I've come to expect innovation from the brilliant folks over at Nik Software, and their latest creation, Snapseed for iPad easily meets my expectations. At its heart, Snapseed is an image editor, but its real joy is how you accomplish your work.

Snapseed brings Nik's "control point" technology to a device that's perfectly designed for tapping and dragging. There are two basic sets of tools: Correction (Auto Correct, Selective Adjust, Tune Image, Straighten & Rotate, and Crop) and Effects (Black & White, Vintage Films, Drama, Grunge, Center Focus, and Organic Frames). Each tool works on both the original iPad and the iPad 2. And they are fun to play with. Once you're done working on your photo, be sure to take a look at Organic Frames. You can add a beautiful finishing touch.

You can share your completed pictures via email, Flickr, Facebook, or Print (if you have an iOS compatible printer). Or you can save the image to the Photos library on your iPad. There's also a handy Compare button, that when you tap it, you can see the original image before editing.

Snapseed is available for $4.99 in the App Store. For less than the price of a tuna sandwich and a Coke, you can own an incredible image editor for your mobile device.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

After every major photo assignment, I take a few moments to review how effective my plan was, and try to note any lessons that I should remember for future jobs. I thought you might enjoy sitting-in on my postmortem for the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph assignment in Charlottesville, Virginia. I talk about my plan going in, share a few anecdotes from the event itself, then review how it all worked. And if you have the TDS Podcast App, you'll be able to view a 3-minute movie that I produced in Aperture 3 from Charlottesville.

Listen to the Podcast

You can also download the podcast here (33 minutes). Or better yet, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. You can support this podcast by purchasing the TDS iPhone App for only $2.99 from the Apple App Store.

Monthly Photo Assignment

True Grit is the June 2011 Photo Assignment. You can read more about how to submit on our Member Participation page. Deadline for entry is June 30, 2011.

TDS Oct. Photography Workshop and Nov. Aperture Workshop

We're making plans now for the Fall 2011 TDS Photography Workshop. I'm also considering adding an Aperture Workshop in Nov. or Dec. If you want your name on the reserve list, or just more information, drop me a line.

More Ways to Participate

Want to share photos and talk with other members in our virtual camera club? Check out our Flickr Public Group. And from those images, I choose the TDS Member Photo of the Day.

Podcast Sponsors

Red River Paper -- Try the $7.99 Sample Kit.

Make Your Photos Sizzle with Color! -- SizzlPix is like High Definition TV for your photography.

Need a New Photo Bag? Check out the Lowepro Specialty Store on The Digital Story and use discount code LP20 to saven 20% at check out.

The rustling in the audience grew louder as we approached 20 minutes beyond the scheduled show time at the Paramount Theater in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. We were waiting for Nan Goldin and Sally Mann to take the stage -- two legendary photographers from an earlier generation.

Sally Mann interviewing Nan Goldin (on the couch) at LOOK3 with Nan's images projected overhead. Photos by Derrick Story.

Finally, a voice bellowed over the PA System. Nan has just arrived from Europe. She was scheduled to land yesterday, but she "took a spill" in her apartment, and we weren't sure if she was going to make it here. She caught a later flight and will join us shortly. She hasn't slept for a long time.

More waiting... then, there they were -- sitting on a sofa with images projected overhead.

"I never get out anymore," complains Nan. "I haven't left my apartment in 6 weeks."

"But you live in Paris for godsakes," counters Sally.

"I hate Paris," Nan shoots back.

Yes, the show had begun.

If you not familiar with Nan Goldin, then you have missed a chapter from modern photography history. She lived the life of sex and drugs in the 1970s and 80s, and documented the culture with her camera along the way.

"I never set up shots," she said. She didn't have to. She was there.

When asked about what a particular photograph meant, Nan indicated that the meaning belonged to the viewer. "I would take the picture, then the critics would say what it means."

Nan Goldin was the only speaker at the festival who received a standing ovation. That's saying something since Mary Ellen Mark, Steve McCurry, and other greats had presented earlier.

After the interview, Nan sat at a table surrounded by her Cibachrome prints in the Second Street Gallery and signed copies of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986). Not for 15 minutes or an hour, but she stayed until the last admiring fan had spent time with her. Oh, and the prints looked amazing.

Two copies of "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" waiting to be signed by a fan waiting in line at the Second Street Gallery.

"She's been here the whole time?" I asked.

"Yeah, except for a cigarette break."

"Only one cigarette?"

Many of us have been yearning to meet Nan Goldin for a long time. On June 11, 2011 in Charlottesville, Virginia, she made sure it was worth the wait.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

I had my best conversation with Antonin Kratochvil in New York last year after he had been mildly reprimanded for swearing during his presentation in the Canon booth at PhotoPlus Expo. I thought to myself at the time, "Well, then, why the hell did they put Antonin up there in the first place?" Anyone who knows this gritty photographer is aware that he is going to say what he thinks.

Antonin has a gallery here at the LOOK3 Festival, and was the featured speaker last night at the Paramount Theater. If you haven't seen his work, or know the story of this tough, emotional photographer, then you owe it to yourself to find out more.

Couple interacts with an Antonin Kratochvil portrait at the LOOK3 Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo by Derrick Story.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

As part of my coverage of the LOOK3 Festival for Lowepro, I attended a presentation by George Steinmetz last night at the Paramount Theater in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia.

To see these amazing images on a theater screen, captured from a motorized paraglider that Steinmetz navigates while managing the camera, was impressive. If you're not familiar with the work of George Steinmetz, I recommend that you visit his web site.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

One of the joys of looking through the optical viewfinder on your DSLR is seeing the world with crystal clarity. Thanks to the diopter adjustment for the camera's eyepiece, most of us can enjoy this experience even though our eyesight varies in strength.

The diopter wheel is usually located near the optical viewfinder eyepiece. You can see it in this image just above the optic and to the right.

I check this setting regularly by having the camera focus on a scene at infinity, then rotating the diopter dial until the image looks as sharp and clear as possible. I talked about this during a recent episode of This Week in Photo, which prompted this follow up information from a listener, Kevin Miller, who is an ophthalmologist.

I thought you might enjoy Kevin's observations, so I've included them here.

"You mentioned that setting the diopter adjustment on our cameras by looking at infinity and making the adjustment. Just my input as an ophthalmologist. I think that seems right as well.

I don't know if there are any commercially available options for adding a dioptric adjustment lens for those with significant astigmatism in their correction. Those with significant astigmatism may not find a clear option among the various options mentioned above. In these cases, the photographer would need to wear his/her own glasses or contacts, and then the above diopter adjustment technique can be used to further fine tune the view through the viewfinder."

Thanks Kevin for adding clarity to using the diopter setting on our cameras. As you may have guessed, this is for your consideration only, and it does not constitute medical advice. I think it's interesting.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

If the words "Zeiss Ikon Contarex" or "Minolta SR-1" bring a smile to your face, then I think you'll enjoy "Classic Cameras," a treasure that I found in the Mac App Store for $2.99. It catalogs over 500 images of classic cameras from 1905 to 1985, plus includes magazine ads, brochures, and reviews.

The application is actually an interface for content that Marc Rochkind has organized online. So you need an Internet connection to access the information. So all of the joys and delays that come with the Internet come with this app too. But what a wealth of information it is. I spent an hour last night learning about the original Olympus PEN, Nikon F, Canon III and more.

I hope Marc Rochkind improves that backend of this application to ensure a smooth user experience. It would be a shame to let all of this wonderful research go to waste.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

I saw an interview with a photography professor who commented that many of today's memories are being recorded on mobile phones, and those images often aren't downloaded off the device. That got me thinking about the challenge of preserving our important moments and best work. In a sense, this week's episode is Part 2 to the Dealing with My Past show. I have an idea about how we can preserve our best work, and that's what I talk about today.

Listen to the Podcast

You can also download the podcast here (32 minutes). Or better yet, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. You can support this podcast by purchasing the TDS iPhone App for only $2.99 from the Apple App Store.

Monthly Photo Assignment

True Grit is the June 2011 Photo Assignment. You can read more about how to submit on our Member Participation page. Deadline for entry is June 30, 2011.

TDS Oct. Photography Workshop and Nov. Aperture Workshop

We're making plans now for the Fall 2011 TDS Photography Workshop. I'm also considering adding an Aperture Workshop in Nov. or Dec. If you want your name on the reserve list, or just more information, drop me a line.

More Ways to Participate

Want to share photos and talk with other members in our virtual camera club? Check out our Flickr Public Group. And from those images, I choose the TDS Member Photo of the Day.

Podcast Sponsors

Red River Paper -- Try the $7.99 Sample Kit.

Make Your Photos Sizzle with Color! -- SizzlPix is like High Definition TV for your photography.

Need a New Photo Bag? Check out the Lowepro Specialty Store on The Digital Story and use discount code LP20 to saven 20% at check out.

If you want to work with off-camera flash, but don't have a built-in system like with the Canon T3i, there are affordable alternatives to expensive systems. A poplar choice on the cheap is the Cowboystudio 4-Channel Radio Remote Trigger and 2 Receivers Set($37). I've heard consistently good comments about Cowboystudio gear. One thing to keep in mind, if you go this route, is to properly set your expectations.

To help you with that, here's a good article, A Guide to Buying Cheap Wireless Flash Triggers, that lists key differences between expensive sets and their low-price counterparts.

Regardless of the gear you employ, off-camera flash is an important technique that's perfect for many portrait situations.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

It's Free Bag Friday on the Lowepro Blog. This week you have a chance to win a Flipside 400 AW (use Code LP20 for a 20 percent discount if you want to buy it after the giveaway is over). All you have to do is add a comment to the Free Bag Friday post on the Lowepro Blog about how you'd use the Flipside.

On Monday morning (June 6), Lowepro will randomly select one winning comment from their blog and announce the winner there and on their Facebook Fan Page. The Flipside 400 AW is a terrific bag that holds lots of gear, has secure backside access, and includes an All Weather cover.

Check it out!

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!