Journal

iPhoneography Tips

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There are phases I go back and forth with in my photography such as mobile-only for awhile or a professional camera. This article will discuss my continuing fascination with iPhoneography and tips on how to make it better.

iPhone Camera app interface
  1. Clean the lens on your iPhone

Our iPhones get stuffed inside pockets, purses, backpacks, etc. You’ve seen how dirty your screen can get, now go show your camera lens some love. A clean lens will give you sharper, higher-contrast images. Make it a habit to regularly clean your iPhone camera lenses.

2. Composition

Keep your compositions simple or minimal. Duh.

3. Shoot from various angles

iPhones are compact compared to a heavy DSLR or mirrorless camera. This makes it far more effective when shooting high, low or at various angles. Put your iPhone on a tripod mount and explore all those options too.

4. Get a new camera (app)

The stock iPhone camera app is brilliantly intuitive, but you can get more control with other dedicated camera apps such as Halide or Camera+. These allow you to adjust settings manually, shutter speed, ISO etc. This seems like an appropriate time to mention editing apps.

5. Post-Process Fun

There are plenty of amazing iPhone editing apps but only a few are really worth your time as a serious photographer.

Adobe Lightroom
Hipstamatic
Snapseed
VSCO
Everything else are just fad apps.

With the above apps, you can adjust image exposure, crop to improve the composition, correct image white balance, add beautiful color effects, improve sharpness, and so much more. Many of these apps also offer advanced features, such as vignetting, noise reduction, and masking. If you really want to have fun with editing images, there are specialist applications that’ll remove image backgrounds, objects, and apps that’ll stitch layers images together.

I enjoy editing images. It’s a fun way to enhance your photos, and once you’re done with the basic enhancements, you can have fun adding creative effects.

6. Shoot It Until You Get It

Digital photography has an advantage over film in that you can afford to shoot a lot. You can also make a lot of mistakes that can be forgiven quickly. Pick out your best images later. Don’t delete any photos while you are out shooting. Wait until you are done to properly review.

7. Zoom with your feet

All cameras have two types of zoom options: optical zoom and digital zoom. An optical zoom is created by the camera’s lens. A digital zoom is made by cropping an image. The iPhone deletes pixels to create a zoom effect. Digital zoom destroys the quality of your images.

Don’t sacrifice image quality, just zoom with your feet. Move closer to your subject if possible. If it isn’t possible, then shoot your image and crop later. The difference in quality is improved and you’ll be happier.

8. Hold your phone like a camera

I always shoot in landscape mode (phone is horizontal instead of vertical.) I also almost always shoot with two hands on the iPhone for control and stability.

Mojo Island (GCA06T7)

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With my friends joining me, I have claimed an island in the middle of the Arkansas river as my own and renamed it “Mojo Island.” After verifying GPS coordinates, I placed a container full of treasure and a log for those intrepid explorers who follow me. From the geocache description:

This geocache is rated as a  5/5. Not everyone may be able to attempt this cache. It will require walking down rocks, wading, or possibly swimming in river water currents (not suggested) You may have to use a canoe or kayak to access Mojo’s island. Either way, you need to understand that you assume the risk. Myself, nor Geocaching.com/Groundspeak can be held responsible for your decision to attempt to retrieve this cache. You are looking for a container on the island itself. It could have a tendency to leak, especially in high water, so if you cannot sign it then a photo of you and the container will qualify as a smiley in your log. Due to the nature of the terrain and difficulty level, photographic proof is required in addition to the signing of the log. Please send images to me directly instead of in the geocache log. Good luck and stay safe out there as there are potentially sharp rocks along the shorelines. 

– Geo Mojo, host of Mojo’s Island

I’ll be headed back to Mojo island as soon as I have found a more suitable container, more treasure to add to it and even a human skeleton that I will chain to a tree as a waypoint for future explorers to discover.

Solvitur Ambulando

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“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”

— Søren Kierkegaard

Support

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In the entire twenty years of this website’s existence, I have never monetized it. No ads, no gimmicks, nada. It has been self-sufficient this whole time. But, all of a sudden I find myself in a situation where rising costs of server hosts and email hosts may be too much at the moment.

The domain for this website (chrisdenbow.com) expires next month.

The email address services (hello@chrisdenbow.com) also expires next month.

For the couple of hundred interested followers of this site, thank you for your interest through the years. If you have the kindness and appreciation for me and or this site, please consider sending a donation to help keep this site going for another year.

Apologies in advance. I am not use to this situation and I find it difficult to type these words. If interested, please send me a message to the above email address before October 24, 2022.

Thank you.

Watch 9 Compass App with Wayfinding Integration

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The latest iOS software version has been released this week and I have some ooh, ahh and WTHs.

Apple WatchOS has a new way finding tool built in to its compass. Why the hell didn’t Apple see fit to update the same Compass app design with Wayfinding in its iPhone?

WatchOS 8
WatchOS 8
iOS 16 Compass app

I would enjoy equal use of this on both devices. Make it happen, Apple.