Hobos Landing

A twist on a typical Facebook Avatar pic.

I spy

Take a bite?

You think I'm Adam and you think you're Eve

A bit of a take on a grungy garden turtle

Static Turtle

A little tip of the hat to Andy Warhol and the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Warhol Tech

This was a tough one in editing.  I knew exactly what I was going for, but couldn’t quite get it editing on the iPhone.  I knew exactly how to do it in 30 seconds in Lightroom, but that’s not the point of this challenge, so this was as close as I could come playing by the rules.

Train Kept a Rollin'

I’m discovering that a grungy look really works well with the iPhone camera.   Homage to REM.

I've got my spine, I've got my Orange Crush

Here’s one shot over my girlfriend’s head at the Spurs playoff game.

Focus, Spurs, Focus!

I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ve decided to take on another 30 day challenge and I want some company.  Let me set the whole thing up for you.

I was showing a co-worker my photos and he seemed to like them.  Then he said “Those are great!  I want to get the kind of camera YOU have so I can take these too.”  This is a common thing that people say and it will send lots of photographers into a frenzy.  There is such a misconception that the photograph is made by the CAMERA and not the PHOTOGRAPHER and nothing could be further from the truth.  In the same way that  a 57 Stratocaster will not make a kid on his 3rd guitar lesson sound like Eric Clapton, neither will handing a 5DMarkII to your uncle Keith allow him to take pictures that rival Jay Maisel’s.  These are just tools.  I have a friend who is a wonderful painter and she has a nice set of brushes.  Hand ME those same brushes and you’ll get nothing but a mess.

But what people often fail to realize is that the opposite IS true.  Hand Eric Clapton the cheapest guitar you can find and he will bring tears to your eyes.  Hand my friend Donna a set of children’s $5 watercolors and I’ll bet she make something you would be proud to hang on your wall.  The art comes from the artist’s soul, vision and talent, NOT the tool.  I bet you could hand Jay Maisel an iPhone and he can make some great stuff!

And that’s when it hit me.  I’m going to try this. Unfortunately, Jay is not returning my calls and I don’t have anywhere NEAR the talent that Jay Maisel has, but I thought it might be fun to take a shot a day using nothing but my camera phone and whatever apps I can find for it and post them here.  No Lightroom.  No Photoshop.  Only apps I can get in the iStore and the phone itself.  The object is try to make something that evokes emotion (my definition of art) with something that 80% of the people walking down the street have.  I mean something that makes you laugh, cry, think, gasp, or just think “cool”.  Landscapes, portraits, abstracts, music, pets.  Anything goes, BUT I’m not talking about the pictures we all snap with our phones of the party last night just to remember it by, or our kids baseball game so grandma can see what Jr looked like at the plate.  I mean try to make get some really cool shots, with the limitations a camera phone imposes. Remember I’m not talking about technically perfect.  No Pixel Peepers here.  Just something you really dig. Anybody with me?

Ok, for reference I’ll tell you I am shooting with an iPhone 4S, which for a camera phone, is not bad.  But there are some things you should know.  First, it shoots at f22.  That’s it.  Period.  It only shoots in 8 bit color.  The shutter speed is 1/15 to 1/2000 of a second, but you can’t control it.  It’s ISO ranges from about 60 to 1000 and it REALLY wants to sit at 80.  Much above that and the noise is gonna come out.  Badly.  So you are going to need to really have some light and be able to use it.  Also, I don’t think I spent more than $5 on ANY photo app on my phone, so that’s what I am working with.  Wanna try it with me?  Post a link to your photo on any of the comments to these posts or grab me on FB or G+ where I’ll be posting these as well.

“So enough yapping!  Let’s see your iPhone photo for day 1 already!”  I can hear you all now.  Ok…ok…Here ya go.

Wash it all away

So that’s day number 1.  Let’s see what YOU GUYS can come up with.  I’ll bet there are some really creative folks out there who can help me prove this!