MORPHOLIO JOURNAL - A CREATIVE'S DREAM COME TRUE

My photographer pal, Katie, and I like to geek out over gear and tech. We're always sharing links to new goodies that we've discovered. Of course this leads to a bad case of GAS. Today, she sent me a link to Morpholio's new app Journal. Instantly I knew I wanted to try it out. I love tools that inspire, organize, and power the creative engine. Morpholio's Journal looks like it could be one of those tools.

If you're looking for a tool that could help get rid of clutter, organize your desk and possibly your mind, and even have a place for your notes, then Journal could be a perfect solution. Granted, this sounds a lot like Evernote at first, but there's so much more. You can create mood boards, journal, sketch, message, markup, and collage. Just to name a few.

Essentially, Morpholio Journal is a sketchbook and journaling app for your IOS device. All that you do and create can be shared, which is very groovy. I think it's worth looking into. I have a couple shoots coming up this month and I plan on giving this a shot. Here's a cool little video that gives you an idea of this amazing app.

Morpholio Journal : Sophie Kelle from The Morpholio Project on Vimeo.

GNARBOX - Offload, Organize, Edit, And Share On The Go - Good-Bye Laptop

All The Power Of The Universe, Itty Bitty Living Space

I like to think of myself as a location independent photographic adventurer. Basically, I'm always on the go. Traveling to one location or another for a shoot. While on the move, I'm always stuck with a backlog of stills and/or footage that I either have to wait till I return home to edit or pull out the laptop. Really, I just want to share images right away. I get that excited and I don't want to wait till I arrive home and it can be a pain to pull out the laptop, boot it up, and get those hamsters on the wheels. Call me lazy. First world problems, right?

I've often wondered if there was a way to simplify. And by simplify, I mean, make my camera bag lighter. I want less gear, less to worry about while I'm out working, but still want the tools to get the job done. It seems there's a product that just might do this. GNARBOX is a new mobil device that could possibly make our lives a wee bit easier. It aims to replace your bulky laptop by putting everything you'll need into a small, durably device and a mobil app. All the power of the universe...itty bitty living space.


GNARBOX Kickstarter Pitch Video from GNARBOX on Vimeo.

The goal when designing the GNARBOX was to pack the power of a 15 inch laptop into something with the looks and size of a small external hard drive. That basically could slide into your pocket, really. Under the hood is a quad-core CPU, an 8 core GPU, 4 GB of RAM, 128 GB of flash storage,  6-8 hours of battery life, and a 300 Mb/s WiFi hotspot. All of this awesomeness is encased in IP67 shell that is dustproof, sandproof, shockproof, temperature resistant, and waterproof up to one meter.

If the tech specs don't excite you, think of this way. It's plug and play on the go. Just pop your card out of your camera, plug it into the GNARBOX via USB3, SD, or microSD, then connect your phone to the GNARBOX hotspot, and open the GNARBOX app on your phone. Just plug and play. Most of the items in your camera bag are larger than this thing. And you can connect up to 4 phones at one time to the GNARBOX. Your photos and videos are downloaded right into GNARBOX and you can edit and organize all within the phone app. You had me at hello.

GNARBOX says, "Now you can can truly explore more and carry less." Well, I think that sounds pretty darn groovy and if this little device lives up to it's potential, this could be a game changer. Honestly, I could see myself carrying this thing around with me almost all the time. What professional or non-professional wouldn't? It just makes sense.

If you're as excited as I am, it should come as no surprise that GNARBOX met their Kickstarter goal within a matter of days. Days. The retail price will be $249, but backers can get their hands on it for $199 as the contribution. They are hoping to start shipping the first units in March of 2016. I'm not sure I can wait that long. But it looks like we have no choice.

Affinity Photo Is Here!

AFFINITY PHOTO

As they say, all good things must come to an end. Affinity Photo has moved from beta to full release. Yup, it's in the App Store and on sale until July 23rd! Check out the video below to wet your whistle.

 Serif, the company that makes Affinity Photo, has been developing the app for about 5 years, and the beta release had an astounding 230,000 downloads. People seem to really like what Affinity is offering. Serif aims to be a "revolutionary photo editor" that redefines photo editing for Mac and was first unveiled in February. The app is packed with tons of tools and features that most photographers use in Photoshop. Camera lens and exposure corrections, live filter layers, adjustments, high end controls for channels and masks, advanced layer handling, and, one I think is very groovy, a built in frequency separation editing. To get a full list of features check out the Affinity Photo website.

Customizable UI

Lighting FX

Developing

Perspective Change

Liquify!

Compositing - A World Of Possibilities

But is this really the PHOTOSHOP KILLER that the interwebs is buzzing? Only time will tell. I, for one, feel this will be a great alternative for those not interested in Adobe's CC subscription, and already they're getting some huge traction. I'll be doing a walk-thru / overview of Affinity Photo this week. So stay tuned. In the meantime, you can download this very cool app in Apple's App Store.

Cheers!

Instagram Goes Bigger!

It would appear that Instagram has finally pushed past it's measly original resolution of 640x640 and almost doubled it to 1080x1080. That's pretty exciting. Go bigger or go home, right? I'm not a heavy "Instagram-er" by any means, but I did notice a some of the images on Instagram looking slightly better. I'm almost positive the heavy users out there have noticed a difference right away. As a matter of fact, while on a trip this past week, I posted a picture from our trip and quickly took note that it seemed to look a lot better than usual.

Lunch #Savannah #travel #iphonography #exploring

A photo posted by @ajharter24 on Jul 7

It's interesting that Instagram hasn't made an official announcement about this glorious update. In my daily surfing of the interwebs, I come across all kinds of chatter about this particular piece of gear or that hot new app, and everyone has an...well, you know...opinion. Among other things. But I digress. Photographers are always worried about resolution, and rightly so. I've read lots of opinions from photographers as to why they haven't jumped on the Instagram wagon, and they all have to do with image size and resolution. They say it's not up to snuff with a professional portfolio sharing tool. But will they change their minds now? No telling.

All I know is that I use it. I love it and enjoy it. It will be interesting to see if this change brings about an increase of users in the realm of pro photographers. No matter what, keep snapping and keep sharing!

Cheers!