Welcome to the Random Instagram Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling! If you are new to ‘blog carnivals’, please read the link at the bottom of this post to find out more. This post has many links that take you off-site to other homeschool blogs where you can read their ‘showcased’ article submission. If you would like to submit an article for a future carnival or host the carnival on your site, please see the bottom section to find out how. Each carnival writer has the option to put their compilation to a ‘theme’ if they so choose. Being a fangirl for Instagram (which you can use on almost any smart phone these days), I figured I would share some of my random photo art with you – and give you a few photo quotes and pointers in between all these great homeschool blog links!
INSTAGRAM STATS:
Are you a hard-core IGer? Did you know you can check out your Instagram stats online?
Statigram offers you a free way to log in and see all sorts of fun information about your Instagram account. Not on Instagram yet? That can be easily remedied. Look up Instagram in your App or Play Store and download it for free! For the lazy mobile photographer, Instagram has it’s own in-app editing and filters and you really don’t need much else. I use them all the time when I don’t have time to tinker with all my dozens of other photography apps. While you are at it, friend me – I’m @sprittibee on Instagram (as well as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, About Me, Flickr, and pretty much everywhere else).
Now for the rest of the Carnival…
Every blogger, like every photo, is unique and interesting. Please click over and read these links that were shared with us today. Please also leave a comment to let these fine folks know you appreciate their contribution to the homeschooling community online with their blogs. Isn’t it great to have a community of people to share with and glean from online? I love my homeschool friends and mentors that I have met through blogging.
My “Don’t” List by Why Homeschool
My Homeschooling Influences by My Domestic Church
Learning to Live in the Rural Countryside by The Legacy of Home
CARTOONY
I love images that have selected color on black and white, and images that are processed to be smooth and cartoonish. You can get a great black and white with selective color using Colorsplash – and you can create a cartoon effect with ToonPaint or by using the Reduce Noise feature over and over in PS Express.
I use an iPhone 4s currently for all my editing. The apps I’m sharing are going to be iPhone specific, but you can search for alternate apps on the Android interface by using keywords from my descriptions for each type of editing process. Such as: “Android photo app selective color black and white”. I just completed that search and it brought up a slew of options. The Android Galaxy III I used had a really nice camera. Good luck!
Learning Languages the Charlotte Mason Way – Parents’ Review, Programmes, and Miss Mason Herself (Part 2) by Joyous Lessons
Crazy Things Kids Say When In a Public Bathroom by Part Time Nanny
How Much Outside Time To Kids Really Need? by Summer Nanny
TEXTURIZED
I used Snapseed to edit this photo. It gives you a bunch of texture options in the Grunge filter area. You can do a lot more with Snapseed (it’s one of the most popular iPhone editing apps).
Top 10 homeschool resources for 2013-14 by Notes from a Homeschooled Mom
Our Most Important Asset – Readers & Leaders Of Tomorrow by Success Pen Pal – Bryan Chau
Home School Spelling by Art’s Chili Pepper
“Sane is boring.”
— R.A. Salvatore —
COLLAGE IT
The photo above is also shown on my Egyptian field trip post. I used Diptic to create the collage. Who knows now what filter app I used to edit the pictures, but it looks like I used some sort of HDR plus a noise reduction… possibly Dynamic Light or A-HDR.
How To Use Evernote to Capture Your Travel Memories by Shannon Entin
Homeschoolers on Instagram by iHomeschool Network
Motherhood Through Instagram by Poopsie Collective
STOP AND SHOOT THE ROSES
No, I didn’t mean smell the roses. Stop and snap a shot of them! Those things you pass by each day in your car and take for granted that they’ll be around later to take a photo of? One day they won’t. Recently I’ve found quite a few items on current roadtrips that were MISSING from the view – and I didn’t get a photo because I was always too rushed to get to my destination.
There’s a really pretty tree near my neighborhood that looks fantastic as a silhouette against the sunset. I’ve been telling myself for SIX YEARS I needed to stop and get a photo. Sure, it was a busy stretch of highway, but I could have figured out a way to get over there and take the picture. The tree was hit by lightning a few months ago and now is fallen. There went my perfect shot.
This little dinosaur that sat at a busy intersection is now gone, too. I drove by there one day and decided I was going to stop and get out. I’m so glad I did.
Keeping Our Kids Safe on Instagram by jellytelly
The Copying, Sorting, and Organizing Begins by Chaos Appreciation
Hearts for Home Blog Hop by Only Passionate Curiosity
SAFETY FIRST
It pays to have teenagers in the car with you. I did actually take this shot, but I had my teens grab the phone, set up the camera, and have it ready for me to just click a button with. If you do want to take a picture of something on a road trip, and you don’t have a teenager handy, the best thing to do is stop the car at a safe spot and get out.
The BIG List of LUNCH Ideas by Sprittibee
The Power of Our Words and 8 Steps to Increase Understanding by Homespun Life
Homeschooling Without a Schoolroom by Charlotte Siems
SCRAPPY
There are a number of scrapbook-like apps that allow you to add graphics and text to your images. A new favorite that is taking the app world by storm is the Rhonna Designs App. I used it here to add text and even filter the image some. [ This is my father-in-law in first grade. Looks so much like my littlest guy! ]
Another favorite for adding text to images is Phonto.
1000 Gifts in Pictures by Mama Kautz
Free Copy of “A Parent’s Guide to Multiple Intelligences” from GHC by The Holistic Homeschooler
An Introvert in a Crowd by Lisa Pennington, via THSC
ART FLARE
Another really cool thing you can do with iPhone photography is improve and edit your art digitally. My daughter went through a Hunger Games phase… [ Who am I kidding? She’s still going through it. ] …and she drew all sorts of fan art. After we read the books together, she drew this image of Katniss. Her nickname in the book was the “Girl on Fire”, so Morgan created this fiery edit of her artwork on Picfx using their “Light Leaks” filters. Another great app for this type of editing is Mextures.
Homeschool High School Documentation I am Creating by The Thinking Mother
To My Graduate by My Home Sweet Home Online
What does a week of homeschooling look like for us? by Crazy Messy Beautiful
SILHOUETTE
Just like homeschooling – it’s good to get a “bigger picture” – the outline of an image… a vision of what is important.
There’s this layer of grit on everything if you are looking straight ahead… not noticing the beauty of form and function but just seeing without truly seeing. I don’t know any other way to say it — and I’m sure I’m not making much sense… but this is one thing that I believe gives a photographer their “eye”. If you can look up at a bird taking flight in the Walmart parking lot and marvel at the way its wings sound cutting the air… all the grit and grime of pavement, grocery carts, trash on the ground… they disappear and with a few strokes, a noisy Grackle at Walmart can become art to hang on the wall at your house.
Maybe my best advice is to LOOK FOR THE BEAUTY in your life. Call it gratitude. Call it whatever you want… but everything has beauty in it’s own way. [ This edit was done in Snapseed… and trust me, the original image was nothing to look at. ]
Coming up this fall, we’ll be hosting the Homeschool Blog Awards at the Homeschool Post. This will be the 9th year for it, and it will be my last year as a part of the team there. My partner in crime, Lisa Baldwin, is running the show and she’s lining up a great set of prizes for the 20 category winners. [ I say 20 – who knows, she might change the categories this year or add to them. Have ideas? NOW is the time to share them with her! ] Word is that she’s going to announce the awards in early September!
Spruce up your blog, talk to your readers about what they love hearing from you and write more amazing content. Be ready this October to nominate your favorite homeschool blogs to win prizes. Join the Homeschool Post’s Facebook page for more details so you won’t miss any updates about the awards.
Want to learn more about The Carnival of Homeschooling? Click the links below:
– What is it all about?
– Where can I find it in the future?
– Where do I submit an article for the Carnival of Homeschooling?
If you participate in the carnival, we encourage you to use the carnival button and link back to the Cate’s blog. We honor their diligence at making the Carnival of Homeschooling a great success, and appreciate all of their support to the homeschool community at large.
Happy homeschooling!
Found some great stuff here! Sharing!
Thanks for the link to my article! This sure is full of great information. Lisa~
Thanks for including me! Glad to hear of more IG goodies. :O)
Great job as always! Thanks Heather.