Remember the Hipstamatic craze earlier this year? For at least a month every photo posted on the internet seemed to be taken with the iPhone app that makes even the simplest photos look all vintage and artsy. Since its debut, a plethora of similar applications have popped up--and I've probably downloaded them all. Sick of seeing my modified creations only on the cold screen of phone or computer, I decided to print some out at a real-life brick-and-mortar photo shop. I'd never printed cell pics before and was sure they'd be grainy and pixelated and a waste of five bucks. Happily, I was wrong.

 
The shots above were all taken with Lo-Mob, an app that for $1.99 has 28 different mods, each named like "6x6 TTV Grid of the 80s," "60s Square Emulsion," or "Family Instant 2 Outdated." I picked a photo of plums taken during a visit to the farmer's market a few months ago and applied any filter that looked remotely interesting.

My pictures looked pretty boring individually, but pack a punch when grouped together. These cover a huge hole I made while trying to hang a mirror, so I've decided to make this little installation permanent. I totally feel like a real photographer now. 

None of my iPhone pictures came out blurry; they looked exactly as they had on my phone screen. Even this 8 x 10 came out with good resolution.

Give it a shot: take some of the pictures you've had in your phone forever, play around with an app, and for about five bucks get your own art up on your walls.

My Fave iPhone Photo Apps
Lo-Mob
Cross Process
PhotoShop Mobile
CameraBag
OldCamera

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