iPhone

All posts tagged iPhone

Not that guy, this time.

Posted by Paul on May 7, 2013
Posted in: Personal, Photography. Tagged: , , . 8 comments

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Last Thursday, I was about to head out of the door, on the way to the airport for my trip to Columbus, OH, when I realized that I didn’t have a camera with me. I stopped short of the door, grabbed a camera, then put it back down. My thought, at that moment was: No. Not this time. I just want to enjoy and participate, not be on the job. Sure, the family loves when I take photos, as do I, but this time, I wanted to simply be a spectator and participant. Now, of course, it wouldn’t even feel right if I didn’t take a photo or two, or perhaps 50, but it was strictly iPhone and Hipstamatic.

Hey, Paul! What are you shooting with today? What??? You didn’t bring a camera with you? I don’t know who you are? I feel like you’re naked without your camera!!!
~Ana Kay’s uncle Seth.

In order to get the correct effect, the above quote must be spoken at a speed equivalent to pressing fast forward on an MP3 player while still listening to the song. I was going to say playing a “45″ on 78 speed, but then, most of the young guys wouldn’t have a clue as to what I was talking about. :) Seth is very cool, a fan of photography, and, to say the least, a bundle of energy and quite fun to be around. He and I talked about cameras, photography, and all manner of things during dinner on Saturday night. It was most certainly a lot of fun to be able to indulge in the conversation without worrying about missing any shots.

My favorite shot of the trip was the lead shot, of Ana Kay and Pedro. It was taken outside of the restaurant where we ate Friday night. It kind of looks like an album cover, to me, but I can’t think of an appropriate name. LOL

On Saturday night, at around 8:45 PM, we watched Ana Kay Guimaraes enter one side of the stage, and exit as Dr. Ana Kay Guimaraes, DVM! It was a long, grueling 8 years, but she made it! Congratulation, Doc! :D

Shots along the way

Posted by Paul on April 25, 2013
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , . 18 comments

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I learn a lot here. I love to hear different perspectives and, sometimes, if I’m open to it, I will change my mind on a particular subject, like Instagram. So, for now, I have decided to just have fun with it. No pressure. No requirement to post to it every day, or even at all.

Of late, I’ve been using my iPhone, exclusively, for photography. As a matter of fact, I’ve not used my Olympus OM-D since I returned from Mexico. Not because I don’t like it, because I do, but because I’ve been having fun with the Hipstamatic application and, one lens/film combination, in particular – Salvador 84/Salvador. What’s so interesting about this ‘lens’ is that you never really know what you’re going to get from it – seriously, no idea.
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The other day, I was perched on one of the rocks in my backyard, looking at the planes fly over, checking out the sunset. I pulled my phone out, opened up the Hipstamatic application, and took a few shots. The top shot was my favorite. In ‘reality’, there was only one plane. I was rather surprised to see two in my photo!

Of course, many of the photos that I take with this particular combo are strange, indeed, but some turn out quite nice and are interesting things to load to Instagram, or to use here. I delete a lot of them. Another that I liked was this photo of the motor cycle.

It’s all in fun and good to switch it up every once in a while.

City Life

Posted by Paul on April 10, 2013
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

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I was in downtown Charlotte today, attending some meetings. During one of my breaks, I noticed the sunshine and the dust being kicked up by the construction worker as he worked to sand the new concrete slab that they had just poured the other day. I watched as people crossed the street. Some dodged it by crossing a block away, others simply walked through. This lady was having none of it and covered her nose and mouth.

Score one for the iPhone!

Multi-aspect Camera

Posted by Paul on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

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click for larger image
My post the other day about aspect ratios centered around my experience of cropping a photo that I had taken in 3:2, or 16:9 format and finding that they didn’t translate well to 4:3 sometimes. I also mentioned that 4:3 was my least favorite aspect ratio, not that I couldn’t or wouldn’t use it, it is just that it would be a last resort.

Eric said, as one of the comments:

Interesting that you are so down on the 4:3 format, but all of your iPhone photos are 4:3!

To clear up things, I’m not ‘down’ on 4:3, I just prefer not to use it, BUT, since I have an iPhone, it shoots 4:3, I just roll with it. :) I can use any format.

Anyway, that comment, along with some of the others convinced me that as sure as I had thought of this idea, someone else had thought of it and implemented it. I was right. A quick search of the App Store and I found Multi-aspect Camera App. It allows you to use the iPhone to shoot in 4:3, 7:6, 1:1, 3:4, 2.35:1, 16:9, and 3:2. I’m not seeing the point in 4:3 and 3:4. They are the same. :)

So, while I was out shooting with a new friend of mine, Michael, I took out the iPhone, started the app, and took a few pictures while I sat on a rock and watched water flow over the dam.

As you can see, I used all except the 7:6. I forgot about that one. Anyway, none of them are wrong, just different formats and it is very nice to have a choice when setting up the shot.

I think that I remember seeing someone write that they would not buy a digital camera that didn’t allow you to shoot multi aspects. I think that I can understand why, though I wouldn’t put such a constraint on my digital camera purchase.

So, any preferences in the above photos? Naturally, the format can depend highly on the subject.

What constitutes ‘serious’ photography?

Posted by Paul on October 16, 2011
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .


Moon along the path – iPhone

I’ve been pondering this blog post for a couple of days, since John made the comment:

I’ll be getting an iPhone in December, but I honestly can’t see me using for ‘serious’ photography, more for spur of the moment things, like taking a photo of a sofa in a furniture store or something like that.

This is not to pick on John’s opinion, to be sure. His comment just provided some food for thought for my brain to chew on for a couple of days. If I look back at the photos that I’ve taken this year, and by camera, it kind of breaks down like this:

  • Nikon D300 – 4,361 (Peaceful Dragon Tournaments. Lots of 6 FPS shots)
  • Leica M9 – 2,517
  • iPhone – 1,310 (I thought it was only 500 but they get labeled differently when you use Hipstamatic)
  • Nikon D90 – 950 – (A rental to use at the wedding)
  • Canon S90 – 473
  • Film – 328

We, as humans, love to categorize, classify, group, and try to understand the parameters of something … place it into neat little boxes of understanding. So, it is with that desire that I write this post and try to understand what is meant by ‘serious’.

As you can see, I use the iPhone a lot. As a matter of fact, had it not been for the wedding, it certainly would have been used more than the M9. Of course, this is because of convenience. I have it with me all of the time.

Every once in a while, this voice will pop up in my head and tell me that I ‘should’ be using something else to get the shots because, after all, the iPhone is ‘only’ a camera phone; however, if you lookout in the Twittersphere, you’ll see of number of photographers who’ve gone almost exclusively to the iPhone, such as Dixon Hamby.

So, that brings me to the question:

What is ‘serious’ photography?

Do you have to take the photograph with a certain type of camera, or does it go to intended usage? That is, if you are going to print it, then it can’t be done by a camera phone? I’ve printed a few of my iPhone shots and really like the results, so that can’t be it (for me).

Of course, if you’re working for a magazine or a client and they demand a certain resolution, then the camera certainly does count. I’m not espousing that all cameras will get the job done, for I certainly never photographed a basketball game with a camera phone, or a wedding, for that matter. :)

All cameras are not created equally, but can they all produce ‘serious’ work, whatever that means?

Blogging from the iPhone

Posted by Paul on October 9, 2011
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: .

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Trying WordPress for IOS to see if I can blog from my iPhone.

So far, so good. Kind of difficult with the small virtual keyboard, but manageable. Since I seem to be in Zen travel mode, taking as little as possible with me, this seems to make sense … at least for now.

I’m using my iPhone, King Camera application, and Snapspeed to edit – quite a handy toolset once you get used to it.

A bit of sunshine is what I needed, I guess

Posted by Paul on September 21, 2011
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

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A bit of sunshine

I looked at my blog and saw that the last time that I posted was about a week ago, on the 15th. It happens every once in a while. I just don’t have anything to say. This also coincided, almost to the day, the last time that I had taken any photos. That is unusual. I usually take at least a picture or two.

The last 10 days, it seems, have been unseasonably cool, and, for this area, atypically cloudy. I’m used to abundant sunshine and at most, partly cloudy skies. This morning was no different. It was cloudy, slightly warm, and rainy. The balance of the day held the same. However, sometime around 6:20 PM, the sun decided to make a cameo appearance, just for a few moments. Fortunately, at the time I was taking Hobbs out for his ‘break’. I noticed this little bit of landscaping, felt that it fit the mood, and took a photo.

The sun did a quick dart behind the clouds again played hide and seek, mostly hide, for the next hour or so until sunset. That was it.

Oh well, at least I got a peak. Tomorrow’s forecast? Cloudy and rainy. :)