For most of the time I have owned my smart phone, I have resisted using its camera for anything other than silliness or emergency photo needs. In a pinch, I would use it to get a visual reminder of something I wanted to buy later or take a shot of a funny something-or-other I wanted to show to my husband.
The image quality and size generated from my phone were inferior and I wasn't going to stoop as a photographer to the low depths of taking photos with a phone. And if I did take a photo with my phone, you bet I wouldn't be sharing it.
That has changed. I got tired of always lugging around my big, impressive camera. Sometimes I felt conspicuous whipping out my large-lensed baby when all around were holding up sleek, barely bigger than a credit card options. Everyone thought I was a reporter at school events.
And then there was the immediate gratification that I wasn't getting. With my real camera, I have to download my images to my computer and convert them from RAW format to something the rest of the world can use. And of course, once I am in there converting and whatnot, I must tweak and crop and sharpen and pump up the brightness and manipulate the shadows and process until the shot was perfect and my gratification has been sufficiently delayed. Then I could share, post and enjoy my photos to my heart's content.
Lately, I figured out what everyone else knew. With phone images: there is none of that waiting. I know I could play around with sepia or black and white effects, but the shot is the shot. And you can enjoy and share it the second the moment is over...or even while it's still happening. That's the plus of a camera phone. Immediate gratification experienced and then move on to the next gratifying moment, if you are into that sort of thing.
Sheepishly I must admit, I have sort of gotten into that sort of thing lately. I am not Instagramming myself all over town but I have been using my phone to capture lots of moments and I have shared them...on this blog. You probably didn't even know it. And you probably care even less. But I care. I take pride in my photography and don't want negative image quality to reflect my abilities. You might think I need to get over myself but let's just think about it...would Martha Stewart serve EasyMac over her signature macaroni and cheese recipe? Not without a serious excuse or not without adding gruyere or bacon when it came out of the microwave.
In the world of my mind, my photographer's eye is the gruyere and my blog posts are bacon.
I have an iphone but I think the quality is mostly poor. I like Instagram for zhuzzing them up a little, but its not close to what you can do with a 'real' picture. Still, in the moment the camera phone is fun and like you say, sometimes by the time you get the picture downloaded you're over talking about it. Have a fun weekend!
ReplyDeleteNo disrespect to instagramming...I am sure I will be doing more and more of this sort of thing. I am usually late to the tech party, but I do show up!
Delete