Keeping It Simple Shooting - The iPhone

It's been a couple of weeks now since my last post. Been busy with some work and some workshops. I attended Zack Arias Photo 101 Workshop last week. I think it deserves it own post as there is so much information, hoping to get that up later this week.

After 3 days of workshopping it and going over f-stops, shutter speeds, business and marketing, I thought it would be a good idea to keep it simple. Not to mention I had some training I was doing down at the GA Dome and needed to concentrate on my own workshop.

I arrived at the GA Dome and was waiting to hear back from my contact and get my security badge to enter the Dome. As I waited, I saw some interesting lines and pulled out my iPhone. What I love about the iPhone is that I always have it with me, which means I always have a camera. To borrow a quote from Chase Jarvis, "the best camera, is the one you have with you." Of course you could use any camera phone, but you won't find the kind of Apps that you can for the iPhone. I use "Camera Bag", "Camera Kit" & Tiffen's "Photo FX".

It doesn't get any simpler in a digital camera. There are no settings to worry about, just compose and shoot. So instead of worrying about apertures, shutter speeds, lighting ratios, white balance and everything else, I can concentrate on composition. Composing images while keeping the rule of thirds in mind and thinking about leading lines as opposed to the technical aspects of photography. Sometimes as a photographer I can get so caught up in the technical aspects that I loose my focus on the subject. That can be a bad thing if your subject is a person.

Which brings me to my final point. We get so caught up with the number of megapixel and the latest new camera, that we forget, it's not the camera, it's the photographer that makes a great image. Every once in a while I need to step back and remind myself of that. I need to concentrate on composition without having to worry about the proper exposure. Buying the newest and most expensive camera doesn't make you a better photographer if you can't compose a pleasing and visually interesting image.

Posted on this blog are some of my favorite images I've taken with the iPhone this year. Keeping it simple, but enhanced through some Apps. The Apps don't improve the composition of the photo, I just tweaked the image subjectively to fit my vision. After all, photography is art.

I also have to say, that I really don't like the way blogger works with images. Why does it import them to the top of the post instead of where your cursor is at? I'll have to figure a way to get around this.