Ten Reasons To Make The iPhone Your Main Camera

1. The best camera is the one you have with you. The shots that I used to miss when I left my big girl camera at home or in the trunk of my car remain embedded in my brain. And while neurochromes (as photo wizard John Barclay refers to mind-only pictures) make for wonderful memories, I sure wouldn’t mind having a few of the ones that got away. My iPhone is always with me.

2. The iPhone is completely non-threatening for people photography. Sure, you still ask for permission, but hardly anyone will say no to a tiny little phone. And you can email them the photo so that they have it before they get home. How cool is that?

3. The learning curve is blessedly flat. If you can download an app (or someone can download it for you), you can optimize or artify your photos I swear that with every new version of Photoshop, I feel like I’m going back to college for a new advanced degree. I love it, but it is daunting. The iPhone apps are so intuitive that I can just jump right in.

4. You don’t need to carry around a computer, card reader or cords, extra batteries and cards, lenses, etc. etc etc. (Although an iPad is very handy for working your images in a size that you can actually SEE.) There are apps where you can share photos between these devices in moments using wifi or bluetooth.

5. It weighs NOTHING!

6. You can share photos almost instantly via email, Facebook, Twitter, and more - usually directly from within the app you are working in.

7. The apps are so cheap you can’t afford not to have them. And so many of them are FREE! I have over 150 camera apps - I’ve spent less than 1/10 the amount it costs to purchase Photoshop on them. That’s without plugins!

8. You can make art in the moment. And you need never be irritated or upset again about having to wait in line at Costco or at the doctor’s office. I now see these little inconveniences as art breaks and actually look forward to them. No joke.

9. New ideas are stimulated about things you can do with photos in Photoshop, should you be unable to give up your DSLR or Point and Shoot. As my handsome photographer hubby, Dewitt Jones, says, “The iPhone is a great visual sketchpad.” (Watch for his new ebook on iPhone photography coming very soon to all major ebook stores.) Personally, I’d still ditch the big girl / big boy cameras. You know you have enough photo files to work on til the end of time.

10. You can do more than you dreamed of with the apps and more are flooding into the app store everyday. I foolishly tried to catalog all my photo apps with corresponding images to organize visually what they all do. It was a fool’s errand, as everything changed again in a week. Live and learn. I swear that my iPhone can do more than my CS5 with all my Photoshop Wow presets, Nik software, onOne software, Topaz plugins, Imagenomic, and so on. (Though I love them all dearly.)

11. You can work on an image and talk on the phone at the same time. Artistically, however, I do not recommend this. In fact, it irritates me when my camera rings. Don’t they know I’m making art? I turn off my ringer so as not to break my concentration.

Okay that’s 11, but close enough. I’ll see you all out on the photographic trail. I’ll be the one with a teeny, tiny camera bag - it once doubled as my eyeglass case. Actually, it WAS my eyeglass case.