Flare for Mac by Iconfactory was released to the Mac App Store [direct link] a matter of weeks ago. I downloaded the trial version and once I saw it’s capabilities, pretty much upon opening, I went ahead and purchased it for the limited time introductory price of $9.99. To be fair, even at the full price of $19.95 this app is well worth it.

When you launch the app and drag your photo in, you’re presented with a bunch of one-touch presets. But that’s only the start of it as every single preset can be edited (and saved for future use) to suit your needs. This is what I love about this app – you can really get stuck in and spend hours creating your own preset based on another, adding effects, borders, lightleaks, textures, grains, vignettes…the list goes on.

If you don’t want to spend too long on your own custom-made preset, then aswell as the dozens that come bundled in the app, you’ll find the Additional Presets page on the Flare website updated regularly with more ready for download. Once you’ve created your masterpiece you can save your image to a file, send to iPhoto, email it and upload directly to Flickr. Moreover, photos created in Flare for Mac retain their EXIF data, unlike CameraBag for Mac which sadly wipes out all such data.

I’ve enhanced several of my photos in Flare recently, including this one which quickly found it’s way to Flickr Explore. I’m particularly pleased about this one as straight from the camera it wasn’t looking nearly as good as it did to my eye at the time of taking and was about ready to be filed under trash, but some quick enhancement soon sorted that out.

My profile on about.me has also had the Flare effect with this excellent ‘Folder Poster’ effect which does the job perfectly…

From chatting to the developer on Twitter, it seems updates for Flare for Mac are never going to be in short supply, infact they have a whole bunch ready and waiting for us. I love apps that are constantly being worked on and improved for us. Now all I want to know is: when can we expect this on the iPhone?!!

Flare for Mac.

[rating:5/5]

However, there are times where I have wished for just a little more quality and perhaps a little more zoom where the iPhone has just fallen short. I’d considered a Canon S95 after seeing a friends recent photos from New York City, but the £300+ pricetag for something that wouldn’t get major use in my hands did seem like something of a waste.

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing a sale on Play.com when I saw the Pentax Optio I-10 for £69.99, down from £119.99 (now currently at £89.49 for the black version). The first thing that attracted me to this camera wasn’t it’s spec of 12MP, HD video with 5x Optical Zoom. I’m going to be totally honest and tell you that it’s retro styling rather than mahoosive mega-pixels was the head-turner. However, I decided to read a few reviews before hitting the buy button to make sure this wasn’t just style over substance.

The reviews I read were pretty mixed. For every one that said it was awesome, another said it was to be avoided – walk away and don’t look back at it’s beauty. But as hard as I tried I just couldn’t ignore how good it looked, nor imagining scenarios where it would be perfect to just pull out of my pocket and snap away. Knowing I could return the item if I wasn’t one hundred percent satisfied, I went ahead and ordered it.

I found the interface pretty easy to use – quite simple looking menus, no problem there. I have the manual downloaded to my Mac so I will step away from the presets on there and do things more manually once I get familiar with it. The first photos I took were macro, indoors in fairly low natural light. On the 2.7″ LCD screen the pics looked reasonable, but when uploaded to the computer I was starting to feel the love turning to nothing but a short lived cheap animal lust. There was quite a bit of noise and it didn’t particularly look 12MP at all.

I’d already browsed some Flickr groups for photos taken with the Pentax I-10 so I knew it was capable of some really good outdoor shots, so I decided that I would wait for a nice sunny day to really put it to the test. I’d gathered it’s bits and pieces in the box, ready to send back should the photos not live up to expectation – and was chastising myself for even thinking that a camera priced at £69 would give me anything as good as I was expecting.

So, on a lovely sunny day like yesterday I decided to let the camera do the talking:

(click images for bigger)

I am thrilled with the results. They were all edited only very slightly using Flare for Mac, but straight from the camera these were very impressive photos. And to quote one of my Flickr friends who commented on the above photo…

The equipment is mostly irrelevant. It is the photographer that makes the photo. A three hundred dollar pair of Air Jordans does not give you the ability to play pro basketball. You made this picture. Not your camera. Well done.

I do have to agree with him. And I suppose my logic for going ahead and buying the camera despite some scathing reviews was a little to do with the fact that I managed some excellent shots with my old 2MP SONY Cybershot camera, despite it’s low spec. The subject and having an eye for it is so much more important than it having 200 megapixels and a 60x zoom.

My trusty Fuji S5700 7MP camera has served me well for a good few years now, but has been developing some glitches over the past year so replacing it with the Pentax I-10 makes sense. And unlike the Fuji which was quite a bulky chunky thing, this can easily be put into my pocket, much like the camera I always have on me – iPhone 4.

[rating: 4/5]

Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your iPhone, choose a filter to transform the look and feel, send to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr – it’s all as easy as pie. It’s photo sharing, reinvented.

The social aspect of Instagram is what makes this app interesting and enjoyable for me. You can add friends from your contact list, Twitter, Facebook or simply search usernames and names. I can view a feed of all the photos my friends are uploading aswell as ‘Like’ and comment on them, reminding me somewhat of Tumblr. You can also share to various websites including Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr and Foursquare.

Instagram comes with 12 great filters to make your photos look great. Images are saved at only 600×600 pixels, but for me this absolutely works fine for sharing through Instagram. I rarely print photos from my iPhone, for which case I would want it saved at full resolution, but for sharing through the app and on Twitter then I have no problem with the low res. Resolution may be increased in future updates.

I’m really excited to see what more Instagram will have for us in the future – and it’s hard to believe that this app is absolutely free! This app has already started to replace Camera+ which was pulled from the App Store almost 2 months ago for violating the terms and conditions. With no word from the developers on it’s return, it seems this will be a forgotten project with no further updates so myself, like many others, are looking to exciting alternatives that do have a future and won’t slide into obscurity when the next iOS update kills it off.

If you’d like to view the photos I’m snapping regularly and sharing to Instagram then feel free to follow me; purplelime.

Several weeks ago, the developer behind CameraBag for iPhone announced CameraBag Desktop, for Mac OS X. At the time of the release, there was no trial before buying which was a little disappointing, but because I had enjoyed the speedy way to enhance a photo on the iPhone I decided to jump right on in and plump up the $19 asking price. This was done mostly with the intention of checking it out so I could write an honest review here and let you, my dear readers, know whether it was worth parting with your money.

The application is extremely easy to use. Drag a photo onto the app window and you have all of your filters along the bottom as you can see. There’s plenty to choose from: Helga, Lolo, Mono, 1962, 1974, Instant, Magazine, Cinema and Colorcross – a filter that is not yet in the iPhone app. Aside from applying one filter, you also have a multi-filter option.

Let’s have a look at some before and after photos. First up is a photo I took today of my Nintendo DS…

And here is that same photo, with the Colorcross filter applied, along with a medium border…

In just one click, it has made a boring photo look really quite interesting. Here’s another of a sign post I took last year…

And here with the Colorcross filter, once again…

And finally this photo of the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne…

And now with the Instant filter applied…

CameraBag Desktop is a great way to make your photos look interesting in one click without spending time in your usual photo editor. I can’t say I will be using CameraBag Desktop as often as I will Pixelmator for photo editing, but when a photo calls for more than just a little contrast and vignette then it will be very useful.

I’m going to give CameraBag Desktop a rating of 3 stars. It would have received more had the 15-day trial been available when released, to avoid blindly buying.

[rating:3/5]

You can download a 15-day trial of CameraBag Desktop, here. Saving is disabled and images contain a watermark in the trial version.

The iPhone is now showing us what it means when we combine technology. The camera isn’t ‘just’ a lens stuck to an iPhone. The fact that you always carry your iPhone, it is always connected to the web and always knows where you are makes it far more effective and efficient than ordinary digital camera’s that is isn’t surprising that it is quickly becoming the most popular camera.

I was just discussing this with a friend recently. I’ve been spoiled with the ease of uploading a photo to the internet in seconds with the iPhone without the nuisance of wires or docking that I rarely take my digital camera out with me now. I had recently considered buying a digital camcorder but wouldn’t the ultimate all-in-one device be the iPhone 3GS? Why take two bottles into the shower? Indeed.

Once you’ve downloaded the application you simply drag your photo onto the polaroid camera icon where it will make all those realistic noises, then spit out your photo and you can either wait a few minutes for the it to develop or you can even shake it as you would a real polaroid.

Poladroid have a Flickr group where you can upload your creations to.

I happened upon some photography on Flickr which looked like it was taken in a professional studio, when infact the apparatus to help create that shot was just over £5. Today I purchased that apparatus from IKEA, placed a few objects in and took photos. Here are a some of the results.

So, how was this achieved and what exactly are IKEA doing selling photography products, I hear you ask? Well, they don’t. It’s a pop-up laundry bag which acts like a photography tent. It’s perfect and it’s called SKUBB which costs £5.29. I haven’t positioned any lights on it for the above photos, I was just allowing natural daylight coming in through the windows. For the shiny floor I simply placed an A4 sheet of glossy photo paper into the laundry bag, then hooked my digital camera up to my JOBY Gorillapod tripod, set the camera to Super Macro and had fun experimenting. Very pleased with the results which will make photographing small and shiny objects so much easier in future, especially the shiny metal behind of the iPod touch!

Apple PowerBook G4 – I bought this from eBay for less than £300 in January. This was bought to take to the studio with me a few times a week, aswell as a ‘bed browsing’ machine. I have used it pretty much everyday since I bought it and it hasn’t let me down. Well worth the (low) price, runs Leopard fine and still such an attractive machine.

Fuji S5700 7MP Digital Camera – Superb camera. It’s easy to use, lots of functions and still lots to learn which is just the way I like it. I paid £104 for this and it’s been worth every penny – using just about every single day. I also bought a couple of extra lenses from eBay for it – a wide angle and a macro.

Aiptek AHD200 High Definition Digital Camcorder – I don’t use this everyday but I guess nobody would expect me to. For a high definition camera the price was amazing, at less than £110. Fantastic video quality as you can see over at my Vimeo page. I still want to create some ‘creative’ videos and now that summer is here (well, on a day like today you wouldn’t think so) I should be able to capture some more.

LOMO Fisheye Camera – I bought this (£22) with the absolute intention of it being a novelty, so it has totally lived up to that. I have taken one roll of film with it which didn’t turn out great, but since I took random shots in 3 days then I didn’t really expect them to. I have used about half a roll of the second film so I suppose I should use up the other half of the film and get it developed to see if there’s much improvement. I don’t regret buying it as I didn’t have huge expectations and film/developing is dirt cheap.

Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet – After doing some graphics work and photo-editing/touching up which was proving fiddly with my Mighty Mouse, I decided to buy the Wacom Bamboo (£59). I wasn’t sure whether this would replace my MM altogether but after a few days it felt completely natural and I used it solid in place of my mouse for 3 weeks. Then one day I just felt like giving my hand a rest so I plugged my mouse back in and have used this eversince. I haven’t had any fiddly graphics work to do in recent weeks but that doesn’t mean I won’t have in the coming ones. It’s on the other desk beside me and can easily be plugged into my USB hub when I need to use it. After the first day of using the pen on the graphics tablet my underarm and arm muscles felt quite tense and sore. That’s because my arm was getting more of a workout than it does with the mouse as my hand was moving around a lot more. After a couple of days I got used to it and had no more tense muscles.

Elgato EyeTV – I’ve had this for a couple of weeks and have found myself recording far more TV shows than I ordinarily would. It’s great to be able to watch live TV at the computer and record my favourite shows, then burn to disc. I have only burned about 5 DVD’s so far as it does take rather a long time for the export process, then burning in iDVD…and that’s just a 30 minute show. If I had Apple TV then I wouldn’t need to use DVD’s, I’d just pop them into my iTunes library and view on my TV screen. I can also stream my recordings via wi-fi to my iPod touch which is very cool.

So, what for the next 6 months? I have a back catalogue in my head, hopefully I’ll get around to buying them.

I’d like Apple TV, for the reason mentioned above but also for the upcoming iTunes Movie Rentals in the UK. Definitely keeping one eye on that.

Time Capsule. Not something I want/need immediately, but it would be nice for TC to handle all my Time Machine backups and I could then use my LaCie 320GB external hard drive exclusively for additional storage space…especially when I start stuffing up my internal HD with the things I record via EyeTV Of the people I know who have Time Capsule they absolutely swear by it.

Apple Cinema Display…as long as it’s refreshed and brought up to date with a similar look to the iMac – built-in iSight, black rim, alu and glass with the choice of Matte or Glossy screen. I’d go for the glossy to be in keeping with my iMac as I prefer glossy. Oh and it also needs to be reduced in price…significantly

I bought a pack of two FUJICOLOR C200 (36 exp) 35mm film for around £3 and popped a roll in. This week I have been a bit pushed with other things so hadn’t really planned on going anywhere special to take some photos. I did manage to pop out on Thursday afternoon for a couple of hours. I must admit it all feels a bit strange to take a photo and not have immediate playback on an LCD screen to see how it turned out. Plus having to wind the film on after I’ve taken a photo is something I’m having to remember. And there was also the weird self-conscious feeling of using a camera which looks and feels a little like a Fisher Price toy!

I popped the film into ASDA Walmart yesterday lunchtime and had a few options. I didn’t necessarily want the photos printing as to be honest I had few expectations of these photos, given it was my first time with something quite different – and I’ve learned positioning is rather important for a camera with a 170 degree field of vision!! A few photos had my sleeve in, knee in and even my hair in! So, I was given the option to have the photos scanned to disc, no printouts. This suits me as it’s just going onto my Flickr stream anyway and if there was anything worth printing I have a couple of photo-printers at home. There were, as expected, some ropey shots – but a few did turn out okay. Best part is it only cost 97p to have the photos developed/scanned to disc in 1 hour.

You can check out six of my Lomo Fisheye photos, here. Those were the best out of the lot. I had to take some random shots to use up the last of the film as clearly I didn’t take many when I was out, but was keen to get it developed. This isn’t a camera I will use a whole lot, but I do like the way it really enhances the clouds in the sky. I will be taking this on some of my photo walks as it takes quite interesting shots.

If my Fuji S5700 Digital Camera was feeling out in the cold after the arrival of the Lomo Fisheye then it needn’t have. Yesterday it got some attention with a new wide angle lens.

I bought it last week for around £10.50, plus £13 shipping from Hong Kong, through eBay. It’s good to have a wide angle – really liking it’s effect. Hoping for a dry and sunny day next week to go and experiment with it.

I bought it from PC World (I know, sorry!) for £19-99. The maximum weight load for this particular Joby is 275g. I searched through my digital camera manual and discovered the total weight of my Fuji S5700 is 400g. My camera is a bridge, so physically it’s more like a DSLR – but the Joby Gorillapod SLR (max weight load 800g) is more expensive and I didn’t want to pay too much for something that is only for occasional light useage. It takes the weight of my Aiptek High Definition digital camcorder no problem and it will be very useful for that as that won’t happily stand or balance on any surface.

You can check out the Gorillapod range, here.