Shoot a wedding on an iPhone?

Well, you can't... well, you can, but it's going to be pretty low-fi ya know... Yeah, you could do it if that's all you had... You can print 6x4's You can make yourself a wedding album on instagram. You could print a little book for all your guests as a mementos...

But that's not what this post is about... This post is about the attitude attached.

I was driving out to Healsville sanctuary yesterday with the family, Seb was asleep and M and I were talking about photography, I was trying to work out if I should get a certain type of camera - we eventually managed to get to talking about how photographers are an opinionated bunch, me included, and we are... You know, if someone posted "I can only get someone with an iPhone to take my photos" in one of the professional forums on the internet, that person would be laughed off, escorted out, ridiculed... But why? If that's all they could afford / if that's all they wanted... if that's all... then who are we to judge? I used to be one of those people - so worried about my gear / the gear people used to define their work that I was missing the point... Generally it ain't the 'professionals' that are all about the gear, it's the fauxfessionals or the amateurs with a 9 to 5 and a serious hobby / gear addiction. I'm the first to admit, I love tech, I love gadgets and I love my iPhone... I'll get a 5 as soon as I've got the moolah. But we have to remember, it ain't the gear that defines us, its what we create with whatever we have...

The only reason I can think of that there's all this worry and talking down to people doing the best with what they can is that, people with nice gear and more experience are going to lose work to this army of iPhone equipped photographer types? If you're worried, work harder, set yourself apart from someone with a phone camera or a point and shoot (does anyone bother with a point & shoot anymore?)

If that's not the reason, then what is?

This is a creative industry, why then are our collective creative brains so against people using different ways to create their art? 90% of the population can't tell what your photo, 600px wide on a blog or Facebook was created with... Yes, if you're printing a sweet wedding album, then you're going to notice... If you're printing large, then you're probably going to notice... well, the pixel peepers amongst us will... I had a friend in my office recently, he picked up a print I'd done on my Canon Pixma, it was a 5x7 of a coffee photograph I'd taken with my iPhone... when I told him what I'd shot it on, he was blown away...

Attitude, Snobbery and Hate, there's no place for it... 

Boy with the gun | Music Friday

It's still Friday, though quite late here in Melbourne, as I wait for America to wake up for a couple of calls I need to make, I'm listening to David Sylvian - it just never gets old. Secrets of the Beehive[If you can, you should]

I've seen David Sylvian live in concert once (as opposed to dead, in concert?) in London at the concert hall on Southbank... It was experimental, random, a touch crazy - but this album, Secrets of the Beehive, it's different and less manic. It's more a car ride in a sweet old convertible - a sunny afternoon in the country.

I'm still listening to David, and I'm still waiting for people to get out of bed - I've also just had news that I'm going to be part of a cool new up-coming project! Stay tuned for that one! [Social Media for ******** and promoting a wicked ******** that's not even out yet]

Photos today - no Canon photographs, but a couple of iPhone photographs I liked, here's one below that I used in my 52 self portrait series... I don't have a name for it, thoughts? I went to a 'gallery opening' t'other night - it was all about street photography.. There was a room full of some awesome photographs and some crap, but the thing that interested me the most was this - half of it was Leica / Olympus etc, the rest was iPhone! And the best bit - hardly anyone knew the difference... Make art... Why not...

I quite liked the photo above - it's a bit of fun, edited in Lightroom, capture with my iPhone and an OlloClip Fisheye lens (Best $70 you'll ever spend on your iPhone, honest!)

Olloclip 3-in-1 Lens for iPhone 4 & iPhone 4S

Sunlight falls, their wings open wide.

Tell me, I've still a lot to learn - understand, these fires never stop.

Make a splash : Nasty Coffee Photography

I take loads of coffee photos, mostly always with my iPhone. They're not really arty or special, just moments... I'm not trying to make any special statement or anything like that - just having a bit of semi-creative fun... So, there I am last night, mucking about with making the last espresso of the day and I thought, I've been posting all these shots with the Nasty Clamps that I've been using and now with the Nasty Flag and I had a little think about what i could do to show how you can use these very simple but very cool items to help you take photos...

Above is my Nasty Clamp / Godox ProPac / Canon 580 EXII / Alien Bee triggers on top of a door... I was taking my own 'real estate' photos... fun times eh!

The Nasty Clamp is a simple spring clamp with a bendy bit that you can attach a cold shoe (I use the Frio) onto and pop your flash on the end, then you can clamp the thing onto what ever you like... So, last night, I wanted to take a shot of a little espresso cup with water splashing about, and I didn't want to get lights out and stuff, so I used my Godox TT560 with the little Alien Bee triggers (but you can use a simple sync cable / radio poppers / whatever) and I wanted to have the flash on its lowest power setting, sitting just above the coffee cup, but IN the sink.... So it was either going to be a tripod / stand all up on the sink and whatever, or, the Nasty Clamp simply hanging off a tap.... So simple!

Here's the setup I used; [iPhone photos]

You can see I had a little HONL grid on the front of the flash to keep the light as controlled as possible, and I used the flag behind the cup so I didn't get as much bounce from the silver wall of the sink...

This is the photo I created with the setup above, I had the camera on a tripod, 85mm lens, ISO 100, shutter of 1/100th at f/4.0 (remember that aperture is what controls your flash exposure)

The cup placed under the tap, the tap turned on, into the empty'ish cup, the shutter opened / flash fired.

The frame above is quite dark to the left, I used the Nasty Flag as a baby black background in the actual sink - it was hanging off the cutlery draw as you can see in the photo below.

So that was fun... I wanted a photo of the finished product and let me offer some tips on that, too...

• CLEAN THE CUP BEFORE YOU SHOOT IT!

Here's the final coffee, 200mm 1/30th (to introduce a little more ambient behind the cup) at f/2.8.... Just a bit of fun, eh!

There was a little flagging to the side / rear to try bring up a little contrast and the lightsource to the left, almost pointing to the rear of the espresso... here's a setup shot;

I guess what I'm trying to say is this; try a Nasty Clamp... they're damn handy, and darn nasty!

http://www.nastyclamps.com/

HTC comes through day one on form..

You know I thought the little (big!) HTC was going to be tough to get along with..

Day one, I wanted to be able to be able to take some photographs and upload them to my blog.. The combo of an above average camera, a half decent and fun set of 'as standard' filters and this MASSIVE screen make it a very pleasing experience... That and the fact that this thing is actually as responsive as all hell! Fast? You better believe it.... Anyway, you know I don't say much on instagram, so let's get on with the images shall we?

Most of these are GTV9 (rather than one!) Focussed, as I live right by the old studios that are being torn down... Sad but true...

So, these are all images directly from the Telstra HTC Sensation's camera, some using the built in effects.

Tomorrow we take a little look at some Android camera apps..

--sime

Love or Hate or Art?

Interesting. I posted a throw-away photo on dPS and asked how it made people feel. There was quite the reaction of like and dislike - some stupid answers from people sansbrain and a couple of decent replies with an explanation or two... The shot is below... Is it a photo worth looking at or is it rubbish? Does it show enough that you want to see more or does it not grab your interest at all??