The App Nerds Workshop By Lola Mitchell – Session Two
Recently we announced Lola Mitchell as our new Columnist, if you missed that please go here. Today, we are very excited to publish Lola’s second article for her new column, The App Nerds Workshop.
The App Nerds Workshop is something very different and we are very excited about it. It will become a virtual classroom, an environment for new talent to share their work, for Lola to share some of the ways she uses apps and for the not so new talent to share some secrets. Lola will sometimes assign broad themes to keep the creative juices flowing. We are hoping this will be a grand scale creative interactive classroom. This should be where sharing and creativity abound. We are hoping your mind will be tickled into creating, experimenting, daring, dreaming, making, doing.
We have set up a Flickr group where you can submit your images, we will import a slideshow that will show all submissions. Over to you Lola, (Foreword by Joanne Carter).
SESSION TWO – TECHNIQUE AND STYLE
The first time I tried doing an edit, I was a bit shy. I am not good with computers, never learned how to use photoshop (although always wanted to). I think I was scared that it would suck. Which is silly, sometimes my photos suck and I have learned that thats ok. I sometimes learn more from the failed photos and edits then from the great ones.
So I started looking for tutorials. I saved two that I thought were incredible and that really spoke to my esthetic. Here are the links.
I read them over and over….and then one day, I was in my yard and decided to try it out. So I took a couple of Hipstamatic shots of my son running around. And I started doing what I could remember of it. Even when I look back at this first photo, I am amazed because it is still a photo I could make today.
© Lola Mitchell
When we look at a photo and it draws us in, the reason behind it, is unique to us as an individual. I think it reflects your life, you, your influences, your taste.
When I go through a little bit of a lack of inspiration I sometimes try to reproduce an element that I like from a photo I admire, as a technical exercise.
It is what got me started really, so why stop doing it? What always amazes me is that it never looks like what inspired me, it is always unique. But I always learn from it.
I think often artists are worried that they do not have a recognizable style. You do not have to work at having a style, you have to work at perfecting your technique, your eye, your art. Don’t get stuck in something because it worked once if it does not inspire you anymore, keep having fun with it. If you put yourself into what you make then the result can only be unique, because well you are unique. It is an expression of your being.
I realized recently that it sometimes reflects what you are going through. When I looked back at my flickr, I realized that before my father passed away, when he was really sick, I made these photos that were very still. Waiting. I was not consciously doing it, but it was a quiet, sad time and it transpired in the editing decisions I made.
© Lola Mitchell – ‘Brilliant Encounter’
© Lola Mitchell – ‘Her World’
It just comes out if you put your heart into it. As you play with apps, and start taking more and more photos, you will start seeing yourself in it. It is in the decisions you make. The energy you put into your art will be rewarded. I am very instinctive in my work but I know some people that have a full photo planned way before they even shoot it and edit it. There are as many ways of working on a photo as there are individuals. You just have to find your way.
Be kind to yourself and have fun with it. You are the only one like you! And art should be fun, exciting and challenging.
Next session on February 4th, I will let Wstairs take over and share a little of his technique with us. and share some of his truly amazing work with us. I am very excited to have some guests enrich us with their knowledge.
Below you will find a selection of the amazing photos that were posted to our group in the past couple of weeks, these images will be updated every hour. Please keep posting.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
6 Comments
Janine Graf
Well done Lola! I was in a discussion with an iPhone friend about this very topic (self doubt) over on FB yesterday morning. It’s a good topic to talk about as we all experience it at some point along the way. Key is to snap out of it and carry on. 😀
Lola Mitchell
Thank you! Yes we all go through it. Keep snapping and you will snap out of it. Ultimately we have to remember we do it because we love doing it.
Brett Chenoweth
Awesome!
Thanks Lola
Lola Mitchell
Thank you Brett!
Jennifer Bracewell
Wonderful, Lola!
Lola Mitchell
Thank you so much!!