Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, February 7, 2012,
In :
Arts and crafts
It's been another fantastic year for the Epic Awards and it's been a privilege hearing about so many inspiring arts and crafts projects from around the UK. Here's a video I made to showcase the winning groups, who were:
Peterborough Male Voice Choir who turned their fortunes around with their innovative 'New Directions' project.
Phizzfest, a community arts festival in Dublin.
Renfrewshire-based drumming group, The Buddy Beat who made a wonderful video documenting the impact music had on their re...
Posted by Anne Witton on Friday, January 20, 2012,
In :
Talks and podcasts
My 5-year-old iPod is still going strong and loaded up with podcasts. Here's what I'm enjoying at the moment.
(1)Answer Me This Irreverent, sometimes rude but always hilarious. Helen and Olly answer listeners’ questions, ably assisted by Martin The Sound Man. You can also buy an array of Answer Me This merchandise - I forked out 50p for a badge! Typical subjects - Make-up for men, lobsters, 15 - 1, lightbulbs. Length - Approx 30 mins Format - Audio
Posted by Anne Witton on Friday, January 13, 2012,
In :
Book reviews
Just My Type: A book about fonts by Simon Garfield
This was a Christmas present from my Mum and Dad who are obviously well aware of my geeky tendencies. It's actually a lot less geeky than it sounds, though, and would appeal to anyone who has an interest in design and an eye for stylish (or ugly) type and what it says about us.
Rather than being simply a chronological rundown of the history of type design, the book takes a much more anecdotal approach making it easy to dip in and out. There are...
Posted by Anne Witton on Friday, January 6, 2012,
In :
Project
Does the idyllic British seaside of 1970s childhood holidays still exist? Find out whether I was disappointed or delighted when I re-visited Scarborough armed with my iPhone and a head full of happy memories.
Posted by Anne Witton on Friday, December 16, 2011,
In :
Ramblings
As I usually do at this time of year, I have made a donation to charity instead of sending Christmas cards. This year I have chosen local charity, St. Chad's Community Project who are a vital lifeline in Gateshead providing services such as childcare, basic skills training and family support.
Posted by Anne Witton on Friday, December 16, 2011,
In :
Faith
At church we've recently finished a series of sermons and accompanying mid-week Bible
studies focusing on the Lord's prayer and I've really enjoyed the
series. I was inspired by the power of prayer and challenged to pray
more. If we're honest, we all find it difficult to pray sometimes -
whether that's because we're wrestling with doubts, going through a time
of great pain, or just getting distracted by work, family, household
chores, TV or iPhone apps.
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, November 22, 2011,
In :
Travel
Having just come back from a lovely tip to Krakow in Poland (pictures here), I was thinking about where I've travelled and where I'd go back. Trip Advisor have a handy map for you to record the places you've been. As you can see, my destinations are all very UK and Europe-centred, but then I am very lucky - some of my favourite places in the world are in my own country!
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, October 25, 2011,
In :
Pets
At last, Juanita and Babs have hit the big time with their dancing and kazoo-playing skills!
The Epic Awards shine a spotlight on the excellent work of amateur arts
and craft groups around the UK. If your group would like to enter, hurry
along to www.epicawards.co.uk before Nov 11th. There are some great prizes to be won!
Posted by Anne Witton on Saturday, October 15, 2011,
In :
Photo shoot
A few weeks ago, I did a photo shoot for The Capability Partnership
- who provide training and consultancy in the enterprise development
and fair trade sectors - and the photos are now gracing the pages of
their new website.
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, October 11, 2011,
In :
Ramblings
Today David Cameron will officially launch a new website called ParentPort to enable parents to complain about suggestive TV shows, adverts and music videos. The site is a one-stop complaints centre for people to lodge concerns about all kinds of inappropriate material and have their voices heard by industry regulators. According to Reg Bailey of the Mothers’ Union:
“This will be one place where parents can make their voices heard and tell businesses and broadcasters if they feel they have... Continue reading ...
This is a really simple app for Mac users to create HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos. All you have to do is drag and drop one or more photos onto the app window and it will create an HDR photo.
It obviously works best when combining more than one exposure. Here you can see the results of 2 exposures that I combined:
Pretty much the only thing you can adjust is the strength of the effect, but obviously you could edit the resultant HDR in another image editor to do ... Continue reading ...
I downloaded this for free over the weekend, but it's now available on the app store for 69p. So what does it do and is it worth it?
Instamaton is a very basic app that lets you create a strip of photos like those that you would get in an old fashioned photo booth:
The good thing about the app is that it allows you to export a photo strip or a photo square depending on your preference. The bad thing about the app is that it has a tendency to crash and... Continue reading ...
Posted by Anne Witton on Saturday, September 10, 2011,
In :
Photo shoot
This morning I was off to The Sage, Gateshead to take some photos at the RSC Open Stages workshops, which are supported by Voluntary Arts England. Open Stages is an initiative to embrace, develop and celebrate amateur theatre, re-forging the bond with the world of professional theatre. There were workshops on Acting, Movement and Voice & Text, all of which were fascinating to watch and seemed to be thoroughly enjoyed by the participants.
Posted by Anne Witton on Thursday, August 25, 2011,
In :
Ramblings
Abby and I have taken to setting off far too early when going round to friends' houses for tea which has led to a new, and surprisingly enjoyable, tradition of sitting in a parked car for an hour or so having a chat. Recently, we had an in-depth discussion about communism and we have also covered topics like cookery, gadgets, death and Christianity. Sometimes I put sunglasses on and pretend I'm doing a stakeout of a criminal den (when in reality I am parked down the road from my friend's hous...
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, August 23, 2011,
In :
Project
As someone who has been touched by mental illness in the lives of my
family and friends and in my own life, I wanted to try and express what
it's like to feel trapped inside the house, a prisoner of your own mind
and emotions. I shot a series of 10 iPhone photos and added dymo label
captions, giving a glimpse into the state of mind of the sufferer.
I
chose a Polaroid format to express the idea of a captured instant and
muted the colours with a cross processing app to add a sense of
desp... Continue reading ...
One of the most impressive things about this app is the gorgeous user interface - it really is a pleasure to use and feels very different to lots of run-of-the-mill iPhoneography apps. It essentially offers 100 different quirkily-named filters / textures presented in themed packages ('Longing people' and 'Fantastic landscape' for example). It does, as the developer intended, all feel very poetic.
Posted by Anne Witton on Wednesday, August 10, 2011,
In :
Talks and podcasts
I really enjoy the free TED talks; If you haven't already discovered them yet, go to www.ted.com and take your pick from more than 900 talks on topics as diverse as poetry, primates, language and leadership. There's a free iPhone app too.
I really enjoyed listening to Julian Treasure speaking about - appropriately enough - listening:
"In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, "We
are losing our listening." In this short, fascinating talk, Treasure
shares five ways to ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Anne Witton on Monday, August 8, 2011,
In :
Ramblings
I was wondering the other day why there are and hardly any programmes about photography on TV. With the exception of an excellent series that the BBC did called The Genius of Photography (in 2007 mind you!), I don't think I've seen any programmes about photography on mainstream TV.* This seems odd given that photography is a hugely popular hobby for so many people and the market is positively booming in all other areas (web, social networks, mobile apps, magazines, books and photo gear & acce... Continue reading ...
Posted by Anne Witton on Thursday, August 4, 2011,
In :
Ramblings
Photography can be a very expensive hobby, not least because there are always new cameras, lenses, tripods, backpacks and other accessories that we are convinced we need. It's very easy to get sucked into the upgrading rat race and spend more time poring over tech catalogues than we actually do taking photos.
One of the things I like about iPhone photography is that your options are limited. Often, to get your composition right you need to physically MOVE, not just lazily zoom. It forces you t... Continue reading ...
Posted by Anne Witton on Wednesday, August 3, 2011,
In :
Gear
For a mere $249 (about £150), you can now buy a mount which enables you to use dSLR lenses on your iPhone: The listing on the Photojojo site claims that: "Ever since the iPhone camera was invented, it's aspired to be what it simply never quite could be: a dSLR."
Hmmm... has it? Or has it always been a pretty average mobile phone camera with the advantage that you have it with you wherever you go and you have the choice of thousands of apps to edit your snaps on the go.
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, July 26, 2011,
In :
Travel
Loads of wildlife spotted on a 2 week holiday to Mull and the
Ardnamurchan Peninsula. Featuring pine martens licking peanut butter
sandwiches off a window, a bouncing mouse and a wild pig crossing the
road!
It
seems there's a new photography app on the App Store every 2 minutes
and it's fair to say many of the offerings aren't that original. So the
question is - what has Magic Hour got that the others haven't? Answer - a
free filter market where you can upload filters you've created and
download hundreds of filters created by others.
Magic Hour
markets itself with the cute, if non-sensical, tagline, "for the person
who is sensitive than anyone ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, July 26, 2011,
In :
Project
In an attempt to put into practice some of the things I've been reading
about in 'The Art of iPhoneography', I have done my first conceptual
iPhoneography project. It is inspired by my love of journeying on trains
and enjoyment of the differing landscapes and scenes they afford.
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, July 26, 2011,
In :
Ramblings
It's immediate. The iPhone is always there for those
moments when you would never have thought to bring a camera. It's great
for exploring the everyday stuff of life. I tend not to use mine so much
for holidays, big events, impressive sunsets or macro (that's when the
dSLR comes out). I prefer to point my iPhone at the things that I notice
on my way in to work - people on the bus, run-down shop windows, an
interesting flight of stairs, an abstract pattern on the pavement...
Posted by Anne Witton on Tuesday, July 26, 2011,
In :
Book reviews
The Art of iPhoneography by Stephanie C Roberts
I was really looking forward to getting my hands on this book and it
didn't disappoint. It's a really quick read, but there's enough in there
to inspire you and get the creative juices flowing. Stephanie starts
with a brief look at the basics of how to capture photos with an iPhone.
I suspect most people will just skip this bit as I did. Then she looks
at a few key apps for editing. It was interesting to find out the apps
that she rates and... Continue reading ...
