Photo Apps

I don't have a "tried and true" pin to highlight this week, so I thought I'd instead focus on another hobby that's floating around my head right now.  Since I don't already have enough social media distraction in my life, I'm making an effort to get into Instagram this year.

Junior makes himself at home at the vet's office.

Maybe I'll work on adding the photo feed here on the blog.  but for now, if you're on Instagram, you can see me at RLDELO.

A little sneak for tomorrow's blog hop project :).

I've been playing with lots of photo apps this week and wanted to share a fun find from the Google Play Store.  It also looks like you can use it from a desktop computer, too.  Pixlr-O-Matic is like other photo apps, where you can apply various effects to your photos.  But it was the first one I found that includes lots of Bokeh effects - those little spots of light you may have seen on photos, sometimes in shapes and colors. If you've never noticed it, some examples are here.

I used a glittery Bokeh on this picture. My friend Jeanne pointed out these huge, really beautiful light fixtures at the restaurant where we went to lunch on Saturday.

And then if you want to get the picture into a true square, open it in Instagram and add it to your Instagram feed. 

I played with one of the Bokeh options on this picture of the gelatto case at the coffee shop at work and did the same as above (added the saved picture to Instagram). I doubt the gelatto was a booming business this week.  Brrrr......

I am not a photographer. My fanciest photo equipment is the camera on my Galaxy S3 phone.  I know very little about the mechanics or the artistic design of photography. Those points may be very evident from the pictures I posted above, I wouldn't know.  But they look pretty to me!  I'm loving playing with these apps because it's just so easy to do from the pictures I take on my phone.

And if you don't have a fancy phone, try googling for similar applications that can be used on your desktop.

If you are a fellow app junkie, here are some photo apps I've tried:

Pixlr-o-matic: The one I used above for Bokehs

Instagram: You can follow me at RLDELO!

Polamatic (for iPhone/Pad) or Polaroid Camera (in GP Store): Similar to Instagram, but more specifically creates Polaroid-type pics instead of the square pic.

Hipstamatic (Called Disposable on my iPad; Haven't used it yet, but Retro Camera looks to be the parallel app in the GP Store for my Droid): Similar to other photo apps, except you pick your camera/effects and use that same camera for a whole roll of pictures, like a disposable camera.  The fun is that when you are done with the roll, you can forward the roll of pics to Facebook or an email address, and the pictures save to your device's camera roll (or some other folder on your device, depending on how your settings).

Word Foto (App Store): You can add a word set on top of your photo. I don't have an example right in front of me, but I'll show one here later.  There are some examples online here.  I did a really cute one from a picture in Mexico last year and forgot to include it in my album, so I'll show it here when I find a way to add it to the album.

Skitch (App Store): Has some fun features to allow you to write and draw on a photo.

PhotoGrid (GP Store): This one is useful and fun! You can make a collage from your phone pictures in several different styles and add text on the photo pretty easily, too.  I did a test shot with some Junior pictures, just to show you the idea:

Aviary Photo Editor (Google Play Store): Same idea....but the fun feature is that you can add that fun Meme text that you may see on your favorite funny cat pictures.  Here's an example:

Next week I will post about more apps and fun photo stuff, including my experience with printing phone pictures.  If you have anything you think I shouldn't miss mentioning, please let me know! There are probably 100s of great apps to choose from; a quick Google search for "best photo apps" brought up lists here, here, and here just to highlight a few.  You can really get lost in all the options!

I'll be back tomorrow with this month's Counterfeit Kit blog hop. Please join us - I'll have the hop order here, and you can always find your way from tomorrow's CKC blog post.