By Carlos Miller
Before I received an iPhone for my birthday last month (thanks mom), I would criticize photos taken with cell phone cameras as being too dark and blurry.
But like most people, I found I could not resist the instant gratification of immediately uploading the photos on the internet.
And I found that although the pictures might not come out perfect, there is a certain pureness about them that I like.
For those of you who are my Facebook friends, you are probably aware of my iPhone photo project and have probably seen these photos as well as others I have taken with the iPhone.
This is how I described the project on Facebook:
This is an experiment in the making, an attempt to turn iPhone photography into a new art medium.
Taking photos with an iPhone camera brings photography back to the basics, stripping it of all the added features that I have become accustomed to with my digital SLRs.
There is no flash, no zoom, no metering, no aperture dial, no exposure setting, no tripod mount.
It is a very raw form of photography. Not much different than when Henri Cartier-Bresson stalked the streets of Paris with his Leica Rangefinder.
The only difference is that I am able to post the photos online immediately after I shoot them, a feature that not even my high-end SLRs have.
Basically, it’s a challenge. And I’ve found that people are much less intimidated when I am shooting with an iPhone than when I am shooting with my SLRs (but my iPhone also has a voice recorder in case anybody decides to harass me).
I am essentially documenting my daily meanderings with my iPhone. It’s my way of showing the world how I view the world. My way of showing the world what draws my attention.
My way of capturing the city where I was born and raised.
Most of these photos have had some processing through the iPhone application created by Chase Jarvis, which is definitely not on par with Photoshop but it works on the whim.
The above photo, which is my favorite so far, did not go through any processing.
Check out the rest below. Tell me which one is your favorite.
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13 responses so far ↓
1 Jeremy Jojola // Oct 7, 2009 at 1:40 AM
These are great Carlos! Nice work! I think photography is 95 percent talent, 5 percent camera. Awesome!
2 Carlos Miller // Oct 7, 2009 at 1:42 AM
Thanks Jeremy!
3 Jeremy Brooks // Oct 7, 2009 at 1:56 AM
Great stuff! My favorite is the neon, followed by the cyclist and the dominos. I’ve been enjoying Best Photo, as well as AutoStitch (amazing panorama app), CameraKit, CameraBag, FotoMuse, and SnapBox. In fact, cell phone photography is going to be the November Challenge over on photochallenge.org — it will be really interesting to see what people come up with.
4 MisterDNA // Oct 7, 2009 at 5:28 AM
I’m partial to the first three photos, but most of them have an oversaturation thing going on that is kind of appealing – they look as if they’ve been manipulated to resemble photos taken in the 40s or 50s.
5 Paula // Oct 7, 2009 at 7:56 AM
Cool! I’ve been addicted to the Best Camera app since I learned about it. My favorite pic is “Puddle.”
6 Nemo // Oct 7, 2009 at 10:23 AM
put me down for Fire in the sky, and Downtown Miami – nice stuff!
7 Justin Rosenberg // Oct 7, 2009 at 12:00 PM
C– they’re all good, personal fav is the BoA bldg
8 Simon Jester // Oct 7, 2009 at 1:35 PM
I agree. The art isn’t in the camera, it’s in the eye behind it.
9 300baud // Oct 7, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Does it open one up to any additional legal considerations to use a camera set to automatically and instantly upload photos, perhaps to a public site?
10 johnl // Oct 8, 2009 at 12:42 AM
Great! But don’t hesitate to zap stuff from the Cannon directly online via the iPhone too.
11 Carlos Miller // Oct 8, 2009 at 12:48 AM
Johnl,
I haven’t learned how to do that yet.
I shoot in RAW so I would imagine the size of the file would make it a very slow upload
12 johnl // Oct 8, 2009 at 1:09 AM
Ha. 10 megapixel camera, 10 meg raw file. I actually tote my whole darn Macbook around and use Sofortbild for my Nikon. But I am thinking of getting a Touch for that. I can make a camera shake enough without also holding a laptop. There are apps for Cannon. Nikon publishes one.
13 South Florida Lawyers // Oct 8, 2009 at 10:40 AM
They’re all pretty remarkable. I like the lighting and angle of the Gables City Hall pic.
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