A lot of things can happen in a week. A lot of things did happen. A week from writing my post on mobile photography I find myself ironically with no camera but my phone.
A long story short, Ricoh wanted to charge me $700 to fix a camera that costs less than that new. I’m not sure how such a thing is possible, but it seemed useless to argue.
Instead, I went to the cell phone shop next to my house and bought an iPhone 6S. I had been using an LG G4, and while the quality from the camera is great, I find the iPhone to be much faster in practice. Maybe I’m just more used to it.
So, I left my house this weekend with no camera but the iPhone. Like I spoke about in my previous post this kind of experience can be liberating. I found it to be so. I don’t like to think when I take photos and the iPhone is the perfect tool to take photos and not think.
After my last post some people asked me a little about my technique when using my phone to shoot. I had to think about it a little bit before writing this because truth be told I don’t think about it much when shooting.
When shooting with an iPhone, the one thing I always do is shoot with the burst mode. The iPhone tends to select slow shutter speeds so when things are moving shooting in burst gives me a higher hit rate. I’m not sure when I started this, but I believe it was when taking photos of some of my friends bowling, ha.
Anyway, I was mostly around Myeongdong and Namdaemun this weekend. For those of you who don’t know, Myeongdong is probably the biggest shopping district in Seoul and Namdaemun is one of Seoul’s oldest markets. I don’t come to either as much as I once did.
I like coming back because this is the area where photography started for me. It was in Namdaemun and Myeongdong where I first started to take photos.
As I said, a lot of things happened in the last week. A bit of a hard one, if I’m being honest. I was happy to get out and shoot this weekend. When I’m stressed or unhappy, I can’t sit still. I walk. Walking and taking photos really gave me a kind of escape.
Sounds cliche, I know. It is true though. It does go to show that it really doesn’t matter much the camera we use. A phone was more than enough for me this weekend.
More than enough in most any situation. Some people asked me last week after the post if I find it hard to compose with the iPhone considering it isn’t a “real” camera. Quite honestly, I think shooting with the iPhone is about as pure example of photography as there is for me.
Taking a photo is supposed to be nothing more than preserving a moment. It is like painting a picture, only quicker. The iPhone really does nothing more or less than that. When I see something, I raise it and press a button.
No viewfinder? Meh. They are overrated anyway. Most of my friends that say they “cannot” use a camera without a viewfinder are usually hipsters who somehow equate the viewfinder with being cool. I don’t get it. The screen is bigger than the viewfinder and takes less time to look at. The only argument that makes sense for the viewfinder is bright light. It was pretty bright out today and I didn’t have a problem seeing the screen.
Well, I’ve posted here just about every photo I took this weekend with my “new” camera, ha. It really was liberating to go out and shoot like that. Nothing to carry around or worry about.
In the end, it is just about having fun isn’t it? Or like it was for me, about forgetting the previous week.
Whatever tool you have to do that is a good enough one. Maybe I won’t buy another camera.
At least not a “real” one.
For anyone curious, the photos were all processed in the VSCO app on the phone with the B1 filter.
jtinseoul 
Nice set Josh, photo 10 I would say is my fave… not really sure why.
Haha, my favourite as well.
and i have to comment, too… my favourites are 1, 10 , and the last!. three out of three for number 10. it is lovely, josh.
what a liberation to you. you successfully escaped from a cage, thats what I see here.
“Can’t believe camera companies can charge more than the cost of the camera for a fix.”….
this is a clear message for the consumer …buy NEW
it is same what happened to my washing machine …. or most electronic devices… cost of repair doesn’t make sense…prices are set to make a new purchases….
“In the end, it is just about having fun isn’t it?”
Pretty much. I have to admit I don’t like shooting with my phone. It was a novelty the first time I got a smart phone, but I find a phone clumsy to handle – or maybe because I’m clumsy so I drop it a lot. Also, my phone freezes a lot (it’s a cheap and pretty crappy).
Having been following you for this long though, I’m encouraged to try shooting with it again. We’ll see!
Do you have a favorite Camera App, or do you just use the default app?
I just use the default one. It is best. I edit in vsco.