Following Trends and Using Instagram

Certain apps gain more power than others. And that is the case with the less than one year old Instagram.

Instagram is a popular iPhone app that is taking mobile photo sharing to new heights. Instagram now has more than 5 million users, which have posted collectively around 100 million photos.

What makes Instagram successful is the features this one tool has. With your iPhone, you can snap a photo, or take an existing photo from your phone’s gallery, enhance it with eleven different possible effects, and then share it on the various social networks. Instagram itself has its own social networking aspects, and has turned somewhat into a phenomenon in the photography world.

While other apps tout integration with other social networking tools, none have been able to make the seamless transition the way that Instagram has. And that is what is attracting the attention of consumers, businesses, and even non-profits ready to find new ways to tell people about what they do. And whole new niches are starting up.

Mashable recently posted a story on the booming trend of fashion, or street photographers using Instagram to create a whole new interest in what they do. Some have never worked with street photography before, and now have followers into the tens of thousands. Not bad for a few months work.

And while Instagram is a simple app that keeps things clean and simple, because of its success other apps are being developed to give more power to the Instagram app.

Carousel

Carousel gives you the ability to view your images, double click photos to enlarge and save to iPhoto, and has a variety of keyboard shortcuts to give you even more options.

Instagallery

Allows you to see the most popular photos of people you follow in gallery format, and allows you to share your photos in a number of ways.

Extragram

Extragram gives you an easy way to view your favorite Instagram photos on the web. View them in three different styles: grid, filmstrip or map view.

Statigram

Statigram provides you with metrics – find out who the most engaged followers are, filter and tag usage, like and post comments, and more.

And like many other apps out there today, its only available in iPhone or iPod running  iOS 3.1.2 and above. Androids will have to sit this one out for now.

Are you using Instagram?

10 More Apps You Have To Have As A Photographer

Photo Slides

Now you can use your iPad as a digital frame. Photo Slides is an app that allows you to showcase your portfolio when your iPad isn’t in use.

Easy Release

Do you work with models, or out on location? You’re going to love Easy Release. No more bringing along files and loose forms of paper to the shoot. Simply use Easy Release, and you can quickly have model and property releases at your fingertips, ready for your clients to sign before the shoot.

Impression

What if you take a great image with your iPhone, and want to share it with the world … but you’re afraid you’ll lose the rights? Now you can use Impression and add your watermark to any photograph first.

[Read more…]

Do You Really Need A Camera To Be A Professional Photographer?

If you’ve taken a vacation and been a tourist over the last few months, you’ve probably noticed the one thing tourists don’t take with them much anymore. A camera. Instead, they take out their phone, and start shooting away.

In fact people are starting to use their phones so much, there is even some question about the future of traditional cameras. Do we really need to lug around the big, SLR or point and shoot cameras anymore? Or are phones good enough?

I laughed this week when I came across an article College Offers Class On Cell Phone Photography. Really? My daughter is now starting the process of looking at colleges, and I don’t know if I want to spend that kind of money on a cell phone photography course.

Yet in some cases, I do agree with the professor and the needs for such a class not just in college, but also all the way down to the elementary level.

…the professor’s new class will focus not only the technical and artistic aspects of photography, but also the ethical responsibilities that come with having such a handy recording device with you everywhere you go. In other words, students need to understand “the full gravity of what’s at their fingertips and the power they can have…

While Flannery encourages students to grapple with issues such as privacy and voyeurism, professional photographer Hunter Martin will supplement by teaching traditional skills such as lighting, composition and editing.

Yep, there’s a definite need for that right now, as everyone in some way or another is a photographer. [Read more…]