December 6, 2017 – Day 36 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge – All Aboard – Today’s photo is one of many from my trip to Chicago, Illinois today. I made a point on this trip to challenge myself to do a series of photographs called “My view from Amtrak 360” which I shared a link to here on my Facebook page yesterday, if you’d like to see more from the trip. All were shot with the iPhone 7 Plus. #iphone7plus #iphonephotography #jimpearsonphotography
December 5, 2017 – Day 36 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Where’s the Lampshades? – You never know where you’re going to find an interesting photo!! Tonight, I was wandering around in J.C. Penny’s waiting on my sister when I spotted this display of legs! It screamed black and white to me from across the store and I couldn’t resist. An interesting note is that if I had my Fuji XT-1 or Nikon D800 and tried to shoot this photo from inside a major retailer, I probably would have been stopped. However, with a little ole iPhone, no problem!!! Never mind that many of our newer smart phones are capable these days of shooting photos that are magazine quality!! #iphone7plus
December 4, 2017 – Day 35 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Karate – My nephew Damion Is into Karate these days and as I sat watching his “Little Warrior’s” practice today I shot this photo with my iPhone 7 Plus Camera of him learning a new kick. To get the shot I wanted I had to use the zoom and if you look closely you can see the quality isn’t the greatest. I realize the iPhone 7 has a dual lens, but if you zoom beyond the optical limits of the camera it goes to a digital zoom, which just blows up the pixels, which isn’t nearly as good a quality. However, any picture is better than none!
December 3, 2017 – Day 34 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Jeremiah – My nephew Jeremiah has one of the most expressive faces!! That, along with the nice lighting on his face helped make this one of my favorite portraits I’ve shot of him so far! When photographing kids, I can’t stress enough that you have to be patient and quick!
December 2, 2017 – Day 33 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Shadows – I’ve always been fascinated by shadows! They just seem to be part of another demission in my option!! I wandered downtown to the Christmas Festivities in my hometown of Madisonville, Ky and found this shot at the “Ice” skating rink the city had setup there for the day. It’s not really ice, but a plastic material that has a slick spray coating on it. Either way it was very popular and crowded! I think I had to shoot 20-30 photos before I got one with just shadows and a composition that I liked! Sometime when you find a scene that will make a good photograph, but it’s just lacking that special something, just stand around and wait! There’s a good chance that it will come together! #iphone7plus
December 1, 2017 – Day 32 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Pound Puppy – I took my niece Elaina to her mom’s work to wait for her to get off this afternoon and while we were sitting in the RAV4 she kept say, what is that from the backseat. I couldn’t quite tell if she was talking about a game on her tablet or what until she pointed at the window in front of where we were parked and there appeared to be a little “Pound Puppy” sitting looking at the car! Well, I never let a photo opportunity pass by, so we got out, so I could take a picture of it when Elaina stepped in to the scene and looked up at the puppy. Click!!! Black and White picture of the day!! Thanks Elaina! Always be aware of your surroundings that may lend themselves to a picture, and sometimes take a kid along so they can point out things right in front of you! LOL – #iphone7plus
November 30, 2017 – Day 31 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Being Silly – My niece Elaina is one of my little shutterbugkids and today she came and asked me if she could shoot pictures, so I give her my iPhone 7 plus. She wandered around the house and front porch photographing two of her favorite subjects, my cats! Eventually she ended up back in my office wanting to shoot a selfie with me. After she got her shots I asked if I could shoot one and started to shoot it thinking it’d be my picture for the day, when she said, wait, I need glasses like you! Wouldn’t that be funny? So, she got another pair of the Dollar Tree readers that I have all over the house and put them on. Of course, to add to the silliness the tongues came out for the picture! When photographing kids it never hurts to take their direction as it can make for interesting photos! LOL If you’d like to see some of her work or that of her brother and cousins pay a visit to http://www.shutterbugkids.org. There’s links there for their Facebook and Instagram accounts, which have their most current photos.
November 29, 2017 – Day 30 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Boxes – What is about kids and boxes? Capturing photos of kids in their everyday environment, doing what kids do, can be a challenge. The key is to shoot, shoot, shoot, until you get that special picture that sings to you. With digital you can really never shoot too much! My nephew Damion had been feeling under the weather for several days and when he asked me if he could build a house out of a box this afternoon I couldn’t refuse! Of course, I knew that in the process there’d be a good picture or two! LOL All my nieces and nephews know me and my obsession with taking pictures!
November 28, 2017 – Day 29 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Patterns – Always keep an eye out for interesting patterns and shadows when shooting photos. Here this simple wall and rafters in an alleyway caught my eye today after I had lunch with some members of our local photography club.
November 27, 2017 – Day 28 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Damion Asleep – My nephew Damion hasn’t been feeling well for several days now and fell asleep after I picked him up from school. When photographing the life that surrounds you don’t forget to photograph the quiet moments!
November 26, 2017 – Day 27 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Ballet – A sneaky way to get your little ones to pose for your camera is to tell them that you want to shoot a picture of something else. Here my niece Elaina got a new Tutu for her ballet class, so I asked if I could shoot a picture of it, resulting in a nice photo of her doing a plie in her new Tutu! Could I have gotten the photo if I had asked to take her picture? Perhaps, perhaps not.Day 27 BW iPhone Challenge-Ballet
November 25, 2017 – Day 26 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Edge of the Frame – Sometimes putting your subjects on the extreme edges of the photo can make for an interesting photo. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your compositions!
November 24, 2017 – Day 25 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Shadows – Sometimes when you’re out photographing with a low sun you’re going to find your own shadow gets in the photo when you frame the shot the way you want it. That’s OK! Use it as a part of the photograph!
November 23, 2017 – Day 24 – iPhone Daily B&W Photo Challenge: Tracy and Jayden – My niece Tracy and her son Jayden on Thanksgiving Day. When shooting kids with adults you’ll have a better photograph if you can get them both on the same level!
November 22, 2017 – Day 23 – iPhone Daily B&W White Photo Challenge: The Phone Booth. Today I stopped in a convenience store at Nortonville, Ky and noticed this phone booth! It’s something you don’t see too much these days what with the iPhone and other smart photos that everyone seems to be using. When out shooting photographs keep your eye open for things that are interesting visually to the eye, but also don’t overlook the things that are beginning to disappear from our way of life, such as a corded phone!
November 21, 2017 – Day 22 – iPhone Daily B&W White Photo Challenge: Journey. This is a portrait of my niece Journey after her preschool’s Thanksgiving program today. Photographing kids with the iPhone indoors can be a challenge (they’re fast!!), with or without flash. I prefer not to use flash myself. I feel that as soon as the flash goes off you announce to the world, I’m taking a picture and it’s harder to get good candid shot. Plus, the iPhone camera doesn’t take the picture right away when using the flash, there’s always a slight delay. Another tip for photographing kids is to use the camera’s “burst” mode (we used to call it motor drive) and then select your favorite, sharp photo from the burst.
November 20, 2017 – Day 21 – iPhone Daily B&W White Photo Challenge: End of light tracks. I was on my way home from a meeting tonight and as traveled the six miles from Madisonville, Ky to my home in the country, I watched the crescent moon as it dipped low in the western sky. I kind of wanted a photo using it as part of my scene for today’s challenge photo, but I knew it would need something else as I knew the limitations of iPhone. The iPhone isn’t the best in low light situations! However, I feel it’s a toss up between noise, which used to be called grain in the film days for you younger folks! However, then as now the more important thing to me is to get the photo! As you can see I found a little bit more light when I stopped by my driveway next to the Paducah and Louisville railroad tracks at the crossing. There was a nice reflection and the signal next to the tracks was lit as well. Of course, there’s noise, but for me, the picture works!! It’s better to have a bit of noise than no picture at all!
November 19, 2017 – Day 20 – iPhone Daily B&W White Photo Challenge: Let kids be kids. Sometimes when you’re photographing kids, it pays to let them be kids and make faces if they want! Usually once they’ve got past the faces you can get other more serious shots if you want. Personally, I love this shot of my nieces, Journey and Elaina and nephew Jayden! They’re all such cutups!!!
November 18, 2017 – Day 19 – iPhone Daily B&W White Photo Challenge: The Bear. Found this little guy just sitting on a bench here in Madisonville, Ky this evening. There are many rules when it comes to composition in photography and art, but as the old saying goes, rules are made to be broken and by placing him in the center of the frame I liked the picture better. You should know the rules of composition and follow them, but also know when to break them! When is Appropriate? It all depends on you!! It’s your photograph!! That’s one of the many things I like about photography. As the artist, I, or you, get to decide when and how to capture the moment in front of our camera!!
November 17, 2017 – Day 18 – iPhone Daily B&W White Photo Challenge: Dock. Keeping things simple and easy to read helps make your picture much stronger! When out looking for something to photograph remember, if it doesn’t contribute or help make the photograph stronger then try not to include it in your photograph! Change your angle to a higher or lower vantage or zoom in or move in closer! It’s the old fashion method of “manipulating” your photo! Do what ever you can to make the photograph the way you want it at the time you shoot it and you’ll come away with a stronger image! #iphone7+
November 16, 2017 – Day 17 – iPhone Daily B&W White Photo Challenge: Bikes! While I was out today chasing and photographing trains I passed by this Mennonite Store in Crofton, Ky and spotted all these bikes parked in a row and hoped they’d still be that way when I came back by from photographing the train I was chasing. I know, you should never pass up a picture, but I was torn between the two and chose the train! Fortunately the bikes were still there when I came back and as a result this is my picture for the day!
Camera Mode on the iPhone.
This photo really helps to illustrate a tip that I want to pass onto everyone as well! When shooting with the iPhone camera do you ever wish you could do so using the full screen of the phone, instead of the scaled back camera you normally get?
Video Camera Settings
Most folks don’t realize that, you can do this by using the video camera of the iPhone! To do so first you need to head to the camera settings on your iPhone under the Settings App on the iPhone. Open it up and scroll down till you find the Camera settings and open them up.
Then change the Record Video settings to the highest Quality your iPhone will support. For mine it’s 4k video at 30fps (Frames per second). This will insure that you’ll get the highest quality photograph from the phone.
Now you’re set to capture your first full screen photograph! Open the Video Camera and click on the record button. After your video starts recording notice the small silver shutter button that shows up under the video camera’s red button.
Shooting video, showing the still camera button below the video record button.
Each time you press this button the camera will create a photograph of the scene using the full screen of your camera!! This is a great feature for the times you have a long skinny photograph you’d like to shoot and not crop from the regular camera! You can also shoot tall verticals by turning the camera vertically!
You’ll end up with a bunch of little video clips on your camera roll, but after you’re done you can go back and delete them, keeping only the photographs you shot! That’s it! Hope you enjoy using this little tip and please feel free to share!!