Instagram From The Top Down

Here's a deck I put together for a little Instagram show-and-tell at work:

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Instagram World: This Is Where I Live

If you're into digital photography, you own and iphone and enjoying social networking you MUST create and account on instagram. This free application allows user to photo, filter, title, tag and upload photos. Additionally, it allows users to comment and discuss the photos. Since its enception it's been a very open community, so it's not suprise when it creators established an open API for developers to create add-ons and functionality for instagram users...

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Vivian Maier – We Only Know You Now

My Wife Shannon saw a side of me that few witness when I turned a corner in the Metropolitan Meusum Of Art in New York City and I walked into a sea of Van Gogh's work and became to cry. Now, I'm an overly sensative artistic type to begin with; but it's rare that I'm moved by visual imagery as I consumed so much of it on a daily basis. So those moments are rare indeed. So I didn't expect to get 'hit' with this kind of gut shot the day back to work from my Christmas Holiday, until I met Vivian Maier due to the tireless efforts of one John Maloof.

Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work

This was created in dedication to the photographer Vivian Maier, a street photographer from the 1950s - 1990s. Vivian's work was discovered at an auction here in Chicago where she resided most of her life. Her discovered work includes over 100,000 mostly medium format negatives, thousands of prints, and a ton of undeveloped rolls of film. I have approximately 90-95% of the work.

John Maloof:

Some have suggested that I add more information on the story of Vivian's work and such. Here is what I know.

I acquired Vivian's negatives while at a furniture and antique auction. From what I know, the auction house acquired her belongings from her storage locker that was sold off due to delinquent payments. I didn't know what 'street photography' was when I purchased them.

It took me days to look through all of her work. It inspired me to pick up photography myself. Little by little, as I progressed as a photographer, I would revisit Vivian's negatives and I would "see" more in her work. I bought her same camera and took to the same streets soon to realize how difficult it was to make images of her caliber. I discovered the eye she had for photography through my own practice. Needless to say, I am attached to her work.

After some researching, I have only little information about Vivian. Central Camera (110 yr old camera shop in Chicago) has encountered Vivian from time to time when she would purchase film while out on the Chicago streets. From what they knew of her, they say she was a very "keep your distance from me" type of person but was also outspoken. She loved foreign films and didn't care much for American films.

Some of her photos have pictures of children and often times it was near a beach. I later found out she was a nanny for a family on the North Side whose children these most likely were. One of her obituary's state she lived in Oak Park, a close Chicago suburb but, I later found she lived in the Rogers Park neighborhood, in Chicago.

Out of the more than 100,000 negatives I have in the collection, about 20-30,000 negatives were still in rolls, undeveloped from the 1960's-1970's. I have been successfully developing these rolls. I must say, it's very exciting for me. Most of her negatives that were developed in sleeves have the date and location penciled in French (she had poor penmanship).

I found her name written with pencil on a photo-lab envelope. I decided to 'Google' her about a year after I purchased these only to find her obituary placed the day before my search. She passed only a couple of days before my inquiry on her.

I wanted to meet her in person well before I found her obituary but, the auction house had stated she was ill, so I didn't want to bother her. So many questions would have been answered if I had.

• Unfolding the mystery of Vivian Maier
• The original flickr discussion
• Support the documentary film of her life and work

Instagram - Popularity In An Instant!

I'm not sure what I find more amusing, that Flickr, Snapfish or Picasa didn't figure this out faster, or that this is such a simple and in genius way to share photos it can't help but become popular. It's always been said there are no new ideas only ideas that are made better, so has Instagram accomplished with this fun, free, social iphone application.

It's dreadfully simple. Download it, profile yourself (and it has a admirably longer listing of social networks beyond twitter and facebook, yes there are others) and start shooting. Additionally the application gives you a wonder myriad of presets filters you can instantly make your photo look like something crappy from the 70's that would have made your father bitch out the guy at the Fotomat. Yes, I said Fotomat. I still find it amusing with all the cool tools we have to make your consumer photography look like a million bucks that we're all still infatuated with the look and feel or a bygone ear.

Instagram makes it simple as you import and add friends to your social photobook and it expands with the shots from your posse. You can "Like" and comment on pics too. It's no wonder that it's flying off the charts as far as recent downloads. You can also:

• Post as many photos as you want for free
• Assign location information to your photo like a "checkin" (Including Foursquare)
• View the most popular instagram photos from around the world

Give it a try, if you like it please find me and let's start shooting!

Tilt-Shift + Time-Lapse = Toy-Like Bliss

If you've never seen a tilt shift image it's a photographic technique that make an image (best if you use a wide-angle landscape) feel like a small toy train-like toy scene - AKA: "Miniture faking". This is done by progressively blurring out most of the image but a selected location that is in pure focus.

Here are some beautiful examples:

• Smashing Magazine
• Hongkiat
• Digital Artist Toolbox

But this post was really inspired by the following video where the tilt-shift technique was combined with a time-lapse constuction video.

Stunning.

What's In My iPhone -- Part Three: Photography & Utilities

In my "Photography" folder:

App: Camera Bag
Rating: ✩✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: A application is a multi-filter effects package for your photos.
Cost: $1.99
Comments: This apps been around for a few years and is worth having.

App: Best Camera
Rating: ✩✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: A application is a multi-filter effects package for your photos.
Cost: $2.99
Comments: This is the best of the three filter apps that I have but they're all good for specific things.

App: Toy Camera
Rating: ✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: A application is a multi-filter effects package for your photos.
Cost: $1.99
Comments: Funky little filters, fun, but unneeded if you buy one others that I listed.

App: True HDR
Rating: ✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: High dynamic range (HDR) imaging application.
Cost: $1.99
Comments: If you're unfamiliar with HDR it's pretty amazing given that it's done right. It balances harsh lights and extreme dark areas and balances a photo, creating a intense effect.

App: PS Mobile
Rating: ✩✩✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: Very basic Adobe Photoshop for your iPhone.
Cost: Free
Comments: A good all around app given that you need to make some quick edits on the fly.

App: Quad Camera
Rating: ✩✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: This app shoots multiple photo at timed intervals and lays them out on a single image.
Cost: $1.99
Comments: This fun app gives you that photo-booth feel. It also allows you to control the time intervals, how many photos in final output and their respective layouts.

App: Lego Photo
Rating: ✩✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: Shoots a photo and then pixelates the images with simulated lego pieces.
Cost: Free
Comments: Fun and free. And don't forget to keep touching the image for other color combinations!

App: Flickr
Rating: ✩✩✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: This is a profile application that allows you to interface with your Flickr account.
Cost: Free
Comments: Solid app, great for sharing.

App: Mill Colour
Rating: ✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: Makes very subtle color/sautrations shifts.
Cost: Free
Comments: Basic, but free and somewhat usefull.

App: Alltop Photo
Rating: ✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: This is an RSS aggregator to http://alltop.com/ for their photography section.
Cost: Free
Comments: Good if you want to keep tabs on the industry.

App: PanoLab Pro
Rating: ✩✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: Stitch and create panoramic images using this application.
Cost: $2.99
Comments: I love this app because the more photos you shoot for a given pano' increases the complexity of assembling them. It almost has a game-like quality to it.

In my "Utilities" folder:

Default apps in this folder are:

• Contacts
• Clock
• Compass

App: Speed Test
Rating: ✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: Measure your network speed with this great little application.
Cost: Free
Comments: Good little app if you're ever wondering how much your network really sucks.

App: 1Password
Rating: ✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: One-stop-shop to harbor all your mobile passwords securely.
Cost: $6.99
Comments: If you're like me you have 10k accounts and not the hippocampus to do it.

App: myWireless
Rating: ✩✩✩ (out of 5)
What is it?: This application allows you to access all your data plan.
Cost: Free
Comments: This little app is a must have if you want to keep tabs on your plan and how much time you've used.