Just shoot!

As photographers, some of us spend an awful amount of time obsessing about the latest and greatest cameras and equipment. 21mp's in this one, and 24mp's in that one, 10 frames per second, facial recognition, and the list goes on and on. Fact of the matter is that if it's a crappy picture, than it is taking up more space on a hard drive than the crappy pictures we took with last years model.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do have a new camera. It's a beast that shoots 21mp images and will shoot video in full 1080 hd. I love the images it captures, and it has the most film like quality I have seen from a camera. So why am I writing this?

2 reasons. The first reason is my iPhone. Barely 1mp images. But it is always with m

e.

My DSLR isn't. And that is the key. It is ALWAYS with me. I use it all the time. It has no zoom, it has no flash. It forces me to be more creative to get the shot I really want. And it has some really terrific applications to tweak those tiny little images. Camerabag and Photogene are my 2 favorites. Little teeny, tiny versions of photoshop "lite". Really "lite". Did I just say I even tweak my cameraphone images? Yes, yes I do. My name is Frank, and I am battling a disease. Again, you are really limited with what you can do with these programs, as the images are small, so you really think before you shoot. I find myself being reinvigorated by trying to get decent shots from it. And it won't do 10 frames per second, so it forces you to slow down.

The 2nd reason is Twitter. Twitter has applications like twitpic that make it really easy to share your shots from your phone, and get them on-line fast. Take the shot, email the shot, friends view the shot. I have several friends that share images on Twitter shot with their phones. I see what they are shooting, it makes me want to go shoot something. I want to impress them, they want to impress me. We are always pushing each other to get better, more creative shots. And then there is Chase Jarvis. He is in a league all by himself. Go look at his website. He has a whole portfolio dedicated to shots only taken with his iPhone. It is here: http://www.chasejarvis.com/ . Almost makes you want to put down your DSLR, and use it for a doorstop.

So why is all this coming up now? I was going through my Flickr photostream, and had to laugh when I realized that many of my recent images have all been shot with the iPhone. All of the images posted in this post have all come from my iPhone too. Do I recommend you go out and get an iPhone? No, but if you did you wouldn't regret it. No, I am writing this to remind you that if you have don't always leave the house with your DSLR and a bag full of glass, make sure you do leave with some type of camera, a cameraphone, a small point and shoot, just always have a camera with you. You never know what you might see...


And here are some good uses for your small camera you may not have thought of. At a theme park you aren't familiar with, and hate carrying a map? Take a picture of it, and you can look at it on your LCD and scroll around or zoom into the image. See an item at a store you like, but thimk you can find it cheaper on line? Take a picture of the item and the SKU tag. When you get home, you can use that info to search the web. Have a husband/wife that is a bad gift giver? Take pictures of things you like and send it to them in an email. Ever been in a car accident? Take pictures of the damage. The list goes on.

I have a throw away point and shoot I always carry in my glove box. It is powered by AA batteries, so I never have to worry about the rechargeble battery going dead, or accidentily leaving the battery on the charger when I leave the house. Why? Because you never know when you will be in a hail storm in Baldwin Park in May!

I will leave you with a couple more iPhone snaps I took. Are they great images? No, not really. But I wouldn't have taken them if I didn't have my iPhone with me, and I am glad that I took them.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Frank