iPhoneography Addict

"Inner Workings" ©Tracy J. Thomas, 2012. All rights reserved. Apps: dynamic light, grunge, percolator, superimpose, photofx, Iris, photoforge

My name is Tracy J. Thomas and I am addicted to iPhoneography…

Don’t get me wrong, I am not giving up my “big girl” camera, especially since I just spent a whole shitload of money on my M.F.A. However there is just something so free and easy and yes a bit sexy about the act of whipping this compact piece of electronic gadgetry out of my pocket to snap a photo without wrestling with lens caps, light meters and aperture settings. In fact it’s more than sexy. It’s like being granted the freedom to run around without your clothes on only you aren’t confined to a nudist colony type of sexy. And it’s as addicting as any illicit drug.

Owning an iPhone does not a photographer make. So no, I am not worried that my future earnings as a professional will be quashed by a bunch of amateur iPhone slingers. There are still a whole lot of snapshot-like iPhone photos floating around in cyberspace even when shot with those cool apps like Hipstamatic or Instagram. I’m just as guilty as the rest for taking a whole toilet bowl full of Hipstamatic photographs with every available “lens” and “film” the moment my iPhone first arrived. But such is the learning curve of said beast.

"Groceries" ©Tracy J. Thomas, 2012. All rights reserved. Apps: snapseed, grunge, dynamic light

As time wore on and I became bored with the same old results from the same old “lenses” and “films,” I decided to Google iPhoneography and boy were my eyes happy with what they saw on these links. People were doing things with their iPhones that were comparable to the best Photoshop digital artists out there. I was basically blown away while highly motivated to understand how they were making such incredible art. It soon became apparent there was so much more to it than just your basic camera app.

The trick with all of these incredible artists beyond the obvious fact they have a strong eye for photography and some deeply rooted artistic talent, is they don’t simply stop with your basic camera app. In fact they bend and stretch and scratch and rip and tone and percolate and layer and enhance their photographs by using as many as a half-dozen apps or more for each piece. Now that takes vision. And planning. And of course the proper amount of memory in your iPhone to load said apps.

"The Light" ©Tracy J. Thomas, 2012. All rights reserved. Apps: snapseed, photo fx, lenslight

Thus began my journey into app stacking in post processing of my iPhone images. This whole week has been all about experimenting with a plethora of apps and combinations. I took a vow to self to jump right in and get my hands dirty, to tweak and doodle and layer and mask in order to create a couple of moody iPhone photographs. Just the act of playing with my iPhone has begun to free up the artistic funk I found myself in last week when I wrote my last blog post.

I have already connected with an amazing group of iPhoneographers on iPhoneart.com and was even more pleased to find information on art galleries that have begun to exhibit iPhone photos. I have even begun to write and design a basic iPhoneography course that I hope to teach through my city’s community center and I also plan to set up an online course for a minimal fee within the next several months in order to spread the joy.

So excuse me for now. My iPhone is sitting here giving me a rather cold stare and I am twitching to get my hands on the WordFoto app I downloaded a few minutes ago.

You can keep an eye on the development of my new found obsession by visiting my iPhoneart gallery at: www.iphoneart.com/users/3704/galleries

"Rugged Coast" ©Tracy J. Thomas, 2012. All rights reserved. App: hipstamatic