VerveCast

One of the great things about working at Z2 is getting to play with the equipment after-hours…

Last week I stuck around one night and projected some of my Processing animations on the cyc wall in the photo studio, and did long exposure self-portraits.

I’m never sure how we may use this sort of thing in the future. Is there a client that will want something like this? Is there an internal project that could benefit by this sort of experimentation? I never know… but working in the creative arts, I believe you have to keep trying things, and hope that they can be sparks that someday start a fire.

Just over one week ago, I decided it was time to ditch the Blackberry Curve for something a little more, well, up on the times. Sorry Blackberry, but you just haven’t been meeting my technology needs. This girl needs apps!

But I didn’t just choose a new phone on a whim. I did some serious research. Okay, I hassled my tech-savvy friends into doing research for me and took their opinions seriously.

I left Verizon feeling pretty darn happy about my little device: the HTC Thunderbolt. And then it hit me – with a 4.3-inch screen and 8MP camera with dual-LED flash, I can pretty much say “adios” to my little digital camera.

Why would I carry around an extra device when my phone can basically do the same job just as well? Oh, and my phone has built-in memory of 8MB and a microSD card with 32GB of storage. So I’ve got plenty of room. Plus, I can upload to Facebook and Twitter right from my phone, which is more than I can say about my weeny point-and-shoot.

Oh, and my phone has something else that my camera doesn’t – apps. Photo editing apps. Now, I haven’t had a ton of time to play around with these apps, but the following photos were taken using a few that I’ve discovered and liked. Oh, and since I don’t like paying for, um, anything… they’re all free apps.

Meet Todd, today’s photo model. He was a present from @MKEnerd, who you should be following on Twitter for a daily laugh or two. This photo was taken with Camera360, which offers a variety of photography modes, including color shift, effects, scenery and even funny effects. What’s nice is that you can edit pictures later, after you’ve taken them. Not nice? The constant pressure to buy the premium app for $4.

I’m a sucker for anything that looks old, so I was pretty psyched when I was able to make Todd look like he came from, well, the Jurassic Period. Yes, I know they didn’t have cameras back then. Go with it. Anyway, this was taken with Little Photo, which also gives the user a bajillion options for effects and such. Sharing the photo on FB or Twitter is also really simple with this app.

Purple Todd! This photo was taken using Vignette, one of the most talked about photo apps. Although I do like this app, you don’t get to preview what the photo will look like with a certain effect before you commit to it. I found myself going back again and again to pick different looks. Granted, there are a lot of effect options. And I bet the user experience is better with the paid versions. Darn teaser free versions!

And last but not least was a photo taken with the picplz app. This one requires you to set up an account, unlike the others, but it’s really conducive to social sharing which is nice. It has less effect options than the others, but the user experience is really nice. The photo takes up most of the screen, but on the right you can scroll through thumbnails of different effects, which I like. And it looks like I can use this in conjunction with Camera360 or Vignette, but I’ll have to do a bit more playing around to see how that works.

And yes, I’m very aware that I’m a writer, not a photographer. So please don’t judge my photo-taking skills too harshly!

Anyway, with simple (and free) apps like these and the higher quality cameras on smartphones, are you also saying “farewell” to your point-and-shoot digital cameras?

Oh yeah, you read that right. And we’ll proudly exclaim that it is true… at least according to Sealy.

Do you remember ordering Chinese take-out with friends, cracking open the fortune cookies and adding “in bed” to your small hint of wisdom? Chances are, you had a giggle-fest upon hearing, “You will soon be the center of attention… in bed!”

Well, Sealy has a refreshing take on this wacky little game:

I was awash with immaturity when I came across this delightfully unrefined app created by a company that provides comfort under the covers. Simply take a photo of anything and add “in bed” at the end.

Immature? Probably. Hilarious? Yes.

Share these silly photos on Facebook or Twitter for all your friends to see. Albeit slightly stupid, we’re amused nonetheless. Thank you Sealy, for making us feel like 17-year-olds again.

Deb issued this challenge, and the theme was bakery.

It’s been a long time since we’ve done a challenge, and it was great to see that everyone completed it this time.

As always, the challenge is not about technical abilities with a camera or related equipment, but about how you look at things… how you see things.

The photos are below… Enjoy!

Photo by April.

Photo by Deb.

Photo by Cory.

Photo by Dawn.

Photo by Jess.

Photo by Joe.

Photo by Kerry.

Photo by Kevin.

Photo by Kim.

Photo by Lyra.

Photo by Mario.

Photo by Olivia.

Photo by Pete.

So what do you think? Any favorites among these? Think you could do better? Let us know!

Oh yes, folks, that is real. We’re not sure what hurts us more – the fact that chili is spelled incorrectly, or the fact that the words “event” or “gathering” never came to mind. And even if we did want to attend this “chilli thing,” we would have no idea when to show up.

This photo is compliments of our copywriter, who has the pleasure of seeing this atrocious sign on her way to work each morning. Needless to say, however, she walks in the door fired up about filling the world with correct and descriptive language to make up for such indignity.