A Walk With an App

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’ll remind you that I have little to no skill in photography.  It’s not my gig.  I’m better with a keyboard.

But I do have two kids, a pug, some fall foliage and a camera, and I’m sort of obsessive about trying to document a lot of everyday happenings — even if my skill doesn’t match my will.  So that means, unfortunately, that you have to suffer through my bad photos now and then as part of the blog posts. 

Now I’ve added my newly found iPhone photo apps into the mix.  It’s like having no skill on steroids (or acid, if you look at some of these colors). 

We went out for a walk this past weekend and everything was downright stunning — the weather, the colors and even the toddler dispositions.  It was an alignment of the suburban planets.

Out came the photo apps.  Before each photo, I gave the baby my iPhone and told her to shake it (which she loved, as I prayed it wouldn’t meet an early demise landing on the sidewalk).  Many of you who have been iPhone-indoctrinated long ago  — yes, I’m light years behind — know that shaking it will randomly change up the lenses and film on some of the apps to give you a different look each time. 

So I guess what we have below is some photographic roulette, courtesy of a 16 month-old and me.  We have the same level of competence with a camera, so it seemed fitting to include her as my apprentice.

Here’s our app-fueled, color-tastic trip around the neighborhood.  I feel a little like Dorothy after the  tornado.

My assistant, mentally framing the next shot.

And back at the ranch (well, the colonial):  Fun with mud and trains — basically, the Holy Grail for a 3 year-old boy.

I like the whole retro-color look.  It reminds me (as I assume the app marketers intended) of the types of photos my parents and grandparents took when I was a kid.  I wasn’t overcome with nostalgia as much as with some residual jaundice from the overblown yellows.  But it gave our walk a color boost and my non-skills a little help, both of which were welcome.