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Working with the iPhone, and loving it

Working with the iPhone, and loving it

As a photographer I get a lot of questions about cameras. Recently most of the questions are about my iPhone 4. Do I like it? Is it good enough?

Let’s put it this way, “If it were 6-foot-4, I’d marry it.”

Yes, it has its flaws, calls are dropped, apps can be buggy, but for me it’s so much more than a phone — it’s a new art medium.

Shooting for a newspaper, my job is to explain events visually. It allows me to be “normal.”

The phone has given me a chance to go beyond that and explore a personal side. Usually at any given time, I’m carrying around 40 pounds of camera equipment and stick out in any crowd. No one questions someone with a cell phone camera.

The days of, “Hey, photographer lady, take my picture” are over.

I’ve been shooting with it every day since I purchased the phone three months ago.

The app I like using most is called Hipstamatic. It is based on a popular plastic toy camera that had a cult following in the ’80s.

I’ve downloaded many free phone apps, but this one is the only one I’ve paid for ($1.99.) I was seduced by the quality and the number of lens options the program affords me. Each lens affects the picture differently.

Some distort the color while others mimic darkroom techniques. I’ve used several offerings; my newest favorite is called, “Salvador 84.” This creates a really interesting double exposure effect along with funky color shifts.

It’s as unpredictable as SLR double exposures.

I like to think of the iPhone as my pocket darkroom. Many of the effects you can create visually are the same effects used in old darkrooms techniques and current Photoshop software.

This camera phone phenomenon has really taken off. An art website, http://www.llot.net/iphone-art-photography/, is having a contest for the best iPhone pictures. The images are being hosted by The iPhone art photography Facebook page and the Flickr group for judging. The best images will be published in a book.

The iPhone Photography Awards is calling for participants to compete to become the 2011 IPPA Photographer of the Year. The top prize is an iPad Wi-Fi model. The deadline is in March. Information is at: ippawards.com/?page_id=2

Recently, a gallery show in Paris featured the iPhone paintings of David Hockney, a 73-year-old pop art icon. He used an app called Brushes, a small virtual paint box on the phone’s screen. To preserve the luminescent quality of the images, iPhones and iPads were put on display. They were the canvas for the exhibition hundreds of digital works showing on 40 screens.

Whether technology replaces these old ways, or brings us back to old traditions, is perhaps in the hands of the artist.

For me art is simply expression, no matter how you get it done. Although my 6-foot-4 man fits in the palm of my hand, it has become an extension of me.

Perhaps we will get matching tattoos.

[Thanks: http://www.stltoday.com]

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