#ChapOlympiad 2013 photos by @Londonbird

The ChapOlympiad - Pass the Pimms

My sister's Louise has been to The Chap Olympiad, a vintage lover's paradise if ever there was one. Here are her rather spiffing Instagram photos from the day. And you can follow her on Instagram under the name @LondonBird.

What's the Chap Olympiad? Here's how the organiser's The Chap Magazine describe some of the events:

Parallel Bars: contestants standing between two parallel cocktail bars will need to mix two drinks simultaneously, while performing an impressive bar routine with perfect dismount.
Breadbasket Ball contestants will be invited to dine at table in the middle of the track. A team of servants at each end of the table will play basketball with the bread and the breadbasket. The dinner guests must interrupt play if they are to be served any victuals.
Bounder Hunt Female contestants will be invited to hunt the bounder throughout the gardens using a large butterfly net. First one to catch the cad gets to slap him with her handbag.
Well Dressage Riding on a hobbyhorse, each competitor will need to perform a series of dressage steps to music. Our esteemed judging panel will score each performance.
Beach Volleybowler A game of beach volleyball will be played on a sanded course, using a bowler hat as ball. Skimpy swimwear will not be required, nor even permitted.

These, along with several other new events, plus old favourites Umbrella Jousting and Tug of Moustache, will take place in Bedford Square Gardens on Saturday 13th July 2013, from 12pm until nightfall.

But enough chin-wagging, let's see the snaps...

Lighting the Olympic Pipe (flame) to start the #chapolympiad

The tea cup relay

Fabulous Frocks

More tea cup relay

Ladies! Always carry a parasol to protect that English Rose complexion

Dressage

gals, gals, gals

Chaps in uniform, super!

Bonus points for cravats, chaps

and it's a six all round then

What does this gal have on her mind? Kittens and knitting, no doubt

Bread roll volleyball

This year's soaring temperature saw many a gal swishing a fan

Ladies! Hemlines must touch the floor when you kneel,
or they are too short!

And here's our roving reporter @LondonBird (centre)

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four stories of noir

A few editing stories using one of my favourites, the iPhone app Noir which (and I quote the makers here):

'...lets you transform your photos with beautiful, dramatic lighting and instant results. Peel away the color to a cinematic black-and-white, apply a lovely tint, and then light up your subject. Touch and pinch the brightness Vignette and spin the Contrast and Exposure dials for white hot thrills and shadow.' The Noir Photo page on the app store is here. 

ventnor terrace (above)

"The gentle light beyond this gate, highlighting the well worn steps, stopped me in my tracks as I was strolling through Lincoln to The Usher Gallery. The original iPhone image I captured was pretty unremarkable, but using Noir I was able to make that light brighter and surround the gate in darkness, to give the image the air of mystery I was after. This contrast also really draws attention to the beautiful ironwork of the gate, and I love how the ivy shines out from the blackness. Plus everything looks cooler in black and white. Fact."

original image

into the dark

"In this one, I used the vignette to create a diagonal vignette, to change the natural side light into a more diagonal top light. I made the rest of the image as dark as possible whilst keeping the story that it was a tunnel of trees, with the light at the end of the tunnel also there on the original image."

Original image

into the light

"In this one, I set the vignette to be tall and slim, circling the child and the path behind her. I used the app to make what was inside the vignette slightly darker, whilst bleaching the rest of the image to the barest details."

Original Image

chocolate milkshake trance

"Here I started with the Camera + Clarity filter, then I used Noir -  all dials set to 100% so only the darkest features remain. I then ran the photo through Instagram, using Tilt Shift, to place only the eyes in focus and then the Instagram - Earlybird filter for the lovely soft sepia and curved frame. Is the edge of the girl's cheek there or is your mind filling in the space with what it expects to see?"

original image

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Name change: Incense & Peppermints becomes Snaps & Apps

in loving memory of ... Incense and Peppermints

I've changed the name of this blog to "Snaps & Apps", as that's pretty much what it's about. 

This does not change the URL for the blog, or the feed, so if you've kindly bookmarked the site, or subscribe to the feed in any way, this should all still work. And if you have done any of those things, thank you very much!

Angela

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getting in an iphoneography tangle

We're getting very addicted to the Tangled FX app. 

Turns your photo into something a bit magical, a bit weird, a bit abstract and a bit like a panel in a graphic novel you're now very keen to read. 

Here are some before and after Tangling iPhone pics from 

Louise @LondonBird and Angela @Anglo (Instagram @names)

original photo, Liverpool Street Station,
London, with a little time lapse

TangledFX - Webbed Thick. Spider Man woz 'ere? 

original photo of an eagle at a  Falconry display

cropped with TangledFX - Cartoon

cropped with TangledFX - B&W Etching

original photo, girl and gerbil

with TangledFX - Fibres Smooth

original pic, ex-racehorse at a rescue centre

sepia added with the Noir app
then TangledFX - The Dark Side

sepia added with the Noir app
then TangledFX - Fibres Smooth

TangledFX - B&W Etching

Hipstamatic of Kings Cross Station, London

with added TangledFX

B&W Hipstamatic of Kings Cross commuters, London

with TangledFX adding light outlines to the figures - Ready Brek anyone?

Polly the parrot

using the Colorsplash app to make the background mono, plus
TangledFX The Light Side effect for some very intense colours

same photo with only Tangled FX - The Dark Side added

original image of a very cute banded snail

with TangledFX - Webbed Thin

The Shard, London, original pic

with TangledFX - Smooth Fibres

with TangledFX - Swirls

All in all, awesome sauce 

Read more about the app here: TangledFX for iOS

Find Londonbird on Instagram

Find Anglo on Instagram | EyeEm | Twitter | Google+ | Flickr

Links to Anglo's Vintage Blog (shabby chic pics)

Links to her company's Facebook (HDR photos galore)

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snapseed and snow

Snapseed is seriously cool. No more so when combined with snow photos, which are notoriously difficult to get right.

You stand in a winter wonderland, take hundreds of photos, get home for a closer look and find that they don't really capture the experience. All that white with a bit of detail (trees, fences, figures, buildings), it's hard to get the depth, the softness, the crunchiness of it all. Plus mobile cameras tend to record snow as grey.

Here's Anglo's edits of some photos she took in her local park, The Arboretum in Lincoln, England. Grade II listed and Victorian, the park is landscaped on a steep hill, with lots of nice period features like lampposts and fountains to contrast the brightness. And trees - oh yes - the trees.

The park was opened in 1872 with 25,000 people in attendance. Attractions included brass band recitals, Professor Renzo’s Performing Dogs and Mr Emmanuel Jackson, the Midland aeronaut in his new balloon.

original image: the terrace houses are on a steep hill,
as is the park

edit 1: Snapseed's new Retrolux filter  to make everything soft and warm.
Evokes a faded photo found at the back of a drawer 

edit 2: another Retrolux treatment, with strong contrast to make the
red bricks pop out from all the white

edit 3: two Retrolux filters applied in succession, give a twilight feel to the image

original image

edit 1: cropped to 16:9 (tall and skinny), then Snapseed's
Grunge filter added to blur the path and the avenue of trees,
making the lamppost the main event

edit 2: not so skinny, and made high contrast with
Snapseed's Grunge effects

edit 3: tall and skinny again, black & white and very faded.
Add the glass plate frame effect for the complete vintage feel

Original image, love how the trees frame the lamp here

edit 1: Snapseed's Grunge effect to make this a very blurred and
faded photo, again an attempt at making this look like a vintage postcard!

edit 2: Retrolux filter with a blue tint, for a
fantasy version of the wintry landscape

original image, I was actually focussing on
the dogs, but when I got home I saw the
white witch and the stone lion!

Just one edit: closely cropped, I tried to capture a storybook feel with SnapSeed's
Grunge filter blurring all but the two figures. I still wish I got a better
pic of the dogs though, they were so full of bounce

Original image

Just the one edit here - Snapseed's Vintage Filter 7 to make things more
muted. Cropped to square to get rid of the crowd on the right,
making the photo about the girl and the movement. 

The Snapseed website: Snapseed.com

Find Anglo on Instagram | EyeEm | Twitter | Google+ | Flickr
Links to Anglo's Vintage Blog (shabby chic pics)

Links to her company's Facebook (HDR photos galore)

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