March 2024
I’m in the midst of a project in which I am using my iPhone as my main camera. It started on our September road trip with Jim and Terri through New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces; we set strict guidelines for ourselves so we could get all our stuff packed in the pack of the Toyota Rav4 we rented. The night before we left I decided to not take my compact Sony RX100M7 (and all its attendant gear, instead relying on my iPhone 13. Since then I put my Sony full frame camera up for sale and upgraded my iPhone to the 15 Pro Max model that sports some really nice lenses. All but two of the pictures in this post are from the iPhone. Let’s see how it goes.
It’s been a mostly cold, windy and wet Portland Spring. The difference between winter and early spring in Portland is that in winter the temp is around 41° with drizzling rain whereas in early Spring the temp is around 49° with heavy rain. So take your pick. Well, you can’t really pick and choose – you get what you get.
On the first days of actual spring we had beautiful weather: clear skies and temps getting up to the low 70s. I took off on a walk with the dual notion of enjoying the weather and experimenting with the Macro mode of my iPhone. There were plenty of early flowers to enjoy. [Reminder: you can click on the individual photos to get larger views]
And I got a closeup of a single flower.
I also did some editing in Lightroom to get a blurry background. This is the best process I’ve found for transferring photos from Apple Photos to Lightroom for editing:
- Set iPhone to shoot in Apple’s ProRAW Max format.
- Export unmodified originals from Apple Photos to disk
- Import the images into Lightroom (I’m using Lightroom, not Lightroom Classic)
- Apply the LR Apple ProRAW profile.
- Crop and make edits. Not many are needed when using the ProRAW profile.
- For the macro photos: use the new Lens Blur panel in LightRoom. LR calculates the depth and allows you to easily add a blur to the background to the amount desired.
I think the results are very nice. But, frankly they are not up to the quality you can get with a full frame camera and a dedicated macro lens. Lightroom just doesn’t create that bokeh you get with a real macro lens. Here is a shot I took with my full frame Sony A7R3 with the Sony 90mm macro lens a few years ago.
Look at that bokeh (shiny blurry bits in the background). But I’ve got to be honest with myself. No way am I hauling all that gear around on a walk or on vacation. If you want to take a macro lens, you’ll need to also pack an all-around lens. The iPhone pictures provide the best result for effort (and expense). But, I’m not crazy – well, I don’t think this is evidence of any craziness I might have – while I am selling my A7R3 full frame, I’m keeping my A6600 and most of the lenses, including that 90mm Macro. You can see a whole series of pictures with that combo in this post from July 2021.
Back to Spring. My original post titles was going to be “Spring through a Macro Lens” but then Jonah and Linda invited to join them for a walk along Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland to see the cherry tree blossoms. The weather had turned to its cool, cloudy, rainy self. But we were undaunted – well, my traveling companions were undaunted while I was partially daunted. The clouds, wind and rain make it a bit tougher to get the picture you’d like. You do what you can with what you got.
Here’s a group of cherry blossoms in downtown Portland.
The rows of trees are beautiful.
Portland has a bad reputation; but we’ve been there quite a bit of late and have never had a problem. Look at the number of people on the promenade. Actually, there were quite a few people standing between the trees here. Adobe Photoshop comes in handy; and it’s much more polite – and effective – than yelling a people to get out of my picture.
At the end of the line of trees we came across a site than I cannot explain. Two young women were posing in huge pink dresses. People were getting their pictures taken with them. But I didn’t see a donation bucket anywhere or a sign with a Venmo request. So I shot away.
Aren’t those dresses fantastic? They must have been cold! If you know anything about this, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
The four of us – Jonah, Linda, Carla and I (not the princesses) – decided to do the walk the loop on the Esplanade crossing over on the Steel and Hawthorne Bridges. It is pretty loud on the east side of the river since it is near the I5 freeway – or as they say in California “The 5”. But you get some beautiful views of this beautiful city.
Let’s zoom in on those beautiful cherry trees.
I can hear some of you: “WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING? Don’t you know a man [John A. Garcia] was murdered on the Eastbank Esplanade earlier this March?” Yes, I know. But he was killed at 4:30 in the morning; we were here late morning. My advice: don’t walk around there between midnight and morning.
We crossed back over to the west side of the Willamette River via the Hawthorne Bridge and headed toward lunch at Pine Street Market. I love this rose on the building just north of the Hawthorne Bridge and include it in a post whenever I can. The building has housed many groups. I don’t know who owns and/or operates what business there.
Here’s another photo of the light sculpture I took at the 2022 Winter Light Festival (with my Sony RX100M7 camera).
I was going to get this post up earlier this week but got delayed. Good thing I was. This morning – March 30, 2024 – featured another nice swing to the bright blue side of Spring. I walked up and through the Hyland Woods Natural Area and found this duck hanging out on – above – the pond.
I’m happy with the results I’ve been getting from my iPhone. It’s perfect for travel and very easy to keep handy. Let me know what you think in the comments. If you are interested in using the iPhone as your primary camera or are interested in Adobe Lightroom (or migrating from LightRoom Classic to LightRoom), try these links from Brian Matiash’s site. [I’m not an affiliate; I’m just passing on information I’ve found useful]. Links open in a new tab.
- Can the iPhone Replace Your Camera? This is the blog post that gave me the courage to rely on my iPhone. In September it was a necessity because I just couldn’t haul more gear; but now I see it as a viable long-term option.
- Must-Have iPhone Camera Gear for Photographers I think he is a little extreme here. I didn’t buy any extra lenses to attach to the existing lenses. After all, I’m trying to reduce the amount of stuff I carry. I did buy the Polar Pro Lightchaser case and polarizing filter. I love it.
- The Truth About Editing iPhone Landscape Photos. This one gets a bit “in the weeds”. I found that shooting in Apple ProRaw works well for my use. I purchased the Reeflex Pro Camera App (which uses something akin to an OG raw format). But I haven’t taken it out for a detailed look yet. I’m waiting for better weather.
- Switching from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom? This is an introduction to the topic and includes a one+ hour YouTube video. I made the switch – using his course – so I can edit photos on my iPad as well as my desktop. This will be a huge time saver when traveling.
So there you have it. Early Spring photos with more than enough camera talk thrown in.
