Keepin' the creativity flowing

I know this is an old topic these days but iPhone photography (or any other camera phone for that matter) really can be a great source of creativity. Despite my fetish for shiny new things, especially technology based, I'm a little late on the scene when it comes to purchasing an iPhone - only had one for a few months now. I have to say I love it. I make use of a ton of it's features everyday - it even allows me to talk to other people if I so desire (who woulda thought?) - and I especially use the camera on it, a lot.

I would be the last person to have expected this, considering I am more than happy lugging around ten kilos of camera gear regularly, and do so because of the results I get from that gear. Having said that, I am certainly not saying the picture quality compares or is even on the same planet but I'm not expecting it to be. What it does do is allow me to take pictures pretty much anywhere at any time, of things I wouldn't necessarily bother with. If I have an idea for a more 'serious' image I use the iphone to record my idea - and sometimes make notes using the voice recorder. On other occasions I just take pictures because it's easy to..  and just because I love taking pictures. I must admit I have been quite surprised at the quality of some of the results - again they are not destined to become wall murals but they do have their own unique quality nonetheless.

Bottom line is, if you haven't tried using your iPhone or any other phone's camera, give it a go - what have you got to lose? I obviously still shoot my important images & paying work with my SLR but in the meantime I'm having a great time challenging myself to come up with something surprising with my iPhone - and finding that it keeps my creative juices flowing. To quote Chase Jarvis - "The best camera is the one that's with you". There really is more to that quote than meets the eye (no pun intended)

All the images within this latest blog were shot on my iPhone & edited with applications solely on the iPhone.
Cheers,
Simon

The eyes have it

It is easy to think everything is fine on a daily basis in regards to your health & well being but I think we all tend to neglect or avoid looking after ourselves to some degree. In my case I have been putting off a lot of things with the excuses of "I'm too busy", "it's nothing", "I'm young, don't worry about it" or just plain don't want to know about the 'what ifs'.

Recently I decided to go deal with a few things that I've been putting off for years. One of those was seeing an optometrist for an eye check - last one was a loooong time ago. I would say my eye sight is pretty reasonable - I certainly don't have any issues seeing pretty much anything at any distance, in fact I'm often the one in my group of friends whose eye sight seems to stand out as being better. After seeing the optometrist I emerged with a completely different scenario to ponder. My right eye is almost as good as the day it was made, however my left eye is significantly lower in ability. This miss match causes my right eye to work overtime and then my brain to also work way harder than it should to process and blend the two very different signals - I had no idea...   other than a succession of nearly daily headaches & sometimes migraines over the last 2 - 3 years. I simply put all of this down to working often long, hard hours and would tell my self to just get on with the job at hand. I now sport a set of glasses for computer work and anything else that I'm  concentrating on for long periods. This began about ten days ago and I am already experiencing a pleasant change.

About 5 or 6 years ago my time in front of a computer's display began to increase massively with the frequency of digital photography increasing. It is unavoidable in my line of work in a printing lab. On a daily basis in the shop I consistently view & edit an average of 500+ images, 6 days a week (on 'big' days where I am also working on weddings for other photographers that number could easily be 2000+). That doesn't include working on my own personal projects out of business hours. Not complaining, just painting a picture (no pun intended). Managing how much 'screen time' you endure per sitting is important - I try to limit myself to a twenty minute burst with a 5 minute break but this isn't always practical in the real world. This recipe has most certainly accelerated the degradation of my left eye. If I had acted earlier I could have slowed it down or halted it at a much better level, and avoided years of headaches induced by this. I'm sure I will still get headaches from time to time - I am human after all, and do enjoy a beer or two with friends every now and again - but at least I'll know where they came from.

The bottom line is, don't ignore things or put off taking care of yourself. If I was unable to enjoy photography as I do now, or was limited to how much time I could spend in front of a computer (my main source of income at this time) my life would be very different. My mother has advanced macular-degeneration and is legally blind. You think that would have been a glaringly obvious sign to take better care of my own eyes earlier...

Take care of yourselves, and never take anything for granted. Enjoy the gift of sight that you have and preserve it for a long as you can.

Take Care,
Simon