Shooting From The Hip House

Shooting from The Hip 8/29/10

Picking wild flowers for grandma.

Shooting from The Hip 6/30/10

The Hubby shot this awesome surveillance pic,

titled: "Slow Day at The Office."

Shooting from The Hip 6/9/10

Another successful cellphone portrait, titled:

"She Who is Here to Take Over for Me."

Look. Out.

Shooting from The Hip 6/2/10

Shooting from The Hip 5/4/10

Shooting from The Hip 4/28/10

All in one walk:

Pink Balloon Lady,

and Shakespearean Insult Gum.

Alpha Sky 7

I was waiting for Magpie on the wrong corner,

when I shot this 7 from the hip.

Shooting from The Hip: 4/7/10

Bloomin' tree, street light, 10 p.m.

Shooting Mina from The Hip

Mina bathed in exhaulted rainbow sunlight.

Howse THAT for a cellphone special effect?!

Cell Phone Pic Wednesday

Who needs to be rescued?

I secretly shot this yesterday, from a government building.

Shooting from The Hip: (or the car)

it's cellphone pic wednesday,

and this was the coolest pic I have on my phone.

It's from when we were in SF,

and I was trying to take moody monday pics,

but came across this art deco pet hospital.

I dunno how it came out all slanty.

No photoshop, I swear.

Janet, what did you shoot for today?

Shoot from The Hip

Who lives in a pagoda under the sea?

Sponge Bob, Black Fish.

Wonder what Janet has for us today...

Shooting from The Train

This is a booming town called "Flushing."

You can get delicious dim sum here.

When you grow up not too far from Flushing,

you forget that it's a funny name.

I have probably had some of the best food of my life in this town,

and it used to have the best movie theater in the world...

a place where teenagers can play hookey & hide out in smokey balconies.

I think I saw the movie "Warriors" there.

Some other funny names along this same train line:

Manhasset (as in "That man has quite a set!")

Little Neck

Great Neck

Murray Hill

And of course: the Train House named Harold.

Shooting from The Hip: 1/20/10

I shot this on a moving train, as the cup revealed itself

from under the seat.

Wonder what Janet has for today...

Shooting from The Hip

Dear Renee, Plus Shooting From The Hip

Stop and Shop before the big snow storm, 2009.

Sadly, I could not view your cell phone pic, because you have your settings on private. However, your timing is excellent! Since so many folks have expressed excitement over my cell phone pics tips, Janet, of the Famous Fond of Snape and I have decided to join forces to bring you "Shoot From The Hip" wednesdays!!!!

Leave us a comment with a link to your cell phone pics, and join our movement.

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!