iphoneography - gear bag, basics

In June of 2009, I finally caved and purchased my first iPhone. The 3Gs had just been announced with a huge 3mp camera! I was excited! How could I be excited about such a low resolution camera when I have professional cameras to create images with? Well, I'd say it should be obvious but it might not be. As a photographer I like to have the option to capture a scene or a moment at any given time. This means having a camera with you, all of the time. I carried my wonderful D200 with me, everywhere I went for years! Let me tell you that sucker is heavy! I made the realisation that it was okay to shoot with a lower resolution censor, that it's okay if I only do some smaller prints, because I knew, I was going to have fun with this!Now, two and a half years later, I've created over 10,000 images with my iPhone, including the completion of an iPhone 365 project in 2010, and a second iPhone 365 project for 2011. And I've already begun another 365 project in 2012. With the recent upgrade to the iPhone4s, how can I not? :)Along with the commitment of creating daily with my iPhone, I've decided on another commitment, to create more content, tips and tricks on my blog about iPhoneography in general. There are loads of iPhoneography blogs, but everyone is different, has their own spin, so I want to share mine and hope that it's helpful to someone else.Over the past two and a half years, I've collected numerous photo editing apps, truly too many to mention. I wanted to start this off with my absolute go-to apps, the top few I find myself drawn to. These are not the be all end all of iPhone apps, but if you are new to iPhoneography these might be a great start. And if you're already fluent in the language of iPhoneography, who knows you might find something new.HipstamaticHipstamatic is a camera replacement app. It offers a variety of films, lenses and flashes for you to shoot with. You can mix and match these options to find a flavour that suits you, or you can enable an option to shake it up and have it randomly select these options. Including a film camera look and feel to the interface, it creates images in a square format. You can also share images via numerous social media sites, enter contests and event order prints of your images via the HipstaMart. Occasionally Hipstmatic will release additional lens/film/flash paks, often only available for a limited time. These can be purchased in the app and are generally $0.99. Miss a pak that looks really cool? Keep your eye out for announcements of special re-releases. I will say that of all the apps I own, this is the one I've spent the most on.InstagramIf you put Flickr and Twitter together you kinda end up with Instagram. There are many social media minded photo-sharing apps, but I believe that Instagram has perhaps the largest network of images. You can bring an image from your photo album to share via Instagram, or you can shoot from the Instagram camera. There are probably a dozen filters available, a faux tilt-shift option, and even borders on some of the filter options. Please note you can't make adjustments to the filters, however normally one will do the trick, if you want to add an effect. There is also an option not to apply a filter, so if you like the photo the way you shot it and just want to share with the Instagram community, you can. This app also crops to a square photo. If you're interested in engaging in a large community of iPhoneographers, this app is a great tool for that.IrisPhotoSuiteAs I mentioned earlier there are loads of editing apps, too many to count, too many to have on your iPhone. I've found that IrisPhotoSuite has been my fave go to app for post production. Offering layers, adjustments, filters, textures, borders and more, it's very comprehensive. Is it the best app for post production? I think that really depends on the user, it is a fave for me, for sure. I can apply many effects to transform an image to something new and different.Well that's it, those are the true go-to's for me. Why so few, when I own so many? Perhaps it is one of those "I'm used to using these apps" kind of things, or that they really cover the spectrum for me.Some other faves I'm going to mention and work to do some reviews and more detailed posts going forward:AutostitchBlurFXFilter StormFocalLabGrungetasticLomora2Noir PhotoPhotoDeskPicFramePicGrungerPictureShowPlasticBulletShakeItPhotoSlowShutterCamSwankolabTtVPSVintageScene