#lookforthelight: october 2013

My favourite shots I took on Instagram this month. — *My favourite shots I took on **Instagram** this month.*

The Australia trip naturally put a monkey wrench into my blogging schedule, but I didn't want to let October get away without featuring your amazing #lookforthelight Instagram pictures, especially since you guys seem to be getting better and better at every turn.

Because I was using my iPad as my primary photo capturing device for the #goaustralia campaign, I became really focused on ensuring my shots were as good as I could possibly make them -- a struggle, since I'm relatively knew to the mobile-app-photography world. But I have to say, I'm really starting to love it: it exercises a whole set of different muscles from the ones used shooting with an SLR or even a film camera. The light bends in new ways. Without the ability to modify aperture and shutter speed, I'm having to think about composition differently. It has been fun to experiment, and while I haven't gotten my groove down completely yet, I'm starting to really see the attraction of mobile devices as bona fide photography tools. And watching you guys do your thing -- especially since so many of you have been doing this a lot longer than I have -- is so inspiring.

Speaking of which, I wanted to share with you my top 10 favourite #lookforthelight images you've shared with me this month. Be sure to click through to the Instagram streams of these folks -- there's a lot of amazing art going on out there. And if you leave a comment, let them know that you found them through #lookforthelight!

Left:  @sthrnfairytale Right:  @jeannineharvey1 — Left: @sthrnfairytale
Right: @jeannineharvey1

Left:  @the_creative_iRight:  @ozdeb15 — **Left: @the_creative_i**
**Right: @ozdeb15**

Left:  @staceyechinRight:  @emelgy — **Left: @staceyechin**
**Right: @emelgy**

Left:  @traceelaineRight:  @xantheb — **Left: @traceelaine**
**Right: @xantheb**

Left:  @laurenkeimRight:  @koobychelle — **Left: @laurenkeim**
**Right: @koobychelle**

Stunning work, all of you. Thank you so much for sharing and inspiring.

As always, thanks to all of you who participated this month in #lookforthelight -- keep 'em coming! If you'd like to participate and you have an Instagram account (it's free), simply grab shots of the light in your life with your mobile device, and add the hashtag "lookforthelight" to your shot, either in the caption or in the comments. I'll feature my 10 favourite shots again at the end of November here on Chookooloonks, giving lots of link love, naturally. And of course, click here to see all the submissions (and feel free to follow along my own progress at heychookooloonks on Instagram!).

update

Oh! One more thing! I forgot to tell you that several months ago, Directr introduced me to their new app -- it gives you art direction to make movies on your mobile device! While I'm no expert on movie-making at all, they asked me to pick a topic for the development of one of their themes -- and naturally, "look for the light" immediately came to mind.

You can read all about it here. And have fun looking for the light, my friends. (And thanks for including me, Directr -- I can't wait to play with the app myself!)

Song: Lighting candles by The Weepies