Favourite Instagrammers

Instagram is still one of my all time favourite apps and will always have a well deserved spot on the home page of my phone. I love it because I'm a visual person who takes inspiration from photos and colour and views and sunsets rather than words. One thing I thought was that I can't think if I've ever blogged about my favourite Instagrammers? Can you remember? Well, even if I have i thought I'd do an update on some of the Instagram feeds that I love the best for various reasons. It's good to share the love sometimes.

First up we have @TheFashionGuitar Charlotte from the blog of the same name showing us all things fashion and New York. Her style is great and her pictures show us a small glimpse into her life of fashion and kids and a recent move to New York. Stylish but not showy. Follow her.

@Johnnyramirez1 OH MY GOD. This guy is one half of Ramirez Tran who I think I've mentioned on this blog before. Hairdresser in Los Angeles, I 'Like' nearly every single picture he posts. I would give anything to visit his salon. He is the one single person who i would trust my hair to 100%. Hands down.

@andreadabene This feed is amazing. Brilliant vistas from a snowy covered Montana just now. It looks all clean and minimal - just lovely. Previously the desert with a little bit of greenery in between.
A well curated feed.

@_Divanoletto Fun adventures with bikes. Nicolo is based in Rome but he travels all over. There's always a bike and a smile. A really nice collection.

@Wilde_Oates absolutely stunning set of pictures from a guy in Edinburgh called Steve. Mostly Scotland and Edinburgh but that's okay. It's a lovely place to capture and this feed shows our country off really well. Brilliant stuff.

@Le21eme AKS. "Luh Van-Tay-Uh-Nee-Emm" Brilliant fashion photographer. NOT street style, fashion shows and the #AKSforeheadselfie's are dreamy. Top.

@dr_woo_ssc Shamrock Social Club tattoos. Gorgeous delicate tattoos that I'd get, if I ever took the plunge.

@Jedidiahjenkins Recently completed a cycle from Oregon to Patagonia, he's now moved back to LA to write a book about his adventure. The emotion and what it meant to him to make that journey really came through in his pictures. We saw who he met on that journey, where he slept, how he got his little bike repaired and what he ate. Everything. Nice.

And those are just some of my favourite Instagram feeds. Of course there are more that I love but this post would go on *forever* if I listed them. Go have a look though, and let me know who you're favourites are to follow on Instagram?

Angela x

New Look Blog

You might have noticed things looking a bit different around here. That's because I finally found a new look template that I'm beyond thrilled with.

I've been wanting a change for a while and did find a template last year that I adapted a little bit but it just wasn't clicking for me. Then I found this new one. I really really like the clean modern clutter free space, and also the large pictures. 

What do you think?

Angela X

What's on my iPad?

I stole the idea for this post... Actually no, it's in reply to a post James did over at Whatleydude.com called What's on your iPad?

iPad first page, not really into folders on here

So, if you're interested, here are my top 5 iPad apps. In no particular order.

1) - Pinterest
I absolutely LOVE Pinterest and have done since it's early release. The iPad app is so slick and is perfect for settling down with a cup of tea and being inspired. I could pin all day long if I were allowed to.

2) - YouTube
I've really gotten into YouTube, and it's really ever since I got the iPad just over a year ago. The app came as standard in the original iOS but was then removed but the new app is really great. I can open it up and watch the latest videos from the channels I subscribe to. This is also Ryan and Connor's favourite app. Ryan pretends he doesn't know what it is but he knows that white square with the black and red writing leads him to endless videos of Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder and old Tom and Jerry cartoons.

3) - Sky Go
We don't have Sky tv at home but my sister does. So as soon as I realised that Sky subscribers could use the Sky Go on two devices for free I just had to beg her for her sign in details. She only has an iPhone (my old one) so I use Sky Go on my iPad. It's been really great for me as I love sports so I've watched most of the Australian open on it, I'll be able to watch live F1 races when the new season begins and I'm currently loving the fact that I can watch new US dramas on Sky Atlantic at the same time as everyone else. Hello Kevin Bacon in The Following!

4) - iBooks
I like books, i do, but i'm not a great reader. A book has to completely suck me in for me to stick with it. But having iBooks has made me grow to love reading again. I just tap it open and settle in with a good book. I mostly do this when i have total distraction free time, which is mostly on train journeys. I pack up the iPad and then read on the train. My current book is The Passage by Justin Cronin, a recommendation from Ross (@electroross). So far so good.

5) - Tweetbot
It's no secret that i love Twitter. But the Twitter app on the iPad could be so much better than it is. That's the reason I use Tweetbot on there. Strange, because I flick between Twitter and Tweetbot on the iPhone. On the iPad is everything you need. A clear timeline. Easy to use search. Clear favourites. Heck, there's even mute filters on there if you're one of those folk who pretend to be social and follow you so you'll follow back (to get their numbers up) and they never actually interact with you and they slip up and have a conversation (in your timeline) and let that cat out of the bag and you suss out that like probably most of their timeline they've got you on some sort of Mute filter or List which means they are preaching (and getting paid for it) that they're all social and shit but actually they're probably more anti-social than you. Phew. Apologies, that's a bug bear. But, Tweetbot's pretty decent.

Anyways... what's on your iPad?
EDIT: I just hit publish then checked this post on the web. Oh wow, look how out of focus and non-retina those iPad 2 screenshots are! Jeez...

Angela x

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Just a few of my Instagram Favourites

Before Christmas there was a big furore over Instagram and people's interpretation of the new privacy policy (which has now been changed, by the way, and so I'm not sure where we're at with that!).

Instagram web profile page

Anyway, a few people up and left Instagram defecting to other less easy or nice to use apps (IMO). Apparently Flickr gained a lot of newbies too. In the updated Flickr app I accidentally clicked DONE which I thought would take me back a step but what it did was add all of my Twitter contacts who have a Flickr account. Embarrassing. As quick as I could I deleted all the contacts as I didn't want all the cat pictures appearing in my Flickr feed too. No offence but cat or dog pics aren't really my thing. However, there were a few contacts i did keep. Simply because they take and share great pictures and I'd like to see more of them. I've had my Flickr account for years, a Pro account at that too. I always keep that paid up because Flickr is the place i share all my digital camera pictures, my unedited proper full scale pictures. Heck if you've got a spare hour you can find nearly every single picture I took in Nepal on there. It's in a named set so easy to find. Some of them aren't great but some of them are fantastic. I've tried over the years to keep it neatly organised into Sets. Some pictures have fallen through that system though. If you find me on there chances are I'll likely have a nosey around your pictures to see if they interest me. If so, you're a keeper.

So, now, this very week, Instagram has launched a new way of looking at your home feed on the web. Quite  good because sometimes I'd like to see the pictures a little larger than my iPhone screen and of course that doesn't let you zoom in on the snaps. If you've got an account just log in.

my Instagram home feed

Anyway, the point of this post was to say that Instagram may be keeping strange friends these days but I'll not delete my account, ever. And here are a few reasons why... my favourites, just a few... Enjoy!

Pauloctavious
Creative photos. Fun. Normal snapshots. Views. People. Everything. Brilliant.

Haihype
Michael. So jealous of his amazing jumpstagrams. Amazing Californian beach sunsets. Landscapes. His dog.

RyanMarshall_
One of my favourite ever bloggers, except he doesn't blog much now. Florida based. Wonderful family life pictures. Simply beautiful.

Punkerpat
A bonafide surfer, who actually takes pictures whils IN THE WATER!! You are transported with him as he catches the waves. Breathtaking.

Josephdanger
Creative and fun. Amazing Mo for Movember. He's shaved his beard off now though. Local lad. Scribbler, landscapes, Edinburgh, music, filming, FUN!

SincerelyJules
LA based fashion blogger. Great style. Outfits. Creative. Follow her fashion travels.

_smittyboy
Glasgow based. City scenes. Sunsets. People. Great mix of scenes and pictures.

Daveedgamboa
Student. Amazing jumpstagrams, landscapes and sunsets. Android user. Black n white pictures, colour too. Really brilliant.

JasonHudson
Jason and Jeffstagram's round the world adventure. They've only just started. Get involved. iPhone 5 only photos, edited with Snapseed and Afterglow. Great pictures.

Audi
Great car pictures. I love Audi's anyway but the pictures are arty, old cars, new cars, LED's, cars, cars, cars.

Moneal
Moody coastline shots. Photographer - so of course they're gonna be great!

I hope you've managed to click the links and search out a few new people to follow on Instagram, I', Ange77H over there by the way. Now who do you reckon I should follow too?

Recommendations welcome!
Angela x

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Filter me this, Filter me that

Ah Ha haha ha haa. Hahahahahaha ha ho hee hee. Aha oh hee ha. Aha. Ho hee haaa.
(I hope someone gets that reference. I LOVE it).

Yes, that is the sound of laughter emanating from the offices of Twitter and Facebook (nee Instagram) this past few weeks. It's the laughter that says 'we're launching a new filter and a kinda fancier UI' (Instagram). It's also the laugh that says 'oh yeah, punks! Well, we're introducing Filters. So, nah!' (Twitter).

What the laugh should represent is the laughs of despair from us, the users, because it means we are missing out a little bit. While they squabble in their millionaires playground, we users wish that we didn't have to click twice instead of just once to view our Brannan filtered sunrises (me!) when they appear in a tweet. For yes, that's all you'll see now is a link, not your lovely photos. It's something to do with Instagram and a disappearing card trick (please someone get these references before i finish this post?!), or... something  technical like that. Oh and I jest about having to click the link to see the photos. I don't get why folk are decrying this, it's what you do when you want to read an article from a link in a tweet too.

my favourite recent capture

In return our Twitter friends have totally eradicated all traces of your Instagram pictures from your profile. What you have left is those crappy pictures that appear in tweets you retweeted and you thought were funny at the time but goddamn you don't want them showing up on your profile. They're there. Gah!

Willow. No not some new movie set in a magical land where people are 2 foot tall and have scraggy hair, Willow is the new filter in Instagram. It's black and white and grey...  ...*tumbleweed* ...  ...  Yeah, that was my reaction too. It is nice, but i don't really do black n white photos.

Baubles in Willow on Instagram

It's okay though, because over on Twitter they are soon to launch new Filters. *Cue ticker tape and marching bands and funky street dancers that tumble all over the place*...  ...  ...  ...  Wait, have you seen the filters? Wow. I have an app called Camerabag on my phone. It was one of my early forays into camera trickery and while the filters are nice, it's pretty basic. That's what i think the Twitter Filters look like. That is me just viewing the pictures on their blog though so no hands on experience because lo and behold, shortly after announcing that filters were coming... some 18 hours later it's still not there in the App store. Click, refresh, click refresh, click refresh...nope, still not there. Oh how I so want that little red circle to change from 2 to the number 3 and for it to be there.

All joking aside (you got that reference yet?), I think it's a pity that two of my favourite ever social playgrounds appear to be at loggerheads. It's not a war as most people are calling it. A war involves guns and fighting and bad things happening. It's a disagreement, ultimately about money, and the making of it. Of course Instagram wants to make some more, I mean who in their right minds could live off 100 million, right? Of course Twitter wants to get rid of their once nice bedfellow after they only went and shacked up with the black sheep (FB) of the social family. Why can't they all just get along nicely? eh.

Me, well I'll still use both. At the last count i currently have 39 photo taking or photo editing apps on my phone. I love mobile photography and the wise people say, the best camera is the one you've got with you to capture that moment. I will never have too many filters in my life. The more the merrier. But what i love about Instagram is not only my beloved Amaro, XProII and Brannan filters, but the fact that people give you a little love heart when they 'like' your picture or that they can leave a comment on your picture. It's those little things that may be lost with Twitter filters. I mean we could 'star' them as favourites but then no one else would see that would they?

How you see the Likes

Instagram gives you all the pictures you want to see in your feed. Those people you have actively followed because they take the most wonderfully shot pictures with a phone. There are people who aren't necessarily on Twitter or they no longer tweet but give great Instagram. There's the brands who really excel at Instagram - Red Bull, Sharpie, Converse. It's a whole little mini social network within the wider landscape.

little like hearts and comments - love

With Twitter you get all the tweets and pictures from the folk you like to tweet and chat to, but man some of them can't take a picture to save themselves. Sorry folks. Also there's the thrill of checking your newsfeed in Instagram and seeing that X number of people liked your picture enough to 'like' it. Likes = Lovehearts *swoon*. Now don't say that doesn't bother you because evidently it does, we all want a little bit of loving, enough if it's just on the snapshots we take of our lives. Incidentally, a few weeks ago Instagram released a web platform whereby all your pics are stored and displayed in a grid format. You can also like and comments on photos there. Here's mine http://instagram.com/ange77h/

ooh look, shiny shiny lovely web Instagram thingy

How will Twitter let me (and others know) when my pictures are liked? Perhaps Twitter filters are not meant to be used in that way. Perhaps they're just filters. Whatever they are i can't wait to use them too. I hope they're worth the wait. The Cinema filter looks akin to Instagram's Brannan so I'm sure it'll feature heavily in my picture tweets. Brace yourselves. I'm gonna filter the shit out of all of my photos from now on.

Oh, and that reference.... here it is Ah ha ha hahahaha ah ho hee hee. Why so serious!

Play safe, kids.

Angela x

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Face-Stagram

Yes, that's right, according to rumours will be the new hip place where all the cool kids hang out on t'internet - Face-Stagram! Okay, okay so I lied but it's just over a week now since the announcement about Facebook buying Instagram was made and I'm glad the dust has settled.

my home screen: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Camera+ All the my fave apps

It was inevitable that someone was going to buy Instagram. We live in a more visual world than ever before and images are everywhere. Instagram made it easier to share lovely pictures with people across the globe. Adding one of their filters means that even the most kak-handed of us (not me btw!) can post decent enough looking pictures. Our brains process pictures in a different way than words. A famous example is the TV debates between Nixon and Kennedy. Radio debates showed Nixon in the lead, but when they hit TV Kennedy was an outright leader in the polls. He was a master at the little facial expressions, and I think he even wore make up! So you see people judge on site first and foremost and so pictures are real popular.

I've been an avid Instagram user since the week it went public back in October 2010. At the time I only followed a few people I knew on there but slowly over the 2 short years I've built up quite a good little visual playground for myself in the form of my Instagram feed. It's sitting at 205 just now, deliberately much less than Twitter. For you see I don't want to be bombarded with every Tom, Dick or Jason's silly pictures. I've collated a number of cool people and brands from a range of backgrounds and locations across the globe. Aside from Twitter, it's the first place i check each morning when I wake. I like to see what's gone on around the world via the varying images from numerous time-zones. I like to see the photos that have been captured lovingly or on the hoof. Maybe it's my natural nosiness inside.

Anyway, back to the deal. A Billion Dollars. $1Billion. Let's not think about that too much. After all it's not a truck full of cash delivered to the Instagram team is it. There'll be shares and the like. Maybe? But why did Mark Zuckerberg, seemingly on a whim, buy Instagram for that much money? Probably not data, let's Face it they have pretty much cornered the market with that one. Mobile Photography is more like it. Rumour has it (not sure where I got that from) that the deal was done in two days! Zuck to Kev: I wanna buy Instagram, how much will it cost? Kev to Zuck: Errrrr...(leans back in chair and plucks a number out of thin air) A billion?.... (laughs like a child who's just swore for the first time) Zuck to Kev: Okay then! Where do we sign?. Kev: (falls off chair, rolls over, does the dance - you know the one, scrambles back onto the chair, clears his throat) Deal!
And so the deal was done. I'd like to think that's how it went down. In my mind it happened like that. *winky eye face*

Everyone's gone mobile #SadDigitalCamera  ~ Taken on Instagram

So, why did he buy? Mobile! Mobile photography. Mobile. Much has been said about the rubbishness of the Facebook mobile apps and that the photo interface has, until recently, been pretty bland. But now, look what they have. Potential new Facebookers? (we'll come back to this later). I don't know about you but i certainly do hit share to Facebook on some Instagram photos. It even puts them into an Instagram album automagically. I mostly use this method because they're fab pictures of my nephews and my family only follow me on Facebook, especially ones who stay far away. So I like to share those moments I've captured on Facebook too. But it's easy now to with a smart phone and a decent app, enter Instagram.

Some people got a bit hysterical when the deal was announced. "I'm leaving Instagram" was the cry. Well I'm not. Some people were posting links to new photo apps, but the beauty of Instagram for me is the simplicity, the ease of use, the fact that you can follow people and they can follow you, you can share to most social networks (well that ones that everyone's uses lets face it), the filters are pretty (who remembers the astro filter?!) and it was the original. And I like that. It's not always about the next new thing, it's about the original.

One thing I didn't like was a i read a tweet from someone who claimed that 'creatives' like them would all leave and a certain faction would be left. Hmmm... Just because I don't work in the creative industry does not mean i am not creative. It was a silly tweet from someone who has posted no more than twenty photos, if you're lucky! Grrr. Sometimes the downright snobbery in social networks gets right on my nerves. There's a lot of it around.(another post maybe).

mobile photography

I'll end by saying Congrats to the small but perfectly formed Instagram team! I hope that the statements from both Instagram and Facebook are upheld and they don't tinker about with it too much. Perhaps a few extra filters? Perhaps a better Facebook mobile service? who knows. But just like Darcy told Jones in the movie... I like it just the way it is.

ooh! Before I go perhaps you might want to have a watch of this video I found about 6 weeks ago. It's Kevin Rose interviewing Kevin Systrom (co-founder of Instagram). Interesting, inspiring and well worth a watch. Love his thinking behind Instagram - hits thoughts about the early days, focusing on photos only, with XProII being the first filter. Turns out that was a great move!

Angela x

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I Love Instagram: let's play nice

So Instagram's android app was released yesterday. Yay. More people to join the community. Or so you would think. But today and even later last night, I read tweets and stories about how 'iPhone' people are angry at the thought of 'Android' people being on Instagram. How very fucking idiotic can you get eh? There's also those who just criticise it without taking the time to have a look and see what it's all about. Granted, there is loads and loads of shite on there, as with every other social media platform you get. But the cream always rises to the top and you can choose who you follow, so if you don't like their photos don't follow them. Simple. In the same way that if you are seeing Instagram links in your Twitter feed, because the natural thing to do is to share these photos in several different ways, well if that bothers you then don't click the link to view the photo. Simple too.

In saying that there are a few tiny things that bother me about Instagram. In fact it's got nothing to do with the Instagram app itself because I love it and have been on there since day one, but it's the way people are using it. Kevin Systrom (Instagram CEO and co-founder) said recently "We've been very careful about making sure that Instagram photos are about what's happening right now in your life, and we want to allow for more of those photos to end up on Instagram regardless of where they're taken."

And therein lies the thing that niggles away at me. More and more people seem to be taking the instant nature away and are uploading photos that are not in the moment nor are they happening in your life right. In fact they are most probably scenes that happened months or years ago. And more often than not they are photos that have quite obviously been taken with a digital camera or SLR, tweaked, uploaded to Instagram and tweaked even more. And that bugs me. It just niggles away for some reason. The pure, instant, happening right now nature is then taken away and for me so is a little bit of the magic in most of those photos. I mean they are quite good photos (most of them), there's no denying that, but the fact that Instagram is a mobile phone app, whether it be an iPhone and now an Android phone so to me I couldn't think about taking a pre-shot photo and loading it. Use Flickr or something for those shots! Maybe that's just me though.

Whilst we're here I should also add that many many many many lists and lists and lists of hashtags (#) is a bit naff, to say the least. I know that you tag things so that other people can see them but how many actual #Instagram hastags do you need on a photo? Here are some examples #Instagram #IG #Igers #Ignation #bestphoto #igdaily There are more but #popular is also used too. Now, there is a Popular section on Instagram. I'm not sure if using #popular tag gets you on there or how they pick them. Edit: i've just checked the Popular section and can confirm that none of the photos i checked had used the #popular tag. Surely it's up to your followers (or likers) to make your photo popular?.... Less is more people, less is more.

Anyway, I've gone too far on the things that bug me. Rest assured that Instagram along with Camera+ are my two favourite iPhoneography apps. Love them. And let's not start little cliques of Android versus iPhone users. That's just plain silly. We are all in this together. Play nice.

Angela x
Instagram ID: Ange77H

Pinterest

I thought it was about time to add my own thoughts about Pinterest since everyone seems to have only just jumped on the bandwagon. Get with the programme kids, you're almost too late! There's a frenzy of pinning going on in certain quarters

First of all it is not new. Pinterest is somewhere I visit most days and I've been using it since October 2010 having got an early entry log in to it. I use it to catalogue lots of gorgeous things I've found on the web that inspire me, give me ideas, clothes i love, hair i love, architecture and design inspiration plus lots more. I've even used to it to put together boards of birthday and Christmas wish lists, and it worked. Someone actually got me a gift last year from my birthday wish list. I can get lost in Pinterest for hours if i let myself with the 'see more pins' button.

Lately, since folk have jumped on the bandwagon, I'm beginning to see some negativity towards it. This is sad to me. For me it's one of the places I'd rather go on the web and I'm scared it'll become ruined by over eager lazy marketers using it as an easy way to get their brand on there.than anywhere else

I seem to say this a lot about social networks but you shouldn't force it. It should grow naturally, organically. I don't want to be almost duped by brands on there. For example, I've read countless posts by various marketing bods in the past week or so. One came via Mashable and it highlighted top brands using Pinterest best (even the thought of that title creeps me out). Anyone, one such player is apparently Oreck. Not a lot of people may know who Oreck are (lets' face it, they ain't no Dyson!) but I've seen their vacuum cleaners on sale on the shopping channel QVC. You might have seen them on the back page of a free magazine you get with a Sunday paper. Anyway, Oreck have lots of boards. Some of their products, some of nice floors but there's one called Furry Friends. Furry Friends contains lots of pictures of cute cats and dogs (if that's your thing). They've linked it in some obscure way by saying that these furry friends make a mess which you need to clean with your new shiny Oreck machine. To me this is the wrong way to promote your brand. This is just my opinion remember folks. Everyone knows that cute animals pictures will get you big hits anywhere on the web. It's like a cheap way to get people to notice your brand. And it probably works. So if your brand is only about the number of hits and not about the customer, go right ahead and follow this model. But you know what i like. I like brands that are honest and have integrity, that are engaging with customers (and not just rich sleb customers btw), who give something back every once in a while and who appreciate their customers. I'm not saying Oreck do none of the above but you know that 'let's use cute animal pictures to get traffic' thing just doesn't sit right with me. All fur coat and no knickers you might say.

Another bad example I found was when i searched the Everything: Print and Posters section. In it is lots of posters, typography, illustrations and other stuff. But!! I discovered LOTS and LOTS of pins clogging up that section from an advertising agency. It was from all of their clients. They had even written it below each pin. Obviously an over zealous person trying to quickly fill up their boards in that "lets fill up the boards so that we can show our potential clients that we too use Pinterest and are down with the cool kids". I've no problem with them doing this but perhaps it would've been better done in stages rather than spamming like that. I looked at it as spam because i saw they were all from the same source. So, think on that. Pin but beware on how it looks on the actual platform. It's like when someone tweets loads of tweets in succession. I immediately scroll over them because I can't be bothered to read them, spam.

I'm scared Pinterest will become filled with cheap give away competitions and brands trying to grab your attention. Maybe they should focus on the pinners who are actually pinning their brands onto their boards too. If I pin an item from a  brand onto one of my boards it means that i really like, love even, what they are about and I'd want to highlight them. For example, I pinned some new TOMS ballet shoes that I LOVE and that had just launched a few days back. It was immediately repinned by about 10 other people. That's what i like about Pinterest. Natural pinning. Not forced. In my head Pinterest is some virgin lush Hawaiian in summary landscape, untouched by the nasty property developers (The Descendants movie reference there). It's an oasis of calm where I can be inspired and find some of the coolest things shared from the people i follow. It gives me endless pleasure and I'm scared that will be spoilt soon. But only if I follow brands, which i currently don't do at the moment. I prefer to follow real people and find brands through those channels (if i really have to).

Sometimes less is more.

Angela x

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Yo shorty it's your birthday...You're Twitter birthday at least

Yes, that's right. Three whole years have passed since I joined Twitter. I can't actually tell you when my first tweet was though. Maybe I just lurked about there for a few days. Can you find out? One of the first people I followed, and still do to this day, is Ashton Kutcher. We all follow Ashton, right? along with the soon to be ex Mrs Kutcher. I liked their tweets. Still do. We got (get) to see a side of celebs that we wouldn't normally get to see. I like that.

I would recommend anyone to get themselves a Twitter account. But my biggest piece of advice I could give to you is just to be yourself. Be honest. Be you. Tweet what you want, when you want - just don't be nasty or vile or harassing. Watch yourself on that, kids.

Engage with people (I've a whole blog post on engagement coming soon). In my mind it's how you get the best out of it for yourself. I don't go in for that thing of limiting the number of tweets you send per day. Who's counting anyway? Granted, there are times when people are constantly retweeting stuff and it looks like spam so I just scroll past it. Find your happy medium. Find cool, interesting, fun people to engage with and to make your world that little bit better. I've found a few. The faithfuls. The ones I can reply on to tweet some of the good shit or to just bring a smile to your face.

Pretty much everything I said in this post at the beginning of 2011 still stands. Have a read. If you want to.

Here's a few people I like following:

@Joey7Barton Before Twitter I'd have turned my nose up at the mention of his name. Joey Barton was that footballer who always seemed to be getting himself into bother on and off the pitch. Now, having followed his tweets for a good few months i can honestly say he's been a revelation. He take some abuse on it but is fit for the protagonists. Much of what he tweets about is true, in my opinion. He's often getting into trouble with the powers that be of the FA but he doesn't care much. I find it refreshing that he seems to tweet so freely and can back up what he says.

@JohnPrescott  The Lord himself. Starts lots of funny little hashtag games, although admittedly I do find them annoying at times. He seems a lot of fun. You only need to check out his avatar - boxing robe and all!

@Audi my dream car manufacturer and they 'do' Twitter so well. Engaging with (lucky) customers and those of us who lust after an Audi in equal measure. The tone of the account is fun and informative and who doesn't love a picture of a new R8 to lust over.

That's all I'm listing just now. I might come back later and add a few more.

Angela x

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Is Facebook really ripping families apart?

I never read a physical newspaper these days. I never buy a magazine either. They're probably about 87.6% adverts anyway. I get all my news updates online. But this headline met me when I came into the living room this morning.

How silly is it? It totally got me riled. These kinds of headlines really annoy on me. Like that little bit of skin on the roof of your mouth that would go away, if only you could stop tonguing it. I haven't read the story except the first page. That was enough.

"Social media site Facebook is wrecking marriages and harming family life". That is the first line. There are all sorts of wrong with it in my opinion. Let's see... Facebook isn't wrecking marriages. If your marriage/ relationship is rock solid no amount of social media site browsing is going to wreck it. However, if there is something missing in your relationship and its always been a bit rocky but you just won't admit it then Facebook and other social media/networking sites will make it easier for you to have that much sought after get out clause. They themselves will not wreck your relationship, you will. YOU WILL. You will go on there searching for something because of that missing piece in your life. You might see an old school boyfriend/girlfriend and start the "innocent flirting" thing. But that is you, not Facebook. "..harming family life". Hhmmm let me see. I've always thought 13 was too young for anyone to be on Facebook. For all sorts of reasons. Safety, loss of innocence, not savvy enough, loads more. But here parents should be more aware on behalf of their kids. Learn more about the security features in Facebook. Make sure they're set to the highest level, insist on having the password to the account (too far?), heck even friend your own son/daughter so as to keep an eye on them. Limit their time spent online even! That is a parents responsibility is it not. I think so, at least until the child is 16.

"Facebook Addiction Disorder". I mean what the actual fuck?! That's all anybody is needing. Another label for themselves. I wonder if you can go off sick from work with FAD... Seriously! Sure we all spend a lot more time on various sites, some of us blog, some of us read all the news articles we can, some of us do spend lots of time online the days but where does anyone get 35 hours a week to spend on Facebook. Actually, I take that back, we know many people can.

I think social networking sites get a hard time in stories produced with headlines like that. They are the facility but they are not the cause or reason for your failed marriage/relationship or your wrecked home life. Don't get me wrong, there are some people who openly flirt online, you see it LOTS on Twitter. They may label it "innocent flirting" but is flirting ever really that innocent? Think about the other person in that relationship... Maybe they have no idea that their other half is engaging online in the so called innocent flirting. I wouldn't like that, would you? There are some people who just do it for attention and have no intention of backing it up with any kind of action (for want of a better word). I have one particular person in timeline who is an outrageous flirt. Sends provocative tweets that are begging for a flirty response, then acts all innocent. The thing I can't get over is that the responses come in, lots, from people who we know are married! I mean, come on. That is not Twitter / Facebook making them do that, it's just making it easier for them to do it. They'd probably find another way to do it in an all-offline world too.

It's about time people took responsibility for their actions. Its all too easy to blame outside factors on our own faults and misdemeanors. If you meet an old school boyfriend/girlfriend on Facebook and start something and end up divorced, that's YOU. If you're openly innocently flirting and cause some strife in relationships, that's you. If you're spending all you're waking hours scouring Facebook, online etc, that's you and you need to stop, think, take ownership and do something about it. Don't blame everything else.

Angela x

I should probably add that this story is in today's Sunday Post newspaper. It doesn't really matter because there's probably another story in another paper along the same lines somewhere else.
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iPhonography with Camera+

As you know I'm a huge fan of Instagram, the app for iPhone that lets you capture moments and upload them straight away and share across your social networks. In all truth I'm just a big fan of iPhonography itself and if you ever get near my iPhone you'll discover 3 folders (which contain 16 apps) filled with lots of different photo apps. There's cameras, Adobe express, framing apps and generally anything to do with enhancing and taking pictures using the iPhone. On my home page, nestling in the corner beside Twitter and Instagram you'll find Camera+, another amazing iPhone app. It cost me 69p about 2 years ago and for 69p you get a whole bunch of iPhonography lushness. The app is produced by Tap Tap Tap and was given an overhaul last year. Introducing new filters, a better zoom and focus and for me it's just so easy to use. I currently have 200 photos saved in the app itself in the Lightbox, so good they are I can't bear to get rid of them once saved to the laptop.

In the app there are different camera settings such as...
SCENES - including clarity (love this one), portrait, scenery, auto, flash, fluorescent and more.
ADJUST - to rotate and flip the picture
CROP - to crop
FX EFFECTS - this is where you'll find 3 different folders. Color. Retro. Special, and another called Analogue that you have to pay for. Inside each folder there are 9 different filters. They are all great in their own way. A few of my favourites are vibrant, tail fins and Lo Fi, fashion and so emo.
BORDERS - are just that white, black, thick, thin, viewfinder, grit and the list goes on. All nice borders.

The camera has a stabilizer and burst setting. Admittedly I've not used that one that much but I'm getting there.
Lastly you have the Lightbox where all the photos you take are stored. You then have the option to save to the iPhone camera roll. Of course there is the option to share your pictures to your social networks (Twitter and Facebook), SMS, email and Flickr account.

Over on Mostly Lisa's blog (Lisa Bettany, co-creator of Camera+) I read a great post before Christmas about how to make the most of the app when capturing Christmas memories. Read it here. These are a couple of pictures I think I managed to capture quite well.

cute Santa ornament and tree

a little bokeh effect on the tree lights

And here are a few of my favourite photos I've captured on Camera +

before

after adding filter

Christmas present ceramic cupcake

before: no filter

after: Fashion filter

One of my all time favourite pictures. The detail on the droplets is amazing. 

I love a cloudy sky picture

Again clouds, just before a summer rainstorm hit

And so if you really love iPhonography, my advice to you would be to go out and spend 69p on a fabulous app, Camera+. You won't regret it. You can see more of my photos on the Camera+ website HERE.

Angela x

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Anti-socially too social?

I think we are. This is something I've been thinking about for a while. These days we're all connected in approx. 7.3 kinds of different ways. That's not scientific, just my own conclusions. We're on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Pinterest, Path, Flickr, Instagram... the list could go on. But yet we're all a bit anti social aren't we?

Admit it. When was the last time you actually wrote on someones Facebook wall? You actually took the time to go to their page and write on their wall. When was the last time you tweeted someone (that wasn't an @ reply) just to say how the hell are you? We're all guilty of this. Being socially anti-social.
 
Is it to do with the overload of information available? I mean we can all see from Facebook if our "friends" are adventuring/having fun/getting married/engaged/announced a pregnancy/been on a date/got dumped.... It's like we're immune to them now. Endless status updates provide these little insights. But in reality they're only a tiny window into someones life.

There was a story (true) of a guy on Twitter who had over 100,00 followers and indeed he followed about the same amount. I always found that bit daft, i mean you can't really keep up with that many people in 140 characters. It must just look like a constant stream of social noise. You can't really be forming any sort of relationship with them all, some yes but certainly not all. Anyway this guy was seen as a bubbly figure, a nice guy, a guy who outwardly it appeared didn't seem to have any troubles. And yet he did, sadly. But how many of his 100,000 or so followers actually noticed or took the time just to send that one tweet (that isn't an @ reply remember) to say how the heck are you? Believe me it can make all the difference.

I'm currently sitting at around 41,000 tweets. I used to feel ashamed by that but I figured at least I'm actually talking to people, getting to know them, forming some sort of relationship. I try to reply to everyone's @ replies too. (Don't you just hate it when people don't reply?). Because to me this is the way that I'm social - I don't get out much. It has brought me some great offline banter too. You could very well do yourself a favour if you work for a brand and actually spoke to people - Engagement Currency? Sometimes a simple little tweet of acknowledgement would suffice.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that we all get too caught up with being on the latest new social play thing that we're there all present and correct, yes, but are we really listening and taking notice of people we are supposed to call friends (or indeed we are trying to sell our clients' product too. Think about that). Don't get caught up in the numbers game. Having been on Facebook for four years I've only just hit 100 'friends' and there's even some people on there I'm thinking of taking off. Having forty squillion (or at least a few hundred) followers on Twitter is nothing if you're not actually having any dialogue with them and by dialogue I mean actual conversations, not you tweeting out the link to the latest cat video or blog post or... well, whatever. Those snippets are all well and good but if you aren't actually (and I'm going to have to use that word that I hate) ENGAGING (cringe) with people, then what's that actual point?

So, go, tweet someone you haven't for a while, if only to say hello. Write on their wall. Comment on their check in at the local sandwich shop. Smile at their Path. Write them a letter. Before it's too late...

Angela x

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Path: find yours

Do you have a Path? Or should that be Path? No, I don't mean some great journey in life that you were always meant to follow, no. I mean another social network. Oh no not another one I hear you cry. Yeah. Another one. I actually joined Path on 17 November 2010. I know this because Path tells me this. I don't think people took it on and so I was left on this Path on my own. No real updates, just a few photos I uploaded. Then a few weeks ago it kinda burst onto the scene again. I'll have to actually find out the reason for this. Probably to do with a new round of funding going around Silicon Valley, or something like that.

Anyway I decided to give it a go again. There's been a few updates but still no iPad app yet. That would be lovely. I like Path. And here's a few reasons why...

Path has a timeline, since way back last year. Not sure who thought about that idea first. Was it Facebook, or was it Path? Who knows. So what's different about it then. Well it's a much slicker interface I think. You have your own Path (let's say it's the Wall if we're to compare it to Facebook). On your Path there is all your photos, check ins, comments, everything you've done on your Path. All dated and timed. Yes! Timed. There's a really cool little feature that appears when you scroll up or down your Path. A little bar and clock appears down the right hand side. You can actually see when you uploaded your update. Pretty neat I think.

Click on your Home page and you can see all the updates from people you share your Path with and who share with you. What i like here are the little icons you see in the updates. There's check ins with knives and forks, coffee cups (a nod to Foursquare perhaps). There's also little sun and moon icons that appear when you change your Path to sleeping and awake.

In the bottom left hand corner there's a red circle with a plus sign in it. Click on that and out spring 6 little black circles with various icons in them. This is how you update your Path. Set your status so to speak. There's photos, people, check in, music, thought and the moon sign. See the picture here. Click the camera icon and your camera pops up. Only, there's quite a few different lenses and filters to play with. Very nice in app feature. Take the photo and you then get the option to leave a note with it, say who you're with, check in/location and then you can also share it to Twitter Facebook etc. All in all a very good feature and the camera filters are lovely.

Click on the person icon and this is basically you saying who you are with at any one time. The check in icon is pretty much the same places that there are on Foursquare. I know this because I added a secret place on Foursquare and it appears in Path too. Again clicking on a place means you can leave a comment and add who you are with. Cool. 

The music icon lets you say what you are listening to. It gives me some suggestions. I don't know where they come from. I've never really used this feature to any real extent. Actually, just tried it. Type in your favourite band and it will give you a list and then you can add it to your Path. A window appears in the middle of the screen, the music plays for about 20 seconds and you have the option of buying it. Hmmm. But I've already got those tunes on my phone? Yes, I think this just gives you the option of letting people know what you're listening to. Oh but in the Home page (timeline) a little orange musical note icon appears. Nice. These little circular icons are a real favourite of mine. No kidding.

Next thing, click the speech bubble. This is your Thought. But again the question is 'what's on your mind?'. This is very much your status update. Go and update it. Again the option to check in and say who you're with is there.

Last of all we have the moon icon. Click that and you get only 2 options. Go to sleep. Or I'm awake. Click on these at the appropriate times and wow! you say your going to sleep and the Path change colour, disappears and a moon appears in its current state - full, half, quarter. Pretty awesome. It also gives the time and then a button to click on Awake when you...well, wake!

Click on that button and you are taken back to your home page. And there's little icons in your Path letting people know when you sleep and are awake. 

The best part I like is that at the top of your Home page there's the option to set your own cover picture. This is like the header photo in your new Facebook page. But the standard Path ones are quite nice too, in fact so much so I haven't changed mine yet.

In the Activity tab you can see who has looked at your Path, who has commented and who has smiled at your check ins, photos etc. Yes for you can also add little smiley faces, sad faces, winky faces and hearts to your friends' photos, check ins, comments etc. These are also little cute features I like.

All in all Path is another social network and you're probably wondering why you'd need it or want it. But I like it. The only downside is that not many people have adopted it yet. Well, not here anyway. I have four friends on there just now. So come on over and join me. If you want to that is. I mean how may social networks do we actually need? I sometimes wonder if too many social networks are making quite unsociable? That will be for another post though.

Angela x

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