Figure 1- The fire-escape, Boston’s South End, IPhone photograph. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

OK, I’ll put in a plug for the Coppa Restaurant in Boston’s South End. I went there for brunch on Sunday with my family. And as a truly sluggard photographer, I took the image of Figure 1 without getting up from my seat. I keep experimenting with the camera on my IPhone 6 for art photographs and continue to be pleased with the results. It has its limitations: only takes 8 bit jpg, no optical zoom, and then there’s the annoying need to be able to see the back of the phone to frame the image.  But on the other hand, it does the rest of the job for you and also enables HDR and panoramas.

This picture is a black and white of the fire-escape acoss the street and its shadows against the brick. I even refrained from toning. I almost got the perspective: horizontal, vertical, and tilt just right.  The picture also required just a touch of digital zoom in.

Can you imagine Ansel Adams standing on the side of the road with his IPhone in Hernandez, NM? If you could have gotten him to stop taking pictures long enough, he would have been the first to point out that it’s about the photographer not the equipment.