32/365 - a new theme

So the hipstamatic theme project has gone very well. I learned a lot over a short period of time about the nature of photography, particularly in the context of a society where cameras are very accessible, just like the creators of the original hipstamatic camera wanted. There are certainly lots of pros and cons to using your phone as a camera. The availability of a camera at nearly all times was really freeing to me. Not having to delegate time to making photographs allowed me to become an observer in the world around me, as usual, but without getting bent out of shape over whether I would be able to capture the vision in my head. The specific camera app I use (hipstamatic) had a feature that I realize now made it much more filmic than any of the lens or film options really do. Since the photos take a good deal of time to actually process immediately after taking, you're really forced to nail down the right view or angle since you feel the need to make it count. The limitation of the number of frames on a roll of film force this same feeling, and I have to say it can be helpful. I was getting a bit over-zealous with the snap,snap,snapping of tons of shots on my dslr to make sure that one is as sharp as possible. It was a good exercise. However, the overall quality of the images was less than desirable. I had to incorporate a couple of tricks to control the exposure and focus, since my phone wouldn't allow me the conventional manual ability I was used to. For instance if I was trying to expose for a certain area of a scene I would maybe have to aim at another area to meter and then quickly move back to my desired composition and take the photo before it adapted back to the auto exposure. We'll see how the iphonography translates into my next theme, which is what I call "peopleless places". Enjoy