When I first got a cell phone way back when, I thought it was silly that the phone had a camera. What a lousy camera, I thought. How useless! Why would I want to shoot anything with a phone? Oh, how things change.
iPhone apps brought me back to photography. I was tired of my Diana cameras, tired of shooting pinholes, tired of setting up and tearing down my kitchen darkroom every time I wanted to print, unwilling to lug around a 35mm camera, and my little digital Pentax had died. I stopped shooting for a long time, frustrated, in a rut, unmotivated, irritable about it all. And then I discovered, eons after everyone else, the fun of apps. I started shooting again using Old Camera, Instagram and RetroCamera, shooting every day, and it yanked me out of my photographic funk. Now I’m back in my darkroom, and back to shooting with all kinds of cameras in all kinds of ways.
I especially like Old Camera, which is supposed to simulate platinum prints and other historic processes. I’m not sure it succeeds, but it gives my photos a bit of an old-fashioned air and because the phone isn’t a “serious” camera, there’s no inhibition; I shoot casually, playfully, constantly. I still travel and shoot with other cameras, but I like the toylike feeling of the phone. Here are a few favorite shots from our recent trip to the west coast.
Part of Vancouver’s Downtown skyline at dusk. What a pretty city.
My early morning walk along the sea wall on English Bay at low tide. Look at those giant trees! There’s a tiny runner on the lower right to show the scale.
I like the little piles of stones randomly arranged along the shoreline. This group looks like cormorants waiting for their dinner. After I took this picture, two river otters paddled by, chirping to one another.
After three days in Vancouver, we drove towards Seattle and hopped on the Edmonds Kingston ferry to the Olympic Peninsula.
Our first night was in Forks, in this sweet little cabin tucked into the trees.
The next day was my favorite, into the deep, dark rain forests. Well, okay, it was uncharacteristically sunny. Still, spooky and serene at the same time.
Based on these photos, I can’t wait to develop my film. Our second and last night on the Peninsula was at Lake Quinault. This was the sunset view at dinner.
Then it was off to Tacoma and Seattle, back to Vancouver, and home to New York.
I’d love to discover more apps, especially ones that imitate historic processes. Do you have any favorites?
C.B. Wentworth said:
These shots are gorgeous. I absolutely love the shading and tone. 🙂
ThisHandcraftedLife said:
Thanks! I fiddled around with them a bit in Photoshop to give them a wider range of grays.
Mimi Patenaude said:
Great pics!!
ThisHandcraftedLife said:
Thanks for the compliment and thanks for dropping by!
christian harkness said:
Thanks Monica for this posting – I love the photos and appreciate the discussion of digital and film in this regard. I know some [perhaps many photographers] go ballistic when discussing iPhone photos. I just don’t think they have a point or the perspective. So, it is refreshing to see yours. While I don’t have an IPhone, I have this wonderful Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX10, which is tiny and waterproof, and which I can carry around with me 99 percent of the time. I just enlarged a cropped image from it to 13×19 inches and printed it – it looks great, better than any darkroom print I can make. Like you, it really has brought a lot of joy back to my photography.
ThisHandcraftedLife said:
Hey Christian,
I’ve never really understood all the fuss, and people say the same dismissive things about Diana cameras. If it’s a great photo, why does it matter what camera was used to take it? Just because I don’t use a pricey camera doesn’t mean my photo stinks. And besides, it’s just so fun to play with these great little cameras! I’ll keep on ignoring the curmudgeons.
Tina said:
Thanks for posting these, and I’m so glad you’ve continued to take photos, and for your new direction. I don’t have an iPhone, just use my point-and-shoot digital Cannon. That camera broke me out of my photo slump, as I had stopped shooting for a long time. Shooting with film had gotten to be so much more difficult and expensive, and I was still hooked on doing everything by hand. Now, I enjoy taking loads of shots at a time- it’s very freeing! Keep up the nice work!
ThisHandcraftedLife said:
Yes, I stopped shooting with film because the developing became such a production. Now that I’ve gotten more involved with digital and am shooting more overall, the film seems less of a hassle.