Category: Photography

dinner out

whbeebe

It means something when you consider a night out at a local Chuy’s Tex-Mex restaurant as the equivalent of going to see “Hamilton” back in the day. I got so tired of getting ready to fix another meal at home that I was almost ready to break training and eat at a McDonald’s. Instead I went out to our local Chuy’s where my wife had her Mexi-Cobb salad with shrimp and I had four fairly massive shrimp tacos. And lots of chips with queso and creamy jalapeño. Lots and lots of chips. My wife cleaned out her bowl and I cleaned off my plate, which included refried beans and Mexican rice. Like I said, we were all into a night out at the local Chuy’s. I wouldn’t recommend a two-year-long pandemic to build anticipation for such a thing, mind you. But it just so happened that way, so here we are…

Photo was taken at near-floor level with my iPhone 11 and post processed in Snapseed while waiting for our order to arrive. I don’t remember where I’ve seen the look of the photo before, but I have, from a long time ago, back when I was in art school in Atlanta. Let’s not dwell on the passage of time…

personal experiments with iphone imaging

whbeebe2 Comments

I still have my iPhone 11 Pro, going on three years. I purchased it back in September 2019 before I retired. It has served me admirably ever since, and I have no reason to want to trade up. Even the battery health is at 91% maximum capacity, which after all this time is quite good. Unless something horrible happens, it’ll stay with me until Apple no longer provides software updates to it. I have high confidence that will go for some number of years more. For example, my youngest daughter has my wife’s iPhone 7 Plus as a hand-me-down. Apple will still provide updates through at least the next year. My youngest stretched the use of that iPhone by paying $50 to Apple in Denver to replace the battery, which is far cheaper than even the cheapest newer iPhone from Apple. But I digress…

I’m still not an avid iPhone photographer nor videographer. But from time to time I come across scenes which I would like to photograph and all I have is my iPhone. And no, the best camera isn’t always the one you have with you. That would be my Olympus E-M1.2. Nevertheless I still like to experiment. The following two images came from my trip to the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital on Turkey Lake right across from I-4. I drove my wife there to visit with one of her doctors that morning.

On the way back to the parking garage to pick up the car and head home, I crossed a covered walkway between the main hospital building and the parking garage. For whatever reason the light and colors were pleasing enough. I stopped for a moment and grabbed a few exposures. Later I used Snapseed to crop it to 16×9, increased the exposure by 1/3 stop and lowered the contrast a bit. I was going for a bright, airy pastel look.

On a subsequent trip back in the afternoon I made this exposure of the side of the main hospital. The afternoon sun combined with the near-white exterior against the clear sky was particularly contrasty. Again I cropped the original to 16×9 and selected one of the Noir filters, H02. One side effect is in the sky; pixel peep that section and you’ll see it covered with artifacts, which I think is supposed to be graininess. It’s everywhere else, but particularly noticeable on the blue sky.

I should probably use the iPhone more if I want to create more satisfying images. But I so enjoy using my mirrorless Olympus cameras that it’s a hard thing to do. An embarrassment of riches.