S
o there we were, in the middle
of Times Square: my husband
and kids eagerly posing for
their first photo in New York,
as I take aim with my DSLR camera
and press the shutter release. The
familiar click of the camera stops mid-
way … and then nothing. My camera
conked out on the first day of our trip
–
with three more states and 29 days
to go in our itinerary!
My family was on the first leg of
a month-long trip in the US and we
were kicking off our summer holiday
at the most photographed city in the
world. As a photography enthusiast, I
was prepared to carry my heavy and
bulky DSLR camera around my neck
just to get postcard-worthy shots, or, at
the very least, photos that would get a
deluge of likes on Facebook.
The camera was dead. So, I
grabbed my mobile phone. I’d never
been a big user of my iPhone camera
before this trip, but a few weeks
earlier, I’d been reading some blogs on
iPhoneography and was blown away
by the creativity and quality of photos
people had taken. So I downloaded
one of the more popular free camera
apps, Instagram, to get started, and,
boy, am I glad I did!
World of possibilities
Just like a spontaneous detour that
ends up in a wonderful adventure, our
reroute to iPhoneography during our
trip unexpectedly resulted in inspired
and terrific photos (if I say so myself).
This is not to say I am completely giving
up on the SLR camera. Of course,
photos taken from an iPhone can never
have the same fine detail and quality of
photos taken by an SLR camera.
However, for the sheer ease of use
of the iPhone camera when travelling
–
from shooting to editing to sharing
–
I’m more encouraged by the iPhone
possibilities. I’m not an expert yet on
iPhoneography, but I did learn some
handy tricks during our trip and got
hooked in the process.
Choose an app
On this trip, I used only the Instagram
app together with the built-in iPhone
camera app. Instagram is a camera
app that takes photos in a square
format, which is ideal for Facebook
and blog layouts. It comes with several
filters and effects that help you adjust
the colour tones of your photos.
Ordinarily, when taking photos in
different weather conditions and
under different lighting, it’s difficult to
achieve a uniform mood among your
shots. Instagram addresses this in a
breeze by applying the same filter to
all your photos. I find the homogeny in
the colour temperature and saturation
nifty when I want to create a montage
of photos like this:
I’m not an expert yet on
iPhoneography, but I did learn
some handy tricks during our
trip and got hooked in the
process.
January 2013
51