Appsperiments

My Droid finally broke down and died last month. I took the opportunity to trade (up?) to an iPhone 4 - on the Verizon network. I've been a happy Verizon customer for 15 years.

What's the first thing I do with my new phone? I mean like - the VERY FIRST THING - before I make a call, send a text, set up email - before any of that - I download the application Instagram and take a photo of myself. Still in the parking lot.

It's why I bought the phone.

Seriously. For the past several months I've been admiring the stunning photographs posted by my friends via Instagram.  I was dying to see how it worked and try it out. but the app isn't available for Android so, until I did the switch, I was helpless to participate.

Since that day, about a month ago, I might have gone a little overboard with the photo app purchases and downloads. Last count, I had about 20 of them. Aside from Instagram - which I adore - my favorite applications for photography are LensFlare, Blender, Labelbox, ColorSplash, Diptic and Camera +. I use them in combination to create what the iPhonographers call "appsperiments." Sure, I'm used to touching up photos in Adobe Photoshop on my client's projects, but altering them significantly - no way. Maybe this is why I so love this hobby: it's exactly what I don't get to do at work.

A flickr pro account (graciously gifted by a friend!) allows me to upload all of these crazy photos to one place to organize, label and tag. Finding flickr groups to join has been fun. Being invited to join groups: gratifying.

I love using this phone as a camera. In fact, I use it more often as a camera then anything else. It should really be called an iCamera with a built in phone.

But I digress.

There is a lot that I've learned about graphic design over the (ahem) 15 years in the business that correlate to composing photographs. With the iPhone apps, I can go beyond the capture and add elements that tell a richer story. Because, lets face it, a truly good photograph tells a tale. It speaks in larger ways than words.

Aside from great personal satisfaction with this new hobby, I've gotten some really nice feedback from the public specter that is tremendously encouraging. In the last two days:

• Smarties posted the pictures I took of the candy and thanked me by name on their facebook page.
• Lush Gelato "liked" my picture of their ice cream on their facebook page.
• Berkeleyside published one of my photos on their blog.
• I was invited to a couple of flickr groups and my Instagram following is growing.

So, if you're on Instagram, please follow me at berzerkeley. And just to confuse you, on flickr, I'm corikesler. 

Let's share photos. Let's tell stories.