Well, unless you have been living on Mars for this last week – you would know that there was a new all-singing, all-dancing, and all-kickassing app released for all of us iPhone users. The Best Camera app is the brainchild of Chase Jarvis and his creative team. The name comes from his long running campaign that the best camera you have is the one that's with you. Very true.
This app is great. It allows you to capture, edit and then share an image all within the one program. Gone are the days of having to use this app for cross-processing, that app for saturation and this app for applying a cool vignette and finally uploading it with yet another Twitter or Facebook app. So Chase, kudos to you.
I have spent a bit of time playing with the app this weekend and it is pretty cool. It’s not the messiah for me, I still find myself going to my beloved CameraKit for more subjective image editing; but I do like the way Best Camera is a one stop shop for when the creative urge strikes… which will do as my lead in for tonight’s blog post.
This particular topic has been bugging me for a little while; and although I am mostly over it, I thought it was still worth a mention.
You see, I have mentioned before that I follow a few of my peers on Twitter and Facebook. A couple of them like to post silly meaningless images like I do. Sometimes they are a waste of space and sometimes they might be a snap of something strange in the street, a peculiar situation or literally just a pile of poop on the sidewalk. The thing that amazes me though is that just by the mere fact that the image has been uploaded by one of these guys, the world at large seems to be in amazement of the photographic prowess of the person in question. Come on! It’s a pile of crap, literally! Then I read the comments posted by readers next to the image… “no one can photograph poop like you can”, or “wow, that is the most amazing twig in the middle of the road that I have ever seen”. But my favourite is when someone says “you see the most amazing things [insert famous photographers name here]”.
I don’t wanna get too much higher on my soap box so I’ll back off! The fact of the matter is that we all see these sorts of things every day. A totally empty parking garage. A drink can in the middle of the freeway. Yes, a steaming fresh one in the middle of your favourite park. So what’s the difference between you and these photographers? Nothing. Absolutely nothing; except they grabbed their camera (i.e. cell phone) and took advantage of the situation.
I still make an effort to take an interesting snap whenever I can. Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know this already. I guess all I am trying to say here is that I encourage you to do the same. Chase says it the best in his intro video for Best Camera when he says “right now, there are 10 amazing shots all around you just waiting to be taken”. He’s right. Does anyone remember the old blog post I wrote about taking five photos in five minutes within five paces? Well, the same rules apply. I’ll admit, sometimes it’s hard. But sometimes it’s really easy. We all carry our mobile phones with us, and 99% of them have cameras. Put them to use. Start to look for interesting things in your everyday surroundings. On the way to work, on the bus, or stuck in traffic like me. Train yourself to be on the lookout. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll see!
Ok, that’s enough of a rant from me for now. Normal programming will resume next week; I’ll try to have a new video for you all. Until then take care… and keep snapping!
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