Review: New editing features in iOS13 Photos App

iOS13 is out, and Apple added lots of new editing features to Photos App. Even more remarkable is that you can use all of those editing features also for videos! To edit a photo (or video) in iOS 13 photos app:

• Tap the photo to view it fullscreen
• In the upper right corner tap edit

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the new editing features and explain what they do. But first, a word about editing RAW photos with iOS 13.1 photos app.

Editing RAW photos with iOS 13 Photos app

If you’re not familiar with shooting RAW on iPhone, I have a blog post with frequently asked questions and answers about shooting RAW with iPhone here in the blog.

One thing I notice about iOS13.1 is that it seems that if you apply adjustments to a RAW photo, those adjustments are applied to the RAW photo and not to the preview JPG like it was in previous iOS versions.

So you get a quick RAW editor with iOS 13.1.

What’s more is, that when you turn to edit mode with a RAW photo selected, iOS 13.1 will tell you that you edit a RAW photo by shortly displaying a RAW badge in the upper left corner of the image.

RAW badge displayed in iOS 13.1 Photos App

Adjustment groups in iOS13 Photos App

Apple has grouped all those editing features into three, already familiar, groups:

• Adjustments
• Filter
• Cropping

Just tap one of the groups to access all editing features. On iPhone, the groups are at in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. On iPad, the groups are on the left of the screen.

Three iOS 13.1 adjustment groups in Photos App

Let’s start with the adjustments group.

Adjustment group in iOS13 Photos App.

This is the group with the newest features. Here you’ll find the following adjustments.

• Auto will try to adjust your photo automatically.
• Exposure will make your overall photo brighter or darker
• Brilliance allows you to brighten the shadows, tone down the highlights a bit and adjust the contrast to bring out more details all in one step.
• Highlights allows you to recover details in the highlights.
• Shadows. Use this to open up the shadows
• Contrast to increase or decrease contrast
• Brightness to make your photo brighter
• Blackpoint defines the black tones.
• Saturation allows you to Increase or decrease overall color saturation
• Vibrance increases the tones of the more muted colors while leaving the already saturated tones alone. Think of it as a “smart saturation tool.”
• Warmth is white balance. Use it to give your photos a warm, natural, or cold look.
• Tint allows you to add a reddish or greenish tint.
• Sharpness allows you to increase the overall sharpness of your photo.
• Definition is great for enhancing details in the mid-tones.
• Noise reduction (new). Tries to reduce noise in your photos it works surprisingly well. However, use it carefully. If you apply too much noise reduction, you’ll destroy all the details in your photos.
• Vignette allows you to apply a black or white Vignette.

That’s quite some options you have to edit your photos in photos app. Next, are filters.

Filter group in iOS 13 Photos App

The filter group contains nine different filters that you can apply to your Photos. Those filters may not be as spectacular as those in other apps, but they quickly enable you to add a dramatic, black and white, warm and cold light look to your photos.

Cropping in iOS 13 Photos App

The cropping adjustment groups contains a little more features than just cropping. Let’s begin in the upper left corner of the screen.

There you’ll find two options:

• Flip. This will flip your image vertically
• Mirror will rotate your image in 90-degree steps clockwise.

Note that we don’t have a horizontal flip. If you want to do that, flip the image vertically first, and then rotate it twice.

In the middle at the top is a kind of magic auto-cropping. If the button is yellow, it’s enabled, and it probably tries to find a great looking crop for your photo and apply it. If you don’t want that, tap it to disable it. During my tests, this auto cropping button was only displayed if I used a JPEG or HEIF photo. It wasn't displayed for a RAW photo..

Next, in the upper right corner, you have cropping presets. And I don’t understand this one: If you tap it, then a list of cropping presets appears ... at the bottom of the screen. Why would you make options pop up on a completely different part of the screen?

Next, are three adjustments:

• Straighten does pretty much as the name suggests. It allows you to straighten your photo. If Apple Photos detects a horizon, it will automatically straighten your photo.

The next two adjustments are new. Those two adjustments will help you to fix horizontal and vertical perspective distortions.

• Vertical perspective correction
• Horizontal perspective correction

However, be careful with those. After I tried it with a few dozens of photos. If you apply too much perspective correction, your photos may look unnaturally.

So I‘ll use those features for minor perspective corrections. For more substantial corrections, I’ll turn to Adobe Lightroom Mobile that allows me to adjust the aspect ratio of a photo to which I applied perspective correction.

Conclusion

The new iOS13 photos app now as a lot of great editing features. Most notably are Noise Reduction and perspective correction. All of those work great an will enable you to make your photos pop quickly. And I’ll definitely will use these for some photos.

I also like that you can develop RAW photos with iOS 13 photos app and especially, that photos app will tell me that I’m trying to edit a RAW photo.

But still (it probably was never intended this way) it’s no replacement for Lightroom Mobile that I will use for more fine granular and more substantial photo editing.

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How to use leading lines to improve your travel photography

Leading lines are one of the most essential concepts in photography. By using leading lines in your photos, you'll give the eye of the viewer directions. Our brain loves lines and directions. So, Naturally, the eye of the viewer will follow those leading lines through your photo noticing everything along and at the end of the leading lines first.

So as a photographer, it's a common practice to place your main subject or subjects (I'm using plural on purpose here) along or at the end of leading lines.

In this tutorial, I'll show some example of leading lines in travel photography that I took in the past years. And I'll explain how and why I composed the photos this way so you can experiment with those concepts in your own photography.

Leading Lines can be basically anything. Here are some ideas of what can be used as a leading line in travel photography.

• Any kind of paths like a road, a country lane or a trail
• Natural lines like shorelines, a line of trees, rocks, and cliffs
• Man-made structures like buildings, boardwalks, bridges, pillars, and poles
• Even light (in contrast with shadow) can act as a leading line.

Example photos that use leading lines

As a travel photographer, you may spot leading lines almost anywhere in nature and in cities. Try to use them to your advantage to take stunning travel photos. Here are some examples from my travels

Shorelines at beaches and lakes

While this is not the most obvious way to create leading lines in a photo, it's a great way to enhance your photo composition that is often overlooked. Naturally, this technique works well at beaches and lakes. Use it to draw the attention to anything along or at the end of the shoreline.

Shorline as a leading line at Marshall’s Beach in San Francisco

When I arrived at Marshall's beach in San Francisco, I immediately noticed how the shoreline and the breaking waves created a slightly curved line towards the Golden Gate Bridge. So I waited until the waves break at the shore to form a clearly visible line towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

Leading lines at lake Alt Aussee

This second example photo is from a lake in Alt Aussee, a village in the heart of Austria. The main subject in this photo is the mountain range that's reflected in the water and the shorelines to the left and right create symmetrical lines that guide the eye towards the subject.

Additionally, the blue sky and its reflection in the lake create a sense of symmetry that I emphasized by placing the horizon in the middle of the frame.

Shore at Hallstadt

The last example is a well known Instagram Spot in a small village called Hallstadt. I guess you've heard about it. It's a 700 souls village that get's flocked by up to 10.000 tourists on a single day! In this composition, I used the shoreline to guide the eye along the village towards the church that acts as the main anchor point.

Bridges

Bridges, big and small, make fantastic leading lines.

Bridge used as a leading line towards the saxophone player

When I strolled through Central Park in New York, I heard and noticed this Saxophone player under the bridge. Notice where the musician stands. Instead of putting him into the center of the frame, I placed him to the edge and used the bridge and the arch to form a curved leading line.

Bridge as a leading line to convey distance

In the second example photo, the bridge acts as a leading line to convey mainly depth. It illustrates how deep the gorge near Salzburg actually is.

Intersecting Lines

Use intersecting lines if you want to draw the attention of the viewer to several different subjects in a photo. Intersecting lines are a great way to change the viewing direction of the eye in a picture.

Two leading lines intersecting

This place is called "Kaiserwasser" (Emperor's Water) and it's a relaxation area here in Vienna. By using the line that's created by the flora on the left, I guide the eye of the viewers along those different colored bushes until it meets the horizontal (shore)line of the lake. That changes the direction of the viewer towards the reflection of the skyscrapers.

Converging Lines

Converging lines are a powerful composition element to create perspective and to add depth in a photo. For such a composition look for lines that converge in an imaginary focal point. You can add the main subject at or near the focal point to draw the attention of the viewer towards this subject.

Converging leading lines from the background

I saw this abandoned, yellow, phone booth in Chernobyl and used the converging lines of the building that come from the background towards the phone booth. Leading lines do not always need to run from the foreground to the background. Experiment with lines that do precisely the opposite.

Converging leading lines used to illustrate distance

Converging lines also work great to illustrate how long this hallway in an abandoned hospital is.

Paths as leading lines.

Use paths in your photo composition to convey a sense of distance, space, and to invite the viewer to follow the path. Using paths as leading lines works great to draw the attention of the viewer towards a subject in or along the path.

Road used as a leading line to convey distance

In this photo, that I took in Berlin, I wanted to convey the enormous size of the forest and the distance to the city center of Berlin. In the distance, you can spot one of the main attractions of Berlin, the Alexander tower.

Road as a leading line to convey distance and space

Another example of using a path to convey space and distance is this photo I took in Death Valley.

Destroyed path as a leading line to spark curiosity

In the context of an abandoned place in the woods, this photo intends to make the viewer curious. As you can see, the path in the woods near Helsinki, Finnland, does not lead to any main subject. It just vanishes in the distance leaving a viewer wondering where does the path lead to and why does it look like it has been destroyed?

Path as a leading line through an open gate

As a final example, have a look at this shot of an old, medieval castle. The path (road) leads to and through an open gate. So you may interpret this as an invitation to follow the path into the castle.

Light and Sun

Using light is an often overlooked technique for composing a photo and to create leading lines. You have several options for using light in such a way. Either use rays of the sun to point towards the main subject of a photo or use light an shadow to direct the eye of the viewer.

In this photo that I took in a lost place near Berlin, I used the sunlight that came through the area above the boards to highlight the main subject, the old dentist chair. I intensified the light a bit in post-processing but using the light cone, the eye is immediately drawn to the dentist's chair.

Summary

Leading lines are one of the most essential composition elements in photography. Our brain loves to follow lines, thus does the eye. Use leading lines to guide the eye of the viewer through your image. Contrary to popular belief, you don't always have to place the main subject at the end or intersection of leading lines. Try placing the main subject along the leading lines in your photo.

And now, let's take some gorgeous photos with leading lines together.

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Shooting RAW with iPhone: 7 frequently asked questions and answers

A few years ago, Apple added an option to save photos shot on iPhone as RAW files. While the stock iOS camera app does not have this feature as of iOS13, many third-party camera apps allow you to save your photos in RAW format.

In this FAQ, I'll answer 7 questions about shooting RAW with iPhone.

Can I shoot raw with iPhone?

Yes, you can shoot RAW with iPhone, but you'll need a third-party camera app like ProCamera. The stock camera app does not support saving RAW files as of iOS 13.

Other popular apps capable of shooting RAW are the Moment Camera App, Halide and the Lightroom Camera App included in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

If you're evaluating any third-party camera app, carefully check its description. A third party iPhone camera app does not automatically support shooting RAW. It has to support it explicitly.

RAW image files shot with iPhone have the extension DNG, which is short for digital negative, a RAW image file format developed by Adobe.

What is the difference between a RAW and a JPG photo?

A JPEG photo taken with stock iPhone camera app is automatically processed by the camera app. It applies adjustments like noise reduction, contrast, or vibrancy, just to name a few.

JPEG photos are saved in a compressed format which typically results in much smaller file size and thus much less image information compared to a RAW file.

A RAW file, on the other hand, is saved unprocessed and uncompressed. It's saved as the camera "sees "it. You'll need a RAW photo editor to digitally develop a RAW photo before you sharing it. One of the most popular RAW photo editors on iPhone is like Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

It's also worth noting that a RAW photo may look worse than a corresponding JPEG file on first sight because the camera does not apply any automatic editing. Here's a screenshot from Adobe Lightroom to illustrate that.

Unedited RAW photo in Lightroom Mobile

Developed RAW Photo in Lightroom Mobile

Notice how much details you can recover from the dark areas of the photos if you shoot in RAW.

How do I edit A RAW Photo on iPhone?

You can compare editing a RAW file to developing a classic analog film. That's why the process of editing a RAW file is often referred to as to digital develop a photo.

You'll need an app that is capable of reading a RAW file. One of the most prominent RAW editing apps on iOS is Adobe Lightroom.

Some camera apps, like ProCamera, also allow you to edit a RAW file.

Most important, before you do anything else with your RAW photo, like retouching it or even sharing it, you need to edit, or, as I mentioned above, digitally develop it.

If you open a RAW file with any other retouching app, the app may just use the embedded JPG preview and you'll edit just that instead of the RAW photo.

Why should I shoot in RAW with iPhone?

A RAW photo is saved as the image sensor sees it in an uncompressed format. Thus, the picture contains much more information than a compressed JPEG photo.

Because there's more image information in a RAW photo, you can produce a much higher quality, final, photo. For example, you may be able to fix burnt highlights or blown out dark areas that would otherwise be unrecoverable from a JPG photo. Those areas would be merely white or black. With a RAW file, you may be able to recover some detail from those areas.

Also, applying noise reduction in a RAW editor gives you much better control over the noise reduction instead of relying on the automatic process of the camera app. This leads to better results with more detail but less noise in the final photo.

On iPhone, I noticed that especially when it comes to detail, a RAW beats a JPEG by far.

Inside of a church in low light shot as RAW and developed with Lightroom Mobile

When should I shoot in RAW?

That question is difficult to answer. In the DSLR world, you'll often hear that you should always shoot in RAW. As you can use your iPhone as a snapshot camera as well as a camera for deliberately shooting a scene, the answer to this question is a little different.

As shooting RAW involves some post-processing steps, I handle it the following way:

• Whenever I'm out shooting in the sense that I take time to compose a photo that I want to share, I shoot in RAW.
• Snapshots, like "Barbecue with friends "I typically shoot as JPEG.

Why do RAW Photos look blurry in Photos App?

That depends on the settings of your camera app. If you set your camera app to save a pure RAW file, then a low-resolution preview is embedded in the RAW file that is displayed in photos app. The resolution of this preview is so low that it will look blurry in photos app. Open the RAW file in a RAW editor to see it in its full glory.

If you set your camera app to RAW + JPG, then the camera app will save an additional full resolution JPEG.

Are RAW Photos flagged in Photos App so I can identify them in Photos app on iPhone?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. As of iOS 13, there is no flag or label that will indicate a photo is a RAW file. This applies to DNG files shot with iPhone and even RAW files shot with a DSLR like NEF files from a Nikon camera or ARW files from a Sony camera.

Adobe Lightroom displays a DNG sticker on RAW photos to make it easy for you to pick the correct file.

Apple, do you hear me?

Conclusion

Shooting RAW will result in a much better final image quality. On the other hand, you need to invest time to process each and every RAW photo. But especially if you're photographing fantastic landscapes or stunning architecture, shooting RAW is well worth the additional effort as the final result will be a much better image.

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How to fix Perspective Distortions on iPhone with these 5 Apps

Perspective distortions in photography come in many different forms. Since I turned to iPhone Photography in 2012, I've tried several apps to fix perspective distortions right on iPhone, but the results I got were, let's say, suboptimal. Many of the apps I tried reduced the overall resolution of the photo.

As of 2019, perspective correction features are available in many iPhone photo apps. In this article, I'll share 5 (actually it's 4 plus 1 as a bonus) different apps I regularly use that offer different features for fixing perspective distortions.

For each app, and that's one of the most important features if you ask me, I'll let you know if the app will retain or reduce the overall resolution of your photo.

Let's start with a short recap about perspective distortion.

What is a perspective distortion in photography?

The mostly encountered kind of perspective distortion is converging or plunging lines. They occur when you photograph a large object, like a building, from the ground level and tilt your camera upwards. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. It's a photo I took in Bucharest, Romania. Notice the red lines I've added that illustrate the plunging lines. In a perfect picture, those lines would be parallel to the edges of the frame which would make the building perfectly upright.

Converging lines of a building

Another kind of perspective distortion is horizontal distortion that occurs, when you're not perfectly aligned with a large object, e.g., a building, or in this case the door that I used as a frame for the Ferris wheel in Chernobyl.

Horizontal perspective distortion

The third kind is barrel distortion that occurs when you use an ultra-wide lens or a fisheye lens like in this photo of an abandoned church near Leipzig.

Barrel Distortion from a Fisheye Lens

Luckily for us iPhone photographers, we can fix all those different kinds of distortions right on our iPhone. Today, there are at least 5 apps that will help you with that.

How to fix perspective distortion and barrel distortion on iPhone

Until 2014 only very few apps existed that would allow you to fix different kinds of perspective and barrel distortions. But unfortunately, all of those apps would reduce the overall resolution of your photo if you'd use them to fix distortions. Thus, I didn't use such apps. But that changed in 2014.

Fixing perspective distortions with SKRWT App

In 2014, this fantastic new app appeared on the scene. It touted itself as the missing link in iPhone photography. And yes, it was.

With SKRWT, you can fix all kinds of distortions, be it horizontal, vertical, or barrel distortion. And with an optional in-app purchase, you could even use a freeform edit to fix all other kinds of distortions. I've written a review of SKRWT app here in the blog, and I've been using SKRWT extensively since 2014.

Unlike any other perspective correction app I tried, SKRWT would keep the current resolution of the photo. SKRWT received a lot of praise when it was released, and that praise was well deserved.

Unfortunately, it seems that SKRWT app is not maintained any longer. The last update was released more than two years ago, and there's a bug if use photos that you tool in the new HEIC format that was introduced by Apple a while ago. I sent an email about this bug a while ago and never got any response (or a bugfix release)

As of August 2019, I can confirm what SKRWT still works on iOS13 (beta).

I will keep and use it until it stops working, especially for fixing barrel distortions that occur from the Moment Superfish Lens. In this area, SKRWT is really unbeaten.

How to fix barrel distortion in SKRWT

But for fixing horizontal and vertical distortions, I've turned to Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

Fixing perspective distortions with Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Sometime in 2018, Adobe updated Lightroom Mobile with functionality that was only available on the Desktop by then. Now you can fix horizontal, vertical and even some barrel distortions on your iPhone or iPad with Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

Adobe calls these adjustments geometry and they're available for Adobe Lightroom CC subscribers. I've hesitated for some time to subscribe to Lightroom. But doing the math and after I saw what's included in a Lightroom Subscription, I finally subscribed a few years ago. No regrets so far.

With Lightroom Mobile, you can basically fix all kinds of perspective distortions:

• Vertical distortions
• Horizontal distortions
• Barrel distortions (but not to the same extent as SKRWT)
• And even a combination of all of the above.

Lightroom Mobile offers three ways to fix perspective distortions:

1. A manual way by adjusting the proper sliders for either horizontal, vertical, or barrel distortion
2. An automatic way where Lightroom tries to find converging lines and automatically fix them by making them parallel
3. A guided way where you draw lines and Adobe adjusts the photo accordingly.

Fixing perspective distortion in Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Lightroom offers a way to keep the resolution of the original photo using either the zoom, x-offset or y-offset adjustments or a combination of all three.

Fix perspective distortions with Photos App in iOS 13

With iOS13, Apple has made some updates to the Photos app. One of them is that you can fix horizontal and vertical perspective distortions.

However, by default, those fixes won't keep the current resolution of the photo. You will lose up to 1-2 megapixels unless you're willing to apply a different crop to your photo. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. First, I just fixed the perspective distortion and didn't adjust the cropping. Then I checked the resolution of the photo in the EXIF reader of ProCamera app. Then I adjusted the cropping and checked the resolution again.

Perspective correction in iOS13 without adjusting crop

Image Resolution after applying perspective correction in iOS13 without adjusting crop

For this scenario, the photo has a resolution of 10.3 megapixels (3722 x 2792 pixels)

Perspective correction in iOS13 with adjusted crop

Resolution of photo with perspective correction with adjusted crop.

In the second scenario, the overall resolution actually increased due to the crop I applied. The overall resolution now is 3713 x 3763, which results in a total of 13.9 megapixels.

Please note that the increase of resolution is not due some fancy pixel duplication magic. It's simply because the algorithm that does the perspective correction actually "stretches" the image horizontally and upwards to get the lines straight.

Just keep that in mind when using the perspective correction feature of iOS13.

You can find those perspective corrections adjustments under the crop adjustment group:

1. Tap and photo to view it large
2. Tap edit in the upper right corner
3. Tap the crop and rotation adjustment group in the lower toolbar.
4. Swipe left to the vertical or horizontal perspective correction adjustment
5. Adjust the slider

Fixing perspective distortion in iOS 13 Photos App

Fixing perspective distortions while shooting with Pro Camera App

ProCamera App is one of my favorite camera apps for iPhone.

In 2019, the developers introduced a fancy new feature: automatic perspective correction.

Automatic perspective correction in ProCamera

With this feature turned on, you're able to fix converging lines right when you're taking the photo. You even get to see how the auto perspective correction will look like because you get a preview on the screen even before you take the photo. Simply awesome.

Here's a full review of [auto perspective correction in ProCamera][0] for your convenience.

Fixing perspective distortions with Snapseed

Snapseed is not one of the apps I use regularly, that's why I don't have a review for it. In fact, I rarely use it.

But as SKRWT app is not maintained any longer I looked for an app that supports free form perspective corrections. And that's where Snapseed comes in. You can find this feature under Tools, Perspective and then Free.

Freeform perspective correction in Snapseed

So far, I've used it on a few photos only but I'm quite impressed by the results. And, most important, the photos keeps the resolution.

In addition to to the free form perspective correction, Snapseed supports vertical and horizontal fixes. Even with content-aware fill.

Maybe if Snapseed adds a feature that will allow to fix barrel distortions, it could completely replace SKRWT.

Recap and Recommendation for fixing perspective distortions on iPhone

It really depends on the kind of photography you're doing which app I'd recommend.

If you own a fisheye lens, like the Moment Superfish, SKRWT is still the best option; knowing, that the app is currently not maintained any more. So at some point, it may stop working. You can also fix barrel distortion in Lightroom Mobile, but not to the same extent as with SKRWT app. If you want to give it a try, you can get SKRWT from the App Store.

If you just to fix horizontal or vertical perspective distortions, then Adobe Lightroom is a good choice. I really love the guided approach to perspective correction that Adobe implemented. Adobe Lightroom Mobile is available from the App Store.

But if you're an occasional photographer and only need to fix perspective distortions every now and then plus you can live with a slightly reduced resolution, then use the perspective correction features in iOS13 photos app. iOS13 will be available as an automatic update for your iPhone this fall.

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Review: Fisher Bullet Space Pen with Stylus

Okay, what could anyone write about a pen? Quite a lot as it turns out. After I discovered the Field Notes Notebooks, that have become an integral part of my life to jot down ideas and for travel journaling, I found the Fisher Bullet Space Pens.

Fisher Bullet Space Pens I use with my current Field Notes Travel Journal

Seems like for many people, who are sort of obsessed with their everyday carry, Field Notebooks and Fisher Space pens are inextricable.

Fisher sells several different models of Space Pens and this review is about a particular one: The Fisher Bullet Space Pen.

What is a Fisher Space Pen?

Fisher Space Pens are rugged pens, advertised to write in any conditions: At any angle, even upside down, underwater, at any temperature from -30F to +250F, on most surfaces and even in outer space. They work in those conditions because they use a pressurized cartridge.

According to NASA history, Paul C. Fisher of Fisher Pen Co. developed this pen, that would write in the unique environment of space without any NASA funding. Then he offered the pens to NASA for $6 per unit for the Apollo Program in 1967. They bought it.

In 1969, even the Soviet Union purchased 100 pens plus 1000 cartridges for Cosmonauts for the Soyuz program.

So, (pun intended) the Fisher Space Pen indeed has written history.

What I like about the Fisher Bullet Space Pen

The Bullet Space Pen perfectly fits my mindset of traveling light. It's small and quite straight forward.

The top two (plus one) features that made me buy it were:

• I like the pressurized cartridge, that will enable me to use the pen in any direction and that it will write on almost any surface.
• The pen is small and when you remove the cap and put it on the back, it transforms into a full-sized pen. The lower part has a grip.
• Fisher sells a version with a stylus that works with iPhone and that I use mainly for retouching photos on iPhone.

Bullet Space Pen size comparison (from l.t.r.): With cap on the back, normal click pen, with cap closed.

There are like a ton of different editions of the Fisher Space Pen. It comes in different colors, and there are even some special editions like the Apollo 11 50th anniversary edition.

Also, cartridges are available in lots of different colors: blue, black, red, green, burgundy, purple, brown, and silver. And almost each of the colors is available in a fine, medium or bold cartridge.

One thing I wasn't aware of that when I ordered my first Fisher Space Pen is that some of the pens come without a clip. So they're stripped down to the pure essentials.

So if you need a clip, don't forget to order it or double-check that the version you're ordering comes with a clip.

Three Fisher Space Pens I use

Over the years, I've bought some Bullet Space Pens, and I've got rid of all the other freebie pens. These are the three pens I have:

• The black Fisher Space Pen with a stylus, that's available in three different colors. It costs around $25. You can check the price of the Fisher Space Pen with Stylus on Amazon. I use this one with a fine, black, cartridge.
• The brushed chrome pen with a clip that I use with a medium blue cartridge. Check the prize of the Brushed Chrome Bullet Space Pen on Amazon. That one looks really previous.
• The Red Cherry version (with Clip) that I use with a fine, red, cartridge. You can get the Red Cherry Bullet Pen for around 20 USD at Amazon.

The version with the stylus is great for quick retouching of photos with TouchRetouch app, an app to quickly remove objects and people and objects from photos. Of course, it also works well for sketching and signing documents on the iPhone.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Fisher Space Pens are great pens for everyday carry because of their compact size and straight forward design. It fits into any pocket or purse and transforms into a full-sized pen with the cap on the back. Together with the Field Notes Notebooks Space Pen forms an essential part of my everyday carry and travel journaling.

Especially the pressurized cartridge that allows you to use the pen in any direction has been helpful in the past.

You can check the full range of Fisher Bullet Space Pens at Amazon and Amazon has all the refills for the Bullet Space Pen, too.

And finally, if you plan to take notes on your next scuba dive or you plan to travel to outer space, those pens should work, too. But I doubt, that I will ever test that.

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6 awesome Photospots in Bucharest, Romania photographed with iPhone

I've been to Bucharest, Romania, a few times during the past years. From what I saw of the city, I can tell that Bucharest is definitely an exciting city to see.

When it comes to photo spots in Bucharest, this city offers a great mix of various architectural styles: from modern glass buildings to old and pretentious houses and impressive bridges. I even found a few lost places there. So here are my recommendations for photo spots in Bucharest.

It's been a while since I've been to Bucharest and so all of these photos were shot with an iPhone 6s plus.

Getting around in Bucharest

I did most of the getting around in Bucharest on foot. But there are four metro lines, several bus and tram lines that you can use to explore the city. As always, I recommend getting a day or multi-day ticket.

Photo Spots in Bucharest

Let's start in the city center at the Ateneul Român, a concert hall in the center of Bucharest that was opened in 1888. The place in front of it seems to be a kind of gathering place for all pigeons in Bucharest. When I arrived there, this considerable swarm was flying around the building. However, pictured that it would look good if they'd just come flying over the building. Thanks to the very fast burst mode of iPhone, I was able to get this photo

Pigeon Swarm at the Ateneul Român in Bucharest, Romania

I had to wait for a little to get this photo. There was also a group of girls who were filming a kind of music video. Maybe for their Instagram or YouTube, I don't know. To get them off the photo, I just lowered my angle and used the bushes in front to cover them.

Next is the Baserab Bridge, a road overpass in Bucharest. It looks particularly lovely at night when it's beautifully illuminated. I took this one using ProCamera app, which is one of my camera apps I regularly use (and for years!)

Black and White Baserab bridge in Bucharest, Romania

There was a small street light in front of the bridge that I removed using Touch Retouch app (Yes, I use that app since I turned to iPhone photography! It's simply awesome)

Next is the building that houses the national bank. It's almost impossible to miss if you stroll around the area. This one also looks quite nice at night, when it's beautifully illuminated. This is another shot I took with ProCamera app experimenting with manual exposure.

National Bank in Bucharest, Romania

A must-see place is the palace of parliament. A colossal palace built to impress. Allegedly, it's the heaviest building in the world.

Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, Romania

If you walk away from the palace down the Bulevardul Urinii, you'll pass by this beautiful fountain that is a little difficult to access. It's in between two roads, and there's no crosswalk that allows you to cross the boulevard, that's quite busy during the rush hour, so be careful and watch out for any local police when you cross the road.

Beautiful Fountain in Bucharest, Romania

Finally, there's the potato of the revolution, that right on revolution square. The interesting story of this monument is that allegedly no one in Bucharest likes it, and that's why they call it either "potato on a stick" or "potato of revolution."

Potatio on a stick in Bucharest, Romania

Oh, and when you're already at the revolution square, there's one more interesting building is right nearby. It's a modern building that was built inside an old one. Allegedly, the facade of the old building is under monument protection, and so they couldn't tear it down and just made the new building inside the old one. Quite creative, isn't it?

New building inside old building in Bucharest, Romania

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Old Wardour Castle. A filming location for Robin Hood

I discovered this gorgeous castle back in 2016 on the way back to London from Stonehenge. Right after Stonehenge, there was a small sign near the road that said Old Wardour Castle. I just noticed the two words old and castle. Those two words usually trigger something that I call "Indiana Jones Mode." I had to go and see this ancient castle. Little did I know yet, how fantastic this one would be.

Know before you go

Old Wardour Castle in roughly 45 minutes by car from Stonehenge, southwest bound. You have to take a narrow and winding road to reach the castle; as a friendly word of advise, drive slowly there. The way I had to take was so narrow, it had only room for one car.

To castle is being maintained in its current state and you have to buy an affordable ticket on site to access the area, which is quite huge. Plan a few hours if you want to see everything.

Wardour Castle was built in the 1390s and allegedly destroyed around 1644 during the English Civil War.

Old Wardour Castle in the movies

The castle is so spectacular that it was used as a filming location for the 1991 version of Robin Hood starring Kevin Costner. In the movie, the had to castle is used as Locksley's castle and there's even a scene in the film where you can spot the grotto that's in the same area.

Old Wardour Castle

What I found so stunning about this castle is that one half is still intact, while the other half is just missing. It looks like someone took a giant saw and cut through the building.

Intact part of Wardour Castle

Some of the floors still exist, and you can access them. There's a small gate on the ground floor with stairs that lead to all the different levels.

Stairs inside Old Wardour Castle

The top floors are quite airy. And if you get closer to those walls, you'll experience a beautiful view over the surrounding area.

Airy upper floor in Wardour Castle

I took all those photos using an iPhone 6S plus back in 2016. Luckily, I already had the Moment Wide Angle Lens that helped me to capture the entire building and surrounding area really easily.

Old Wardour Castle

Old Wardour Castle may be a little off the beaten tracks, but it's definitely worth a visit.

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An abandoned administrative building in the woods

I recently went for a hike in a forrest near Vienna. The area is known to be sparsely inhabited and generally, you won't encounter many people there. The next road is a few miles away and there's basically no touristic infrastructure nearby.

After I hiked for almost 45 minutes, I saw something above the treetops that looked like the remains of a tower that could have belonged to an ancient castle. But as I went closer, I discovered that those belonged to an old and abandoned building.

Abandoned structure in the woods

The inside of the building has been taken back by nature. Trees grow everywhere inside. I just love that. It's so impressive to see how nature takes back such buildings.

Trees growing inside

There's not much left of this building except the walls. It looks like this building once had three floors and I could see the remains of a former stairwell.

Inside the abandoned building

One of the most important rules in such abandoned places is to always look up if there's something that could come down.

Tree on the stairs

All photos were taken using ProCamera App. As I didn't have the tripod with me, I used a neat feature of ProCamera App: The motion detection shutter release. I set ProCamera to manual mode with ISO set as low as possible to achieve at least a shutter speed of 1/20. With the motion detection shutter release of ProCamera the shutter will only trigger (automatically) once you hold your iPhone steady. Nice feature.

Back home, I did some research. It looks like this building once belonged to a former factory that was built towards the end of the 19th century and was used until the end of World War II. So the building is a little over 100 years old and has been abandoned almost 75 years ago. Quite impressive how fast nature takes back, isn't it?

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I have a soft spot for lost places and abandoned structures. You can read more about lost places I've discovered and photographed in the blog.

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A gorgeous abendoned castle in Lower Austria

During my search for lost places to photograph, I recently discovered a gorgeous abandoned castle in Lower Austria. The origins of the said castle date back to the 13th century!

Until the early 20th century, it was owned by a number of noble families before it was completely abandoned sometime between World War I and World War II. You may have heard that all forms of nobility were prohibited in many European countries after World War I but I have no idea if this was the reason that the castle was abandoned.

Well equipped, I traveled to the castle for a two hour iPhone photography session inside this gem. Light conditions were really difficult in there, especially in the basement. All windows were boarded up and so I had to use Low Light Mode from ProCamera App.

The first thing I notices once I entered the abandoned castle were those stairs to the upper floor.

Stairs in abandoned castle in Lower Austria

The stairs looked okayish in the lower half. But, though I wore my hiking boots which provide a really good grip, it was difficult to climb the second half of the stairs as they were totally covered in debris.

Once I made it upstairs I passed through a dozen of rooms. All of them were totally empty except for some still having the, probably, century old wallpaper and some doors lying around.

Ancient wallpaper in abandoned castle in Lower Austria

Room in abandoned castle in Lower Austria

After crossing a few rooms I encountered an obstacle. Such an obstacle is a clear warning sign of an unstable structure: Avoid at all costs.

Collapsed area in abandoned castle in Lower Austria

The roof timbering had collapsed here and in some other places. Such areas are really dangerous because you‘ll never known how stable the remaining part of the floor is.

Dark Basement

Back in the basement I tried to find a way to the chapel. Such medieval castles quite often have their own chapels and those are usually the most beautiful part of such an abandoned building like this.

The basement was the most difficult part to photograph. As I mentioned above, it was really dark in there. Luckily, my [two flashlights][0] helped illuminated the darkest corners for me.

So, did I find the chapel? Well, see for yourself. I filmed a little bit using the DJI Osmo 2 and was quite positively surprised that the DJI app automatically pick some dramatic music and created a 30 second clip from the 13 min. footage. Nice.

A 30-second clip that was automatically created by the DJI app

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