Rainbow Nails

Check out this amazing nail art  created by my talented 12-year-old cousin, Julia!

Julia painted her nails with a few colors and then took a needle to create the zig zags. Absolutely love the funky nails. 

Instagram Favorites

In honor of Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, I thought I'd share some of my favorite Instagram-generated shots. 

I have to say, my photography skills have vastly improved and become infinitely more artistic and soulful since I began using this photo editing gem. Instagram really does turn even the most boring photos into poignant moments captured on film. It makes taking photos a lot more fun and let's be honest who doesn't love to see a picture of your car or cat turned into a well-preserved vintage snap.


Check out some of my Instagram photos:

Hyannis. View from ferry heading to Nantucket.

The Boston Common Gardens

Maudsley Park, Newburyport, MA 

Charlestown on the Fourth of July.

The Esplanade, Boston

Times Square, New York

A perfect summer day in D.C.

The Jefferson Memorial at sunset.

Sculpture near the Convention Center, D.C.

Cherry Blossoms, D.C.

Market in Mumbai

Flowers in India

Jars at Founding Farmers, D.C.

The Studio Theater, 14th and P Street, D.C.

Dupont Circle, D.C.

Graffiti, 14th Street, D.C.

All photos by Avantika Wagle. Copyright protected. Not available for sharing, personal use, or distribution without exclusive permission of author.

The Billion Dollar Photo

I guess a photo really is worth a thousand words or in Facebook's case a billion bucks.

 

Our favorite social networking giant recently purchased the hugely popular photo-sharing app, Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Instagram, the 2011 app of the year, will remain an independently branded standalone product but the acquisition will increase the ties to the program. The app will also gain major design and engineering resources. Not bad for a free program that produces no real revenue. Instagram does, however, have over 27 million iphone-based users and racked up more than 1 million users in its first 24 hours after being launched through Android. With that kind of popularity, it would have been no time before it would have register 50 million users and become a social networking site in its own right. With these numbers, Facebook knew it needed to act fast because as an article on TechCrunch puts it, "photo sharing and tagging are arguably what "made" Facebook".

I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for Instagram and how Facebook will further integrate it on its site. Whatever does happen, it's pretty clear that Instagram isn't going anywhere and will continue to add artistic intrigue to even the most banal photos.