Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

Gorillacam

Check the App Store for the great new update of Gorillacam by Joby Inc. The update adds a few great new features to this camera replacement app that we recently reviewed in our Best Free iPhone Camera Replacements article. Best of all, the app is still free.

The version 1.1 update adds anti-shake image stabilization, tap-to-focus for 3GS iPhones, selectable image sizes and a very nice full resolution 4X digital zoom. It’s a great update to an already excellent camera replacement app.

If you don’t already have a camera replacement app, Gorillacam is worth a serious look — even more so after this update.

Gorillacam is still free in the App Store. [link]

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Since the birth of my FROM THE POCKET project in late 2009, I have received several emails from fellow iPhoneographers — many of whom want to know the applications I use for processing, capturing techniques, subject choices, and so on. As we all know, iPhoneography is a rapidly growing artistic medium and with that, comes the introduction of new artists and iPhoneographers alike. The art and design world is slow to accept iPhoneography as a true expression of art. However, we are seeing that iPhoneographers who are true artists beginning to alter this interpretation. Just like any new form of art, iPhoneography needs to grow and establish artistic legitimacy. There are those who simply take pictures with their iPhone, and those who employ the iPhone as an artistic tool.

This article is directed at my fellow and aspiring iPhoneographers who want to better their iPhoneography experience and artfully improve their images. Below, I have listed 7 simple tips to better your iPhoneography. This will not be a source of suggesting applications you should be using to process images, or how you should hold the iPhone, or how to make your images look “more analog”. My intentions are to provide artful insight into bettering your iPhoneography.

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January 30, 2010
Giorgi Gallery
Berkeley, California

Bottom Line: If you’re in or near the Bay Area, this is a Don’t Miss exhibition.

Pixels at an Exhibition, Giorgi Gallery

Pixels at an Exhibition is the first brick and mortar iPhoneography exhibit. While there have been other brick and mortar exhibitions where iPhone photography was a component, Pixels at an Exhibition is the first gallery show to feature iPhoneography exclusively. What organizers and curators Knox Bronson and Rae Douglass have done is to reach out to iPhoneographers around the globe. They’ve created an exhibition that exemplifies what the iPhone is capable of artistically and celebrates a broad range of styles coming from photographers who have embraced the technology of the iPhone and the spontaneity of having an inconspicuous camera with you everywhere you go.

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Image MashUp
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: Frustrating to use and low-res output. Not worth it.

Image Mash-up

Image Mash-up by Gu.Dist brings Photoshop-style Layers editing to the iPhone. It’s a noble effort and a big undertaking to bring this type of editing to the iPhone. Unfortunately, Image Mash-up falls way short on many levels. The execution is difficult and frustrating and the output is super low resolution, 320×480 pixels.

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If you’re in or around the Bay Area this weekend, be sure to drop by the opening of Pixels at an Exhibition at Giorgi Gallery in Berkeley, California. The list of finalists has been posted and this looks to be quite an exhibition. The exhibit features works of dozens of iphoneographers from around the globe including Dixon Hamby, Dominique Jost, Valerie Ardini and some guy called Marty (three of my photos were selected!)

The opening is this Saturday from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. We’ll be there and follow up with our impressions of the exhibition and the scope of the work.

Giorgi Gallery
2911 Claremont Blvd.
Berkeley, CA.
www.giorgigallery.com

Details at iphontography.org.

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Fort Worth, Texas
January 27, 2010

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While we’re all basking in the new Apple iPad’s warm fuzzy glow today, I thought I’d serve up this classic link from holga blog that I found back in November.

The article contains some good tips to help see things differently. I think the key to a lot of these tips is simply to take time, clear your head, to be more aware of your surroundings. It’s not a how-to article, but more of a change of mind-set article. From personal experience, I’ve found myself recognizing a potential moment and rather than forcing the photo, simply waiting for the photo to come to me.

Zen photography….

Read the entire article on holga blog here >>>

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I was recently interviewed by John Meadows for the On the Log podcast. In “Episode 89: Less is More”, we discuss iPhoneography and using the iPhone with some recent apps to capture the look of old analog photography. It was a fun discussion and I think it’s an interesting interview. Plus, you get to find out whether or not this Texan talks with a twang.

Click here for the podcast On the Log, Episode 89: Less is More >>>

iPhoneography by John Meadows

John took the above photo with CameraBag.

Here’s the link to John’s site, On the Log >>>

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I didn’t create these. The bakery artisans at Central Market in Fort Worth did. They really are artists and dessert is their palette. Other than the wine department and the cheese section (Central Market is the only place you can get fresh cheese curds in DFW), the Dessert Department is my favorite in the market. Okay, really it’s called the bakery, but that’s what they the place where they make the bread. The Dessert Department is where dreams lined with tiny cream puffs are made.

My dream is to someday walk into Central Market’s bakery and say “I’ll take them all.”

Just Desserts

Toolbox: TiltShift Generator

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ClassicPan — Vintage Panoramic Camera
Version 1.0.1

The Bottom Line: Good potential for novel photos, but version 1.0 needs some fixes.

ClassicPan

I like shooting landscape images and I like shooting with a wide aspect ratio. To me, a good panorama is a single frame right out of life’s big movie. Camera HD, a straightforward yet versatile aspect ratio app, landed on my main camera page the day it was released and has stayed there ever since.

ClassicPan is a vintage-style panoramic camera app from misskiwi. While the iPhone’s camera normally shoots photos with a 4:3 aspect ratio, ClassicPan stores images to your camera roll in 9:4 panorama format. Like Camera HD, this is achieved by cropping the top and bottom of the frame, resulting in a “fixed lens” type of pano without any of the wide-angle distortion.

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