The tomatoes were from a bag my Mom shoved in my h The tomatoes were from a bag my Mom shoved in my hands as we were leaving Easter dinner. I couldn’t find the expiration date on the burrata I bought from the farmer’s market goodness knows when. And I didn’t measure the heavy cream and added too much and had to scramble to find some mozzarella to fix that situation. But it all still magically came together to make this delicious Whipped Burrata with Roasted Tomatoes that is simply divine. So easy and yummy, you can find the recipe on @ainttooproudtomeg’s site. 🤤
Honored to be this beauty’s sponsor for her Conf Honored to be this beauty’s sponsor for her Confirmation today. It was a beautiful day from start to finish. ✨
Cheers to the weekend, friends! The dreary weather Cheers to the weekend, friends! The dreary weather yesterday and today needed a pop of sunshine, and these beautiful flowering baskets from Whole Foods did the trick! ☀️ Best part? They were a steal at $13.49! ✨
Does it still count if I celebrate National Coquil Does it still count if I celebrate National Coquilles Saint Jacques the day AFTER? I say yes. What IS Coquilles Saint Jacques? It’s a scallop gratin. I love shellfish, however my children do not, so I don’t eat it as much as I would like. My plans to make this yesterday were thwarted by the seafood shop being closed, grocery store #1 having questionable scallops and grocery store #2 only having frozen. So here we are! I used an Ina Garten recipe (you can always trust her recipes!) and it was simple to make and so freaking good. Those little crispy bread crumb bits on the top were everything good in this world. Since I currently can’t be trusted to blog the recipe 😂, you can swipe left for the exact title to Google (which I found on Food Network) and swipe left one more time for my changes. I’ve saved this on my Recipes highlight bubble on my profile here too. Tap the little flag on the bottom right of the photo to save it, but by all means, do make it! 🤤
Never underestimate the power of a simple change ( Never underestimate the power of a simple change (swipe left for a before). Twenty years of calling this home and I finally got to choose the house paint color, and I’m more obsessed with our house than ever. Bonus points for the magic of window boxes, styrofoam, wadded up newspaper and a hot glue gun. ✨
🌸weekend vibes🌸 Stumbled on this pretty peta 🌸weekend vibes🌸
Stumbled on this pretty petal-lined path yesterday while taking photos for a client. Take a moment to appreciate your surroundings this weekend - it will fill your soul right up. 🥰
An unusual and spontaneous day filled with fellows An unusual and spontaneous day filled with fellowship and friendship, and a beautiful moonlit evening waiting for me when I came home. ✨
I’ve been craving fish and fruit something fierc I’ve been craving fish and fruit something fierce lately, so when I spied oysters on the menu, it was a no brainer. Even better that it was a steal at ten bucks. Beautiful weather for dining al fresco in Madison tonight. ✨
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Sweetnicks

Food and Life

I Heart Instagram {and some of our other favorite photo apps}

April 9, 2013 · Narrative

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There’s a popular story where a photographer is eating dinner at a friend’s house. The host remarks on the guest’s photos and how awesome they are. And, of course, asks what type of camera he uses.

Later that night, the guest and the host are talking about the dinner, and the guest says, “Dinner was great, what kind of stove do you have?”

Making the point abundantly clear. It’s not the equipment, it’s the user.

The best camera you have is the one that’s within reach.

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Which is one of the many reasons why I love Instagram as much as I do. Because my phone is always in my pocket or (usually) within reach.

And I love that it has spurred a love of photography and documenting moments with the kids. When we’re going about our day-to-day, Nick and Madeline are capturing little moments, big moments, and sharing them. Nick thinks about composition and color. Madeline thinks about whether a photo is good enough to share with the world at large. If she’s in a shot I take, she has veto power if I’m allowed to share it, and there are some times when she’ll ask me not to, or for a retake.

Nick has his own Instagram account, and sometimes searches for different topics or events that interest him at that moment (it is currently all about room design and beaches). He set up an account for Madeline a few weeks ago. I happened to be sitting in a movie theater, waiting for a movie to start, and started getting all these “likes” on some of my Instagram pictures from a new user. And then a comment. “Hi mommy it’s Maddie.”

Cutest thing ever. She doesn’t (as of now) want followers, and just follows me, Nick, and The Ex. She just wanted the account so she could see our pictures. She is a child who always knows exactly what she wants and has very definite opinions. About everything.

Obviously Instagram is one of our favorite iPhone apps. How about a few others?

VSCO (0.99) is one of my two go-tos when it comes to processing a photo I take. It gives photos this awesomely deep richness that I love. It works best with photos that are filled with lots of light, as opposed to darker ones.

Snapster (free) is another favorite. It has a number of filters to process your photos, and their *pro* filter is one I use probably the most, along with the *sarah* filter, *rollins,* and the *pop* filters. The latter of which does a spectrum-like overlay, which is great on light or very white background pictures.

Printing photos from your iPhone is ridiculously simple. I have the tap-to-print mpix app (which I’ve also talked about here). It’s a great company that is geared towards processing work from photographers, but is reasonably priced enough that it’s awesome for everyone. You just tap which photos you want printed, pay with your credit or debit card, and your order will be on your doorstep within a week or so. The quality is really excellent, and many of the photos I have had printed there have been making their way to a new photo wall in our kitchen.

Postal Pix (free) is another useful photo printing app to have, especially if you are a scrapbooker, because of the variety of printing sizes and mediums available. They also give the option of getting your photo printed on aluminum, which I love for displaying in our home.

PicFrame (0.99) is perfect when you want to make a collage of your photos. I use this a lot when I have a bunch of photos I want to Instagram, but I don’t want to overload my feed and followers. It’s also good when you want to show something (a recipe, for example) with steps. There are tons (60+!) of different collage set-ups (frames) to choose from and it’s super simple to use. You can also add text to the photos and share the completed collages to a number of other sites (instagram, facebook, and more).

The Flickr app is another (free) app that has tons of uses. I use it to get the photos off my phone, and so I can get the html code to insert the photos here. Just a few clicks and they’re on Flickr, and because it’s an online photo album,  my pictures are safe (and you can also mark your pictures “private” if you don’t want others to see them).

The TimerCam app (free) lets you set a remote timer so you can set your iPhone down somewhere safe and quickly jump in the shot.

FingerFocus (0.99) is good when you want to call attention to a particular part of the photo. It makes the whole picture slightly blurry, and with your finger, you can swipe the area that you want in focus.

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When it comes to organizing my favorite and most-used photo apps, I gave them their own “page” on my phone, so I save time hunting down just the one I need. Sometimes you have a very brief window to capture that special moment, and I don’t want to waste a second.

One more tip. I don’t use the camera that is in the Instagram app. The regular camera or camera+ is much better. And since I discovered other filters in other apps, I rarely use the ones that Instagram has (although when I do, *rise* is one of my favorites). And as with any picture-taking you do, whether it’s with your phone, a point-and-shoot, or a DSLR, use as much natural light as possible.

Lastly, if you are on Instagram and statistics are your jam, visit Statigram. Once you sign in with your IG account there, you can see all sorts of fun stats, from the first picture you ever posted and how many comments you’ve received since the very beginning, to your “most liked” picture and what filters you use the most. My “most liked” pictures are the ones below, with the aqua-colored shot of our bathroom remaining in the number one spot.

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Now it’s your turn … what are YOUR favorite camera apps?

*The pictures of Madeline above are from her birthday. She wouldn’t take a bite until she had gotten the best shot of her chocolate chip bar dessert. I think I’ve created an adorable little monster.

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Posted In: Narrative · Tagged: fingerfocus, Instagram, iphone, mpix, photo apps, postalpix

Comments

  1. Joanne says

    April 10, 2013 at 6:35 am

    I am totally boring and just have the instagram app but only take pictures with it when there is enough light that they were turn out (like…a lot of light)…otherwise I just use the phone’s cameras. I’ll have to check the rest of these out!
    Joanne recently posted..Recipe: Fettuccine Tangle with Asparagus Puree

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The tomatoes were from a bag my Mom shoved in my h The tomatoes were from a bag my Mom shoved in my hands as we were leaving Easter dinner. I couldn’t find the expiration date on the burrata I bought from the farmer’s market goodness knows when. And I didn’t measure the heavy cream and added too much and had to scramble to find some mozzarella to fix that situation. But it all still magically came together to make this delicious Whipped Burrata with Roasted Tomatoes that is simply divine. So easy and yummy, you can find the recipe on @ainttooproudtomeg’s site. 🤤
Honored to be this beauty’s sponsor for her Conf Honored to be this beauty’s sponsor for her Confirmation today. It was a beautiful day from start to finish. ✨
Cheers to the weekend, friends! The dreary weather Cheers to the weekend, friends! The dreary weather yesterday and today needed a pop of sunshine, and these beautiful flowering baskets from Whole Foods did the trick! ☀️ Best part? They were a steal at $13.49! ✨
Does it still count if I celebrate National Coquil Does it still count if I celebrate National Coquilles Saint Jacques the day AFTER? I say yes. What IS Coquilles Saint Jacques? It’s a scallop gratin. I love shellfish, however my children do not, so I don’t eat it as much as I would like. My plans to make this yesterday were thwarted by the seafood shop being closed, grocery store #1 having questionable scallops and grocery store #2 only having frozen. So here we are! I used an Ina Garten recipe (you can always trust her recipes!) and it was simple to make and so freaking good. Those little crispy bread crumb bits on the top were everything good in this world. Since I currently can’t be trusted to blog the recipe 😂, you can swipe left for the exact title to Google (which I found on Food Network) and swipe left one more time for my changes. I’ve saved this on my Recipes highlight bubble on my profile here too. Tap the little flag on the bottom right of the photo to save it, but by all means, do make it! 🤤

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The tomatoes were from a bag my Mom shoved in my h The tomatoes were from a bag my Mom shoved in my hands as we were leaving Easter dinner. I couldn’t find the expiration date on the burrata I bought from the farmer’s market goodness knows when. And I didn’t measure the heavy cream and added too much and had to scramble to find some mozzarella to fix that situation. But it all still magically came together to make this delicious Whipped Burrata with Roasted Tomatoes that is simply divine. So easy and yummy, you can find the recipe on @ainttooproudtomeg’s site. 🤤
Honored to be this beauty’s sponsor for her Conf Honored to be this beauty’s sponsor for her Confirmation today. It was a beautiful day from start to finish. ✨
Cheers to the weekend, friends! The dreary weather Cheers to the weekend, friends! The dreary weather yesterday and today needed a pop of sunshine, and these beautiful flowering baskets from Whole Foods did the trick! ☀️ Best part? They were a steal at $13.49! ✨
Does it still count if I celebrate National Coquil Does it still count if I celebrate National Coquilles Saint Jacques the day AFTER? I say yes. What IS Coquilles Saint Jacques? It’s a scallop gratin. I love shellfish, however my children do not, so I don’t eat it as much as I would like. My plans to make this yesterday were thwarted by the seafood shop being closed, grocery store #1 having questionable scallops and grocery store #2 only having frozen. So here we are! I used an Ina Garten recipe (you can always trust her recipes!) and it was simple to make and so freaking good. Those little crispy bread crumb bits on the top were everything good in this world. Since I currently can’t be trusted to blog the recipe 😂, you can swipe left for the exact title to Google (which I found on Food Network) and swipe left one more time for my changes. I’ve saved this on my Recipes highlight bubble on my profile here too. Tap the little flag on the bottom right of the photo to save it, but by all means, do make it! 🤤
Never underestimate the power of a simple change ( Never underestimate the power of a simple change (swipe left for a before). Twenty years of calling this home and I finally got to choose the house paint color, and I’m more obsessed with our house than ever. Bonus points for the magic of window boxes, styrofoam, wadded up newspaper and a hot glue gun. ✨
🌸weekend vibes🌸 Stumbled on this pretty peta 🌸weekend vibes🌸
Stumbled on this pretty petal-lined path yesterday while taking photos for a client. Take a moment to appreciate your surroundings this weekend - it will fill your soul right up. 🥰
An unusual and spontaneous day filled with fellows An unusual and spontaneous day filled with fellowship and friendship, and a beautiful moonlit evening waiting for me when I came home. ✨
I’ve been craving fish and fruit something fierc I’ve been craving fish and fruit something fierce lately, so when I spied oysters on the menu, it was a no brainer. Even better that it was a steal at ten bucks. Beautiful weather for dining al fresco in Madison tonight. ✨

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