Coming from a traditional photography background, studying film photography and fine art photography changed how I create and edit my work. In addition, after being on social media for many years, some style trends also influenced me. Understanding and learning technical skills are good for many people or beginners, but it tends to restrict me. Often I found myself conformed by rules, standards, and guidelines. When that happened, the fun of creating was reduced.

Therefore, I like to take myself out of my comfort zone from time to time. Editing images on the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone is one of them. Hipstamatic is one of the oldest photography apps on cell phones. If you started to shoot on your phone when the smartphone became a thing, pretty sure you have heard of this app. It had its glorious time in many people's lives but seemed to fade away through time like all things. They tried to develop Hipstamatic X based on the original, but that didn't seem to catch on. After all these years and millions of new photography apps, I still think Hipstamatic is one of the best, especially if you love to add some retro vibes to your photos.

When I edit my Hipstamatic images, I don't overthink. Instead, I focus on how I feel about the photos. Sometimes it could be fun not to watch the histogram when editing and not worry about protecting highlights or shadows. Roll with it, like painting abstract art, do it from the heart (I don't mean painting abstract art doesn't require skill, lol). We live in a community that has endless rules. Everywhere we go, we have to comply with a certain standard. However, history has shown us people who broke the rules and standards were the ones who found success. Didn't someone say, you have to break something to create something new? Or maybe I am just making things up. Nonetheless, for creativity, it is healthy for us sometimes to put away what we think we should do and create imperfection if that's how we feel.