll get Snappy H’appy with Text for your photos! Thanks for checking out this Photo Challenge and making it all the way to the end of the post! ;) 

Kick Monday Blues to the Curb!

So yah, the human is kicking Monday Blues to the curb by getting ahead with real life tasks and that means no more Monday posts! Not again?!!!


Does a  picture of food make you feel better? :P Fried battered soft-shell crab, Quayside Fish Bar and Bistro, Sentosa Cove, for macro Monday. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 native camera with Cameran filter.

Today’s question: Have you ever fed your dog something that’s not so healthy for him? What was it?

I bet most of you have seen the Daisy and Cooper hilarious ice cream video, but if you haven’t the link is below + some other photo posts!

Enjoy!

For people in colder climates wanting some sun

For people in the tropics wanting to escape the heat

 

1st Blogiversary! Woot!

One of Timethief’s post titles came to mind as I start to type these first words to this post. The title is – Celebrate your blogging journey.  She opened with a good quote about success being built out of small successes along the way and then pointed out that first thing first, we need to be able to define what success is to us.

Another article I read recently illustrates this idea pretty well. The writer talked about an Olympic winner and how his success was not defined by that instant he won a gold at the Olympics, but by all the times he turned up every single day for practice. That discipline and endeavour was critical for setting him on the road to winning his medal.

This story repeats itself many times. Tina Rice (Ashcroft54) shared a Ted video – your elusive, creative genius – in which writer Elizabeth Gilbert talks about turning up everyday for “her part of the job” even when she had writer’s block and her genius seemed to be evading her.

Now this blog isn’t award-winning. We never won medals for anything. Last I heard, we weren’t a famous writer. And if you check our Facebook page, we’re not very well-liked either :P

But guess what?

Within a year, this blog published 375 posts, more than 1 post a day. I’ll take that as a small success to celebrate. Every post contributed to the over 4000 comments and 7000 likes that the blog received. Thank everyone of you who viewed, commented and liked the posts! ; )

 weliveinaflat wordpress blog
No. of published posts Comments Likes
 375 (more than 1 post a day) 4116 7504
 weliveinaflat.com self-hosted blog
 No. of published posts Comments Likes
 338 (removed some lame posts)  4573  unreported

Some of the other little milestones to celebrate:

  • Dec 2013 | Moved from weliveinaflat.wordpress.com to weliveinaflat.com
  • Mar 2014 | We survived!! Blog is one year old. 

If you are counting, that’s 3 Awesomes in 7 bullet points. Yes! Everything is awesome! :D

But that’s enough of tooting my own little horn, let’s talk about you.

Top 10 countries reading weliveinaflat.com

1. USA
2. Singapore
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Canada
6. Thailand
7. South Africa
8. India
9. Netherlands
10. Japan
  • You are a lover of dogs/pets or photography, probably both.
  • You have no breed prejudice. You think Donna the local mongrel is just as cute as a known breed dog and that, I think, is Awesome! :)
  • You support dog rescue and adoption causes. And if you are in Singapore, you probably know Donna in real life from Gentle Paws.
  • You own a photographic device and/or a wonderful dog(s) of you own. You enjoy looking at photos and being the true photography enthusiast or dog lover, you take a lot of photos as well!
  • That said, you don’t have a rigid concept of what makes a good photo. You are open to experimentation or reading blogs like mine where most photos are edited to a greater or lesser degree.
  • You enjoy sharing knowledge and stories about your own dogs/photographs.
  • You know quite a fair bit about dog training and positive training, or you have an interest in getting started.
  • You have active social circles where it comes to dogs and photography. You may run a photo/dog blog/social media account of your own.
  • You have a sense of humour. Funny posts and stories entertain you more than the others.

Now that’s 10 things I think I know about you based on all your comments, which has some influence over what I write and how I present the story using words and photos.

But I also remember the me one year ago. The newly-minted dog idiot with a dog.

The dog didn’t come with a Dummies guide or instruction manual. I researched, tried to understand the available information and made logical conclusions from there. Then I started creating this page – The Dummies Guide for Dog Idiots – with the aim of making it easier for new dog idiots like myself. But sad to say that is not one of the things I can celebrate. It’s not very well done or helpful at all.

Coming back to the theme of celebrating small wins, I’m just going to write helpful articles one at a time. My first one is done and published – Target train your dog to touch nose to hand.

I tried to make it a lively, easy and fun read so that the me one year ago would have found it interesting and useful to try it out with the new dog at the start. But if you already know these stuff, I do hope you enjoy them for the photos and the attempts at humour.

I thank you for the thoughtful comments and also any other suggestions that could make the posts better. And if you do find a value in these articles, I thank you for sharing them with new dog adopters, people considering to adopt, etc, etc. ; )

Are you curious about what else 2014 will bring for this blog? You’ll find the goals here.

And so, my friends. Tis time to end yet another long and naggy post from yours truly.

What small successes about your blog or your life do you celebrate?

The blog this week – 27 Feb, 2014

Just a quick snapshot of the posts for the past week ;)

Mongrel Barks

Saturday | Donna’s reaction to the Nose command 
The Nose to Hand command can be so practical in situations like moving the dog around without tugging on the leash and also really cool in canine freestyle. But what does Donna say?


Sunday | Keep your eyes on the rope toy, human
Four simple lessons from 1stWorldDog, that Donna shows can be universal truths. :)

Keep your eyes on the rope toy, humans!

And don’t forget to treat. ; )


Wednesday | Reinforcing Heel and why she LOVES it!
One of the things I am inconsistent about, besides training, is reinforcement and proofing. I know trained behaviours need to be continuously reinforced so that it is proofed to stick under various situations and environments, but it is yet another thing that chips away at the limited time we have. That happy face is good encouragement though. ;)


Photography Bytes

Tuesday | Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge – Watercolour
I try to fill each Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge post with relevant information that I find interesting for the Effect that we are exploring for the week. This week’s theme is Watercolor. So if you love to do more with your photos on your phone and find it relevant, click here and check it out!


Monday | The Kitchen Table
Did you ever trying styling buffet items for a food shot. Not easy, but it was fun. And the good thing about food photography is always … well, the food that you get to eat.

I thought this one came out rather interesting with the watercolor filter.


I’ve started adding some affiliate ads from Amazon to a small number of old pages on the blog, where relevant contextually. You may notice this box on the sidebar labelled “Donna uses this”, which lists a few products that have appeared on the blog before. All such ads are labelled advertisement, so you know. :) I don’t know what I’ll get out of it, if anything at all. :P

The last two days have been mildly frustrating as this blog keeps going down, something wrong with the hosting server. So I do apologise if you were unable to load the site properly, if at all, at times. I noticed I have lost a draft I was working on and that I had saved before the server problem. But after the site came back up, that saved draft was gone.

Backup is just such a pain right, but it’s absolutely essential when something like “omg the server crashed” hits you. So I’m now on VaultPress. They backup my data daily for $5/month. So, if you do more on your site than I do, e.g. you sell things or you’re liable to deliver content or numbers to an advertiser or like me, you just care deeply about every “golden” word you type :P Make sure you have backups, and that the backups include your entire database, NOT just a few templates. 

Anyway, next week Thursday is our blog anniversary, so check back here and see what else is different!  

Some of the posts that got me thinking or cracked me up from other blogs this week:


Thursday Barks and Bytes is hosted by 2browndawgs  and HeartLikeADog. 2Browndogs compares the Chesapeake Bay Retriever to the Rhodesian Ridgeback this week and Heart Like a Dog talks about a little lump on her dog Delilah.

Phoneography Weekly: The Kitchen Table

chrysanthemum photo with blue filter applied to itPhoneography Monday Challenge: Food
Samsung Galaxy Note3, Snapseed, Cameran, PicsArt 

Breakfast from The Kitchen Table, W Hotel. I’m not really into photographing food, so this is the closest I’ll get to styling food. And by that I mean trying to arrange the buffet items nicely on the plate myself. :P The composition still came up lacking. ~__^ Oh well~

Read More

The blog this week – Feb 20, 2014

Just a quick snapshot of the posts for the past week ;)

Mongrel Barks

Saturday  Begging, it can be pretty cute and entertaining when it’s done to family who don’t mind, or in fact find it amusing. But it can also be downright embarrassing when your dog harasses a stranger who is pointedly ignoring her. Regardless of the human’s opinions, Donna did persist in testing every family member on their propensity to dispense food when they were here over CNY. This is an older video though.


Wednesday Donna was never a dog that loves the camera. She would always look away. A treat or two who have made her less sour, but too bad, the human was pretty happy with her grumpy face that day. :P I just liked the way she was resting with one arm on her bed.

Talk to the paw, human! – she says


Photography Bytes

Tuesday Week 2’s topic of HDR has got me excited, check out the Challenge post here. We’ve got a Challenge Pinterest Board just today! I think it’s a great tool to share good photo examples for the themes and also our work. Linkytools is popular for bloghops, but the Pinterest group board shows up our photos better with its bigger thumbnails, and makes our content more shareable. :)


Monday While on staycation at W Hotel, I had the leisure to try out Mr P’s Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and its panorama function. Here are some black and white photos from it.  And if you haven’t, check out the gorgeous iPhone panoramas on Tom Palladio‘s page.


Sunday Let me take you to the night I visited Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto. It was awfully dark and you can hardly see the people’s faces, but the temple buildings and surrounding trees were artfully lit. My camera is not great at night photography, but here are some shots from it. I probably will continue to put out the rest of my Kyoto pictures on and off.


Friday So Valentine’s day has come and gone. Here’s a last look at the Dogs of #DonnaGiveMeWings if you have not seen them yet :)


Next month is going to be exciting because this blog turns 1. And Donna turns 5 this March too. Just some random chitchat with 1stWorldDog today has got me thinking more critically about the blog content so far, and I realised that it really is still lacking in many ways!  

Some of the posts that got me thinking or cracked me up from other blogs this week:

  • The #WOOFsupport blog hop – totally in love with the concept of the hop. Blog about a challenge that you are facing/working through with your dog and get some support with the rest of the group!
  • “Touch” a must for any dog trainer – we’re a little slow, but we started training targeting yesterday. The human finds this video inspirational because the end shows what are the awesome things that can eventually be accomplished by training “nose” or “touch”! :D
  • Canine eye exam – good to know that eye health if one of the things tested to recommend for or against a dog being bred. And Melvin has such beautiful eyes.
  • Is my dog a drama queen – Zani is such a sweet little dog.
  • Going to Crufts – I really love the sheltie’s expression and how it all makes the story come to live. Great photos ; )
  • Impromptu totem pole – cool dog photo!

Page 3 of 3

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén