Rando app for iPhone & Android gifts you a stranger's photo, in exchange for your own...

I've been using the Rando app for just a few days now, but have really started to enjoy it - the creators describe it as being like those occasional times when you'd pick up photos from the lab and get someone else's film, giving you a random glimpse at another life.

It's pretty simple, really - you take a photo, and get one in return from somewhere else on earth.  No control over exposure, focus, post-processing - just point, shoot, and send.  So far, I've had images from Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Seoul, San Antonio, Beijing, Croydon, Sao Paolo, Omaha, St. Louis, somewhere in Germany, Abu Dhabi, Southern Ontario, Reykjavik, Auckland and Brisbane.  (Ironically, the one from Brisbane was a photo of an All Blacks mug, so there are Kiwis everywhere, obviously.)

And okay, as others have noted, the fact that it's anonymous apart than a location tag showing your city means it's a license to be a moron for a few users; but there have been some lovely images too, and you can report or delete the others if you choose.  (I'm kinda hoping by getting more photographers interested we can increase the signal to noise ratio to the point where the dumb ones get bored of trolling & leave.)

Thing is...I really like some of the images I've taken with this curious, circular camera.  I don't have any other cameras (or apps) that force me to compose for a circle, so it's been a challenge that way - but it also seems a shame that some of the ones I do like can only be seen by one person, somewhere, and I'll never know who they are or whether they got it.

So, I'm going to cheat a bit, and publish a few here - not for the purpose of communicating with the original recipient, just so more people can see them!  And in keeping with the spirit of the app, future Rando blog posts will simply have my location, no more info on what I was seeing or thinking at the time.