With the right light
and a phone
you can do anything.
I travel less with my big camera these days, and not only because it’s heavy to carry and awkward to pack. The software/filters in phone cameras get better with every new model. Some casual photos from Calgary illustrate the point.
I waited for the amaryllis bloom to be in full sunshine, and the only detail my phone missed was the crystalline structure of what I think is called the trifid stigma–that 3-part white bit. (Here’s someone who caught it nicely by working a lot harder than I did.)
And then there were the skies . . .
Having that photographic range in something I have to carry around anyway is truly a miracle.
The best camera is the one you have with you. And yes phone cameras are getting VERY good. You caught the detail in the red – That isn’t easy.
Beauty skies
Jim R – That’s what they say, and more and more the phone is what I have. Not for birds yet, though, which is a serious flaw in my world. 🙂
Thanks, again, for opening my eyes to the wonders on my window sill and just beyond that window. I forget that my cell phone could be so much more than I use it for. It might actually help to shift some of those “burdens of the year.”
Laurna – I have noted (and am not the first by any means) that I see differently when I have my camera with me. That has now largely expanded to include my phone, and it’s a good thing. My photos don’t even have to be great photography – it’s enough that they help me see what’s in front of me.
Beautiful pictures, Isabel.
Tom
Tom – Many thanks. The cloud formations in the bottom photo had one configuration that looked exactly like the classic UFO from the 1950s – a “saucer” with a little bulge on the top (garnished with some puffy clouds as an exhaust trail). By the time I got my phone out, our viewing angle had changed enough that it wasn’t visible any longer (we were on a freeway).
Your skies also are painterly, Isabel. As a person who once-upon-a-time wielded brushes and palette knives, I look at your skies and think about how they might be rendered in water colours or in oils. For centuries, those were the principle means of preserving memorable sights. They continue to grace living spaces and to share their mysteries and beauties in public venues. They help to refine and to define personal experiences of nature as your photos also do for viewers. They awaken me to wonders I am missing in my own environment. They lift me beyond my tedious or burdensome preoccupations. These are greater gifts than, perhaps, you imagine.
Laurna – Thank you. I regret that my schooling did not include any useful training in drawing or basic painting. On the other hand, it’s entirely on me that I haven’t rectified that gap in the last 50 years.
You have proved that a phone works wonders! Photography is in the eye more than in the camera.
Judith – Many thanks. And likely true (about the eye, not the camera) – I keep thinking about what I’ve read about Jane Austen writing her books by hand in 15-minute “stretches” on a small side table in a family salon. Definitely the writer, not the tool that transcribes.