Aeroplanes or Airplanes by Tina Rice
We’re restarting our ProCamera spotlight series today with prolific blogger and photographer Tina Rice. Tina is the owner of Combo Apps: Mobile Extreme Editing, a fantastic resource for advanced photo app processing techniques and hardware guides.
We talk to Tina about the blog, her photographic styles and why she chooses to use ProCamera 7:
Q. Tell us a bit about yourself, where are you from, how long have you been shooting and editing on mobile?
A. My name is Tina Rice and I was born and raised in San Diego, California. I played trumpet when I was in junior high and high school. One of the things I loved doing at that time was meeting other students from different schools all over the country. Playing the trumpet helped me express myself as an artist and opened many doors to other art mediums.
I got my photographic education at Grossmont Collage and MOPA Workshops. Suda House was my teacher and mentor. She taught me to learn the rules, in order to break them and opened my eyes to many different styles of photographic processes. Jim Noel taught me how to make better prints, the difference between “seeing” vs. “looking” and mixing/experimenting with chemistry.
Together, both teachers molded me to a hybrid cross of a technical and artistic photographer. I’ve been doing mobile photo/editing for over 3 1/2 years. I started with three apps, Plastic Bullet, Hipstamatic and Instagram. It started with an iPhone 4.
Faded Entanglements by Tina Rice
Q. Your blog Combo Apps is a fantastic resource for mobile editing and process. What was your motivation for starting the blog?
A. My motivation for starting Combo Apps was a desire to find out more information on photo apps. I wanted to find a place where I could read more in-depth details about how these photo apps operate. At the time the closest sites were iPhoneography (no longer active) and Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. Both sites had really great app reviews but there was no real forum on editing and app tutorials.
After a couple of months collecting a whole bunch of photos apps I started to use 4 or 5 different apps to layer my photos in different combinations. I decided to write my own blog posts because there was no website or blog out there that was doing mobile app editing. On January 1st 2011, Combo Apps was born with only a handful of readers. Now 3 years later, I’m in the few thousand readers from all over the world and growing.
Q. Your photography crosses over many different styles and approaches. Are there any that you like more than others?
A. Yes, I have two favorite styles of editing. One is called Pushing Stars and the other is Crispy Black and White. These are the two editing styles I am known for and found them by accident. Pushing Stars is my love for the app Percolator and Rays. Crispy Black and White is my love for photographing architecture and keep it simple edit. This is how I work Yin and Yang.
Pushing Stars
Trying to find the balance from simple post processing to extreme manipulation. I love to push, bend, cut, paste color, mask, blend and layer pixels. I don’t like to stick with the same type of editing process either because I have A.D.D. ( Attention Deficit Disorder) and get bored. After awhile the images start to look the same to me and want to try something different. One of the worst things you can do to yourself is buy a lot of the apps and stick to the same type of editing pattern. I’ve seen so many mobile artists do this. So I try to change it up a lot and this way I don’t get bored or get one of those artistic blocks.
Crispy black and white
Q. You’ve written a number of posts highlighting ProCamera 7. Why do you use ProCamera for your photo capture?
A. You’re not the only whose asked me that question. Everyone wants to know why do I shoot with ProCamera 7 and not Camera+ or Pro 645. It’s simple. Your camera app doesn’t crash on me in the middle of shooting photos. If ProCamera does crash on me it’s because I have 30 apps running in the background and didn’t turn them off. It’s one of the most stable camera apps out on the market.
I also like how ProCamera functions and the manual controls. I don’t care about large TIFF/dRAW files. I know with the recent update you’ve added TIFF file format. The problem with TIFF files are a lot of photo apps can not handle the output and crash in the middle of rendering/processing and saving your photos/images. Having large files and finding the best camera app with all the bells and whistles isn’t going to make you a better photographer either. What makes you a better photographer is taking the same photo over and over again. Finding those mundane things that people pass by everyday and snapping the shot different times during the day. Light changes everything you see all around you, so snap it. You just need an app that can shoot straight photography and editing later. That’s what ProCamera does for me, shoot now and edit later.
Q. Can you tell us about your tree series?
A. The tree series is about finding a new perspective in mobile photography and life. I’m trying to look upwards and stay positive. If you read the blog post you will find other connections with nature, living in the now, not thinking, just doing and staying relaxed with an open mind. I’ve always like photographs of trees shot upwards with a wide angle or fisheye lens. I’m a fan of distorted photography in general because our eyes give up a bias view of we see the world around us. The camera lens is our unbias and harsh reality of how we should see the world for what it is. Plus I just love the results of the photos, so I didn’t even edit them. That’s really rare for me to post straight photography of any kind up.
Q. How do hardware accessories like the DCKina lens impact on your shooting style?
A. The DCKina lens has been a big part of my mobile photography lately, because I write reviews for their products. What I like about using their lenses is finding creative solutions for imperfect situations. For most of my life it has been make due with what you got, so I make due and find a creative way of pushing myself with these DCkina lenses. I really like using their lenses because it has pushed my creativity and problem solving skills. I’m shooting more and making more mobile project essays to write about in the future.
Mobile photography has changed, what used to be almost impossible to photograph is now made easier. The DCkina lenses has made it even more possible because I can get those creative shots with my iPhone and attached mobile lens where I couldn’t do it with my DSLR and lenses, like those trees, inside a Starbucks, riding the trolley and taking photos of my niece and nephew.
Thank you Tina for the fascinating interview! Don’t forget to head over to Combo Apps to learn all of Tina’s excellent app techniques.
ProCamera 7 is currently available on the AppStore for US $2.99 (40% off)
I am truly honored by this blog post. I love you app and will always use it !!!
Thank you for interviewing Tina Rice, who is a colleague and wonderful friend. It is good to see she is receiving the recognition and credit for all her very hard work.
I love Tina’s blog! She’s so willing to share her experiences and information about photography and how to edit pictures with apps! I adore the pushing stars edits! I think it’s one of the coolest ways to edit pictures! Thank you Procamera for bringing Tina’s awesome blog to more viewers attention! Her blog, Combo Apps is a wealth of interesting information! Also, love Procamera 7!
Cheers, Denise