One of the things that appears to be setting the photointarwebs alight at the moment is Chase Jarvis’s “The Best Camera” – and by this I mean the book, the iPhone app, and, indeed, the concept. It really is interesting, and it appears to be centred around (if we ignore Chase’s relentless self promotion, which I mean entirely as a complement) the idea that the best camera is the one that you have with you at the time. No camera, no picture. It does mean, however, that you have to fully understand your tool.
What do I mean? Take the most obvious example: casual photography in stadiums (Stadia? No. We’re not actually Romans. Let’s stick with stadiums). If you happen to be with a photographer at a gig or game, you will, inevitably, see them scoff at some point of the game, as a flash goes off behind them, for one simple reason: the flashes on compact cameras light up a subject at 15 feet at best. This is unlikely to pick up Stevie Gerrard from the gods. Wrong tool and, more importantly, wrong technique.
So, what is Chase Jarvis thinking? He’s gunning for a bit of mindshare – and marketshare – in the near ubiquitous iPhone market, a market which consists of a crappy 2mp or slightly less crappy 3mp sensor, only the latter with autofocus. Not your high end shooting apparatus.
I’ll tell you what he’s thinking. He’s thinking suit your image to the device, and use it’s advantages. What are advantages of an iPhone? Well, there’s the obvious one, which Chase has centred on – it’s there. If you have a mobile phone, let alone an iPhone, you’ll understand the feeling that accompanies not having it within a five foot radius; like ones chest being sat on by a gorilla, or having ones dialysis turned off. A photo is better than no photo. Secondly, of course, the iPhone is not a closed system. When one chooses a camera, one chooses from what is often a bewildering and, frankly astonishing array of options. However, once it is in your grubby little paw, you’re stuck with what you’ve got. Not so with your shiny iPhone, where one can expand its capabilities, enhancing and stretching and joining and bettering. Photogene, Camerabag, Autostitch, Photoshop, Best Camera. As such, you can do quite a lot to make your crappy pictures, well, less so. And lastly, don’t try and make it do what it has no chance of doing. You are not going to be getting pixel perfect photographs of Dave Grohl from the upper tiers of Wembley, so don’t try. Instead, go take a vacation in your own neighbourhood, in well light areas. Look for composition rather than subject mater. Rely on humour. Think of it as a pencil sketch rather than an oil painting. And don’t blow the results up too big.
At the very least, you’ll have flexed your photographic muscles, and maybe learned something to use when you get back to your D1xVS Mark 12 VR SuperBeast.
Lastly, a confession. I’ve talked a great deal about something which I don’t practice, or at least I don’t practice very often. And there’s no excuse. I rather like the cloudscape that I managed to eke out of my iPhone above, with the help of favourable sunlight and Photogene, but it’s rather a one-off, I’m afraid. I will, as ever, try harder.