Live in the Moment

What sucks the joy out of our everyday lives is our notion of 'how life is supposed to be.'

We tell ourselves that we'll be happier when we're richer, skinnier, more admired, more successful, more loved.

And we constantly reject the present moment and postpone our lives.

Perhaps we should stop insisting that our lives be a certain way and instead embrace it the way it is right now?

A Photographer on your honeymoon?

Honeymoon photography is becoming the latest trend. It might sound rather strange – taking a photographer on honeymoon with you but it’s actually one of the best decisions you could make in your relationship.

Even unmarried couples are investing in photo shoots, to capture those beautiful moments in their relationship. It actually is an investment – looking back at those photos allow you to relive those moments, keeping the memories and passion alive.

Perhaps the only downside is the cost involved, as the photographer will have to travel and be accommodated by you. But it is worth it for the lifetime of moments captured from a time that cannot be replicated. A couple is perhaps the most happy on their honeymoon, and the candid shots captured then could even rival the wedding shots.

Having a photographer with you, tailing along inconspicuously, takes the stress off you to capture photos yourselves. Everything will be documented without you even knowing it and those are the truest, most beautiful shots.

From 2013, taking bookings for 2014- Lee Folkard Photography will be offering this service. 
Let us see if South Africa is ready for this line of photography. 

How Photoshop changed Photography

In the past, you had to be very patient as a digital photographer. If you wanted to catch something spectacular you had to carry your camera with you everywhere until you saw something special. To capture a sunrise you had to get up at the crack of dawn. Models had to spend hours in the makeup room and studios had to be well lit. But all this changed instantly with the invention of Photoshop.

Photoshop has changed the history of digital photography. Nowadays, when you look at an amazing photo or image your first impression is still “Wow!” but your immediate second thought is that “It has to be photoshopped!” When you think of everything Photoshop did to change the game of photography, it’s pretty insane.

The most significant effect Photoshop has had on us is how we see our world. Digital artists and manipulators know how to take an ordinary photograph and turn it into something completely different and extraordinary. They give you a new perspective on the world.

Photoshop has also revolutionized the world of advertising. Advertising has changed forever due to image manipulation. You can’t look through a magazine without seeing dozens of photoshopped ads and marveling at them and the thought and feeling that they provoke. It has even changed our image of what the perfect person looks like. With models and celebrities – most notably – we have seen Photoshop go into every magazine cover and spread in modern existence. Undeniably, the effects are beautiful and breathtaking, but they are not real.

Perhaps, though, the most amazing feat of Photoshop is that it makes our fantasies reality. It puts into a photograph a fantasy, one that we might not actually be able to capture in real life, and gives us our wildest dreams as if it truly exists.

“Time’s Winged Chariot”

“But at my back I always hear

Time’s winged chariot drawing near”

-       Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress

Time will always be the uncontrollable factor of man’s life; it is one of the only things that can liberate us and imprison us.

The nature of time is almost like a butterfly landing in the palm of your hand, if you’ve ever given it a chance to; you blink and as suddenly as it landed, it takes flight once again leaving you to wonder if it had ever been there at all.

Andrew Marvell coaxed his mistress with the thought that time is passing them by and they needed to make the most of their time together; they needed to make love before their youth became their past. Life is seducing us to have our love-affair with it; waiting for us to grab the chance to live like today is all we have.

In life, all you have is the moment. Once the moment passes by, it becomes a memory only alive to you in your mind. Memories of the same event exist differently in different peoples’ minds, but the moment is the same for everyone experiencing it. All you have is that moment before it passes by, before the butterfly takes flight once again.

But sometimes, that moment is all you really need.

Instagram; the phenomenon.

I call it a phenomenon because Instagram is much more than one app the way Facebook is much more than one site.

My First Instagram - and now I am hooked

So what is Instagram and why is it such a huge success? Instagram is an iPhone app that enables the user to snap a photo (or take an existing photo from the phone’s gallery), enhance it with eleven different possible effects, share it on the various social networks, as well as on Instagram itself, which has quickly turned into a social network of its own.
 
Instead of discussing each one of the features in Instagram, I thought I would take a different approach and point out four things that Kevin Systrom, the developer of Instagram did right, while software giants before him got all wrong.

Bullseye

1. True Social Integration: Instagram has managed to add seamless social integration to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, FourSquare, and Tumblr. The main difference between this integration and others is that in Instagram’s case, it works perfectly on both a practical and conceptual level. Others before it could not pull it off the way Instagram has.

2. Utter Simplicity: I cannot stress this point enough. If you are a developer, you might want to run a short analysis on all the apps that have gone viral recently. Angry Birds, Flipboard, Cut the Rope, Real Racing, and many more. The common thread that jumps out at me is simplicity. These apps are not overloaded with fancy features and they do not do extraordinary things, they just work. A user can open Flipboard and begin using it without a tutorial. The same is true with Instagram, and that, in my humble opinion, is why the app is so appealing.

http://www.leefolkard.com/

 
3. Simple Photo Sharing: The thing with Instagram and the reason I did not download it the first time someone talked about it on my Facebook or Twitter stream is because I thought it was just another silly photography app for iPhone. There are so many apps out there like Hipstamatic that allow you to enhance your iPhone photos with cute effects. The thing is with Instagram that separates it from the rest is its sharing abilities. Not only can you easily share your Instagram photos on Facebook or Twitter in one simple step, but you can actually build an entire network of friends around your Instagram photos. What Instagram figured out that others before it did not is that people like to create things but even more than that, they like to show them off.

4. Scalability: Now I am no developer and I do not know how to properly handle the issue of scalability when it comes to the viral nature of iPhone apps. Having said that, if you are a developer and you create an iPhone app, you need to be prepared for it to explode. In fact, if you do not think it is going to take off, then why bother creating it? Take the case of Flipboard for example. Mike McCue, the CEO and brains behind the wildly popular Flipboard app explains in an interview that he doubled the amount of servers his developer told him he needed before launching Flipboard. However, with the help of some major Flipboard evangelists, the servers crashed within seconds and they had to implement a registration program to roll out the app gradually to new signups. Instagram has exploded and continues to grow in numbers, yet the app is responsive, robust, and fun to use. No scalability issues to be found.

vivid

 
All in all, Instagram seems to be taking the crown of the next big thing in photo sharing. I am sure we will see the app on other platforms including Android and maybe even Windows Phone 7, but for now, developers should be taking this app as a case study and learning a few very crucial lessons about getting their app to take off the way Instagram has.

Capture Life

Have you tried Instagram yet? What did you think? Please let us know in the comments or reach out to me on Twitter.