first me, then...Hipstamatic

When I first started taking photographs my slr was my world, the snap of the shutter, the excitement of waiting for the shot. My Dad taught me about Apertures and Shutter speeds, film, filters and I loved the moment when the film was developed and you had got THAT shot. When digital started creeping into retail I initally turned my nose up. Its lazy, I thought, and don't even get me started on photoshop! And then one evening in Whitby I was shooting at the Abbey , a blood red sunset behind it and with my 'new' 1 mega pixel camera photo took a quick shot to see what the end result would resemble. The film was developed and none of the shots had the drama or saturation of the digital one. I admitted not defeat but that the lack of film waste was definetely an improvement. I kept my slr for college and loved learning darkroom techniques which were all but dead and buried by the photoshop generation. I felt I wanted to explore more film techniques, cameras, developers and was gifted a little Holga which I proceeded to use with my slr and discovered the joys of lomo.

Thats when it happened.

I was seriously considering spending the food budget on a Street Level membership when I read a tweet about the Hipstamatic app.....

The Hipstamatic was a little plastic 1982 released camera, created by 

Bruce and Winston Dorbowski. The concept was to bring people a camera which costs less than the film. They based it on the little kodak instamatic and suddenly a legend was born. Tragically the two brothers were killed by a drunk driver in 1984, and it wasn't until 25 years later that their older brother Richard decided that their little idea should be remembered and made iconic in the Iphone app of the same name.

The nicest thing about the app is the most infuriating, its so easy!! all the blood sweat and tears over film, developing, darkroom all wiped out in a click. Also, I have downloaded all the app's extras and its totalled about £10...the Holga I was given alone - no film - retails at £50, film is £20 a pack average and then theres finding a developer!

So I thought I'd right my little story about this wonderful little app that every Iphone owner needs to try at least once