The Best Photo Editing Apps (for iPhone)

Instead of learning how to use my DSLR like I had planned, I have been relying more and more on apps to edit my iPhone pictures. And here's why: 1) My iPhone is almost always with me. 2) I know how to use it. 3) It requires no wires to download, edit, or upload pictures to various places. And 4) The pics are fine. I know they could be better quality, but that would mean a lot of extra work (which I don't actually mind) and time (which I don't actually have).

So if you are also a primarily an iPhone photographer like me, you will want to check out the following apps (which are all very affordable) to help make your iPhone pictures better with just a few easy taps.

For collages, adding words (like you see above), and simple filters: A Beautiful Mess is still my favorite, and you can read my review and see examples of how I use it most often here.

Runner Up for Adding Words/Doodles: Rhonna Designs is similar to ABM and has many more options if you want to get even fancier.

Runner Up for Collages: Moldiv offers more options for making collages and adjusting the size and shape of your picture. And it's FREE!

For Adjusting Light/Filters: Most of the time, I have found that I just need to lighten my pictures. You can do this with almost any photo editing app (VSCOcam, Afterlight, FX Editor) by adjusting the brightness, but my favorite app for lightening is PicTapGo.

For example, I took the picture below...

And then used the "Lights On" filter in PicTapGo twice...

And got the picture you see below.

PicTapGo also offers cropping and many other great filters. So if you were only going to buy one other picture editing app besides ABM, I would recommend PicTapGo.

For EVERYTHING (exposure, saturation, temperature, sharpening, vignette as well as more filter options, borders, and many other features): Afterlight is the most user-friendly out of all the other apps I have tried and would be the third app I would recommend buying after AMB and PicTapGo.

ALSO, if you want any of your iPhone pictures to look good before or after using these apps, you need to do THREE things before you take your pictures. 

1) If at all possible, take the pictures with as much natural light as possible. Your pic will be even better if the light is not behind your subject.

2) Frame your shot. Look around whatever you are focusing on to see if you have everything in the picture you want in and everything you want out of the picture out. The less you have to crop, the better quality your pictures will be.

3) Take a moment to move the angle of your phone to see how the light changes the image AND give your phone a second or two to focus. You would be surprised how much crisper your photos will turn out if you wait even one second. 

Now, go capture your child/pet/food/self so you can get to editing and posting for the rest of us to enjoy!

Commencement

When Will crawls really fast, he always puts his head down. For aerodynamics? We aren't sure. Jason thinks Will looks like a bear when he does it and, in our long tradition of appropriate nicknames, started calling him Bear. Our little bear especially loves crawling over and through our kitchen table. For the challenge? Probably. For the abandoned sporks? Definitely!

On Tuesday, when he wasn't exploring the breakfast nook, which can only be done on your hands and knees, Will started taking some serious steps. At the beginning of the day, he was still just toddling from object to object or object to Mama, and by the end of day, he was walking from one end of his room to the other. He worked on it all day long, pulling himself up, getting his balance, and setting his sights. The only thing better than the delight on his face whenever he got going was the pure joy that lit up Jason's entire crouched body when Will walked to him for the first time across the kitchen that evening. And so we began the day with a baby and ended the day with a toddler. Ending one beautiful and terrifying era and beginning another. Ready or not.

Also, the socklessness!

I Love Lent!

Happy Lent! We just got home from church, and I am pumped! (Will, on the other hand, fell asleep on the two minute car ride home and had to be roused for the selfie you see above.) I love Lent because Lent is all about Love. Specifically for me, Lent helps me focus on God's love in my life and how I can share his love with others by fasting (giving up and taking up), charity (giving more to others), and prayer (speaking with God).

Are you participating in Lent this year? As a family, we are going to complete the Food for the Poor Lenten Devotional (online version here) each night during our reading time in the hopes of starting a lasting habit. I am giving up my biggest idol, the thing that I know takes up too much time and attention in my life, so as of last night, I deleted the Facebook, Instagram, and Bloglovin' apps from my phone. Instead of scrolling through my phone, I am going to try to memorize the daily verse from the devotional. Any time I think about checking my phone, I am going to get into plank position and read/say the verse five times. Hopefully, I'll have many more Bible verses commited to memory and have rocking abs in 40 days. I am also hoping to expand my Treat Yo Spouse idea into Treat Yo Neighbor by trying to give little treats to people anonymously (ok, somewhat anonymously since now you know), especially if I feel anger or resentment to someone. The only treat I can think of so far is paying for someone else's Starbucks in the drive thru, so I am going to start there and try to brainstorm some others. I'd love to hear if you have any other good ideas of ways to anonymously treat strangers.

Also, I'm always interested in how other people and families celebrate any holiday or season but especially Lent. I loved seeing that one of my favorite bloggers, Jen, is participating in Lent for the first time, and this post about How to Win at Lent particularly interested me. I am going to try a link-up for the first time, so if you are interested in reading about how other people are participating in Lent with their families, check out the blogs below. And again, Happy Lent!

Equipping Catholic Families

Campfires and Cleats

Truly Rich Mom

A Slice of Smith Life  

Home to 4 Kiddos

TREAT. YO. Spouse.

Happy Fat Tuesday! Mardi Gras season always reminds me of this great Parks and Rec Episode where Donna and Tom get together once a year to celebrate Treat Yo' Self Day. They treat themselves to all sorts of elaborate items and encourage each other not to feel bad about any of it. What a great holiday, right? 

Lately, Jason and I have been trying harder to treat each other. It kind of started with Valentine's Day, but we have continued by trying to find little ways to treat each other here and there. A favorite take-out meal. Treat yo spouse! A bubble bath with candles and wine. Treat yo spouse! An elaborate home-made meal. Treat yo spouse! Taking on the other's household chore. Treat yo spouse! Clothes. Fragrances. Massages. Mimosas. Treat yo spouse! And let me tell you, treating yo spouse is so much better than treating yo self. I feel like it has revitalized our relationship so much that I almost feel like I've gone back eleven years to when we were first dating.

Truth be told, over the last year, we've been through a lot of stress--learning how to be new parents, going from two incomes to one--and I had started to harbor some resentment toward Jason about frivolous things like he got to sleep in later than me two days a week and the trash always seemed to be full. Jason also pointed out that when I seemed to have a bad day with Will, I would take it out on him, and I resented him pointing that out. No matter how many times I rationalized that I really got to sleep later than him five days a week, and Will and I were the ones making most of the trash, and that I should not take out my bad day on the people I love, I still felt anger and resentment that was putting a strain on our relationship. 

Then, one day I was reading notes on Matthew 14:13-15 that pointed out that when Jesus tried to get away for some rest after teaching and serving so many, there was a crowd eagerly waiting for Him. He could have been irritated with the demanding crowd and reacted with resentment, but instead, He reacted by serving the people even more. It was just a small paragraph in four or five pages of notes, but it really rocked the little world of resentment that I had built up around myself. Our lives have changed so much in the last year, and for a few months, Jason and I had to go into survival mode, just trying to keep Will healthy and all of us fed and cleaned and clothed. The problem was that I kept treating Jason as my survival partner even though we are no longer in survival mode. And so, after prayer and reflection, I decided to get over myself and try to start treating Jason like the love of my life again. I started small by taking out some of the trash myself and getting him his favorite meal from one of his favorite restaurants, and it made me feel good to do nice things for him even though they were really small. Then, I thought of more things I could do to treat him. And without even talking about it, he did the same for me, and we haven't stopped treating each other special. And I hope we never stop.  (But I know myself better than that, so just in case, I keep those notes underlined on my bedside table.) Do you have any advice or tips that help you and your spouse stay connected for better or for worse? I'd love to hear it!

Also, I think it really is more of the thought (and feeling) that counts than the actual treat. I tried my darnedest to get Jason sushi on Friday for dinner and then Saturday for lunch, and that freakin' sushi restaurant has the oddest hours. So even though he had to go pick up the sushi himself while I stayed home with Will, I know it still made Jason happy that I tried.

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

So the Oscar winner's speeches were much better than the Golden Globes. I guess they got my notes. Both Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong'o were quite eloquent (if you take away Leto's ums and uhs) and even made me cry. But my favorite part of the Oscars was actually the Pepsi Mini commercial. Never mind that, as Jason kept pointing out, mini cans have been around for quite some time. This commercial is literally my Dad's dream. At least once every few months and more often around Christmas, he asks if we can just have one day where we all speak only in movie quotes. We have yet to make his dream a reality, but this commercial shows us that with a lot of editing, it could be possible.
Also, just so that you know, the most tragic thing about being a teacher is not the class size or the pay or even the bureaucracy. Oh, no. The hardest part of being a teacher is that the people you spend the most time with, your students, most often don't get (or choose not to acknowledge) your awesome references. Shrilly shouting, "Help is on the way, dear!" just gets a couple strange looks, and no matter how much they need to hear it, when you kindly tell them, "Your ego is writing checks your body can't cash," they look at you like you are speaking another language. I'm guessing it is going to be the same with parenting...