Yey! PocketChris is here!!

After weeks in development he will finally make it to an iPhone near you.

Say hello to PocketChris!

The project moved from the initial and very fuzzy idea of an "educational photo book with a twist" into this app, that you can now download from the App Store for free.

I never wanted to write a traditional photo book, there are too many of them out there already. 

Instead I always wanted to find a way to combine the two things that are near and dear to my heart: learning while having fun and playing, and learning by putting things to the test.

The same way you cannot read books to learn how to ride a bicycle, it's my firm belief that you cannot really learn photography by just reading about it. You can only learn it by experiencing things first hand.

This is by the way also why I truly believe that the workshops are one of the very best ways to learn photography. 

PocketChris is the second best. And it's slightly more cost effective ;)

» Get PocketChris (FREE on the App Store)

Meet the team

PocketChris would be nothing without two people:

Johannes Schriewer wrote the code and never ever got annoyed once when I added a new feature last minute or pulled another "things you shouldn't do" during software development.

Peter Marquardt is not only the best brother one could wish for, he's also an award-winning graphic designer and he made PocketChris look as awesome as it does.

A big round of applause to both of you, you rock!

The future of Pocketchris

"Why don't you charge for PocketChris?" - I've heard that question quite a few times over the last weeks.

First of all, I believe in free. Never charging for an episode of Tips from the Top Floor has always brought back so many good things in return.

But it's a bit different with PocketChris. There is a team involved and eventually I'll want to pay them at least something. And this is where my cunning plan comes in: 

PocketChris Photography Basics (yes, that's his official full name) is only the beginning. It will be followed by titles like PocketChris Advanced Photography, PocketChris People Photography, PocketChris Studio Photography ... don't nail me down on this list, but you get the picture.

And those I'm planning to charge for. I'm not yet sure how much, but definitely not too much. Somewhere in the $0.99 to $1.99 range.

I have also received questions about PocketChris on other platforms, such as Android or WebOS. A lot goes into making a seemingly simple app like PocketChris, and in the end it needs to be viable in one way or another. Porting PocketChris to other platforms depends on a lot of things: interest, size of user base, ease of getting the app to users, and in the very end even the financial potential of the platform. I'll have to see how the first paid version of PocketChris on the iOS platform does before I can make that decision. But rest assured: it's high on my list.

Want to help PocketChris?

Here are a few things you can do if you want to help PocketChris:

• Follow PocketChris on Twitter: twitter.com/pocketchris
• Tell your friends about PocketChris
• Leave a review on the App Store
• Forward this mail to a friend

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