Saturday, January 2, 2010

Cell Phone Pics

I realized, in reading Jean's New Year's post,
that I've been remiss in posting about the special qualities of
cell phone pics,
not just for graphic design purposes,
but also for surveillence ;-)

In this one, I captured a moment that could have been
snatched at any point in a 60 year span.
My cell was ready, the timing was perfect, and 1 second later
(fishing for my camera) would have dated the pic.
As Bonbon commented, [when I originally posted it
over a year ago,] it has an Edward Hopper quality to it.

A couple of months later, we re-used it for a varmint diorama.
It was a community project, and the diner pic made the perfect backdrop.


Here's another classic, taken at a TGIF's.
The camera would have totally blown my cover on this one.
To make sure the cell phone was still, I balanced it on the table,
framed it perfectly, & looked elsewhere when I clicked.
My advice to anyone interested
in catching great cell phone pics:
Don't be afraid to shoot! Shoot risky, and shoot often.


In a similar example, below,
the lighting was seemingly too dark to shoot without a flash,
but was completely salvageable by playing with
the brightness & contrast in Photoshop, later.


The other thing I'd like to say is that there's
nothing like the pure convenience of emailing your pic
straight to your computer, instead of going through
the motions of hooking it up to the usb, downloading, etc.

I was inspired by this view of my home office,
and again, the lower quality here gave it more mood.
The pic was snapped by phone,
sent up through space, and beamed back down
right into that computer, over there.



I also usually have the cell out & ready
on the train, which enabled me to snap this one:



In these next examples,
the ability to capture a varmental moment is key.




And in these, the natural light at that very moment screamed
PORTRAIT!!!!


So when you see light like this,
don't waste time running for the professional camera.
Who cares if it's not perfectly focused?
In a matter of seconds, the subject might be gone...
Just shoot!





9 comments:

pve design said...

wow - you are an amazing cell photographer,
more cell phone photos please!
great shots.
pve

Megan Coyle said...

I have to agree--I'm amazed by your talent with a cell phone camera! Beautiful pictures and what a great idea of how to take pictures of unsuspecting people in public.

Happy New Year!

svelteSTUFF said...

Serious '2010 Inspiration'!

modernemama said...

Love your shots. How come when I take an undercover shot I capture only a sliver of one unidentifiable, out-of-focus body part?

Jen said...

Good eye. I am inspired to use my phone camera more often. If I could only rid it of the click sound.

Janet said...

This is the reason I've kept my phone despite the fact it's hard to read emails ... it has a 3 megapixel camera and since I always have it with me, I never miss a shot! Took this one while stopped in traffic:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fondofelves/4017425378/

Love the idea of setting the pic up and looking away to get a good shot. We should do a collaboration of these.

Krissy | Paper Schmaper said...

that diner shot is fantastic!! i love that you snap photos of strangers on your cell phone. i do the same thing, except sadly i do not keep majority of them!

Anonymous said...

i so LUV AN, so dark/deep, so melancholic!
poxx

Jean Martha said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE that picture of the 2 ladies in the booth. LOVE!

Also, the diorama belongs at MOMA.