iPhoneography

Prior to getting my Apple iPhone4 my "walking around camera" was supposed to be my Canon S90, which I tricked out with a better grip and a filter mount for a polarizing filter from Lensmate. Unfortunately, the S90 was not as pocketable as I thought it would be, and therefore, often stayed in my backpack or at home next to my lonely D70s DSLR.  I did take it out more frequently than the D70s, and often fastened a case to my belt when going on a hike or short trip.

There were quite a few reviews about how good the iPhone camera was and how nicely the retina display represented the  photos on the phone, but I was a bit skeptical.  On this last trip, I have to say that I have changed my mind.This little pocket device got more action on my last trip than any other electronic device I've owned.   Not only did it find us places to eat, give me directions, and make reservations, but it also allowed me to shoot a ton of pictures, edit them and share them online with just a few flicks, pokes and swipes. This blew me away on my trip to the Pacific North West.

After the trip, I heard a This Week In Photo podcast that talked about iPhonography and remembered that this year at the San Diego Fair photo exhibit, they had a new category for entries called Cell Phone Photo with some amazing shots. I think I want to explore this "format" more this year and see where it goes. 

The photos above and other iPhonography stuff I've made were taken and processed with a variety of apps including...
- My favorate camera app so far:  Camera+
- The standard iPhone Camera app
- TiltShiftGen
- AutoStitchand
- SynthCam

Backcountry

While my wife was shopping in the visitor center for the Pelindaba Lavender Farm on San Juan Island, JCO and I found some time to explore and play around in the grounds and take some photographs. The lavender was nice, but I actually found the the old wooden fence and natural back country growth around the perimeter of the farm more photographically appealing.   

Its been really tough photographing JCO at this age.  Whenever the camera is pointed at him he either avoids eye contact, sticks his tongue out, or clowns around in some other silly way. The challenge is to time the shutter in between his antics or while his is distracted by something behind me or off in the distance. Another way I've found to be somewhat successful is to play along with his game and laugh along with him. In those moments of mutual laughter, I'll try to keep steady and grab a shot.

After spending the so much time lately shooting pictures with my iPhone, I finally decided to drag out my old and heavy (relatively speaking) DSLR and lug it around on this day. Although I've been quite happy with the results of the iPhone, and the ease of capturing, editing and uploading the images with it, I had almost forgotten the advantages of a larger sensor and telephoto lens has over any point-and-shoot or cell phone cameras; mainly, depth of field. Even though the pictures above were shot with a "slow" Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 lens, I'm able to still get decent bokeh when racking out to >70mm, getting closer to the subject, and keeping the subject farther from the background.