The iPhone as picture-maker
The iPhone Photographs of Clair Dunn, Vermont Photographer
Moving from shooting with a high-end DSLR camera to the iPhone/cell phone camera has been interesting. The change in seeing and then in thinking has been significant for me as a photographer.
As "duh" simple as it may sound, with the big camera, your vision tends to be big as well. I've never been a shooter of flowers for their own sake or of people. It's been Vermont; and Vermont to me means hills, mountains, skies, barns in their natural settings. These are all big images. And, of course, my primary palette for my Vermont images has been monochromatic.
Another major change in my vision has been induced by the fact that the big camera is not always with me. The cell phone is.
Which means, if I see it, I can get it. And it is my seeing that has undergone the greatest mutation.
The Perfectly Malleable Composition
When you shoot with a cell phone, you are not looking through a viewfinder. You are looking straight at an image thinly framed by the phone itself—especially when using an iPhone. You are in fact, holding the "framed-print" in your hand. You are totally free to turn it and slant it any way you want. The composition in your hand and eye is constantly and instantly malleable. And, the printed size of 4" x 5.33" conveys the intimacy of the taking.
Gradually your vision becomes accustomed to looking for existing compositions that emphasize the happy disposition of shapes and colors, textures and patterns. Your vision comes to be an abstract one because of the power you have to slice the world into visually active pieces.
And, also gradually, you become aware that you are looking everywhere. And looking at everything with new eyes that
have new paths to your brain. Synapses fire with the shutter.
There is no doubt, this is a new path to fine art, intimate art.
