The G2′s camera has settings for the flash, white balance, exposure, focus, digital zoom, and location, and there are many free and inexpensive apps you can add to your arsenal for more control, including photo editing apps and apps that apply special effects and filters.

Here are some Android photo apps worth trying:

FxCamera for a handful of effects, such as fisheye and toy camera
Vignette for an endless selection of filters and effects, such as Holga, tinted monochrome, and infrared
Adobe Photoshop Express for quick editing of exposure, saturation, tint, contrast, brightness, and a few special effects

I’m not an iPhone user, though I certainly lust after some of the neat iPhone camera gadgets I’ve seen, and I wish Instagram would come out for Android already. Here are some iPhone photo apps I’ve heard great things about, but have no direct experience with: Camera+, Instagram, and Hipstamatic.

Do you have any tips for getting the most out of your mobile phone cameras? How about fun apps you’d recommend?

Last weekend, we had a board game marathon. We had been planning it for a few weeks, with the unrealistic goal of playing each game once. Our stack of games included Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Domaine, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Power Grid, and Flux. We ended up playing Ticket to Ride three times, and Agricola, Carcassonne, Power Grid, and Flux once each. All in all, a very fun day—I even won a couple games!

Side note: If you’re unfamiliar with the games I mentioned, most of them are German-style board games focused heavily on resources and strategy rather than luck. They’re also usually a bit more expensive than traditional board games. If you’re interested, I recommend Settlers of Catan to get your feet wet. Don’t be intimidated if you think you’re no good at strategy games—I’m definitely no expert, and I still have a lot of fun!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I spent the weekend baking all manner of pink baked goods, including these mini strawberry cupcakes with buttercream frosting and sprinkles. I also made strawberry cookies with cream cheese frosting. There was so much frosting leftover that I used it on some of the cupcakes—it’s the white frosting on the center cupcake.

Have a good Valentine’s Day full of delicious treats! Here are some fun suggestions for a “DIY” Valentine’s Day, and here’s a funny Oatmeal comic about Valentine’s Day.

My husband’s Super Bowl tradition is to buy a dozen donuts to enjoy during the Super Bowl. (We certainly never finish them, though!) For the past few years, we’ve gone to Le Donut on Hilltop, and their donuts are delicious! Here’s another shot of their donuts, from my Project 365 in 2010.

It’s February, but it looks like spring out there. Yesterday at sunset, I went on a spontaneous photo outing with my friend Ingrid and her 5-month-old daughter. We ventured out to Chambers Bay and managed to get a pretty good workout, too!

Check out Ingrid’s beautiful images of the sunset at Chambers Bay here.

Colleen Carroll, owner of Colleen Carroll Photography, has been a photographer for more than 10 years and worked at newspapers in Washington, California, Michigan, and Indiana after receiving a degree from Western Kentucky University’s top-ranked photojournalism program.

For Colleen, photography is about telling stories through candid interaction and genuine emotion. During her shoots, she’ll spend a few hours at locations that are meaningful to her clients, giving them a chance to relax and even enjoy the shoot. For weddings and events, Colleen likes to arrive early and stay late. She says she’s “always an observer never an art director, and feel truly honored to capture moments which last a lifetime.”

Roxanne: When did you become interested in photography?
Colleen: My love of photography takes root in my love of film. I recall the visual impact the movie “The Red Balloon” made on me as a child. This 1956 French treasure used almost no dialogue, yet the movement, color, and emotional depth transcended time and language. It’s a work of art and no doubt inspired me to pick up a camera about 15 years ago.

Who or what influenced you to become a photographer?
During a photo class at Columbia College in Chicago, we took a field trip to a photographer’s studio. He mentioned a now-defunct website which featured photo stories by talented young photojournalists. Inspired, I attended the alma mater of one of those photographers and received a degree in photojournalism.

Why is photography important to you?
Life is dynamic and photographs mark moments in time from the minute to the grandiose. Photos are memory. Through photographs, I connect the dots of my own life behind the camera.

What motivates you?
I’ve always been motivated by what makes people tick, why they do what they do, and most importantly how they feel about what they do. If I’ve helped communicate that in a photo I’ve done my job. Recently, I made the transition from photojournalist to portrait photographer. Working with couples and capturing their connection is absolutely intoxicating.

What’s your favorite lens or other piece of photography gear?
My favorite lens is the Canon 24–70mm and a favorite piece of gear is a portable battery, which allows me to light any location without plugging into an electrical outlet. Genius.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in photography?
Read photography books, study light, go to art museums, attend poetry readings, cook a meal, embrace the art in your life, and never stop learning.

Wednesday morning greeted me with the pitter-patter of rain against the windows. It stopped falling by the time I left the house for work, leaving these beautiful droplets on one of our Japanese maples.

SMC Tacoma hosted a tweetup on January 24 at the Harmon Tap Room. It was mostly a social event, with a celebrity tweet guessing game and prize giveaways. Here, Kevin Freitas, creator of www.feedtacoma.com, emcees the guessing game.

Creating a panorama is simpler than you might think. Here are the basics:

1. Find your location. You may need to do some scouting if you’re trying to find a great view of your city. Spend some time looking at panoramas of the view you’re searching for; you may recognize landmarks or find that the photographer is willing to share. If you’re adventurous, you may prefer to just drive around in search of the perfect view. Keep in mind the direction you’re facing if you’re interested in sunsets or sunrises.

That said, you can make a panorama of any scene. Step outside your house and get a panorama of your block, for example, or a neighborhood you like.

2. Set up your shot and snap away! First of all, make sure you’re using a tripod. No matter how steady you are, you’ll just get better results this way. If you have a remote shutter release as well, even better. Next, set your camera to manual and determine the appropriate shutter speed and aperture for your scene, then set your focus manually. Don’t change any of these settings—keep them the same for all the separate shots in your panorama. As you take your shots, make sure there is plenty of overlap (I shoot for 20–30%) to make it easier to stitch them all together.

3. Use image editing software to stitch your images together. I’m most familiar with Photoshop CS4, so I’ll go over the specifics for that program.

Open all of the images you want to stitch together.
Go to File → Automate → Photomerge.
On the left side of the dialogue box, select the Layout. Try “Auto” to start.
On the right, select “Files” from the drop-down box.
Make sure “Blend Images Together” is checked at the bottom.
Hit OK.

Depending on the size of your files, number of files, and your computer’s memory, this could take several minutes. The great thing is that Photoshop does all the work, and it usually does a pretty good job. Once your panorama is complete, go ahead and edit as you like. You’re done!

Here’s a little information about the two panoramas in this post:

For the panorama at the top, I wanted a shot of the courtyard at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. However, the widest lens I had with me was a 28-105mm, so I couldn’t get the entire courtyard in my shot. Instead, I started from the far left of the scene and took several overlapping photos so I could later merge them in Photoshop. Because I didn’t have a tripod (I know, breaking the rules), I leaned back against a wall, kept my elbows tucked in as much as possible, and moved from shot to shot very slowly.

For this panorama, which is my first, I found a spot on the Chihuly Bridge of Glass with a decent view and set up my tripod. I was aiming for a 360-degree view, so my camera turned in a complete circle to get all the shots necessary.

For some beautiful panoramas of downtown Tacoma, including some of the recent snow storm, check out Miso Studios.

I haven’t driven my car since Saturday. It began snowing Sunday. There wasn’t much to start with, but come Wednesday morning we woke up to more than 5″ of powdery white stuff. By afternoon, it was raining ice. Thursday morning greeted us with a million icicles and shiny, ice-covered snow. Many plants and trees were essentially encased in ice, including our two Japanese maples.