A Picture’s Worth – With Cara Gallardo Weil

A Picture’s Worth… is where we ask mobile photographers that have taken or made, as the case may be, powerful mobile art to explain the processes they took. This includes their initial thoughts as to what they wanted to create, why they wanted to create it, how they created it, including all apps used and what they wanted to convey. We also ask these incredible artists to explain their emotions and how the image projects those feelings. We have published a few A Picture’s Worth articles recently, if you have missed those – please go here.

In this A Picture’s Worth today, Cara Gallardo Weil discusses the passion she feels for her absolutely spectacular image ‘Above the Clouds’ and also her capture technique.

If you would like to contribute to this section or if you have seen an image that you would like to learn more about, just email Joanne@theappwhisperer.com and we will get it all set up).

Over to you Cara… (foreword by Joanne Carter).

“I shot this image of my husband David when we were in Big Sur in California earlier this year. For those of you who are not familiar with the area it is an amazing part of Highway 1 that follows the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles. On a clear day, the views over the pacific are spectacular.
While we were there, the weather was a mixture of sunshine, rain and fog. On this particular day, the clouds were sitting very low and we were above the cloud line. It was late afternoon and I had just sunken myself into the bath when I noticed the sunlight and the silhouette of my husband in the deckchair. Knowing that the light would not be the same for long, I got out of the bath and dripped my way into the room to find my iPhone, rushed back in to the bathroom, fiddled around to get the windows open and hurriedly took some photos. The setting sun gave the clouds a rather dramatic feel, resulting in quite an ethereal image.

As with most of my photos, I used Hipstamatic to shoot the original image (Foxy lens with Sugar film and no flash). I then imported the image in to Snapseed to straighten the horizon and crop the image a little. I used XnViewFX to enhance the drama of the photo, using the ‘Tint’ filter under ‘Image’ (I used pumpkin). And lastly, because he was actually writing an email on his iPhone at the time, and the original image showed a little bit of the phone sticking out – I used TouchRetouch to edit this out in order to give the silhouette a clean line.

I feel that the image has an element of the unexpected. On a clear day, one would be sitting against of the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean and the sky. The clouds make the image look a bit unreal, and if you didn’t know, you probably wouldn’t expect there to be an ocean underneath the clouds. I also like that it conveys a feeling of being on the edge of the world. For me it also evokes a sense of serenity, a happy place ‘above the clouds’”.