Renewing my interest in mobile photography!
I’m just back from Portland, OR where I shot only with my iPhone 12 Pro. Even in lower light, this camera is delivering some stellar images. Check them out!
I’m just back from a quick trip up to Portland, OR - and all I had was my iPhone!
Years ago, I shot with my iPhone all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME. I loved it. I always had it with me, of course, so I shot away with it. Eventually I ended up with an iPhone 7, which at the time I thought was great (this was 4+ years ago when I got the iPhone 7). After a while though, I just felt like the image quality was not up to par for me, unless it was in pretty great lighting. Time after time, I would look at the images, zoom in, and be disappointed. Eventually I just quit shooting with it altogether.
A few months ago, I upgraded to the iPhone 12 Pro (yes, I know the 13 just came out, but I had to get a new phone at the time, and couldn’t wait). I had read so much about the advancements in the camera, and I couldn’t wait to try it out. It’s just so much better than what I had (granted, it’s several years worth of advancements, but still). I have been pretty much blown away with how good the camera is.
So when this trip to Portland came up - and knowing I had limited free time to go shoot - I decided to forego my usual Sony stuff and just shoot on the go with my iPhone. It also happened to be peak Fall season, so there were lots of amazing colors in the trees, and additionally we were able to visit several different parts of town, so I ended up shooting quite a bit!
The thing that impressed me the most is how well it performs in low light. Now to be clear, it doesn’t compare to my full frame Sony in that regard, but still it does a pretty darn good job. The images look amazingly crisp to my eyes, and I am quite happy about that! And of course, this has renewed my interest in mobile photography, which is great fun! I’ve missed it. It’s good to be back at it! And now I will be using my iPhone much more often when I am out shooting!
And as far as editing goes, I edited all of these photos in Luminar AI. Just a few quick adjustments is all it takes!
Signs you're in Portland
Portland Oregon is a great town! While we were in Oregon this summer, we spent a long day there exploring quite a bit of it. Here are some photos of some cool signs I spotted while there. Enjoy!
Just some wonderful Portland signage today!
I love signs and tend to shoot them a lot when I travel. On our big summer trip, we took one day and drove up to Portland to hang out and have fun (and eat doughnuts!). It was pretty awesome, and made more awesome by the fact that I got to enjoy some tasty beer, incredible doughnuts, and even got an amazing sunset while there! Good times!
So today's post is a short one, in terms of what I'm writing, but I wanted to share these shots and encourage you to go to Portland, and to take some sign photos while there! (oh yeah, and try the doughnuts!)
(click any photo to enlarge by the way!)
Portland's Japanese Garden
This Japanese Garden in the heart of Portland, OR is absolutely gorgeous! I spent some time there with a few friends a couple of years ago (yep, Jim's a little behind in processing my pics!) and boy did I ever come back with some winners! Sadly, it's taken me over 2 years to get around to sharing them...but finally...here they are! Hope you enjoy the view!
This is one gorgeous place in the heart of Portland, OR!
I was lucky enough to make it to the inaugural NXNW gentlemen's photo trip back in 2012, wherein we popped up to Portland, OR and shot like crazy over a long weekend. It was awesome, but sadly the timing hasn't worked out for me since, so I have missed all the other trips.
The gents are planning one for later this summer right now, and once again I am committed to be elsewhere at the time, so once again I will miss out. But, I will be in Europe so I won't complain. I do love going to Europe (and in fact just spent last week there, in Copenhagen, and collected about 3100 new photos. Whew, lots to do!)
Anyways, all this email banter about the upcoming trip sparked my interest to go back into the archives (which I have been doing a lot lately, anyways) and see what else from that Portland trip remained to be processed.
The answer? A LOT!
I took over 2000 photos on that trip, and have processed barely a fraction of them. It's the same thing I have been saying here a lot lately - that most of my photos are sitting in the library collecting virtual dust.
But that's changing.
It's one of my goals this year to process as many pics as I can find time for. Some of them become blog posts here - and some do not - but they all go onto my Flickr stream as well as on my portfolio site (since making them visible/searchable is the point).
So recently I got into that collection from Portland, and started on these shots from the Japanese Gardens there, which are absolutely beautiful. We spent a couple of hours there on our first afternoon, and I loved it. We all did. How could you NOT love a place this beautiful?
Well, enjoy the views today and come back soon for many, many more photos, as soon as I get them processed!
Horsetail Falls
Waterfalls are one of my favorite subjects!
There's just something about photographing a waterfall that just gets to me. Obviously I love the beauty of nature, and feeling the mist on my face is pretty awesome. I love standing there and just taking it all in too. It's hard to beat.
As you probably know from previous visits here, I also love to shoot in HDR. I do that a lot - it's one of the things I just love about photography. So naturally I like to put the two together - waterfalls in HDR. I will admit though that sometimes I will just do a single long exposure of a waterfall, so that I get that pure silky magic that only a slow shutter can give you. But that only works for me in the right light conditions.
In this scene, I went with a straight up 7 exposure HDR and then made some more adjustments in Color Efex Pro. This was actually shot at the end of summer 2012 outside of Portland, OR and everything was just incredibly GREEN. It was way too green. So when I was in Color Efex Pro I started toying with the idea of turning this into a Fall image, since I was dreaming of Fall at the moment.
In other words, while this looks like a Fall shot that happened when the leaves were just the perfect colors, in reality it was summer and it was all green. I like green, but needed a break from it this time around. Hope you like it!
Blue hour on the Portland skyline
Portland, OR is a beautiful town, or at least the parts of it that I saw are beautiful. I met a bunch of other photographers up there for a photo weekend, and the first evening out we hit this spot to shoot the skyline. I am not sure how many pics I took in this area, but it’s a lot! One of my favorite things to shoot is skylines and reflections, specifically during blue hour. So in this case, I got both. :-)
Rockin' at Multnomah Falls
I loved shooting at Multnomah Falls. It’s huge, popular (read: crowded) and everyone shoots it, but I just didn’t care. Last August, I came all the way out to Portland, OR from Texas, where we couldn’t even get a slight chance of rain, much less witnessing a waterfall this majestic. It’s truly a sight to behold in person (and this was my 2nd visit, the 1st being ~10 years ago). It’s just beautiful. Go. See. It.
Given the chance, I would go back and shoot it again. I believe that you can improve your photography by shooting the same thing many times, because each time is different. In this case, due to the crowds, I had to work for creative compositions so that I didn’t have a thousand tourists in my shoots. That just ruins the whole thing for me.
So, after taking a few shots from the lower falls, I walked up to the bridge which gives you a nice view of the upper falls. I put on the zoom lens and opted to focus in on the bottom of the upper falls. Finding that big rock sitting there was just a bonus. :-)Step up the stairs
The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. - Vance Havner
I love that quote - just love it. It's so true, and I think fitting for a lot of us in several ways. Personally, in my photography work I have some things I want to accomplish, and I am in the process of stepping up those stairs to get these things done. More on that soon!
For all my US readers, enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and thanks everyone for stopping by!
(if you are curious, I shot this at the Japanese Gardens in Portland, OR)
Horsetail spray
Multnomah closeup
Back from the UK!
As some of you may know, I was recently in the UK and in addition to hosting a great photowalk in London, I also got out and shot a whole lot in London and Dublin. It was an incredible week and I have about 3000 images to get to at some point, and some fun stories to tell. I'll be sharing that stuff with you all soon!
Daily photo - Multnomah closeup
I captured this image at Multnomah Falls, which is on the Columbia River Gorge outside of Portland, OR. If you are ever even near Portland, I highly recommend this area for photography or just general tourism. It is beautiful and along the Gorge there is an entire stretch of waterfalls - it's quite a lot to enjoy!
Portland reflected
Here's another Portland skyline shot from my recent trip out West. The golden hour that day was fabulous and led into a nice serene blue hour as well. All around a great evening to shoot!
Wispy Multnomah
Today, I am moving onto a waterfall (and no, there is not really an order to the shots I am sharing this week). But this isn't just any waterfall, it's Multnomah Falls! If you aren't familiar with Multnomah Falls, just know that it is the tallest waterfall in the state at a total height of 620 feet (though it is split into 2 sections).
I had seen this waterfall years ago when I was in Portland, and knew it was at the top of my list of shots I wanted when I visited recently. The thing is that at 620 feet it's pretty hard to get the whole thing in a shot, not to mention that the area is incredibly crowded most of the time.
So, I did the sensible thing and walked up to the mid-way point and out onto the footbridge. I set up my tripod and leaned against the stone railing, in hopes of avoiding getting bumped by all the tourists. I got bumped anyways. :)
But, I also got quite a few shots of the upper falls, from various angles. I wanted to start with this one, just because I like it!
Golden hour in Portland
I love to shoot skylines, and doubly so when I can get some water in front of it to catch some cool reflections. This is the Portland skyline right around golden hour. If you saw my last post, you know that we started our photo expedition at the Japanese Gardens, and then we had some time before the light got interesting, so we went and found a pub near the river. That's always fun.
By the way, when I say "we", I am referring to the folks on the trip which I neglected to mention yesterday. They were myself and Dave Wilson from Austin, Justin Balog from Denver, Scott Wood from Olympia and Jacob Lucas from Seattle. On the evening we shot this spot, we also were joined by local photog and all-around awesome dude Brian Matiash. Being a local, he gave us a tour around this area for the best views. It was a hell of a night.
The exact spot we shot this from is called the Eastbank Esplanade. It's a great view, as you can see. We shot here for quite a while, then went on a fruitless search for donuts. Excellent.
The Tree of Life
Our first stop once we all met up was to head over to the Japanese Gardens, which are in the west hills of Portland not far from downtown. Apart from the intricately twisting branches, the thing I found most interesting about this tree is its size. It's only about 5 feet tall! I actually missed it the first couple of times I walked by!
We spent a couple of hours here at the gardens, and I have a lot more to share from here. But, I think my next post will be the Portland skyline, which we shot a few hours after leaving these gardens. We shot through a beautiful golden hour, through blue hour, and into the night. It was awesome.
iPhone fun in Oregon
Jim is lazy...
I knew it had been a while since I did a blog post with just iPhone shots, but I just checked and the last one was July 12 - that's 5 weeks ago! Sorry, I really enjoy sharing iPhone shots but get so busy with everything that I haven't taken the time to do them recently.
...but his iPhone isn't!
Since then, I have been to Oklahoma City, Nashville, San Francisco, the Texas coast (Port Aransas) and Portland, OR. Whew! I have a lot to share! I took loads of iPhone shots in these places (and of course, gunned a million brackets with my Nikon!).
iPhone fun in Oregon...
If you follow me on Facebook you may know that I just returned from a guys' photo trip to Portland, OR last weekend. It was incredible. We shot a TON and I am just starting to get to some of my shots from my Nikon. In the meantime, I thought I would go ahead and get back into the iPhone groove by sharing a few shots I took on my Oregon trip. Hope you enjoy them, and thanks for looking!
Golden hour on Cannon Beach, OR
And then a little later as sunset passed and blue hour was getting started...
Horsetail Falls, along the Columbia River Gorge...
And this monster is Multnomah Falls...HUGE!
Sunset at Trillium Lake...
And finally, this is the view from Ecola State Park, looking down the coast at Cannon Beach - love this place!
