iPhone Photojournalism

Recently I accompanied my girlfriend Karen down to Kalaupapa peninsula here on Molokai. We hiked down the highest sea cliffs in the world to take the tour of the infamous leper colony, where so many Hawaiians were exiled during a most shameful period of history.

Karen was slated to write an article for the LA Times and I brought along my trusty iPhone. As always, the tour was moving and emotional, while the natural beauty of the place was jaw dropping. And the iPhone apps helped me enhance the feeling of this most spiritual place. The best camera is the one you have with you - and for me that's most often the iPhone.

When one of our fellow tour members suffered total camera failure, she heard Karen oohing and aahing over the pix on my tiny phone. She looked around the busload of people, then asked me, "Would you mind sending me some of your photos? This is a once in a lifetime trip and I'd love some shots for the memories."

They were in her email before she got back to the hotel. Now that's the power of iphoneography.

I double exposed a hymnal sheet with a shot of the St. Francis church and added texture in IRIS.



I used Artista Oil, Artista Sketch, and Pic Grunger to create a fresco look in this photo of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus.

ProHDR, Camera + and texture from ?Iris maybe to enhance the fragility of land and lifetimes.

Dare To Break The Rules With Your iPhone

I love attending the Merrie Monarch hula festival and competition. It's sort of an annual Hula Olympics if you will. As the official photographer for our Halau (hula school or group), I used my "big girl" cameras to document the event each time we participated. And along with the documentation, I got to take loads of artsy pictures - slow shutter speed motion blurs being my favorites.

This year we did not go to Hilo for the competition - not enough young girls nor the substantial amount of funds to make it happen. So I was resigned to watching the 3 night extravaganza on television. This is no hardship, as you can actually see much better when the cameras are zoomed in on each group than when sitting in the stadium in person. Alas, no smell of flowers, no thrum of excitement in the crowd, and no photos. Or so I thought.

Karen Messick, a digital diva in a class by herself (see link to her iphoneography site in my links) took some photos off her TV of the royal wedding. She apped them beautifully. And that got me to thinking....

I fired up my iPhone 4 and began shooting the Merrie Monarch on my flat screen TV mostly with the Slow Shutter Cam app. I shot tons of photos. And loved a lot of them.



Then another great photo master, Tony Sweet, (see link to his site on Visual Artistry in my links) told me about a cool new site called Zapd - where you can create and upload a blog in minutes from your iPhone. It was love at first site. (Although to be a little picky, it crops to a square format, so I'm going to ask them if it might be possible to have one that is a rectangle.)

I uploaded several of my hula motion shots to Zapd - Click here to view the gallery. It took me just minutes. Most the photos were apped only with the Slow Shutter Cam app, with a little optimizing in IRIS app. Two were "painted" with the new Autopainter app. It's obvious which ones. Check them out and let me know what you think. Be sure to download the Zapd free app - what a great way to share vacation photos or family events quickly and elegantly.

As we say in Hawai`i: A`a i ka hula. Dare to dance. And dare to break all the photo "rules".

iPhone Guest Gallery: Other Realities

Exploring other realities, the world just outside our ordinary view, has long been a theme in my photography. Which is why I am so excited about these most recent submissions to iPhone Diva. These iPhoneographs are incredibly inspiring, allowing a glimpse into three distinct parallel universes. Enjoy!

Robin Robertis shares her most recent photo art piece entitled "Sisters". I'm waiting to hear which apps and will update this post as soon as I know. Right now, I'm just loving the image.

Shock my pic app enhances Brian Kavanaugh Jones's unexpected (and very cool) perspective in this photograph.

Duncan Berry's offering showcases the Average Camera app, which is one of my new favorites. It shoots a number of shots during which you can move the camera and create multiple exposure art. Love the enigmatic feel of this piece.