Phone Or Dedicated Camera?

A friend of mine loves to shoot his food; he's one of a new generation of food documentarians out there putting their phone cameras to good use. He told me he uses Portrait Mode to get the best subject separation. That's certainly what I'd do if I wanted to have a permanent record of my dinners. But, I have to admit, I don't have much interest in documenting my meal experiences. 

Still, I did really enjoy the way the liberated pomegranate seeds looked in this bowl. It's funny, in the kitchen, I'm not at all in favor of owning tools that only do one thing, like pitting an olive, for example. I'd rather just bash the olive with the side of my chef's knife and take out the pit with my fingers. But in photography, it seems, I really do prefer using a dedicated camera to make images. 

Abstract View

Just a pleasant view from where we had lunch the other day, but I find a good frame within a frame pretty hard to resist. The only thing I don’t really love is the iPhone’s overcooked processing.

Sufficiency

Sometimes the iPhone is good enough. I had a few minutes on my hand waiting for my wife to sign some paperwork and went for a short wander. The power connection to this old church caught my eye, so I used my phone to capture the moment. I did the black-and-white conversion in the Photos app. Sure, it’s a bit crunchy, but will have to do. It reminds me of how an acquaintance used to put the family photographs into tacky little photo books as soon as the 4x6 prints came back from the lab. She didn’t want family memories to gather dust at the bottom of a drawer somewhere.

A Place For All Your Stuff

Have you ever noticed all the self storage places dotting the landscape? The number seems to be increasing as the amount of our accumulated stuff is only going up over time. I rented one of these units once—when I moved to Berlin. Sadly, when I got back to the States I noticed that my little place had been broken into. Wonder how common that is. The burglar must have been pretty disappointed though because all that was in there was a bunch personal items of no particular value. I couldn’t even be sure what was missing. Important stuff.

In Praise of Funky Old Phone Photos

My son ruined his phone the other day by going into a friend's pool without thinking first. Sigh. I rummaged through my junk drawer to see if I had an old phone I could give him. Turns out I did, so we are covered on that front. It also turns out that I had saved my iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 for sentimental reasons. Which got me thinking...

Here is an image I captured on the road in Wyoming about a decade ago using whatever phone was current at the time. You remember... the ones where the cameras were still a little rough around the edges. I find that I kind of like the wonky colors and low resolution. That said, with current software it is possible to bring these old digital files closer to their full potential, which is kind of fun, and a bit of a relief.

I Thought I'd Seen Everything

Sometimes we make photographs simply to record the things that happen to us, or to remember things we find a little bit amazing, like the flower clusters on this stunning Oriental Paper Bush. I've seen a lot of ornamental plants in my life, but this one really blew me away, and I'm so glad we picked one up from the local hardware store. I tend to think of my phone as the proper tool for this kind of photography, but it was locked away in a distant closet. So I ended up using my best digital set-up, which just so happened to be nearby. It ain't art, but it is a state-of-the-art record of my new favorite little plant, and I like it.

Tasting notes: Canon digital camera.

Never Say Never

Generally speaking, I prefer to make photographs using a dedicated imaging device, read: camera. I am not in love with the bar-of-soap ergonomics of my phone, mainly because I just haven't practiced with it enough. Plus, I'm not at all keen to shoot photographs with my wallet, if you know what I mean. But there are times when it is the only image making device at hand, so I use it. Once in a while a get an image I really like, such as this dreamy shot made during intermission at a local concert venue. 

Tasting notes: iPhone.