The Irony of the iPhone

The Irony of the iPhone

Recently, I picked up the new iPhone 4S.  It was really exciting to finally get 'the phone'.  After carrying an old Palm Treo phone for 8 years...it worked, I saw no reason to replace it.  I was really looking forward to all the amazing things I had heard about with regards to this phone.  Downloaded a few 'apps' and started to explore.

It wasn't long before I discovered that shooting with the built-in camera was surprisingly good, far better than I anticipated.  Here was, for me a business tool, that I used for emails, reading PDF's, keeping track of contacts and clients and of course phone calls.  Recently, I had to travel for business and normally I always make a point of carrying one of my cameras.  But on this recent trip, I chose to leave my smaller second body home and my primary camera I just sold as I plan to purchase a new body.  It was a short trip and I didn't think I'd be able to dedicate time to shoot.  But as is the case all too often, my flight was delayed.  So I tried to keep myself entertained.

I found myself looking around and seeing images that I wanted to capture.  The more I shot, the more I enjoyed the challenge of making images that I found interesting, dynamic and worth sharing.  I had heard and read of iphoneography and thought it was something Apple junkies created just to worship the brand.  But here I was getting more and more invested in creating images that I would have been happy to make with my more serious 'tools'.

The more I shot, the more I felt this was a viable new tool for me to use.  To some extent, I started to feel a sense of guilt.  Here I was shooting with a camera phone, no control over my exposure settings and a tiny sensor and miniscule lens.  While at home, sat a bag of expensive lenses, some valued at over $1000 dollars that I painstakingly researched, and purchased that took a real commitment at work to justify.  Was I cheating myself, my gear, my commitment to the art image-making?  Was I becoming a casual less serious shooter?  These images could never be enlarged to the same size as images made with my brick full frame DSLR. Was this bad?

It's been a few months now, and I have a collection of over 150 images that I truly like very much shot with my iPhone.  It has now become a challenge for me to put together a collection of images shot strictly with my iPhone that could be displayed in a gallery.  The images shared here are the images from that initial business trip that started the whole self-imposed challenge.  So the irony for me is that I find myself reaching for the iPhone to shoot instead of my optically superior lenses and camera.  Someone mentioned to me recently that if I had made those same images with one of my cameras they would be far superior and more usable.  I don't disagree but I lustfully enjoy watching people's reactions when they look at some of the images and gasp and say "you shot that with a phone?!?!"

Spring Break just passed for my wife and son and we took a trip to Puerto Rico for a few days.  On the trip, I chose to carry one of my cameras but I also had my iPhone with me, for work of course...
I hate to say it but I prefer the images that I shot with my iPhone to those shot with my camera.  So this is my new irony!  Do I continue to shoot with my iPhone or shoot with my camera?