post #77
The title of this post just now came to me. Say it aloud and it has a kind of a, um, click to it.... It is true, however, that this week has had me trying to remember which camera did I take which photo with. There's the new iPhone, which seems fantastic for anything stationary, even flowers. I haven't cracked its people photos yet. Not the same take as I am used to doing. (note: my last cell phone was your basic "free"model.)
A week ago I finished up a card on my "old" camera, that first digital friend and patient teacher. I thought I would miss its familiar touch when I traded up after giving this older camera to my newest grandbaby's parents. I am feeling fickle: I don't miss my first Rebel at all. It's now their turn to learn on it while I get to work with the latest version of that same camera.
After only a week, I already love the Canon Rebel T3i. It is light years advanced, so to speak. This includes my swooning for its instruction booklet, included in the purchase. I can actually figure it out! The presentation of the info makes sense! For example, it gives clear page references where to go for additional info on a topic. I always say it's worth whatever it takes to create clear communication with close companions, human or not.
Thanks, Steve, for your comment after last week's post. It got me to mulling over that perennial question about whether having a camera handy leads to better photos or just more photos. Better comes from practice, practice, practice, so, on that score, a good phone camera can work. But I am not sure that handy provides the giving over of the self toward connecting with the image at hand. Is the aspect of having instant options perhaps too seductive? Is it simply that there's not enough control over light, angle, tone, composition? And certainly I see a problem of steadiness, both in one's hands and in one's perception of the time a good photo takes. Such moments for me hit the blessed zone-in factor, and I am grateful when it happens.
OK, some photos! Can you discern the camera?
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| This is what greeted me when I arrived home Wednesday evening, |
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| after riding along our road, redbud trees lining the way! |
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| In our yard, our early lilac already begins its blooms. |
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| a dwarf flowering almond, a gift in 1985 from Fred and Debbie (See added note below.) |
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| from inside, the new spring through an old window |
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| our grapevine wreath, in the right lights, made with my new Canon Rebel T3i |
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Next week, more photos with another camera, in the wet woods. The discussion will continue. I wish for each of you the chance to be an artist in the Appalachian spring.
Note added on Tuesday 3/27: my college roommate just shared this poem by Greek poet Nikos Kazantzakis: I said to the almond tree,/ speak to me of God./ And the almond tree blossomed.
I think that the phone camera will not lead to better or worse photos. It will lead to pictures of things you wouldn't have seen if you had a camera in your hand and were thus prepared. That's what having a reasonable phone camera did to me, anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a photographer, but I started to see things I never saw when i was holding a camera.
The camera is a device with a purpose, but a phone is something you just have with you in an everyday sort of way, like car keys or a bottle of water, or whatever. It's a useful thing, and useful in a lot of ways besides talking to somebody. I think it can surprise in a way that a camera may not. Because it will catch you unaware. Or maybe the world will.
Steve