ePARRILLA Photos

Hi there reader, so quick but fun blog I want to post for you. Last year while trying to figure out how to come up with money for new lenses I stumbled upon a pot of gold that I'm not sure a lot photographers know about. This great pot of gold comes to you from the past and it is called M42 lenses. Now I can give you a whole break down of the history behind M42 lenses but instead I'm just going to say that you can get hundreds of hundreds of unique vintage lenses for practically next to nothing! All you need to do is buy an adapter through ebay so that you can mount the lenses on either a Canon, Nikon, Olympus and so on. For example since I have a Canon I would use the following:

Search Canon M42 Adapter on ebay and you'll get this:

You can find these lil adapters for less than $10 as you can see. You can also find great M42 lenses via ebay or if you get lucky a yard sale, thrift store and local independent camera store. There are many makers of these lenses out there but I've noticed I see more Yashica lenses more than anything.

I love the flares and the milky look these vintage lenses produce! Keep in mind you can also find prime lenses for dirt cheap. These are great quality lenses because they are built solid as heck! Unlike the new lenses we have out now that are built from plastic. The glass is great and produce great results. Here are some samples using my Yashica F=50mm that I bought for $5 on my Canon XSI.

Now I do want to note that in order to get the best quality out of your M42 lenses you have to shoot in Av (Aperture Priority) mode. I'm not entirely sure how it is noted on other cameras other than my Canon but it has to be in the aperture priority mode. Heres a quick tutorial on it:

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-M42-Lenses-with-a-Canon-EOS-DSLR

I hope you enjoy this great and nifty way of getting tons of great quality lenses and as always please feel free to email with any questions.

-Enrique

Hello,

So for this blog you will need an Iphone/Ipod Touch and some boredom. With that said let me give you the 411 to this particular blog. Pretty much I get bored during work and I can’t be editing on my personal computer. So my itchy editing finger gets impatient and needed to find a quick fix.

Over past few months I’ve found many, many photo apps on the Iphone. Some apps I found are really great and some that aren’t well let’s just say not very good. With that in mind let me share with you the few apps that have kept me entertain and helped me actually get inspired when boredom strikes!

There are only a handful of these apps that I found worth writing about. By themselves they hold up pretty good with unique filters and editing options. But the real trick here is to combine and post edit the pictures.

First App I want to talk about is called “PhotoForge” for $1.99 through Itunes/App Store.

This little bad boy is probably the most extensive photo editing app I’ve seen to date. You can do adjustments with curves, sharpen/blur images, add noise, and even play around with levels i.e. RGB, CMYK and CIELab colors. Heck you can even play around with some tools they provide you with like crop, brush tool or even clone tool to name a few. Think of this little bad boy as a portable Photoshop minus the layers. It even has filters to add spice to some of the pictures you want to edit. You can find more details on this little bad boy through Itunes/App Store or through the direct link to them:

http://ghostbirdsoft.com/photoforge

Next up I want to discuss about is called “CameraBag” for $1.99 through Itunes/App Store.

This particular app was one of the first that I got when I got my Iphone. It’s a very fun filter app to add dramatic instant impact on your pictures. It has one of the best “toy camera” style filters that I have tried out there. In particularly I like the “Colorcross” filter for that dynamic high color feel and also the “1962” B&W that gives you the high contrast for that old school B&W photo. Definitely worth the $1.99 and highly recommend it to anyone. You can find more details on this app through Itunes/App Store or through the direct link to them:

http://www.nevercenter.com/camerabag/

Next up is a recent addition to my photography apps, it’s called “Lo-Mob” for $1.99 through Itunes/App Store.

I mean this particular app has been my bread and butter as of recent! There’s like 25 different filters you can play around with for an instant “wow” effect. I don’t know if they actually got the filters through real filters and added them somehow haha. But whatever the developers did is amazing. If you like old school pictures with the grainy, noise and dramatic tones, this is a must have! Add this addition to your repertoire of photos apps! You can find more details on this app through Itunes/App Store or through the direct link to them:

http://lo-mob.com/

Next up I have in stored for you is called “RetroCamera” for $1.99 through Itunes/App Store.

This is a very fun app as well because it gives you a very extensive film filter collection like 28 filters to be exact. That’s the reason I like this app. It gives you everything from sepia colors to B&W filters and most notable 13 unique color filters! You can say there’s a flavor of film filter for everyone’s taste. I also enjoyed the fact that they have one of the best noise adjustment levels around! Also, notable to mention that they have other effects like textures and even framing. I personally just like the film filters and noise, over all a good addition to your photo apps. Scope out more details on this app through Itunes/App Store, sorry no website that I could fine for these developers.

Let me take a quick break here to just say thank you for reading this thus far. I also want to disclose that in no way am I being paid by any of these companies, hell I wish haha. I’m just writing this to share my experiences with what has worked for me. Also all of these are in no particular order just going down the line how my phone has them. Ok back to the reviews.

Next app I have an even more recent additions called “FotoMuse” for $2.99 through Itunes/App Store.

I’ve had this literally 2 days and man this app was a hidden jewel I never knew of. Instantly you’ll start to toy around with the different borders and layers! The only way to really experience this app is to actually try it out. The steps they show on Itunes don’t give justice to this awesome app. Basically they have approximately like 10 different border and 10 different layers to play with. Each one unique and inspiring plus you have the option to turn your original picture in B&W and make adjustments. Like I said it’s a hidden jewel and a must have! You can find more details on this app through Itunes/App Store or through the direct link to them:

http://weburban.com/content/?p=220

Now this is another app I’ve had for a while too “FX Photo Studio” for $1.99 through Itunes/App Store.

It’s a great filter app, but I must say that some of these filters are a bit mediocre. They have at least 119 filter effects so you would expect some duds. It’s ok though because I did find a lot of good ones in the mix of filters. Also one good note I would like to say is this is probably where I do most of my cropping and brightness adjustments at. A very nice addition to your apps and only worth $1.99 not too bad I’d say. You figured $1.99 for 119 filters; you’re bound to find a lot that you’ll like! You can find more details on this app through Itunes/App Store or through the direct link to them:

http://macphun.com/MacPhun/Welcome.html

Finally the last app I want to share with you is called “Cool Fx” for only $.99 on Itunes/App Store.

This is a quick fix app to add warm or cold temperatures to your pictures. A really neat and clean app that offers other features like vignette settings or various B&W filters and even grain/noise. It’s a nice app but you can do without it. You can find more details on this app through Itunes/App Store or through the direct link to them:

http://www.tiffen.com/coolfx.Iphone.html

Well there you have it! These are the apps I play around when I am bored at work editing pictures! Like I said early on in order to get the best pictures using these apps is to basically experiment and combine different post edits with the different apps. All of these apps would cost you $13.93 in total but they do offer endless amounts of creativity. Also the prices are based as of 12/02/2009 and are subjected to change I’m sure. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

Here are some samples I've done using a combination of these apps: