Occasionally, it all just works out.

I’d been wrestling with how I wanted to proceed with my photography. I picked up an eye-fi card for wirelessly transferring my DSLR photos to my iPhone, but the workflow wasn’t really working for me, plus I had to carry all this extra gear. I’d been going back and forth, and I would occasionally end up with a really beautiful photo, but the experience just wasn’t nearly as pleasant as straight iPhone photography. Walking through downtown San Francisco, I spotted this beautiful shadow being created by a few trees on Kearney street, contrasting against the hard lines and angles of the building. I snapped it with Camera+, boosted the contrast with the Clarity setting and flipped it into the Ansel effect. After seeing the results, with the sunbeam sparkling in the corner, I decided the DSLR just was no longer worth the hassle, and gave it to a friend.

Coming from the SLR world, one of my favorite tools to use in photography is shallow depth of field. Moving from my Pentax kit to the iPhone, I was pretty certain this would be one area I’d basically have to give up on. Luckily there’s almost no end to faking this look in software, with apps like Tilt-Shift Generator, SynthCam, and good ol’ Camera+.

However, I’ve recently found that with the iPhone 4′s camera, you can even manage to get some pretty beautiful creamy backgrounds by getting crazy close to your subject, and making sure that the iPhone is focusing on the closest possible point.

It’s pretty exciting to me to be able to get this result naturally out of something that’s practically weightless.

When I see something that strikes me as a photograph, I rarely get very good shots if I simply pull out my phone and take the photo. I’ve always found that the character of the scene is hidden in some crazy space, and I have to tease it out a bit. Often this ends up with me climbing up something, honing in close on it, or laying on the ground in public. Both this shot, and the one after the break, from Japantown, SF are from me literally lying on the ground, camera as far down as I can possibly pull it while still managing to see the composition. And I think they are infinitely better because of it!

Besides, the looks and comments that you get for it are practically worthwhile all on their own.
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I’ve noticed lately, that there’s a few shapes that I can’t help but seek out. Something about a horizontal bar on the right side of the frame, with lines emanating out from the center, well, it speaks to me. Case in point here, my recent crop of an installation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, as compared with a two month old shot of one of the new office buildings in Mission Bay after the break.

Do you find yourself gravitating towards some specific arrangements? Are you conscious of it when shooting? Do you try to aim for them, or do you try to resist? I’d love to hear other’s thoughts!
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