This phone camera isn't half bad

We took a vacation to California wine country for Christmas, and I used the trip as a chance to really use the camera on my iPhone 7 Plus and see how it compares to my "real" digital cameras. The iPhone camera isn't as good as what you would find on, say, a Fuji X100T, but it is good enough. It takes sharp, contrasty photos and lets you edit and share them immediately.

Anyway, here are some of the shots I captured with my iPhone this last week. All were edited in VSCO for iOS.

Another walk around town

Every so often, I will take a walk around the D.C. with the aim of shooting one roll of film, usually medium format. My last walk took me from Anacostia up to U Street, and here are the photos from it. I am moving away from color photography, so these might be the last color shots taken on this particular camera. 

Instant California

I spent a part of my holiday break in Northern California. My film from the week needs to be developed, but I brought a pack of Impossible Project film for my Polaroid Spectra, and took a few instant photos. Here are my favorites.

Golden hour

For many reasons, I spent a lot of time in Charlottesville, Virginia. During my last visit, we visited a few wineries in the county. The weather wasn't great, but at a certain point that afternoon, the light was brilliant. Beams of golden light poured onto the landscape, illuminating everything with their brilliance. I had a camera with me (a Yashica Mat) and so I did what photographers do; I took pictures. The light was still like this when we got back to town, so I walked around and took a few more photos of a nearby convenience store and gas station. The final photo is just of a missing dog sign. I sometimes snap photos of those. I'm not sure why. 

Pay Phone

I forget that these exist until I see them; relics of the not-so-distant past when people didn't carry mobile phones, and needed a way to contact someone away from home. This phone is near the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., on the 5th Street side. I didn't notice it—my wife did. But once she pointed it out, I had to take a photo.

Long exposures

These two shots are the best photos from a roll of film I shot at the end of November, when I attempted to do a few long exposures. All this means is that the time allotted for capturing the image was greater than a second.

In the case of the first photo, the exposure took about 20 seconds, with the camera mounted on a tripod and the shutter attached to a release cable. In the case of the second, which took me two tries to get right, the exposure was 1 minute and 35 seconds.

I used a Fuji GW670 rangefinder and Kodak Tri-X for these photos. The Tri-X was pushed 2 stops to 1600, which accounts for some of the extra graininess.

Windy afternoon at the arboretum

I was bored a few weekends ago, so I grabbed my Yashica Mat TLR (think a Rolleiflex clone), my tripod, and a roll of film, and went to the National Arboretum to take photos in the fading light. This was mostly a test of whether I could use the Yashica on a tripod without causing too much shake or otherwise ruining the photo The result is yes! I can, even with strong winds that make steadying anything a challenge. Which opens up new avenues of shooting with that camera.

In the meantime, here are the photos. I'm not a huge fan of the first one, but I like the subsequent shots quite a bit. Film was Kodak Portra 400, and I ended up taking most of these shots at f/8 and a ¼ or ⅛ second shutter speed.

Two portraits

I took these photos a few months ago, on two separate walks through D.C. I usually approach people when I want to take their picture, but in this case, they walked up to me. We chatted about my camera—the gentleman in the second photo sold cameras at an outdoor stand—and I snapped a picture before I left.

I used one of my medium format Fuji rangefinders—6x7 negatives—and my usual black and white film, Tri-X. Both were exposed for the shadows cast by their hats, which means the full frame was overexposed by about two stops. The tonality and three-dimensionality of the photos is why I greatly prefer shooting medium format to 35mm.

I have this ambition of shooting even more portraits next year, but we'll see if I can continue to power through aversion to approaching strangers.

Wide angles

A while back, I received an Olympus OM-1 from a very generous reader. He also sent a couple of lenses, including a 24mm lens that brings an ultra-wide perspective. I gave it a spin last month, and these are the results. You'll notice I focused on murals and buildings, since if this lens is good for anything, it's capturing the full image. These were all taken on the same day.

Calm before madness

These photos are from the first week of November up until the election. I spent most of that time in North Carolina, covering the final leg of the Clinton campaign and criss-crossing the state. It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked, I took some, and here are the few that I liked.

This guy was selling Clinton gear for everyone to enjoy.

And this was his table of gear.

I passed this garage, and this car body, on my way to Raleigh.

A giant American flag from a Clinton rally.

On election night, I was at CBS News in New York City. These are a few shots from the green room.

A decorative hat of campaign buttons and stickers. 

Frank Luntz, on the phone. 

These next few photos are from the day and night after the election. Looking at their composition and lighting, I think they reflect my mood pretty well.

Walk-in's welcomed. 

Going down to the subway. 

I think, if I ever make a print of this photo, I will call it "alone."