The Photo Expression

Who would have guessed that in such a sort amount of time;  (less than 2 decades) the cell phone would not only become our way to stay connected to family, friends and work, but also our portable,  sharable, “picture-book”

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[two_third_last]WE’VE COME A LONG WAY FROM “REMEMBER WHEN”

The places we go, the people we meet, the text messages and emails we send and receive every day;  Our portable to-do list  with fact finding intelligence, destination map questing, world-wide time piece, entertainment center, tourist information library – the list could go on. But most of all, this essential utensil we can’t leave home without, can capture anything that strikes your imagination with a simple click, then swipe, twist, turn, pinch, scroll up/down, sideways, enlarge, ’push play’ for slide  show – picture-book. As we all know a picture is worth a thousand words; ahh yes … the mobile phone, not just for making  calls to mom anymore.

No longer are people of this world stuck with the one-hour photo processing, grocery store photo processing or the laborious  task of hauling copious amounts of gear, if you should happen to be of the artful photo taking persuasion, its all in the  palm of your hand.

Let us go back in time just a little, as surely you’ve had those remember when conversations… Remember when a cellular  phone  looked like something you could launch a space craft with, or better yet, when the ”car phone” looked like something you took  straight off your mother’s wall and plugged it into the cigarette lighter of your car (you know the one, with the spiral cord  and a dial tone?).

A CASUAL CONVERSATION WITH PROOF

At the dinner table, home or restaurant; or around the office water cooler, you’ll find scads of people hovered  around the digital picture-book. Photos of a weekend adventure, vacations, family events, landscapes, and of course  the fun and foolhardy faces at cocktail hour – basically what ever you decide to point and click at, is fair game.  It is a bit ironic that its not considered truly rude to take out your phone and share with the world your proof of merrymaking. In fact, its quite acceptable! Chalk it up to our ever-changing social manners. All that aside, if you haven’t any proof to back-up your fish-tale… You aren’t going to have anything to post to your desired social networking  site(s), are you?

And just maybe you’ll even be surprised and actually like a picture you took — OF YOURSELF.

YES, YES, the hand held self portrait, the fastest way to let everyone know your not really that shy after all!

I’LL SHOW YOU MY APPS — IF YOU SHOW ME OURS

CALLING all subject scenarios—run it through one of the hundreds of photo apps and take the dull and make it delightful. When once there was an elitism of what type of camera and film you used, how it was processed, so too now are becoming the photo apps.

Sharing what you used to make that image so desirable, is a little bit of a secret by its owner.

Personally, I have a favorite… although every time I find a new app, I like it better than the last and for the record I don’t readily “tell” what I used.

We’ve got apps for black and white, sepia tone, rainbow rays, borders and overlaying filters, color saturation, cropping, and enhancing. Quite literally you can use almost every tool that the most powerful photograph manipulation software (i.e. Photoshop) as to offer, with a touch of a  finger. This new world of imagery and interpretation is  absolutely fascinating. What’s more—if at first you don’t succeed; try, try again, to your hearts content or until your phone’s brain is full.

My photography professor used to say, “Just because it looks good in the view finder, doesn’t mean its going to be ascetically pleasing—six rolls of images and you may only have one or two worthy of printing.”

With photo apps, I think our odds are a little better. Now not every photo is a masterpiece, but think of the billions of people out there with a picture-phone… and now think, there’s at least one masterpiece in each of those pockets.

AND IN AN  INSTANT, WHAT YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN, CAN BE ALL OVER THE WORLD
THE PHOTO EXPRESS(ION)

So, here comes the fun part—sharing your artistic expression with the world. Upload to any and every internet port-of-call you belong to; and voila! you and your image have a digital personality! Since we’re all becoming creatures of a pictorial language, you almost need not add “words” at all. Let your audience decide…

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STAFF PICKS FOR YOUR iPhone/iPad:
Camera Awesome, iPhoto, Hipstamatic,100Cameras, PhotoForge2, CameraBag, Snapseed, Pano, MatteBox, PicFrame, OldPhotoPro, Photoshop Express
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[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://frenzymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/mondry.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Shannon is an accomplished and well-known communication designer whose clients have included Harvard, MIT, and variety of Denver businesses. shannonmondry.com[/author_info] [/author]