Having fun with the iPhone camera

Lost in Morocco

I last saw my digital camera in the Moroccan coastal town of Agadir on Boxing Day last year. I’ve no idea what became of it, but in my imagination it was spirited out of my pocket by a shifty chap with an ambitious moustache and squinty eyes. Anyway, my point is that since then I’ve not had a camera at all – just the iPhone.

Now the iPhone’s camera has a pretty dismal reputation. There’s no flash so you can’t do anything in the dark, it’s a little slow so you can miss spontaneous moments, there’s no zoom and you’ve got no control over the majority of its settings.

Still, the camera’s simplicity gives it a sort of honest charm and over the past five months I’ve not bothered to replace the old camera and, instead, I’ve preferred to rely on the iPhone.

Doing this is a flexible, dynamic way to collect images. As you have your telephone with you almost all of the time you have far greater potential a capture a wide range of everyday shots. With apps like Photoshop for the iPhone, CameraBag and Camera Plus Pro you can edit on the fly, and with the ability to email and subsequently publish them instantly – giving you the sort of inertia with it all that keeps you going.

Here are a few shots from the  last few months.

1. BT Tower – April 2010

2. Mali – January 2010

3. Warren Street – April 2010

4. Pentonville Road – March 2010

5. Nigeria – January 2010

6. The British Library – April 2010

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My disclaimer is that I am not a professional photographer and I know less about photographic theory than I do about advanced weaving. I’m just enjoying having a play.

I’m glad to see that there is a Flickr group for ‘Photos taken with an iPhone‘, and if you’re on Flickr, then I’m here.