100th Post! and What is adam | 12? Updated

Walking in the Weeds with iPhone

In a dark corner of a seedy bar, much like the one in the original Star Wars movie where viewers first met Han Solo, I sat with some very close friends sipping on some really good tequila. The events that were about to transpire would change the course of my photo and writing career for ever. My brother-in-law showed me a camera app that he had downloaded into his iPhone. I immediately logged into the Apple App Store and downloaded it to my phone. And the rest is, at the risk of sounding cliche, is history.

Now, using the iPhone as a creative tool has become a daily occurrence for me. I live by those blasted words of Chase Jarvis, “The Best Camera Is the One that is With You.” I apply that same sentiment to his Best Camera application as well. I try to upload an image to my Facebook, Twitter, Best Camera, and Flickr accounts on a daily basis. Why? Because it makes me feel like I am connecting with my friends, family, and followers. And, because I like it.

Since this is my 100th blog post, which is something of a special landmark for me, I am announcing a personal project that is going to happen on February 20th, 2010. If you are a black and white landscape photographer you will probably know that this is photographer Ansel Adams’ birth date. Adams always pushed the limits of creation, and were he here today, I firmly believe he would be all-for utilizing the digital darkroom, and even an iPhone, for creating on the spur of the moment.

The thought here is to celebrate one of photography’s legacies right along with one of the newest technologies out there and see what happens. My mission is to photograph for 12 hours straight, traveling all over the state of Washington, from 8 am to 8 pm, using only my iPhone. As I shoot, I am going to edit in-camera/phone, and then immediately post to my Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Best Camera accounts using, you guessed it, Chase Jarvis’ Best Camera app.

I would love for everyone who follows to get involved and help direct the journey. As the images come across the web on February 20th, tell us where to go next by sending us a simple e-mail. Your favorite town, meadow, forest, waterfall, bar, street, sandwich, drink, etc. could get captured and posted right after you told us about it. And if you know where we are in your area and would like to be part of the convoy, that would be great too. The only catch is that the only camera/video equipment you can carry with you is your iPhone. And if you don’t have an iPhone, you can bring your Blackberry or any other phone for that matter, just not your Nikon D3, Canon 1D, or super HD video camera. The objective here is to discover a new side to creativity with as little burden as possible. “Free the mind and the soul will follow.”

This project, which is inspired by two extremely talented photographers, both of whom have changed the way photographers photograph, and who inspire me on a daily basis to push the limits of my work, will commence on February 20th at 8 am.

UPDATE -After having a long phone conversation with friend and fellow photographer Younes Bounhar this past weekend, I would also like to add this idea to my project. On February 20th, whether you are in New Jersey, Canada, Tokyo, or France, grab your iPhone, take some images, and upload those images to a gallery of your own entitled “iphone adam 12″ on your website, blog, etc. Then send me the link to your gallery and on the last day of February I will add all of those links to a posting of my own highlighting what can be done photographically with just an iPhone.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 12:00 pm. It is filed under events, news and announcements and tagged with Ansel Adams, Chase Jarvis, event, photography, shoot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.