Some New Photos, Some Shot with a New Toy

The camera in the iPhone 4S (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's been a while since I added new photos to the gallery (featured in the sidebar on the left), so here's another batch. The first seven were shot with my usual wheelchair mounted camera rig (click here for info). I recently upgraded my camera to a Panasonic Lumix GH2 (click here), for which I am quickly developing an affection, but that's not the new toy I'm talking about in the title of this post…

My newest gadget is (drumroll please)… an iPhone! The remaining 11 photos posted down below were all taken with my new iPhone 4S, a device I resisted buying for several years because I just didn't want to join the cult of Apple. I know, I know, people love Apple gizmos and will line up for days to get the latest and greatest (I have an Apple Store on the corner of my block), but I've always found the whole Apple thing to be more than a little annoying. Maybe it's just the contrarian in me, but I generally don't like "smug", and Apple as a social phenomenon is nothing if not smug. Yes, their design studios turn out physically beautiful products, and they did reinvent the way we interact with our computers (remember the days of Microsoft DOS, blech), revolutionize the way we purchase and listen to music (and in the process destroy the monolithic music industry, which, even though it employed me, might not be a bad thing) and even change the whole concept of what a phone should be, but I always resisted the Apple siren song because of the smugfest that enveloped it.

What finally won me over was the inclusion of a relatively high-quality eight megapixel camera in the newest iPhone, and all the fun photography apps designed for it that I kept reading about on the various photo websites I like to poke around in. The Siri feature, which lets you talk to the phone and access many of its functions by voice command was also a selling point, as it’s a very disability friendly option, but the big draw for me was the photo potential.

Despite my initial reticence, I have to admit that the iPhone is a pretty neat device. I have gone a little nuts with the photo apps, but hey, at the cost of one or two bucks each I can afford to splurge, and many of them do some impressive tricks. Though I've always used Photoshop to process my photos, I generally try not to tinker with them too much, preferring to stick with traditional in camera photography and the digital version of old-school darkroom techniques. With the iPhone and all of its many photo apps, though, I just can't help myself but mess around with the photos in a zillion different ways, as you can probably see from the examples below. It's easy to overdo it with some of the effects because the apps make it so terribly easy and some self-control is definitely required, but there's something about making pictures with the iPhone that is tremendously addictive. The quality of the photos it produces is nowhere near that of a dedicated high-end interchangeable lens digital camera, but for a phone - zowie!

An unexpected benefit that I really didn't anticipate before getting the iPhone is that it allows me to handhold the camera, which is very liberating after years of taking photos with a camera firmly mounted to the arm of my wheelchair. The iPhone camera can be operated with one hand (which is a good thing for someone who only has one gimpy but for the time being still working hand), and the photos I take with it are much more like my photos of old, prior to MS (or whatever the hell I have) forcing a very disciplined style of shooting on me. Before MS stole the use of my right arm, I used lots of toy and/or antique cameras, because I loved the dreamy, seemingly haphazard, and often surreal images they captured. Well, the combination of the small footprint of the iPhone and its many available photo apps has allowed me to digitally re-create what I used to do organically. Naturally, I'd give my right arm (snicker) to be able to go back to doing things as I did in my healthy days, but, as they say, any port in a storm…

Okay, enough with my endless blatherings. Presented for your perusal are the following 18 photos (click thumbnail for larger image), on which I'd love to get your feedback. Feel free to critique at will, as I'd like to know which ones you hate as well as which you like, so please don't be shy about leaving your impressions in the comments section at the bottom of the post.

Oh, I almost forgot, since a bunch of readers have inquired if and where they might buy some of my photos, I'm looking into setting up a website that would allow folks to do so. I don't want to generate any income from selling them, but I would like to further MS research, so any profits realized would be donated to various MS charities. More details to follow, as they become available…



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Some New Photos, With a Twist

I've added some new photos to the Wheelchair Kamikaze photo gallery, but these are a little bit different than any of the other shots found there. Back before my neurologic difficulties robbed me of the ability to hold a camera to my eye (click here to see my wheelchair mounted camera set up), I loved taking photos with antique and toy cameras. Because of the decidedly low-tech quality of the optics used in many of these cameras, the images they produced had a surreal quality to them, almost like snapshots taken from a long-ago dream. I used to scour eBay listings, flea markets, and yard sales for cheap relics that were still in working order, knowing that each one would have its own unique but endearing quirks. Of course, none of these cameras were digital, and all used traditional film, which further makes them impossible for me to now use, as loading film with my one wonky but still working hand would be quite the achievement.

Within two years of my diagnosis I was no longer able to hold a camera to my eye and had to sadly give up my yen for photography. I bitterly thought my photo days were over, until my disease progressed to the point where I needed a wheelchair. Once I got the electric beast, and embraced the freedom it allowed me, my wife insisted that I try to figure out a way to rig a camera to the chair, and pressed the point home by getting me a suitable camera and camera mounting equipment one Christmas. I was quite resistant to the idea at first, I think because I was afraid the results would not be up to snuff, and would only serve as evidence of just how much I'd lost to my illness. After a couple of goes at it, though, I found that the photos I took in my new, somewhat unwieldy manner actually weren't all that bad, and realized that once again I was back in business. Of course, the antique and toy camera fetish was out, as the only cameras suitable for my new set up were high-tech digital beasties, but, as they say, any port in a storm.

Lo and behold, a couple of months ago I discovered that there were some decidedly low-tech lenses available to be mounted on my high-tech digicam. I warily ordered one, called simply the "toy camera lens" (click here), from an outfit in Hong Kong, half expecting my money to disappear into the ether. Incredibly, three days later (!) a package arrived from Asia, containing my wonderfully cheapo new lens. It's a really strange creature, with an area of sharp focus in the center, surrounded by increasingly swirly and out of focus edges. It's kind of temperamental, and I'm still sussing out the best ways to utilize its eccentric charms. There's no autofocusing the thing, you actually have to focus it by hand, an old-school exercise that I somehow find very satisfying, even though it increases immensely the complexities of trying to take a photo with only one coopertive hand.

So, presented for your perusal are the following photos, all taken with my new toy camera lens. I'd really appreciate some feedback on these, as I'm pretty sure they won't appeal to everyone, but I think some will find their dreaminess appealing, and hopefully see something striking or compelling in them. If not, you have permission to tell me I'm nuts. Honestly, I'd love to hear all opinions, good or bad, so feel free to leave comments positive or negative, as all will be valued.