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Re: [OM] (OT) iPhone image

Subject: Re: [OM] (OT) iPhone image
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 15:04:09 -0800
On 11/28/2015 2:31 PM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
Taken while on a walk today. I really do like this phone. <g>

http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=19218

Nice enough subject; certainly something I would take, do, in fact.

And not bad at this size, but it somehow has that sense of lack of a sense of clarity that I find frustrating in so many of my own iPhone pix. That may be, at least in part my excessive visual acuity. :-) OTOH, it seems to me to be also a subtle lack of tonal clarity in the middle-high tones. (As well as blown highlights in an important area.)

I do have some iPhone images I like quite a lot, especially those that aren't "straight" *, but have had trouble with others that just aren't quite up to "snuff".

And. because I haven't been terribly pedantic lately, I will further state
that one of the principal reasons I love this phone is that it is helping
me to see differently than I see with a "real" camera in my hand, even the
diminutive Sony R100. In fact, deploying the iPhone recalls the vision
shift I experienced when I started shooting exclusively with a 4x5 camera.
You see shots differently. You plan them differently. You take them
differently. And you process them differently.

There you go, channeling AG, with all those "You [verb]" sentences. Might you mean YOU, Bob? Might "I", or "one" be a more accurate way to phrase them? :-)

If St. Ansel were alive today, you can bet your booty he'd have a volume of 
iPhone photos out by now.

If you say so. I've seen a lot of his work in the originals, including very early stuff, and there's a lot of technically competent mediocrity in the mix - in this Moose's opinion. Who's to say what he might have done outside of his area of great strength with new gear? (Don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan, with seven of his books of photographs and three of the Time-Life books.)

The book of his color work is very much in the vein of his other nature/landscape work, and largely very good. But as a posthumous selection by editors well aware of what of his has been successful, it probably isn't representative of the range of color he took. (He was shooting color from the mid 30s, as a consultant/adviser for Kodak.)

Okay, maybe that's taking it to an (AG) extreme. <g>  But when I wander
around with the phone in my pocket, I'm not thinking about commercial
applications. I'm not thinking about selling the photos I take. I'm just
looking for subjects I think the iPhone might handle well, and differently.

We chatted about this. I'm never thinking about selling. With "real" cameras, I'm just looking for subjects that I like or that interest me, and imagining how the gear at hand might capture what I "see". With only a phone, I am sometimes looking for things that will play to its strengths. *

(Full Disclosure: I delivered my first iPhone sale in person today. It was
not intentional. She saw it on Facebook and demanded a print.)

Slippery Slope Alert!!

Furthermore,
when it comes to post processing, I'm using phone apps, not the big boys.
Well, most of the time. I don't feel constrained by the same limits that
nag at me when I'm shooting with a more traditional kit.

Excellent! That's what my Alt Dot Moose gallery is about. *

If you're doing phone photography and you don't have Snapseed, you're missing 
the experience.

Another editorial nit ... since you address me (as "you"), "have" would more accurately be "use". I have Snapseed and a host of other such things, but haven't used it.

Ah, took a look. The menu of "looks" idea is pretty common, not only in phone/tablet apps, but some PC/Mac programs. Pretty prosaic choices in SS. I need something wilder. :-) *

Perhaps some day I'll take what I learn back to a larger sensor, more 
conventional kit.

Perhaps, with more rehab time with the phone, you'll be able to pick up other gear and just have fun with it, making images you like. ;-)

Or maybe I'm just way out ahead of my time. (NOT)

Only knowable in hindsight ...

Babbling Moose

* See my next post

--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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