What Apps Are We Using This Month? with Sonia Bridekirk
Welcome to TheAppWhisperer’s new section, “What apps are we using this month” series, where we discover which apps you are particularly enjoying. Kicking us off today is non-other than notable Mobile Artist Sonia Bridekirk.
My name is Sonia Bridekirk. I am fortunate enough to live on the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, also known by many as ‘God’s Country.’ I am 51 years old and am married to a beautiful man who adores me and I have one very special 8-year-old daughter who is often my muse. Up until her birth, I was a passionate high school teacher who enjoyed teaching Ancient History to my students.
I always had an interest in photography but was always disappointed with the photos I took. Inspired by a neighbour whose photos I enjoyed viewing, I did an online mobile photography course in 2020. It was in this course that I was introduced to Snapseed. This is a fabulous free app which I use to fine-tune an image using Tune Image, Details, Crop and Rotate to start. Then, often, I will return at the end of an edit to make final adjustments using Selective and Brushes. I was also introduced by others doing the course to a range of apps which I began to explore.
The main apps I currently use to create my images include iColorama and Mextures and occasionally DistressedFx. These are my staples. From time to time I might use Lens Distortions.
I love iColorama even though I know I only use a small amount of what this fabulous app can do. This is where I spend most of my time with my images using the Tone filters, making adjustments and masking, blending images at times, adding paper textures and/or overlays like dust and using painterly type effects if I feel the call to do so. Then if the need to add more texture arises that I cannot get to work in IColorama I will head to Mextures and/or DistressedFx. There are so many filter options available to lift an image a bit further.
Very rarely do I accept filters as presented, there are so many personal adjustments to be made in the sliders that are accessible within all apps allowing you to relate to your heart’s content. At times, when learning a new app it can feel like you are going down a rabbit hole but once you get a feel for it there will be certain preferences you quickly know you like and can jump into and things you know you don’t want and side step. I nearly always have a vision of where I want an image to end up before I start, but sometimes the image takes me on a journey and that can be a magical process! The most important thing is to have fun with the apps and explore what’s possible!
To read our other interviews in this series, please go here.
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Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
