Weird iPhone shots.

In praise of the odd.

My wife was a luddite. She’s changed bunches over the years, but while she was working – we’re talkin’ close to 20 years ago – she didn’t want anything to do with computers. She’d claim “I’m in front of a peecee all day long, why would I want to look at one on my own time?!”

A short time after they came out, we got ourselves a pair of the clam-shell G3 iBooks. She’d learned that shopping online was a thing. I honestly think if it weren’t for shopping she’d never have made that leap! Her’s was orange and I got the graphite colored case.

She was the same way with any type of mobile phone. Our first was a Motorola Razor. It took a lot of convincing to get her to buy-in, and she really didn’t have much luck with using the thing. It’s a totally different animal from an ATT push-button land-line phone we had in our home! Like I said, luddite.

Even after the iPhone was released, she was hesitant because of the price. I’d pretty much given up hope that I’d ever have a smart phone.

It took me 3 years to convince my boss at the university – an extremely technically challenge old guy – that having a smart phone would be a perfect addition to my Web Marketing Manager toolkit. Other folks in the department had just plain given up and bought their own. Made sense. Right? I remember being in total awe of Sarah’s new iPhone, just after the first version came out in 2007. Green with envy, I was.

He finally came around. I was able to land an iPhone 4. I absolutely loved that thing. And one of the first apps I loaded was ShakeItPhoto. You can probably see where I’m going with this.

For the longest time I stopped using my “real” cameras. I had a camera in my pocket, for goodness sake! And I used ShakeItPhoto exclusively.

Back to my x-luddite wife… so now she’s into it. She loves her 6. She tells me “our life is on this thing.” We’ve both upgraded from 2009 black MacBooks to 2016 13″ MacBooks. She’s still doing serious damage shopping online. 8^)

I still have ShakeItPhoto loaded on my 6. Probably my all-time fave iPhone app. Thank you, Nick Campbell.

I scrolled through my Flickr set of ShakeItPhotos and picked out a bunch of the weird shots – odd angles, strange subjects, unusual compositions – these fun, strange, and off-kilter photos are among my favorites.

In your face.

Making portraits.

It’s been noted that I have absolutely no problems sticking my cameras in people’s noses. This I can not dispute, and since I’m really not much of a studio shooter, most of the portraits I’ve made are street shots.

The folks I’ve approached are mostly strangers, but a few friends, co-workers, and acquaintances have agreed to let me get in their grill.

I’ve been contemplating entering my work in juried exhibitions and I spotted a call for entries at the A Smith Callery over in Johnson City, about an hour and twenty minute drive from here. The theme for this exhibition was “Portraits” and I spent a little time going through my Flickr stream looking at and deciding which shots I thought might be competitive.

I pulled out a good number of faves, but ultimately decided against entering. The cost was a bit out of my comfort zone and budget. I’m retired, on a fixed income. I really have to think long and hard about how I spend.

Looking Back

Eleanor

Al

Nikki

Diana

Tine

Molly

Lindsey

Rob and Tad

Andrew

Shades, stars, and beard

Colorful ribbons

George K

Buddy

Hair

Angie

Erin

Scotty

Molly

Mona Lisa Smile

Marek

Diana

Smooch

The last run.

Taking inventory.

This is the starting point. My plan is to use-up my stash of instant, positive, and negative film.

It may take a year or two or three. We’ll see.

For the negative and positive film, I’ll have to pay for processing, and that’ll get worked into the budget.

Once the film is all used up, I plan on selling off my film camera collection. Better to get them onto the hands of people who’ll appreciate them as I have.

Cabin fever.

Rose

C’mon Spring!

I’ve got a wee bit of cabin fever.

Sufferin’ through not one, but two colds and having my back go out in-between, I haven’t been able to get out with cameras pretty much all winter.

That means naps, a little television, reading, naps, and sitting in front of the computer. And naps.

Diggin’ through the archives I found a half-dozen macro flower shots I like, even a couple that weren’t previously published.

These are all from around mid-2005.

White Camelia

Sunburst

Yellow

Ground cover

Char’s Rose