Apple’s iPhone is a fantastic little gadget. Global positioning system meets touch-screen meets iPod / portable video player meets hyperportable computer, meets camera. For the purpose of this article, it’s only the latter that is interesting…
I was on the train the other day, and spotted the light hitting my book in a gorgeous way. Cursing that I didn’t have a proper camera with me, I decided to try and capture the moment with my iPhone. The results were actually really quite good, which piqued my interest; are there people out there taking works of arts with their iPhone?
It turns out the answer is a resounding ‘yes’ – and I wasted most of the evening and night collecting 100 fantastic examples of people taking gorgeous photos with their iPhones. Without further ado…
The Apple iPhone as a camera
The iPhone is many things. It’s the most flawed phone I’ve ever owned (which I wrote about here back when I was still editing T3.com), but it’s still heads and shoulders ahead of any other phone I’ve ever owned, too: It’s the first device that does everything I need to, the apps functionality is a stroke of genius, the built-in GPS and maps has saved my bacon so often I’ve lost count, and I’m a recovering Trism addict, too. It’s got the best screen on any phone I’ve ever used, and the whole touch-screen thing is fab.
Having said all that, the iPhone’s camera is pretty damn inferior compared to the current slew of camera phones out there. I had a couple of Sony Ericsson phones that had better battery life AND a far better camera (with – gasp – autofocus!) than Apple’s raprod.
And yet… it’s the first camera phone I’ve used where I’m taking photos all the damn time. It helps that the iPhone makes uploading photos to Flickr / Facebook or e-mailing them to friends very easy, and the fact that your photos are Geo-tagged for you is pretty nifty as well.
So yes, the iPhone is a rather fantastic machine overall, with a sub-par camera. That doesn’t stop people from making some damn fine artwork with it though…
(Top tip: the iPhone takes the photo when you release the on-screen shutter button, so you can find it, press and hold, frame, and then just release the button when you’re ready)
So – despite its shortcomings, it turns out there are some pretty awesome iPhone photgraphers out there. I’ve collected some of the best…
The best of the best
In my research, I found a few photographers in particular that are worth taking a special look at for their work with iPhone cameras: Sionfullana has more than 400 iphone photos in his stream, and his iPhone set is full of absolutely fantastic photos, including tons of great street photography around New York.
Update: I’ve done an interview with Sion Fullana about how he takes his amazing iPhone photos!
The other photographers that kept coming up time and time again are Steve Bluestein, whose abstract work is fantastic indeed. Finally, Bananajode, and carolthome both have really distinctive styles which is an inspiration in itself.
Between these four, they’ve got art with an iPhone camera covered – but there are so many others out there who dabble in iPhone photography – with fabulous results. Witness…
100 fantastic iPhone photographs
It took me a hell of a long time to collect all of these, but they’re all worth taking a look at – first off, 55 with thumbnails…
photo by bananajode
photo by pouwerkerk
photo by clearstyle
photo by clearstyle
photo by clearstyle
photo by bananajode
photo by bananajode
photo by pixelhound
photo by bananajode
photo by bananajode
Even more!
Still haven’t had enough? I don’t blame you to be honest, there’s a lot of awesome iPhone photography going here, so you may as well keep going! The next 50 or so haven’t got thumbnail images (partially out of laziness, and partially because these users have chosen not to share the ‘small’ versions of their images with the world) – but have a click, have a look, and enjoy!
photo by AdamBaronPhoto
photo by ilyysamanthaa
photo by shoken
photo by rayguntv
photo by uncommon
photo by carolthome
photo by version-3-point-1
photo by carolthome
photo by bitrot
photo by steviezj
photo by the-challenge
photo by studioh
photo by jswright
photo by carleton_hall
photo by big-e-mr-g
photo by jswright
photo by junku
photo by petermarik
photo by maitexu
photo by dogmatic
photo by sionfullana
photo by ronlemise
photo by alexthegirl
photo by x-cao
photo by x-cao
photo by antomic
photo by davidwatts1978
photo by journalrevolution
photo by hrtwrk
photo by littlepretty
photo by romeez
photo by gabo
photo by funcrodrigo
photo by yusheng
photo by sionfullana
photo by michaelnyc
photo by big-e-mr-g
photo by jswright
photo by sionfullana
photo by Otto K
photo by sionfullana
photo by sionfullana
photo by skyblueskin
photo by marcel83
photo by Matthew Burlem
photo by carolthome
photo by sionfullana
photo by Tabangel7
photo by sionfullana
And finally, the photo which set me on this wild goose chase in the first place; the only iPhone photo I decided would be good enough to place in my main Flickr stream:
On the Train by yours truly
Join the fun
Want to get in on the fun? Check out the Taken with iPhone group – or check out the there’s currently more than 30,000 photos to be looked at, and they welcome you to add your own, too. Or you can check out ‘taken with iPhone‘ camera browser on Flickr.
… And if you find any amazing gems I’ve missed, do leave us a comment – I’ve been thoroughly amazed by peoples creativity so far, and I’d love to continue being flabberghasted! :)