An app a day, makes it fun to play!

I'm so excited about In Focus and having a monthly theme!  What fun we will have!

This month's theme is "favorite things".  (go here to read about the monthly theme)  I want to share my favorite thing (or things in this case!)

You can probably guess from my picture that in iPhone may be involved.  (Much to the dismay of my DSLR who was slow to activate the shutter button and give me a rear display as I took pictures of the phone! such a diva!)

My iPhone is a favorite thing of mine, that's for sure, and not because of it's ability to make and receive phone calls.  It's ability to give me access to Instagram is it's shining grace!  And, that is fun!

I love Instagram.  I may love it too much!  But there is no other place where I can log in and have an instant surprise party!  I never know what I'm going to find there!  Everything from the everyday to the really beautiful works of art that my Instagram buddies create and post.  I see pictures from all over the world!  It's an amazing look at places I may never actually visit.  A peek into different lifestyles.  A sharing of accomplishment and joy, pride and folly, melancholy and nostalgia.  I go on vacations and to parties through Instagram!  It's always an adventure!  Instagram has it's own camera. (that I never use because you have to immediately download your picture to Instagram and sometimes I'm just not ready to do that because I'm an artist and need to make my pictures all artsy fartsy) Instagram is free at the app store.

My favorite camera to use on my phone is the 6X6 app.  I use this 99% of the time to take pictures.  The reason is because it takes pictures in square format and saves them to my camera roll.  (There is something so nice about square format. I like to print them too, hello, PostalPix!)  From there I can edit them or add them to Instagram.  It also take incredibly beautiful black and white pictures.  6X6 is .99 cents.

For processing, I use 2 or 3 different apps.  Magic Hour is fun because it comes with some really neat filters you can use to get neat effects on your pictures.  There are also a gazillion filters that are free to download and you can create your own filter.  Magic Hour is $1.99.

Camera+ is a good app for picture taking and processing.  The camera in this app has a timer. Useful for selfies!  Camera+ is 99 cents.

Squareready will take pictures that are not square and make them square.  (No camera in this app.)  I like this for those pictures I took with the regular camera on the phone.  Because it's so much work to pinch and stretch my pictures to get them to fit the frame on Instagram-I'm lazy like that!  Squareready is free.

Filterstorm is good for really fine tuning your pictures. You can adjust white balance, levels, curves, sharpen, noise reduction, red eye brush, layer masks, watermark it, crop, straighten, rotate, add a border and lots of other things I don't even know what they are!  Filterstorm is $3.99.

These, and other, apps are sometimes offered for free.  If you see one of these for free-grab it! (there's also an app called "Find Free Apps" that will tell you when an app is being offered for free and "Find Free Apps" is free!)

Don't worry, Android users, Instagram is coming!

OK, so I may or may not also have a few versions of Angry Birds on my phone and maybe some other crazy word games with friends and possibly facebook but, hey, cell phones aren't just for talking anymore!

One thing's for certain, I'd be in a world of hurt if my little friend got lost or broken!

I better take the DSLR out for some one on one time.  She's got her memory card in a wad!

I'd love to hear of any favorite apps you might use!  Share a picture you have taken using one! Fun!!

And don't forget to tag your pictures with "my favorite things" for a chance to be featured in our "In Focus"!




“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good”~Dr.Seuss




xo,