What Is Your Excuse?
“Excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view build for themselves great monuments of nothing.” — Steven Grayhm.
Creating content nowadays has become easier than ever; making it harder to cling to excuses not to create. But ease of use might come with a price-tag even the most die-hard creators might not be willing to pay. The good news is that you don’t have to always pay that pricey membership to access creative software. There are a lot of apps out there to create content for free. Have you heard of VSCO or Unsplash?
Lightroom — Possibly the most used and most recommended, but arguably the most complicated software to edit photos, Lightroom can be found in the toolkit of most photographers. While the desktop version might be complicated, the mobile app is just right for a beginner. With this free app, you can create your own filters. Or, you can always come back to edit your photos even while offline too. This last part I discovered the other day when I went to a lake and didn’t have signal on my phone. I was still able to make some amazing things happen.
Here is an example of what you can do with Lightroom, no matter if you are a pro or a beginner photographer:
Over — Helps you create custom wallpapers for your phone. You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to create astonishing covers, wallpapers, or landscapes for every occasion. You can also create Geofilters which “are creative overlays that capture where you are or what you’re up to in a Snap! Create your own, and surprise Snapchatters in the locations you choose,” according to Snapchat. Isn’t it so amazing that you can now create things like this on your iPhone or Android, when not too long ago this was only for graphic designers or people that knew how to use Adobe Creative Cloud? Now, you can do it too. You can now create amazing and frequent content for your social media profiles. And this app is free. Within the app you have access to a lot of cool fonts and tutorials on how to create content. Also, the social element allows you to share your creations with other people.
Here is an example of what you can do with Over:
VSCO — A start-up based in Oakland, California, VSCO allows you to create and add amazing filters to your photos. Many filters are free, but it gives you the option to buy much more. On their website they also have the option to buy film filters, and many of them are really (I mean really) amazing, but at the same time expensive. Anyway, one very good feature is that this app has the option to take photos in RAW format. All the pictures that you take in the app can be easily edited in it. Not only can you take RAW photos and apply amazing filters, you can share your photos in the app with other photographers.
Here is an example of what you can do with VSCO no matter if you are a pro or a beginner photographer:
Unsplash.com — Primarily a website for beginner and professional photographers to share their work, unsplash.com can be used by anyone to download photos royalty free. As you keep uploading photos, the creators of the website give you access to different platforms to communicate with other photographers. They give exposure to your work. You might even be given the opportunity to be featured in their newsletter email, or even on the their homepage which gets more views than the New York Times cover page. Their requirement is that every photo uploaded be high quality resolution. If the photo isn’t of high quality, they will take it down. This is actually a good thing since it stands as a good reminder to take quality photos every day and improve your work. Once you get a certain amount of views, they will email you. This unlocks access to their private groups to chat and get to know other people. Not only that, they will give you the opportunity to host photo walks to be shared on their blog. This website gives a lot of opportunities for photographers to grow and be visible.
Here is an example of a great profile:
And here is my Unsplash Profile:
These apps are, and can be used for organizations or individuals. Sometimes it’s not the expensive gear that makes the quality content, but what you have at your disposal plus a crazy good idea. Just remember, if you are creative, do it, share it, and recommend it.
