Capturing Iceland One Photo App at a Time

   app / Flixel / Iceland / instagram / iphone / photography / Photosynth / travel      Posted on May 2, 2012 by Annette

Segja ostur! That's "Say Cheese" in Icelandic - a phrase I never said on my recent trip because A) everyone in Iceland speaks English and B) Icelandic is REALLY HARD TO PRONOUNCE CORRECTLY.

But that didn't stop me from taking an inane amount of photos - and testing the creative boundaries of my iPhone when combined with the free wireless on the tour busses. So, while I'd spent $500 on a nice new camera, it turned out I could have gotten by with just these photo apps:

Instagram: Like that one girl in high school with the perfect hair, Instagram is popular, easy to use and now owned by Facebook. The multiple hipster filters can turn even the most mediocre pictures into existential works of art. Or you know - just make them look cooler, but not like they're trying to be cool.

Before Instagram - snooze fest! (And sideways.)

Before Instagram

After Instagram: Oh my god - I'm the next Diane Arbus... Ansel Adams... other delusion of grandeur.

After Instagram

Flixel: Newer in the game is Flixel - an app that lets you animate portions of a photo to give it a creepy ghost like quality. You need an internet connection for it to work - so when I was traveling I sort of had to trust that once I could get onto wifi magic would happen. The app was a little buggy (freezing and not logging in at times) but the results were pretty cool - from capturing this glittering street art to the steam rising from the Blue Lagoon. 

Street Art 

Photosynth: It feels a little wrong to use a Microsoft App on an iPhone. Like eating cupcakes while on the treadmill. Which I... never... do. But Photosynth worked great on the fly for panoramic shots when I was too lazy to dig my nice camera out. For instance, like when standing in line for the famous hot dog stand Bæjarins beztu pylsur:

Hot Dog Panoramic

So yes, I may have gotten some pretty amazing photos on my expensive camera - but for shots around the town and on the fly, my iPhone worked just fine.