iOS Photography: My Intro

My iPhone

I'm going to be writing a short series of posts on my use of iOS photography. I'll cover the why's, how's, and some personal reviews of the apps and workflows I've used. For this intro post (and re-intro into actually writing blog posts... restarting for, like, the 10th time), I will be discussing why I use my iPhone to take most of my pictures now, a generalized workflow, and what I've learned from doing "iPhoneography."

See that? That's a Canon 50mm f1.4 USM lens (and hood, because that motor is really sensitive to bumps in the camera bag). Notice where it's sitting? On our red entry way junk table, capped and dusty. I don't carry around my 40d any more. Don't get me wrong, I love that camera. I think in terms of bodies, it's the best semi-pro body out there. There's no gimmicks.. just a solid performer. Over the course of my 365 project and the 4 (5?) years I've owned it, I have learned to intuitively shoot full manual and not take my eye out of the viewfinder. The problems with DSLR's are size, bulk, and conspicuousness.

Camera manufacturers have tried to combat this with mirrorless, detachable lens micro 4:3 cameras (you know, the Ashton Kutcher model). They just don't have the creative control of a normal DSLR. As a manual shooter, I need ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and white balance within easy reach. Like use 2 fingers easy.

Anyway, this brings me back to iOS photography (iPhoneography? is that what we're calling it?). They always say "the best camera is the one you have with you." They know a lot, don't they? But the saying is very true, and I wouldn't have considered the iPhone 3 or even 4 to have a "good" camera. The iPhone 5 has a camera that is on par with most point-and-shoots or better. I always have it in my pocket. When I go to the park, it's there. The car wash, work, everywhere. So, when my son decides to "borrow" another kid's sand toys, I can take great action shots. Because I have my camera. On my phone.

Where as my DSLR feels "planned" and contrived, the iPhone always seems to be there, like a modern day little black 35mm rangefinder. Except this rangefinder has apps that can enhance, manipulate, and change the way you take and process images, and thus adding creative control over your process. I've used a lot of them, and I'm going to review both the apps and my workflows in this series.

My, very high level, workflow is: take a bunch of pictures, weed out the bad or redundant ones, edit those few, and publish to my camera roll and/or shared photo streams.

So, an iPhone can be an always-there camera that gives a great set of options for creative control over your images? I can see why my DSLR lenses are collecting dust.

P.S. - I need to tone down the parenthetical phrases in my writing.