Hey hey hey! I've got a very exciting treat to share with you today... one that's been several months in the planning (rather, several months in the asking/begging/pleading). Toward the end of last year, I put out a call for questions that people wanted addressed on the blog, and I got several great responses. One of them: What are the best apps to use for taking pictures with your iPhone? Now THERE'S a question that pertains to pretty much all of us, right? The trouble is that this is something I know very little about... my iPhoneography pretty much revolves around Instagram. But I do know someone who creates kick-ass, fine-art quality images with her phone all the time... all I had to do was convince her to share her time and talent on my blog  :D

Fortunately for all of us, Kate Hailey agreed to do just that! By way of an introduction, Kate is a Seattle-based portrait and lifestyle photographer. If you're familiar with creativeLIVE, you'll know her as one of the behind-the-scenes gurus there... and it was there that I first met her when I went to Bambi Cantrell's workshop last year. Kate's amazing: volunteering for a very cool organization called Youth In Focus that brings photography instruction and mentoring to disadvantaged kids and teens, working full-time for creativeLIVE, and running her own photography business. And on top of all that, she agreed to share some of her wisdom with the East coast via my blog - yay! - so please enjoy, and be sure to leave her some love (and any other questions you might have) in the comments!

 xox,

annemie

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A few years ago, Apple took the smart phone to the next level.

With the release of the iPhone, we found ourselves with instant access to just about anything you could need: web browsing at our finger tips and a camera on the go, all in a small device that fits right in your pocket! Three years later, there are over 500,000 apps in the app store - you can do anything from manage your finances to play games and of course, create images. There are over 11,000 photography-related apps alone in the iTunes app store... crazy, right? Some of these apps are simply amazing. Personally, I have too many apps on my phone to mention, but there are a few that I use most often:

6x6 - A square shooter camera replacement app

Autostitch - For creating panoramas

Hipstamatic - A fun camera replacement app that offers a variety of films, lenses and flashes for you to shoot with. You can mix and match these options to find a flavour that suits you, or you can enable an option to shake it up and have it randomly select these options.

Instagram - A photo editing and sharing app with over 30,000,000 users, available on the iPhone and now on the Android platform too. This one is great if you're on the go and just want to snap a quick photo to share.

IrisPhotoSuite - Offering layers, adjustments, filters, textures, borders and more, it’s very comprehensive. I use several of the textures in this app a lot.

PhotoMarkr - Add a logo or watermark to your photo

Pic Frame - Create a collage, diptych and beyond

SlowShutterCam - Slow things down, get abstract and play with light

Snapseed - For overall editing with black & white, vintage and faux HDR presets, as well over 1500 grungy kind of textures, a great investment and solid app.

Tiny Planet - Twist and turn your world around. Here are some examples of images I've created with many of the apps listed above.

You can create a dramatic landscape (autostitch, snapseed)

...an abstract landscape that almost looks like a painting (or perhaps it does!) (slowshuttercam, snapseed, instagram)

...create a vortex in the sea (autostitch, tiny planet, snapseed, instagram)

...do a little street photography (snapseed, instagram)

...head out to the beach (snapseed, instagram)

...age a flower (irisphotosuite)

...twist a tree and the space needle (phototoaster/instagram)

...or get up close and personal (ollocip and phototoaster)

As artists, we create and capture what speaks to us. We have to remember that the tools are simply that - tools - it's the vision we convey that matters. And once you've realized that vision, I encourage you - in fact challenge you - to share it with the world. Go to Flickr, iPhoneArt, 500px, or even just Facebook to show off what you've made. For app tutorials, reviews and more info on my own journey through iPhoneography take a look at my blog.

Thank you for reading!

-kate