iPhone iNspiration

 A few years back I wrote a blog post called "Beast of Burden" that expressed my thoughts on the shots I was able to get with my first iPhone, and how freeing it was. Since then, iPhone photography has blown up. There are photographers out there now that are known more for their iPhone work than anything else. Art shows are held featuring nothing but iPhone photography. Dozens and dozens of photography apps have been developed for it, some of which are great. A new social networking site has even been based off of it all: Instagram has gotten to be my favorite of all the social networking sites -- it is a source of inspiration for me -- and it has encouraged me to once again be aware of all that I come across in my day to day life, and then share with others how I see things.

Here is what I manged to capture with it this past Saturday at the annual Midsummer Music & Food Fest here in Atlanta -- I was just kinda shooting for the fun of it as different things caught my eye. My point behind this post is that I love my iPhone. It has gotten to be my favorite camera not because of it's capability -- but because of its lack of capability. It forces me to not care so much about the shots I do with it. I grew to love photography as a kid through just going around with a camera and shooting random things as I saw them. My iPhone has brought that feeling back after having lost it to some degree due to the struggles that go along with making a living in photography. So -- Steve Jobs -- thank you for developing such a great product. As a photographer, iPhone's are worth every penny you pay for them and then some -- and they're a tax write off.

 All of the following shots were taken & processed with a iPhone 4. Click on each one to enlarge it:

Took this while walking into the festival. It was just growing on the sidewalk next to a road sign. It's beautiful don't you think? It struck me more as something you'd see in somebodies garden rather than on the side of the road in the middle of a major city.

Lorelei. She was turning heads with the great color of her skirt. Don't you love it? Don't be fooled by how serious she looks here though. This very same girl texted me a video of her moonwalking in ballet slippers just a couple of days after this. Yeah. She's special.

 

"Peace" This is the crowd that was there for The Wood Brothers show. I took several shots like this of the crowd -- this one stood out over the others due to the one guy making the peace sign for me in it. The Wood Brothers put on the best show of the weekend.

Anna Gray. She belonged to a friend of a friend -- absolutely adorable.

 

Ranielle was also inspired by Anna Gray's adorability.

The Boys Room. The fixed public restrooms at the park were the better bet for the guys. There was a shorter line and they were cleaner than the porta-potty's. My understanding is that the girls had it tough no mater where they went.

A hula-hooper doing his thing.

Some girl was there twirling around these glowing spheres.

This is another hula-hooper with G Love & Special Sauce playing in the background. I love how the hula-hoop is casting just a little light on her face and shoulders so it doesn't just look like a floating circle of lights. I think this was my favorite shot of the day.