Single Purpose Device Month - Update #2
This week I've been thinking about photos. The photos I take and why. Often, I use my phone as a reflex, pulling it out without thinking, opening the camera and snapping away. The afternoon sun hitting C in a nice way, a large table full of delicately arranged plates of food, my cat doing anything. When these photos come up on a Google photos memory—or if I'm scrolling my camera roll— I like seeing them and I like being reminded of where I was.
But when I've taken a camera out with me and made the conscious decision to use it, the feeling I get looking at those photos is different. It's not necessarily better, but there's something more satisfying about them. I think it comes down to two things.
I put a bit more effort in framing, composition and selecting settings when using a camera. I'll then probably put the results into Exposure x7 and edit them there. As a result I've had more of a say in the process. This is a more satisfying way of creating photos, each little decision has made the photo my own. This is especially important when...
Phone photos all look the same. Computational photography has reached its logical endpoint where now everyone can take a photo in a dimly lit bar, after seven drinks, with their phone swaying everywhere and come up with something where everything in frame is sharp and evenly lit. This makes sense if you are a making software for the masses. But now everyone's photos look like this, everything is flat, there is no contrast. Areas that would have been rendered as deep blacks by older cameras are now clearly visible, exposing details previously lost in shadow. This is wonderful from a functional viewpoint; terrible from an aesthetic one. And yes, I'm aware you can shoot RAW, however doing so on a phone is a completely joyless experience.
Here are some photos I've taken over the last week or so, they may not be technically perfect, they are noisy, cropped strange, and my colour choices are well...my own. But they are full of my choices, and that's something to savour.
-Stray Observations-
Taking out a camera is an early frontrunner for 'thing I'll keep doing after this silly month is over'.
Picked up one of these cybershot T series cameras which I've wanted for ages, and man, they don't make tech this slick anymore. This thing is absolutely tiny and sliding the lens cover up and down makes me feel like I'm in a low budget version of The Matrix.
- Found this archive of old Byte magazine scans, and some of these adverts slap.
