Through My Iphone Eyes

For the past couple of weeks I have been feeling like road kill. If I had known that my cold would last so long I probably would have given up early on. I have managed to do very little except to eat, sleep and use a lot of tissues to blow my nose. It has not been pretty around here for a while. Personal projects have all gone by the wayside due to a lack of energy or enthusiasm.

The biggest event of the week was when Jimmy the maintenance man came and fixed a leaky water line in the bathroom. It felt good to be able to at least watch someone accomplish something useful.

I have been playing with my iphone to pass the time and I thought that maybe I would put together a list of my favorite photography applications for the iphone. These are in no particular order since that would require way too much thought and I’m not up to that right now.

1- Polarize – This thing is way too cool and it’s free so there is no reason not to add it to your iPhone. I like being able to add captions at the bottom of the frame.

2 – PhotoShop Mobile – Can’t live without it. It does a whole lot of stuff and it is also free.

3 – Gorillacam – This adds multi shot bursts, a grid overlay, a timer, digital zoom and a couple of other very useful features. Yes, it’s free!

4 – Format126 – Various filters to give you a vintage look including square format, polaColor, MonoPlus and LOFI to name a few.

5 – LEGO Photo – This one is just fun to play with and has a neat interface. It’s free so there is no reason not to indulge your inner child.

6 – Flickr – This is a cool tool for uploading your iPhone photos to flickr, browsing your contacts photos and checking for recent activity on your photo stream. It’s a free and easy way to get those photos posted.

7 – Camera Plus – It has a digital zoom and a faux flash to lighten up those dark images. It’s pretty straightforward and it’s also free.

8 – My PhotoBooth – Create photo strips just like an old time photo booth except you don’t need any quarters because it is free.

9 – Nikon Learn & Explore – This has something for photographers of all skill levels and the best part is that they are giving it away for free. Actually the best part is the content and it gets updated on a regular basis. Fundamentals, Image Editing and Shooting Techniques are all covered.

10 – Tilt-Shift Generator – I thought I would throw in one inexpensive application that is extremely useful for manipulating images right on the iPhone. It’s not free but it is definitely a great value for the small asking price.

Right now I have over forty photo applications on my iPhone and all but a few are free. The iPhone is a wonderful tool for jumpstarting your creative instincts and there are plenty of applications to assist you in creating your own artistic vision. You can easily combine the effects from various applications and preserve your original image if you want to start over and go in a different direction.

Snapshot Heaven

The other night when we were going through old photos I came across this one and set it in my own little pile. I wasn’t too sure what the man had in his hand until I scanned the print and saw what looks to be a nice looking box camera. Of course there were scratches, spots and fingerprints galore but I fixed the worst of them and left the rest. Those scratches show the passing of time and that this is an actual artifact and not some made up scene. There is no doubt that a decent snapshot can tell you worlds about a subject and at the same time it leaves plenty of room for the imagination. I don’t know these people and I’m not sure I ever met them in passing at a family party or wedding but they look like they would be worth spending some time with.

I love the way the hat mimics the lines of the car (or is it the other way around). There is a lot of style in this one frame. Somewhere in the city of St. Louis, MO but the exact location is unknown. Another image from the series shows the bride and groom (my in-laws) still in there wedding clothes sitting at a table in a local tavern. Maybe that was the reception. Things were a lot different back then. There is a wedding album but nothing can compete with snapshots taken by close friends. This is as close to real life as you are likely to get in a photograph.

I cropped this second shot because it was taken from a distance. Just imagine a large expanse of lake and sky behind them and a cobbled walkway in front. This photo is full of happyness and life. I wish I could have been there. It may not be a technical masterpiece but there is no doubt that this is a great photograph. I’ll have to find the time to scan a few more of the ones I picked out of the box. Other family members are working on the bulk of the project and I’m sure it will be a while before they are all done and divided up. The great thing about digital is that you can essentially have a photo lab sitting on your desktop. The scanners and cameras keep getting better and less expensive which is great. You could just about as easily use a point and shoot camera in macro mode to copy these old photos as long as you used a tripod and the self timer to avoid camera shake.

People took a lot less photos back in the days when film ruled photography but those few photos seem more iconic in many ways. There are fewer of them and I think they hold our attention longer for that reason.

I’ll be taking some snapshots of my own if the weather changes and it warms up a bit. This month’s assignment is to take portraits with the Brownie Hawkeye Flash (unconventional portraits). I don’t have any solid ideas for that project yet but I’ll be starting those soon. The Brownie is not what I would call an ideal portrait making machine so it should be interesting to see how those turn out. Last month I took photos with the Brownie I converted to a pinhole camera. The shutter on that camera jammed and I ended up with a bunch of partially exposed frames. They probably had a good laugh at the photo lab but I was actually pleased with the result. I’m happy to get any sort of usable exposures out of a fifty year old box camera.

I’m still snapping away with the iPhone and having fun inserting those images into text messages and other online media. The iphone camera is pretty low resolution so it does a good job of emulating fixed focus cameras with single element lenses. I have not been carrying my point & shoot camera since getting the iphone though the phone is really not a substitute and is a lot slower in operation. Even though there are limitations it is a blast trying different filter effects and being able to upload the images moments later for everyone to see.

World Famous

There is always a heated debate about who has the best pizza in town. Since we had other plans for the night all I got was a photo outside of Giordano’s. They do have good pizza though some of us lean towards Gino’s for our deep dish delight.

I took a series of hand held photos, trying not to shiver from the extreme cold outside. The idea was to get some sort of reflection in the foreground and since the pavement was dry, I tried catching reflections on the passing cars. Of course a tripod would have helped a lot but since I got my new lens I seem to keep trying to use it somewhere beyond the ragged edge of a decent exposure. I seem to keep taking shots at around 1/10 of a second at 24mm on my D300 at high ISO and of course I keep getting less than stunning results.

I am really longing for sunshine and warmth right now and it’s not happening. I thing I need some beach time but since I don’t have any time to go to the beach I guess I will have to dream of warm pizza ovens instead.

I just finished reading Joe McNally’s book “The Hot Shoe Diaries.” It is full of McNallyizms (see I can make up words too) and other interesting bits of knowledge. I think it would really be interesting to see a book written by one or more of Joe’s long-suffering assistants to compare (and contrast) his recollection of events. Joe points out up front that this is not a how-to manual and it is actually written more like a diary or even a blog with lots of short and to the point examples of what it’s like to be Joe and lighting stuff with small flash units. Sometimes there are a whole lot of small flash units so it’s not exactly about minimalist lighting, though there are some examples of one and two-light setups in there as well. Joe shoots with Nikon equipment so that is what he talks about and the equipment has a lot to do with his work flow. Joe talks a lot about iTTL and Nikon CLS in the book and how to make everything work together in different situations. There is also some good general information about different qualities of light and the use of light modifiers so it’s not just for Nikon shooters.

Light Snow Falling

While other parts of the country have been hammered, we were getting mostly flurries or plain old rain. It looks like the snow is now falling in earnest and since it is Sunday there is not likely to be much effort to clear the roads until much later tonight.

I am warm and happy, looking out the window at the chilly display and wondering if I want to go out for a walk before I go to work. It looks like I have to take Louis the Furtography dog out since his owner did not. The guy on the radio says it’s twenty seven degrees outside. Brrrr…

Louis decided he wanted to go for a long walk in the snow and ice and after a while he had big chunks of ice stuck in his paws and was doing his lame dance. He was about half frozen which is his own fault so I had to stop the photography and carry him all the way home trying hard not to fall down on the snow covered ice. Between the dog and the massive camera bag, I was breathing pretty hard by the time I got home. Now that I’m warm again I think I might run over to the market to get something for lunch and dinner.

While we were out Louis and I stopped at the dog park where he started barking at a painting of a dog on the side of a utility company junction box. That was pretty funny and Louis was a little embarrassed when he figured out it was not a real dog. A lot of these big green utility boxes have been painted over with interesting designs. One of my flickr friends who goes by “formica,” took Brownie Hawkeye photos of the ones where he lives in Asia. I have thought of photographing the ones around here before but have never gotten around to it. Today I took a couple of snaps of the ones at the dog park . I’m not fond of photographing other people’s art but since these are somewhat transitory I guess it’s not bad to have a photographic record of them. Most of the works are unsigned so there is no way to contact the artists.

I want to get photos at the park downtown but I guess that will have to wait for my day off. I’m still thinking of trekking up to Chicago for a day next week. I hope the airports are not on total lock-down because of the lame attack on the Delta flight the other day. That was a close call and I’m thankful that there was a positive outcome. This is not a political or social commentary blog so I’ll leave it at that.

I’m going to walk over to the store now…

When I returned from the store I dumped the morning photos to the laptop and got ready for work. I’m taking my camera just in case I decide to go outside at dinner time and grab some quick shots.