The Gryphon's Feather Studio

Give your computer photo editing moves like your iPhone's!

Ever wish you could edit photos on your laptop or desktop as quickly and easily as you do on your iPhone or iPad?  You can! 

My inbox had an email from the Nevercenter folks this morning advertising a HUGE sale on their CameraBag 2.5 app for Mac & Windows.  

It is normally $20, but is on sale for a very limited time for $8.  

Nevercenter also has a free, 15-day trial version, so you can check it out before purchasing.

I'm not affiliated with Nevercenter in any way.  I've purchased their apps for my computer, iPhone and iPad.  The original Camerabag app was one of my favorite iPhone apps when I started shooting with an iPhone in 2009.  It was the third app I purchased, and a version of CameraBag has been on my phone ever since!  Their apps have been winning awards for years.

The computer version is available for Mac & Windows (PC) systems.   It offers 150 filters, and the ability to create  and share your own, as well as access the shared filters of other users.  There are a number of great features, but the best part is you can keep it simple! You can just apply their filters, and play with your photos!  Or, if you are interested, you can go in-depth with creating filters and using the photo editing tools. The computer version also supports the use of RAW image files, if you shoot your images in that format. 

 

In my opinions, one of the best thing about Nevercenter's products is the information they include in the "Support" section of their website. I took a quick screenshot of their website from my phone.  You can see they have tutorials and videos for whatever level of experience you have using these sorts of applications.  I clicked on "Getting Started with..." which led me to a page that even explained how to open the app.

 

I had CameraBag 1.5 on my laptop. When Nevercenter updated to 2.0, the update was so huge, and offered so much more, you had to purchase the update.  It wasn't expensive, but I didn't want to spend the money at the time.  When I finally wanted to update, the offer had expired.  I didn't want to pay $20 for the new version, so I just kept the old, which of course, I didn't use as much. 

But, $8?! Heck, yeah!  That's a hella deal! (it's what? 60% off?) I thought I'd pass the info along to all of you, just in case you might find $8, for a terrific piece of photo software, appealing! 

If you are using a Mac, then you already know about the Mac App Store.  You can buy it there for $7.99 using your iTunes account.  If you are PC/Windows, you can buy it directly from Nevercenter, and use the sale code SPRINGSALE when you check out. You can pay via credit/debit or Paypal.  I used the Mac App Store. What? It's a penny cheaper there!  Just kidding, using the Mac App Store was easier - just needed to enter my iTunes password instead of entering all my address and billing info into the Nevercenter site checkout form.  (yes, I AM that lazy.)

You're welcome!

stylus dilemma

I love the Lyra Color Giant colored pencils. Koh-i-noor makes a fabulous Triocolor Giant, too.  I bought my set slightly used off eBay.  I love the Lyra graphite crayons- they come in both a watersoluble version as well as a regular version.  I love their size- a big chunky sort of pencil- perfect for my big hands and strong grip... much less pencil sharpening for me, when I use those large pencils.

(that's a regular pencil on the right for comparison)

 

When it came time to pick a stylus for my iPad, the only local store that had a styli in stock, only had the Targus in stock.  I liked it fine, but it's resemblence to a pen meant that one of the littles wandered off with it.  I won't mention any names, but when I offered a $2 reward for it's return, it was "found" by the middle little in her bedroom.  Once again, though, my stylus has disappeared, and depsite offering a ransom reward, it hasn't been found. I use the stylus a ton, so I had to order a new one. Knowing the likelihood of another stylus abduction was pretty high, the dearth of selection locally, and Amazon's prices were lower than local, I decided to use a hoarded gift card to check out a couple of the more popular styli for myself.  

This is the POGO sketch.  Too squishy for what I am doing right now, but apparently that factor makes it great in some the photo editing apps, so I'm keeping it. It is also very, very slender. And, practically weightless.

 

This is the Targus stylus.   The firmer tip which means I have better line control. The barrel is not quite as thin as the POGO sketch, but still slender.  Not as light as the POGO, but still pretty light in weight.

Now, you'll see why I started the stylus post with a discussion of my Lyra favorites:

The Alupen from Just Mobile.... I love this thing.  LOVE.  Chunky, not too heavy, but not too light, and shaped just like my favorite tools for drawing on paper...  Nice firm tip, nice fine line. Comes in red, blue, black, gold, & green, near as I can tell.

No, they aren't paying me, but at the rate my styli disappear around here, no doubt I'll be a repeat customer!