A camera and a Canal.

Today I took a trip to New York's most dazzling strand, the Gowanus Canal. While currently an eyesore that drives a wedge between the more family- and yuppie-friendly Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, Gowanus is beginning to show hints of gentrification. Mark my words: In five years this "waterfront" neighborhood will be filled with hipsters-come-lately, thousand-dollar McLaren strollers, and that wild scene that currently keeps Bedford Avenue buzzing. (I'm already mourning the loss of the soon-to-be-defunct Yacht Club on President and Smith Streets.)

But what Gowanus lacks in polish it makes up for in character and a great view of the sky. While crossing the canal into Carroll Gardens I took the opportunity to play with my new iPhone photography filter Camerabag, which I discovered through Foster Huntington's project A Restless Transplant.

Camerabag lets you alter iPhone photos with a slew of different retro filters. At first I couldn't really tell them apart, but after a snap-happy weekend I feel like an old pro. My favorites are Helga and Instant. To experience the phenomenon that is Camerabag, see below.

This is the Gowanus Canal as seen through the Helga filter.

And this is the same shot, but with the Instant filter.

I always love to play Capture the Flag with my camera. Here's Old Glory through the Helga.

And the same Stars and Stripes behind the Instant filter.

To throw the two in starker light, here they are side-by-side.

Same Canal, two camera techniques.

Which filter do you prefer?

Eschewing a fancy DSLR for my iPhone may never win me a Pulitzer Prize, but with apps and iPhoto, patience and spontaneity, I have managed to patch together what I think is a pretty rich photo essay of my life on the East Coast. (And of course, a DSLR will never fit inside my evening bag nor survive a debaucherous night on the Lower East Side).