quote from David Hume Kennerly On the iPhone

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David Hume Kennerly is a professional photographer.  He's won the Pulitzer Prize.

He challenged himself to take at least one good picture (according to his standards) with his iPhone, every day for a year.  Here's something he says in On the iPhone:

"Great pictures are about the eye, not about the gear."


I love it when people at the top of their field agree with something I've been thinking right along......


The book shows a lot of the pics.  He writes about what he was thinking, and what he was working toward as he took the pics.

This is another book from the library.  I'm enjoying it.



Here is a post to his blog about working on the book, with some of the pics he took that year.

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February 26

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On the 26th, we met friends for dinner and then walked over to Hill Auditorium for the school district's orchestra night.  All of the middle schools and high schools send orchestras.  It's a wonderful opportunity for the district's musicians (some of whom are very proficient indeed) to play in a wonderful venue that is enjoyed by professional musicians from all over the world.

Once upon a time, our own daughter was one of two trumpets playing the signature portion of "The William Tell Overture" as part of the orchestra from her middle school.  Right there in Hill Auditorium.  It was one of those moments that sends chills up a parent's spine.........

This pic of a little oil lamp on a restaurant table, with the salt and pepper, was taken with the camera. 

I like the shadows on the table, and on the salt and pepper shakers.

I tried the phone, too, just to see what would happen, but the phone insisted on using flash.  I tried to get it to stop, with no success.  The phone is far too eager to do things I don't want it to be doing, alas.............  I wish it would let ME decide what I want it to do...........  Especially when I know perfectly well what I want it to do (or not do, as the case may be).  The camera flash gets on, too, sometimes, without me intending it to be on, but the phone does it far more often.  And I don't know how to make it stop (and don't want to take time to figure it out, in a busy restaurant).

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December 30

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Big frost feathers on the window.

Blue sky.  Hooray.

Here comes the sun.......

One thing about spending time home, sick (but not too sick), is that a lot of reading can happen.

I am quite liking these Sharon Lee "Carousel" books.  I've read two now.....   Positivity is by one of the contributors to The Science of Happiness.  I'm really enjoying learning more about the science of positive emotions..... 

Walking.

Back home, looking out the back window.  So far, all the pics in this post were taken with a camera.  It was pretty dark when I took this one, so I went for the phone.  It does a much closer approximation, in low light, to what my eyes see than does the camera.

Here's a look at the south, taken with the camera.

I've lightened this up -- this is more like what my eyes saw.

Cropped.

Here's what the camera saw.  I did zoom it, which renders a less-sharp image (no optical zoom on a phone).

Not really all that thrilled with either of these images.

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December 28

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On the 28th, we ventured out for a walk for the first time since the 22nd.  We took it slow, and didn't go as far as usual.  It was cold, and windier than we considered to be strictly necessary.  But there were bits of blue sky.....

And jet trails.

When I wanted to stop for a pic, I realized I'd neglected to bring the camera, so all three of these first pics in this post were taken with the phone.

This next one taken inadvertently as I walked away from taking the previous one.  Not bad for "taken while walking".....

This one was taken about an hour and forty-five minutes later, from the study window, with the camera.

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December 18

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Walking at sunset.  There was a dusting of snow, which was sticking to some surfaces, but not to others.  I thought to use the camera and the phone.

Here's what the camera captured.

This next one is the same as above, lightened.  A bit washed out (which I could have tried to address, but didn't).

Phone.  I like this one much better.

A line of rocks in a garden (which is mostly dirt, at this point).  This is what the camera captured.

Lightened.

Phone.  The color is greener than the camera's image, but all in all I think I like this next image and the previous one about equally.

Here's the camera's image, lightened a little.  I can't decide if I think this is an improvement.

As I suspected it might, from seeing some of what my daughter has captured with her phone, I am thinking the phone generally does a better job in low light than the camera.

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December17

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On the 17th I finished up my health-care to-do list for the year, with a mammogram and a bone scan.

I tell myself that I should be grateful for people who are willing to hurt me "for my own good," but I find it's a hard thing to be grateful for.  I'd much rather spend my health-care time and dollars on ... a massage! ... than on dentistry or a mammogram.  (The bone scan is quick and painless.  Neutral, rather than painful, but still, I'd rather have a massage!)  But what they were able to learn as a result of hurting me is that all is well, and gratitude for that is something I can easily get behind.

I went to the new part of the University's extensive health system that is across Plymouth Road from the place where I met my better half, many moons ago. 

Behind the health-system buildings is land with fewer human marks on it than most of the land around here.  I saw signs that said "Wetland Conservation Easement" (whatever that may mean).

I liked the different colors of what remains of the plants.

"WHAT colors?" you may ask.  Well, let's make the color more visible, shall we?

If you look back, at the image above, I think it's possible to see these colors.  They are much more subdued, in the original, but they're there...........

It makes me smile, to see the full-blown color.  While I can enjoy the subtlety of the original, I really rejoice in the saturated version below.

I was, by the way, using the phone, rather than the camera.

I was thinking it would be easier to get at than the camera (as getting at a fanny pack under my winter coat is not all that easy, and then zipping the coat back up is annoying too -- I think it's on the verge of needed a new zipper, alas).

So I put the phone in a pocket inside my coat.  That was a lot easier to get at.  Though, as I think of it now, the camera would handily fit into that same pocket.......

Anyway -- all three of these images were taken with the phone.

There is asphalt driveway all around the health-system buildings.  Along the edge next to the "Wetland Conservation Easement", part of the land next to the driveway is muddy, and some of that was under water.

Leaves, in a muddy puddle.

I think there must be deer on this land.  I kept seeing what looked like deer footprints -- pairs of long-ish oval depressions.  I did not see anything that looked like series of tracks, just one here and two there.  This is one of the clearest of the pairs of marks -- I am pretty sure this is a deer footprint.  It was about 3" long.

I didn't notice all the gravel in the shot above until I saw it on the big screen.  I'm always surprised at how many different sorts of rock one sees in any random assortment.  Look at all the different colors here.....



It wasn't really a very nice day.  Gray, as you could see above.  Cold, and windy.  I walked around the outside edge of the pavement around the health-system buildings, beginning in the back, around to the car, and then all the way around.  Stopping for pictures a couple of times, it took me about half an hour, and I decided that was my walk for the day.

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December 16

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I got going late on the 16th.  It was dark and wet when I walked.  We were having a warm spell, so the temp was about 40 (F).  It was drizzling.

All in all, not a bad day, for December 16.  Not bad at all.

My daughter has taken some really good pics in low light with her phone.  It was completely dark when I took this one (with the phone).  Dark, aside from all the man-made light....  The phone's flash was on, I discovered after the first shot.  I didn't know how to turn it off, and didn't want to fiddle with it, as it was so damp out.  This image was more green than I thought it should be (the flash?  I don't know).  So I lowered the green.  Otherwise, the above is SOOC (straight out of camera).

(I did not use the camera, too, because I didn't want its lens [which sticks out of the camera when the camera is turned on] to get wet.)

Not a very interesting pic.  I was curious to see what I'd get, and this was it.



As I was thinking about taking this pic, one of the neighbors on the south end of my block appeared out of the gloom.  She said she'd just seen Exodus, and that it was big and funny, and the 7-yr-old boy who played God was wonderful, and that the movie was long, and her back hurt, hence she was out for a walk.

She was outbound, I was inbound.  We went our separate ways, on a dark damp December evening.

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December 8 -- camera and phone

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The 8th was a dark and gray day.  Sunrise.

Lots later.  It was pretty dark, when I walked.  I thought to use the camera AND the phone.......

Angel dachshund.

Camera.

The next two are with the phone.  I like the warmth of color of the one above better, and I think it looks more "overall glowy," which I also like.

Also with the phone, but this one is lighter.  I do not know why cameras (in or out of phones) make the decisions they make.........).

I like the camera dog better than the phone dog.  The phone image sort of shows the frame more, but the camera captures the glowing quality of the dog, which I like.  I can imagine there are situations where I'd prefer the frame.  (Working on learning which I like for which circumstances.......)  I also like that the camera image minimizes the dog's muzzle.  That was totally the angle at which I held the camera -- I can't give the camera credit for that.........


Camera.  I liked the reflection of the left tree's lights in the window behind the tree....  This image is SOOC (straight out of camera).

The above image, cropped and lightened by me in Photoshop Elements.

Phone.

The camera image is sharper, but so dark.  Overall, I like the phone version better.  It has a sort of misty mysterious look.  I like the abstraction.

Wishing, now, that I'd taken the sunrise image at the top of this post with the phone as well as the camera.  Wonder what that would look like..........................




And now for something silly -- when I started using the camera for the trees above, I had it on some other-than-automatic setting.  It exposed for a loooooong time...........

But I kinda like it.

I think it looks like a microscopic plant.  Some sort of algae?

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