Bay Meadows

To get your creative juices flowing and take those pictures to the next level, we’ve picked 4 of our favorite Instagram apps used by photographers, video personalities, fashion bloggers, and famous foodies to make your pics stand out from the pack. Scroll through our current app obsessions, download the ones that strike your fancy–then get to submitting your favorite photos in our Fame by Frame monthly San Mateo photo contest.

Whitagram is the easiest way to upload and use original size photos with white background on Instagram and avoiding the mandatory square crop. The app adds a white letterbox to your landscape and portrait photos. When you choose your square crop, you lose a chunk of your image. Whitagram makes your photo square by filling in the background with white, so you don’t lose a thing. It’s a basic service, but a necessary one for the shutterbugs out there.

Hyperlapse is an Instagram stand-alone app that allows you to create amazing time lapse videos using in-house stabilization. The app makes it easy to shoot, filter, and share clips quickly. Hyperlapse shoots polished time lapse videos that were previously impossible without bulky tripods and expensive equipment. If you’re filming crowds of people moving, sunrises and sunsets, or other scenes that change over time, Hyperlapse is a great way to condense that into Instagram’s 15-second limitation.

Overgram allows you to add text over your Instagram images. This is the perfect tool for quotes or even adding titles to images when you’re traveling.

Waterlogue lets you see the world like an artist! You don’t need to paint to create beautiful watercolor images – Waterlogue uses your snapshots as rough drafts for watercolor-inspired works of digital art and captures the essence of your photos in brilliant, liquid color. Beware, once you download the app, you may become addicted.

Afterlight takes Instagram’s filters to the next level. This photo-editing app has 59 adjustable filters, 66 textures, and 128 frames to fit every mood or season. You can spend an hour tweaking the settings on one photo until you’ve transformed a photo of trees into a muddy watercolor, so you’ll have to exercise some restraint. Afterlight has options Instagram can only dream of, which make your photos infinitely more beautiful.

Strike a Pose. Picnic in the Park. Warm the Home. Rub Elbows. Adorn your Abode. Grill with Guests. Roll or Ride. Pamper your Pet. Fly a Frisbee. Catch CalTrain. Play at Paddock Park. Get Gardening. Savor a Sunset or Sunrise.  Show us where you walk, ride or commute!

You don’t need to be a world-famous Instagram photographer to participate in our Fame by Frame Photo Contest! Share your fun lifestyle photos with our community by using #baymeadowslife and you could WIN $50 or our Grand Prize of $500 at the end of 2014 and be featured in a live pop-up photo gallery exhibit on Friday, January 23, 2015. Deadline for submitting entries is 11:59 a.m. on December 15, 2014.

Everyone is welcome to participate and show some local pride for the city we call “home”. Here’s How. Show us your favorite events, send a shout out to your favorite shops or restaurants, showcase your favorite public art, places, dishes and design ideas. Here are just a few of our favorites so far. Take a look at a larger sampling in our Facebook album.

What: SNAP & WIN $50 – $500 and have a chance to be featured in a year-end photo exhibit
Where: Bay Meadows, and places your 2-feet or 2-wheels take you!
When: All year-round. Deadline for submitting entries is 11:59 a.m. on December 15, 2014
Who: Anyone that lives, works or plays at Bay Meadows
Save the Date: January 23rd 5-9pm for our photo exhibit and art event at the Bay Meadows Welcome Center (RSVP here)

Grab your phone, strike a pose and snap those pics! As we develop community, we want to see how you live or play at Bay Meadows. Share your fun lifestyle photos with our community by using #baymeadowslife in our Fame x Frame Photo Contest. You could WIN $50 or our Grand Prize of $500 at the end of 2014 and be featured in a live pop-up photo gallery exhibit. Click here for official rules. Each month, Bay Meadows will select one photo to WIN a $50 gift card at Whole Foods Market San Mateo. Simply hop on instagram or twitter at tag us using #baymeadowslife or submit up to 10 photos per month to photos@BayMeadows.com .

Be sure to follow Bay Meadows on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. We’ll be sharing your Bay Meadows story!