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When it comes to best time of the day it's a close call between first thing in the morning whilst out walking with the streets yet to be filled by commuters, and the dinner time, when the smell of food floats through the air telling me it's time to shut the laptop. Love my food.
I used the Diptic app to pull together the selection of pictures, LabelBox to add the text and finally Instagram for the filters.
It was quite overcast this morning as Manchester seemed to be suffering a smog hangover, but by mid-afternoon the sky was the most beautiful shade of blue.
I took this photo using an app called Tiny Planet, which I'm playing around with at the moment, then Instagrammed it without any filters. Whilst the app doesn't do much I love the little that it does. I'm getting the best results shooting outdoors especially with a strong blue sky like this. I'm not sure how effective it will be in winter when the sky is grey, but whilst we've got this weather I plan to create as many planets as possible.
I nipped out to M&S for my lunch today and stumbled upon a scene of utter delight in the otherwise vile setting of Piccadilly Gardens. In amongst the drunks and homeless that frequent the area were a handful of kids having unrestrained fun in the sun. Their joy was infectious. Cheered me more than the 2 for £3 salad offer I'd just purchased. It reminded me of what a joy it is to just not give a shit sometimes, an attitude we should all consider on the odd occasion.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. Don't get me wrong, I stopped being precious about the internet many years ago. Once I started bullying people with the fact that 'if my 74 year old mum is on Facebook you should be too' then I had no right to decide who is and who isn't welcome to the party.
I didn't even know The Royals had their own Youtube Channel. I was hoping it was going to be something Harry had set up after coming in from the pub but was somewhat disappointed to see they've done a pretty good job. You can watch the wedding streamed live, follow the procession and even upload your own good luck message, which given Youtube's wonderful community spirit should provide the moderators with a tough week.
So this is me. This is how I look at exactly 11.20pm, April 18th 2011. Well, it's a fairly good liking. The short back and sides is all mine but I could never grow a beard that handsome. I've just not got it in me. All the scribbles have been done using the Doodle Booth app. I'm not a great photographer but I do love Instagram and the social loveliness that surrounds it.
I had a long discussion with a friend who is a massive Flickr fan and I was desperately trying to explain why I love Instagram's social functionality over Flickr's. The best I could offer at the time was that the mobile-only-ness of it all made it feel quite special. Whilst it isn't really a location app in the same way Foursquare is, the immediacy of 'snap it share it then see what your friends have been doing in the last few minutes' makes it very much about location. You could say it's a constantly changing gallery of art from your curated friends delivered to you wherever you happen to be. There's also a lovely and warm 'wish I was there' feeling I get as I skim through my timeline pictures. That's the best I can do, which isn't great given how much I bloody adore the thing. It really does give you a great perspective of how others see things. It's great to see how some people find interestingness in places others don't.
I refused to buy an iPhone when they first landed because of the quality of the camera. Seems insane now given the brilliant things you can do with the array of smart photo apps on offer. Here are a few more I've been playing with...
Hipstamatic - Some very nice film, lens and flash variations on offer
QuadCamera - Multiples of pictures stitched together
CameraBag - More nice effects
Everyday - Helps positioning for your 'photo of yourself everyday' project
TiltShiftGen - Lovely app for your retro minature pictures
LabelBox - Great for adding labels to your pictures
Color - Pictures from people near you. In principle I like it, but yet to try it out with enough people to really test it
Last week I tweaked a muscle in my back which meant that my pre-work morning routine of going for a very long walk was out of the question. By the end of Monday I just wasn't my usual self so decided that on Tuesday I'd go work out of a cafe, the thinking being a change of scene might improve things.
It ended up being a brilliant week, and God I polished off some tea. I've worked out of cafes before but never out of choice; in the past it's been because I've been away from office and needed to find some wifi to get some work done urgently. Today I stumbled across this in The Atlantic which asks the question Why are telecommuters most efficient in public places with lots of distractions? It list lots of great reasons including a few quotes from a Gladwell Guardian piece about working in coffee shops.
"The waiters are all Australian and they play The Smiths all day long which I find so fabulous"
I've spoken before about how when working from home I like to work around my flat at different times of the day and for different sorts of work. I think last week's working out of cafes added an element of serendipity to my working day. It wasn't the familiarity of The Smiths playing in the background but the unfamiliarity of the Cat Power track - the conversation with the waitress that was required to ascertain the name of the girl singing - the jokes about the sheriff badge the helpful waitress was wearing - the train of thought about how the really neat sheriff badges cafes could give to Foursquare mayors would be miles better than discount on a coffee and would get people asking 'Where did you get that great badge from?'
The cafe increased the opportunity for serendipity and it continually stimulated curiosity, encouraging creative thinking all day. It provided a cast of characters that kept my mind stimulated, putting me amongst my audience instead of co-workers, and by changing cafes throughout the week gave me a pretty good idea of where you can get a decent brew in town, which is never a bad thing.
Lots of sun,a dash of madness and plenty of tea. That's how all Sundays should be.
Dogs as dead pop stars. What's not to like about that? It's all in the eyes. A moment of genius.