For disappearing acts, it’s hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work. ~Doug Larson
Like many, it seems I’ve fallen victim to a robber of what is most precious to men (Napoleon I, Maxims, 1815) . Over the last four weeks I’ve had little time to enjoy my photography, and the only time I’ve used my camera was at other peoples behest (albeit still enjoyable). To maintain the spark of photographic interest I’ve been making full use of a tool that has divided professionals – my mobile phone. The ability to grab a shot, edit and distribute in seconds is brilliant, and you can see why it has some professionals in a flap. I’ve been in two minds about the whole ‘instagram’ ‘fad’, I see how it may be considered to diminish the efforts of professionals to get certain effects by a simple touch of a button… that said, it has allowed me to continue shooting while I have no time to do the ‘real’ stuff.
The Equipment
I’ve been using a HTC Desire HD smart phone for the last year and a half, and apart from a few issues of late, its been a great phone. The camera has a 8mp sensor and I’ve consistently been impressed by the quality of the photos it takes. Nearly all the ‘smart-phones’ that are being released now have decent very cameras considering that it’s not their primary function.
The Programs
I’ve tried several different applications beyond the stock one. The best I’ve found so far is Camera360. It has a ton of features, and allows you to be very creative with your pics. The other app I’ve been using more recently is Instagram. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you’re one of the few. To sum it up, Instagram allows you to take a photo either using the camera or from your gallery and apply certain filters, borders and depth of field ‘fog’ then post it to a profile as well as Twitter (@unstableimage), Facebook, Foursquare or Tumblr if you desire.
The Results
These first few photos were taken just with the camera app, no fiddling.
These few are from Camera360, a great feature that I love to use is the colour selection tool.
Finally some tweaked pics from Instagram.
This last one is a combination of Camera360′s selective colour and Instagram.
I’m hoping to make time for my photography over the next few months, it’s good for heart, body and soul! This should result in more blogging, fingers crossed. Feel free to follow me on Instagram or twitter, I always re-follow as I love seeing what everyone else is up to with their art.
AiM
still, instagram, camera360 and the lot can’t replace the creative mind, you need to have.
I share your thought about mobile photography. Plus, you have your cell phone with you all the time anyway. And with Instagram, Facebook, tumblr and even wordpress apps in place, you can share pictures right away and do not need to worry about loading them on a hard drive, organizing them and such.
Great pictures
Thanks for reading!
I couldn’t agree more, like the post says, with the little time I (and many others) have, this things allow us to continue being creative, but as you’ve said, you still need to have an eye for it