iPhone Photography

I've recently downloaded two photography apps for the iPhone that I simply MUST tell you about. The tiny 2 or 3 megapixel cameras are a frequent target of iPhone haters but I've found them to be good for snapshots provided I keep the lens clean. When you add the power of the camera bag and colorsplash apps you can easily create effects you'll be happy to show your friends.

The first app I downloaded is called camera bag by nevercenter.com. Once you select a picture from your library you can render the image in several different styles. Holga (which they insist on calling Helga) creates the unmistakable toy camera vignette. The app sports two different epoch styles, "1962" which turns the image into a high contrast black and white image and "1974" which adjusts the colors to give it a retro-faded-with-a-hint-of-brown look. Other styles include cinema (widescreen), instant (polaroid), Lolo (which I used to know the meaning of), and infra-red (which leaves much to be desired).

I've enjoyed using pictures of office environments and sporting events and using the 1962 rendering. All in all, well worth the $1.99.

But the REALLY exciting app is Colorsplash by Hendrik Kueck. When I first saw the app a few months back, the pictures looked good by I was convinced it would be too complicated. The colorsplash app allows you to take images from your library and selectively color or decolor. The ability to zoom and use a red mask for the detailed clipping makes the images look fantastic.

The app is a bit limited in that really all you can do is select areas of a picture to color but it does just that so simply and dare I say elegantly that it is a must for anyone with an interest in photography and faux art.

I've included a few pics I quickly edited using the colorsplash app. None of them took more than two or three minutes.


Me after a Tigers game in my kick-ass hoody


AnnArbor.com offices


16 days until Michigan football!

These are so fun to do that I'm sure more will follow!

Playman Track & Field App for iPhone...and some other goodies

When the App Store was launched last year it completely changed the way I used my phone. For several months I was very successful in my "don't pay for apps" policy. It was all new, and there were so many free apps to choose from that it was a pretty easy rule to live by.

Early this year the success of my policy began to waver. The first app I bought was Koi Pond from the Blimp Pilots. At only 99 cents, the graphics, sound effects and the sense of equilibrium achieved through playing with the little Japanese fish, the app was well worth the cost. In fact, I was so thrilled with the app that I searched for other Blimp Pilots apps and ended up purchasing the Distant Shore app. At first I really liked this app. I thought it opened up a yet to be explored social networking niche. Whereas most social networking sites focus on your friends, Distant Shore focuses on connections based on chance and anonymity. I don't think I've launched the app in a month or two.

Back to the apps.

After those first two, I still attempted to follow my no-pay policy. I still felt pretty good about scrolling through my screens for friends and saying I'd only paid for two. It helped that some fantastic apps were released for free, the best possibly being the google earth app. The useful apps from the big guys were almost always free, AIM, google voice search, facebook, seadragon etc.

Over the last month or so my policy has more or less evaporated. So much so that I usually check the paid apps before the free ones. I've realized that, big boys excepted, you get what you pay for.

I wanted to share with you one in particular today (and I have the feeling more will follow), the Track & Field App from Playman. Unbelievably intuitive, you can participate in five different events, 100m dash, 110m hurdles, long jump, pole vault and javelin. The game's "fun factor" reminds me of the original Nintendo games. The graphics aren't breathtaking but they get the job done. There are only two buttons to press and some timing. It's one of those easy to play, impossible to master apps that seem to be a rarity in the app store.



The other thing worth mentioning about this app is it is great for quick play. It loads quickly and you can pick up right where you left off as there is a top notch auto-save feature. So, you can whip out your phone on the can, pass a level or two and feel like you accomplished something...you know, multitasking.

If you happen to have an iPhone or iPod touch and end up getting the Track & Field app I offer perhaps THE tip to help you do well: The alternative green dots you have to press are a seemingly randomly generated sequence, switching from left to right and back again. However, the green light will never appear on one side more than twice in a row. As such, if you get two green lights on the right side, you can immediately click the left side and gain some valuable time. You WILL need to use this strategy to get past the second round!

I'm looking for some more app buys, let me know of any you recommend!