Steady now, iPhone photographers!

The iPhone takes extraordinary photographs, but the challenge is holding the little critter still. A gadget called a Snapmount makes it easy to steady the camera, although you lose a lot of convenience when you lug a tripod around.

For those occasions when you have a tripod (or monopod) with you, this device is just what you need. A monopod, in case you are wondering, is a stick with a mounting screw. It is far more mobile than a tripod, weighs a fraction as much, and provides way-better-than-nothing support for your camera. You just insert the phone into the gadget, attach it to the mounting screw, and you are ready to take sharp, steady video or still images.

The Snapmount is relatively expensive. This is consistent with photographers’ accessories in general. I paid about $18 at Amazon. I obsess on getting sharp photos, so I don’t protest the expense. Also, some support is absolutely essential when recording video with any kind of amateur gear. Without support, you will just make your viewers seasick. Nobody wants that.

Goldfish and chives

This is the view from my private submarine: schools of Goldfish swimming among the chives.

I started working on my photography assignment to photograph food. This is my first effort. It’s a study in Goldfish crackers and chives on a serving platter my friend Jaime gave us. I call it “The view from my stateroom.” I took it while aboard my private submarine. You should take a ride on it sometime. It’s fun.

If any of y’all want to play the food photo game, let me know. By the way, I’m still working on the “serious” photograph to hang beside Edward Weston’s bell pepper. These things take time.

The art of not posing

This photo was pure luck. Never set your camera down in the presence of children.

When I photograph people I usually begin by giving them plenty of instructions about how to pose. Some of the resulting pictures might be worth keeping, but that is not why I give the instructions. I give the instructions to help my subject relax, and that comes from two sources. First, they realize they don’t have to know what to do. I’m not burdening them with expectations.

Second, I get to demonstrate that I know something about posing, and this tends to make people more comfortable. It’s good to think that your photographer knows something.

For this post let me use imaginary Claire as my model. I click off a lot of photos of Claire at the beginning, and I tell her that they are warm-up photos. Just have fun, I say. Can you look past me? Please put your right hand on your right knee. And so on. The instructions take her mind off her own nervousness, if she has any. It also gets her accustomed to hearing from me. I plan to chatter throughout the shoot. I will soon shift the emphasis to praise…beautiful, excellent, just right. That sunbeam puts a wonderful sparkle in your eyes.

Usually there is a shift after we have been shooting for a while, and Claire begins to pose herself. I often provide a prop. What can you do with that tree? I ask. I’m more interested in my subject’s view of her relationship with the tree than I am in getting a standard look.

Photography as dharma

Canon A630 point-and-shoot, f/2.8, 1/1250 second, camera set to auto.

I launched this blog because I discovered that I need to write about photography and what it means to me.

Yuri Makino asked me who my audience would be. With all due respect, it is whoever shows up. My intention is to nurture longing—mine and yours—to explore photography more deeply.

I also would be happy to help readers discover for themselves the deep spiritual insights that are available through service to this craft. Photography involves paying attention, mastering the technical elements, and being open to new ways of seeing the world and the things in it, plus getting out and shooting a lot. Put that all together, and a person can stay pretty busy.

And if we have the good fortune to attract the attention of the Divine and once the Universe takes an interest in us and our growth on the Path, we  are not necessarily going to be asked when it is  convenient for us to grow and change. We are going to be answering to a much higher authority than convenience. If we bind ourselves to the work of our dharma and our dharma needs us to shift to be of service to it, then the fire is gonna come to us.—Christina Sell

I believe that we are all given some things to work on in this life. Those “things” are my understanding of the meaning and nature of dharma. People who, for whatever reason, do not work the assignments they are given tend to be unhappy, if not outright miserable. Those who do seem to be content, prosperous, and optimistic. At least, that has been my experience in life.

Re-inventing the snapshot

Taken with a Canon A630 point-and-shoot, f/4 at 1/250 second, 100 ISO.

Consider this observation about the lowly snapshot: “If all human existence is essentially social, then snapshot photography has become the chief visual instrument of social memory.” This quote is from Weston Naef. He was curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles until he retired a couple of years ago. He wrote about snapshots for the wonderful little book Close to Home. I highly recommend it to anyone who is open to a new perspective on the humble snap.

Facebook, Flickr, and other social media sites that specialize in photographs and video show that the role of snapshots is increasing in reach and magnitude. This development brings to all of us the possibility of seeing snapshot photography in a whole new light. This post is for any of my readers who find that possibility intriguing.