iPhone Photography

There's a certain joy in working with the tools that you have on hand and getting good results. I've always had a love of photography. I think I was about 11 or 12 when my parents gave me their film camera, which was a Nikon of some sort (I really don't remember, and it's still in my old closet at their house). They had multiple lenses, so I got to play with different zoom levels, manual focus versus auto-focus, and framing and so on. I wasted a lot of film on pictures that were just slightly out of focus, but I still loved every minute of it.

But over time, I just thought less about taking pictures. Even when I got my first iPhone and had a camera in my pocket all the time, it was more of a utilitarian thing; I took a few passable photos to remember the thing I was doing, and that was about it. Lately, though, I've started taking my photography a little more seriously, which has had some really pleasing results. And all of that photography is on my iPhone.

I don't really know what it was that got me thinking about photography again, but it's become a fun little hobby of mine. It could easily become a hideously expensive hobby of mine, right alongside my bass playing, being a gadget guy, and all those other things, but it hasn't (yet.) Instead, I get a lot of pleasure out of taking a few extra seconds here and there and getting a good photo out of what I have with me all the time. A couple taps to adjust light balance and focus, maybe a few steps one direction or another, and I get a pretty passable picture.

I've also started playing around with the time lapse, shamelessly inspired by Casey Neistat. With stuff like Hyperlapse, it's really easy, and kind of fun. It kind of reminds me of working with film again, where you set the camera down and you have to force yourself not to look at it until you decide it's done. It's something I've never really done before, and I'm really enjoying it.

The nice thing, though, is that I've seen some incredible pictures and videos shot on an iPhone. Apple has an entire campaign about the stunning pictures and videos that people take on the iPhone. And that helps motivate me. I may never be the best photographer, or take the perfect picture, but it gives me something to strive towards. It goes back to my question from earlier this year: what does my best creative work look like? I still don't know the answer, but it gives me something to work on, and I'm enjoying the journey of trying to find out.