A smart photo app

Here are two examples of the fun I'm having with the Droid X picplz app, which allows users to pretend as if they are using a camera with special filters.


The top shot is the Washington County Courthouse in Washington, Pa., through the "The 70s" filter. The other shows the broken-down, historic Donora-Webster Bridge over the Monongahela River in Westmoreland County, Pa., in "high contrast monochrome."


I have to admit - even as a journalist who doesn't like highly processed photographs - this app is a pretty cool way to jazz up images. The only criticism I have for this app is that there doesn't seem to have a function to cancel an upload once it has been started. (For iPhone users the app similar to picplz is Instagram)


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So I went experimenting again with this app in Donora, one of my favorite rust belt places to photograph, and came back with the following:

A fire hydrant atop freshly applied cement at McKean Avenue and Fouth Street, how it appears digitized in the "Russian Toy Camera" filter.

The long-closed Pennsylvania Liquor Store in the former Grand Theater in the 600 block of McKean Avenue. This is how it appears in the "Little Plastic Lens."

The Norfolk Southern rail line, north of the walkway on the Donora-Webster Bridge and run through "Instant Film."

The shuttered Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church at McKean Avenue and 10th Street, as seen through the "Russian Toy Camera" filter.