Sometimes its just Fail, all the way around~

So, long time no see, again. Yes, yes, I know. I fail at this writing thing. It’s not so much the writing as it is the keeping to a posting schedule instead of visiting wordpress and getting lost in other blogs. It’s the same thing on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and FB for me. No it’s not ADHD…. it’s more like easily distracted, believe me I am not hyper about anything… well except chocolate and new camera gear, and maybe cute puppies.

Anyway to the good stuff! On the list are two new photo sharing apps.

One is very specific and unfortunately for me doesn’t have an android app yet. Just a mobile website, which is fine, just lacks some of what you would expect. But it is a relatively new app. Know as Pack, it is a photo app for dogs! Only dogs. I mean you could take a selfie, as long as it is with your dog. Visit the website or check out the app for ios here. It is a great way to share the love of your best friend and not feel guilty about spamming your social networks with photos of your dog. If there was an app for android I would use it more as the mobile website doesn’t quite offer everything I like in a photo app yet.

On to my second, and I dare-say my Instagram replacement! Not that I really even use Instagram much, it is way, way to messy. EyeEm is my newest photo sharing app obsession! Oddly enough you can also connect it to your Instagram. You can also connect it to your Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare, and Facebook. I am still waiting for a G+ hookup, please please please give me a G+ hookup! EyeEm offers a nice selection of filters and all those other things you like about a photo sharing app but it does offer more, a lot more. First there are missions, much like how Foap had events you can join and win money or prizes so does EyeEm, however, I don’t need to take a picture of my passport or drivers license to compete. Secondly unlike other photo sharing apps like Instagram where the plethora of tags is staggering, I am limited to 4 tags. It is amazing!  The limit of 4 tags helps a lot, and cuts down on the messiness. When I search for #Cute dog, I just get cute dogs, not random selfies tagged with cute dog. EyeEm also has two great features that deal with geo-location.  The first is if you photo has geo-location information you can tag businesses, locations, etc directly, much how foursquare used to work. The second geo-location feature is like something from 500px but much better. Photos tagged with a geo-location close to where you are with your phone now show up. A great little feature called “Photos around you” will bring up any photos tagged with geo-location in the area you are currently in. It’s great for last min photo ideas, photo walks, and inspiration in a neighborhood you may no longer see anything new in. So if you have the desire to leave the little square box behind check out EyeEm.

In photo trip news August should be a decent month. I plan on going to Yoro Park in Gifu and hopefully climbing Mt. Fuji this vacation! It will destroy a pair of shoes though… it did last time. So I will need to get a new pair. I am in need of a new pair of Vibrams anyway 😉 September is looking pretty bland but I am saving for the Kouyou season so I can hit Kyoto, Wakayama and Nagano this year! I am taking part in Color Me Rad in Tokyo on the 23rd of September but I have been reading the horror stories of the cornstarch in the lens! So now I am seeing what I can do to protect my camera and if it is worth the risk…. One can hope! It looks like it may involve a lot of plastic wrap, plastic bags and maybe some duck tape to keep it all sealed up tight.

I did make it to the last day of the World Cosplay Summit which will be up in a post hopefully next week! So keep an eye out for those photos!  It was amazing! I just wish I had taken the days off in advance and gone to the whole thing! Next year that is the plan! I also became an official contributor to Yokoso News! Check it it here!! Get your Japan fix from the Chubu area!

 

 

 

 

THE BOX

THE BOX, you either love it or you hate it! Then again there are those of us that just don’t really care 😉

If you haven’t figured it out we are talking about Instagram. Arguably the most popular photo sharing social media site out there. Started in mmnnmnm (What Anne means is “October 2010” – K) and now owned by the Big Blue Giant FB the box hasn’t changed.

I use instagram…. >.>…. sometimes. My screen name is Chimera_Refelections. I usually don’t post a lot of mobile photography per say as much as I take my camera shots and crop them to fit the box. I also hate trying to hashtag all my photos.

View this post on Instagram

Sunset spinning~ #spider #spiderweb #spinner #sunset #golden #instagram #instamood #instadaily #instagood #instafamous #instagramhub #gf_daily #gang_family #photography #photooftheday #photowall #picoftheday #japan #japanphotography #canon #macro #clubpirates #nature

A post shared by Anne (@_chim3ric) on Oct 25, 2012 at 4:45pm PDT

I happen to use G+ for a lot of my mobile shots now. Even before it changed owners I wasn’t a big user and after well…. I felt much less likely to use it. From my previous trip I posted a few shots of Fu but other than that I haven’t done much. In all honesty if I used it more it would probably be pics of my daily life (which I assume is what its supposed to be) and my dog.

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I am enjoying the ride! Its absolutely gorgeous here! Fu has a front row seat! It's so peaceful here. I'm taking a tour with http://www.satoyama-cycling.com/en/ and everything is just about perfect even the weather cooperated today! I definitely recommend putting it on your to do list in Japan! Traveling with http://www.centrair.jp/en/japantravel/ and https://m.facebook.com/centraljapan.jp?__user=14829615 and https://m.facebook.com/japantravel.nagoya?__user=14829615 #japantravel #bike #bicycle #tour #bicycletour #japan #hida #vacation #escape #gorgeous #peaceful #satoyama #chubu #centrair #Fu #travel #tips #scenery #landscape

A post shared by Anne (@_chim3ric) on Aug 27, 2013 at 2:13am PDT

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Her first ocean wave~

A post shared by Anne (@_chim3ric) on Jul 24, 2013 at 6:55pm PDT

Being the stupid perfectionist that I tend to be when it comes to my photography I don’t like posting half thought out shots and thats what most of my mobile shots are. My bf on the other hand is an instagram pro, his screen name is shirokodogg  and he spends HOURS and HOURS (small exaggeration……not really pretty sure he spent an hr on some of those photos) getting that perfect instagram shot. He works from within the box to begin with and doesn’t crop. I on the other hand can’t spend that much time doing so with my phone. I like being able to enjoy the moments as the come rather than record them as they go.  Especially if I didn’t bring my big camera for just that reason. I am one of those people who get upset, well FURIOUS, at those people who can’t put their phone down and just enjoy dinner or the park or wherever we are. Also I hate it when my phone dies and the camera and auto-upload with G+ are two things that drain my battery!

I, on the other hand, use Instagram quite a bit.  You can find me as kwaterloo.  As per my previous post, I use it more to share moments in my life with my friends and family.  I do equal parts bringing a photo in to Instagram and simply using the camera feature within Instagram.  It depends on how quickly I want to get the shot.  And I don’t typically spend a whole lot of time perfecting a photo.  I worry less about “does this photo look amazing?” and more about “will this photo remind me of the experience I was having at the time?”  

http://instagram.com/p/cQBtYUkFCq/

I was very hesitant of using Instagram at first, but once I took those first steps, I broke out into a run into the Instagram craze.  I don’t have it linked to my Facebook or my Twitter.  I have more friends on Facebook and don’t necessarily want to flood their news feeds with pictures of my cats (read: they would not enjoy being flooded with pictures of my cats).  

http://instagram.com/p/YL-1VJEFMD/

http://instagram.com/p/drpE70EFJo/

But I am considering connecting it to my Twitter, just for shits and giggles.  I feel like Twitter would appreciate my cat pics more than Facebook would.  I tend to be one of those people that’s always on my phone.  But I think that has more to do with the fact that I’ve had a smartphone for less than a year and am still mesmerized by the whole experience.  If I am at dinner or out somewhere with a friend, what I usually do is snap a quick picture and deal with Instagram later.  That way I get to capture the moment and enjoy it!  

#Instagram

All it takes to call yourself a photographer these days is to have a camera, right?  Even a camera phone counts.  People are styling themselves iPhotographers.  They even have a magazine dedicated to photography with your iPhone!

This all seems somewhat ridiculous to those photographers who know it takes more than a camera to truly be a photographer.  I hear a lot of people complain about apps like Instagram ruining what photography is all about.  It’s supposed to be an art form, something you really work on.  This stems from the days of film, where it was a long and sometimes expensive process to take a photo, so the photographer really had to think about composition, subject, lighting, and all sorts of other elements.  Photographers with this mindset see Instagram as lazy and frivolous.  Instagram and other mobile photo apps come with all these preset filters and whatnot, no one really has to worry about if a photo looks good on its own without any help from editing anymore.

But Instagram is a social media site, first and foremost.  And while I know photographers that use Instagram as a way to showcase their skills, I use it as a social media site.  I use it to capture moments in my life that don’t necessarily warrant me getting out my Nikon.  Moments that sort of spontaneously happen, that I need to be quick about if I want to capture them.

My Instagram is pretty much full of my cats and whatever food I eat.  Both of these subjects are not something I want or need to capture as a large RAW file, edit in Photoshop, print out and hang on my wall.  They’re just moments and things that I want to remember and share with my friends and family.  Before Instagram, I would text my parents pictures of my two cats doing silly things.  My parents took care of my two furbabies for a while when I wasn’t able to, and are quite fond of Disco and his sister Juri.  Now with Instagram, my parents and my friends can see what shenanigans the two furballs are up to!

When it comes down to it, you can use Instagram or a comparable app however you want.  Use it creatively, use it to showcase your skills, use it to document your life, use it to share with your family and friends.  If you want to be an iPhotographer, go for it!  It doesn’t really matter what type of camera you use.  Being a photographer is more about how much you enjoy photography rather than whether or not you have an expensive piece of equipment.  It’s about you wanting to learn about photography and working at improving your skill and developing your own style rather than if you’re using a Nikon D5100 or an old point-and-shoot Canon.  Don’t let anyone talk down to you because of the equipment you use or the ways you choose to share your photography!  Even if you’re only using your iPhone and only using Instagram to share moments of your life with friends, it’s still developing your skill as a photographer.  It’s still developing your personal style.  You learn which shots you like and which you don’t, you learn what sort of edits you like based on what filters you use, you learn that the grid lines provided in the app will help you compose better photographs.  Tagging your photos and going through tags to see other people’s photos of the same subject help you develop your personal style and skill, too.  If you like the way someone else took a photograph of their cat, try and replicate it!  It’s fun and helpful to try and figure out new techniques on your own.  You might make a friend out of the deal, too!  But perhaps best of all, you can easily look back and see your progress as a photographer, regardless of whether or not you’re consciously trying to improve your Instagram photos.

So matter what anyone says, get out there and shoot!

-Kate