This article in iPhone photography on the river was first published in Rapid magazine.
The next time you paddle into a scenic locale, don’t be surprised if there isn’t a single camera in sight. It’s not that paddlers with an eye for photographic flair have given up sharing their vision—and exploits—with the world. Many river shutterbugs are finding a better way to shoot, edit and upload images without the need for a bulky SLR, laptop or high-speed Internet connection.
As long as paddlers can get signal bars on their phones, that is.
“I think it’s pretty cool that I can take a photo on my iPhone and upload it to the world, pretty much instantly,” says Matt Hamilton, a 36-year-old paramedic and former Canadian Freestyle Kayak Team member.
Hamilton isn’t alone. With on-board cameras and quick Internet access, mobile phones are increasingly becoming the ultimate all-in-one devices. In April 2012, National Geographic reported that consumer surveys showed camera phones accounted for 37 percent of Americans’ digital photos in 2011. By 2015, the share of images made with phones could be close to half.
The iPhone is one of the most popular and capable smartphones.
“If I’m hanging out at a wave with friends, I’m shooting with my iPhone,” says professional photographer and avid kayaker, John Rathwell, 25, adding that he still pulls out his SLR for professional work.
Hamilton also shoots with the more capable Canon 30D SLR, and his Olympus waterproof point-and-shoot is always in his lifejacket. But his iPhone, compact and equipped with a relatively inexpensive waterproof case, sees about half of all his outings.
“Everybody seems to communicate through Facebook, Skype or texting,” says Hamilton, who enjoys the immediacy of uploading directly to friends and paddler groups on Facebook.
For self-proclaimed “techno idiots” like Hamilton, simplicity is among the reasons for going with the iPhone. Applications like Instagram boost the accessibility of mobile phone photography even more. In just over a year, the free photo editing and sharing app has gained over 30 million users and won several awards, including a highly esteemed Webby—a Best of the Web award hailed by The New York Times as “the Internet’s highest honor”—for Breakout of the Year.
Phone cameras are not without limitations. Take away the networking capabilities and downloadable apps, and even the top-rated iPhone’s camera is about par with mid-range point-and-shoots. The camera has no manual settings for ISO, aperture or shutter speed, and relies solely on downloaded applications to adjust photos.
Still, it’s possible to capture professional quality photos with a phone. In 2005, award-winning photographer Robert Clark published Image America, the first photo book to use only images from a camera phone. Two years later, Clark shot images for National Geographic’s pioneering how-to guide, The Camera Phone Book.
According to Rathwell, static settings are the biggest downside to shoot- ing with an iPhone. “You’ll quickly find that it shoots only wide angles,” he says. “If your kayaker subjects are far away, you’re not going to get a very good shot.”
But it’s exactly this lack of control that forces professionals and even novice shooters like Hamilton to get more creative with their shots. “It gets you thinking a little bit differently,” says Rathwell. “How you can get closer to the action, or how you can use the landscape and scenery to make the photograph work.”
This article originally appeared in Rapid, Fall 2012. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
