On January 18, I led my very first creative iPhoneography class ~ Beyond Instagram. The goal of the class was to introduce the world of iPhoneography and the magic of taking and editing photos with your smartphone. The class covered three camera phone tricks; 5 tips for taking better photos; and 4 FREE photo editing apps (BeFunky, Snapseed, PicsArt, and MultiExpo) to transform photos.

We had a nice turnout and everyone learned something new! We took about 20 minutes to run around St. Elmo snapping photos and then came back and played with some photo editing techniques. Check out the student examples below. 

I had a rather mundane New Year's Eve....went to bed early. But my New Year's Day was awesome!! One of the highlights was brunch at my friend's home where she served up a delicious feast. There's such great natural light at her home that even my food photos turned out well.

This was my first year (I started in March) of iPhoneography and it has been a blast. Here are a few of my favorite photos that didn't make it on the home page.

It's funny how the most interesting things to me are often considered old and useless to others. While visiting my mother's friend, I discovered she had a seven acre yard that contained two barns! I was in heaven. She looked at me like I was crazy when I asked to take photos of them. This is a shot of one of the barns that contained an old tractor.

Linking to Friday Finds

Went to see my acupuncturist and when I got out of my car, I looked up to see this...the underworkings of a billboard structure. Loved the red-brown color and the architectural details from the view below. I used Photo Toaster to bring it to life using the Technicolor filter.

Linking to Friday Finds

I've been taking lots of photography e-courses over the last few months. One that I really enjoyed was Vivienne McMaster's Beloved Beginnings self-portrait class. She guides you through 10 simple and thought provoking prompts that ease you into taking photos of yourself and, in the process, you let down your guard a bit about sharing pieces of yourself with others. Her class inspired me to take more and more selfies (of course, I like to trick them out with apps). So many, in fact, that I decided to try posting a month of selfies on my blog this month. Join me! Just tag your selfie #amonthofselfies and post on Instagram.

#amonthofselfies Instagram Images

I’m so proud of this image. The b/w version won MobiMono 36 on Mobitog.com (The Iphoneography Community). I was thrilled. This image emerged from a short walk around a hotel in Knoxville. One thing I've noticed about my photography style is that I like to photograph the things that other people miss or find insignificant. For some reason, these things just jump out at me, begging for attention. Check out my workflow on this piece: {Crack}. 

My Aunt has many trailing plants. Their cascading leaves flow languidly around her home. This one needs a little pruning but, nevertheless, is pretty as a picture. I used the negative space to give full attention to the plant. Snapseed created green highlights in the background that reflect the plant's leaves. See more in my series, Quiet Reflection. 

If you've ever watched America's Next Top Model, you'll see that the best poses are done by the really awkward looking girls. You're thinking, that pose couldn't possibly look good and then you see the shot and it's amazing! This is what I think of when I see this image. I didn’t take the original photo. I found a mannequin photo online and distorted it using Photo Deformer, Pix, and a little Repix (notice the drips? I can’t get enough drips!). The long neck and shoulder distortions are what really make these mannequins sing, in my opinion. 

Another find at Auntie’s home. This little figurine sat lonely on a table. I wanted to evoke soft childhood memories and make it appear to be separated from its stand, like a runaway carousel horse.