The Online Photographer

Stephen Scharf's iPhone 13 Mini-Portfolio

Photos and words by Stephen Scharf

Cute Gray House. Exterior "1-point" perspective "real-estate"-style photo of a home in St. Helena, in the heart of the Napa Valley, California. Shot as a JPEG, handheld, available light, without a tripod, no sky replacement.

The Gala. An event styling, staging, and rental business in Martinez, California, Shot as a JPEG, handheld, available light, without a tripod, no sky replacement.

Audi R8 LMS (Le Mans Sedan). Shot using a Profoto C1 "smartphone" flash with a softbox light modifier. Shot in RAW using the ProfotoControl iPhone app which provides control of lighting power, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, and exposure, etc. Converted/edited in Adobe Photoshop 2022.

John Muir House. Exterior shot of John Muir’s house in Martinez, California, now a US National Historic site. Built in the Italianate late-Victorian style in 1882 by Dr. John Strentzel, Muir's father-in-law. Shot as a JPEG, handheld, available light without a tripod, no sky replacement.

John Muir's Study. One of my favorite iPhone shots is this one of John Muir’s study at his home in Martinez, California. I love the perspective, the quality of light, and the fact the iPhone even held detail in the curtains at the window at the far end of the room. Shot handheld, down low, through the cordon that blocked the room off from access by visitors. All I did with this photo was to straighten the verticals a touch.

+  =  +  =  +  =  +  =  +

GADA camera
After years of carrying a camera with me everywhere I go (generally my wonderful Fujifilm X100F), I’ve come to the conclusion you don't need to do that anymore: the iPhone 13 Pro or Pro Max is the perfect GADA (go anywere, do anything) camera. I've been using mine for the last month or so, and am fairly blown away by the quality of the camera, and it’s flexibility for handling a range of use-cases. In addition to the Night Mode, there’s a Long Exposure post-processing feature for photos taken using the Live Auto mode that will take a number of frames to produce effects like adding motion blur to moving water. As mentioned in one of the photo captions, the iPhone supports shooting in RAW. For those needing more control over lighting Profoto makes two lights, the C1 and C1 Plus, that provide professionals with an effective lighting solution for use with the iPhone. The Profoto Control app provides complete control over lighting power, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, and exposure, as well as RAW capture.

The bottom-line is my iPhone 13 Pro Max provides the use-case flexibility, versatility control, and image quality to be my "GADA camera" of choice.

Stephen

Stephen Scharf is a retired molecular biologist presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. He’s been an accredited professional motosports photojournalist for the better part of two decades, and does some occasional professional real estate and product photography just to keep his hand in. You can find some of his work at his website.

Book o' the Week

The Mindful Photographer by Sophie Howarth. I only know of Sophie Howarth from her time as a curator at the Tate Modern in London, but my impression then was positive. Her brand new book (it only came out a few days ago) is about slowing down as a means of enjoying photographing more. It's said to contain a curated collection of photographs along with anecdotes and explanation.

The book link is your portal to Amazon from TOP, should you wish to support this site.

Our link to B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

MikeR: "George Eastman's dream realized: I think that this set firmly cements the point that, for all practical purposes, our smartphones are now the equivalent of all prior point-and-shoot cameras, from Kodak box cameras and Instamatics, to those like the Canon Powershot or Fuji Finepix. The current crop of mirrorless and DSLR cameras are fine for the pros and for hobbyists like me/us, but 'impractical' for most folks, who have a perfectly good camera in their pocket. And even that line is blurring and moving up."

Peter Komar: "Well there you have it, the death of digital cameras. Those are amazing images; what’s the point of even debating what the iPhone can do in the hands of an artist? I was convinced after my side-by-side shot comparison with my iPhone 12 Pro vs. my Panasonic LX100 which has a Micro 4/3 sensor. I could not believe the results. The iPhone is my carry with me camera."

Kirk: "Nice work! This has me looking forward to the iPhone 14 Pro. Can't wait. Maybe I can finally get rid of all those other cameras...."

Gaspar Heurtly: "Someone mentioned the 'you press the button, we do the rest' slogan on a recent post. I think that comment is spot on. The only difference, I think, is what 'the rest' is. Back then, when Kodak pocket cameras became popular, 'the rest' usually meant slightly blurry pictures with blown highlights and very underexposed images for anything that wasn't shot in daylight. The good pictures were only shot by people with good cameras that knew how to use them. Now, 'the rest' is an astonishing amount of technology that makes it possible to take perfectly exposed pictures in near darkness."

An Evening Walk

I should have worked on the Print Crit yesterday, but it was such a gorgeous afternoon I went for a long walk up the hill instead. Welker Hill rises 520 feet in the stretch of a mile, so I take my car up the steepest part and park it on my neighbor Les's field and walk on from there. It's not that I'm scared of walking up the steep part—I've done it many times, and I've actually run up it a time or two—it's that going down is hard on my knees. It's still plenty steep from where I park.

Mike's mailbox. Mike is a retired Kodak engineer who lives in a patch of woods. The year after I graduated from high school, Kodak commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in the United States. When I was in Photo School, it had 145,000 employees worldwide and was described as "the bluest of the blue chips," blue chip being a term for a dependable investment. There are retired Kodak folks sprinkled hither and yon all over the region.

Kodak's peak year was 1996, believe it or not.

The wind blew my hat off. The high yesterday was 66 degrees Fahrenheit (19°C), and the breeze was brisk enough to make the flags wave. As good days in the Finger Lakes often are, it was gloriously clear. The air smelled sweet, earthy and pure. The feel and scent of air are things that are forever beyond the capacity of photographs to describe.

This would have been a "No Trespassing" sign, the sign itself now long since gone the way of all things. Some of its original sky blue paint still clings to it.

Honeybee Dave's house. You can see the house in the Wintertime, but when the trees leaf out, nope. It's in there, though.

Mennonite tractors. You can tell a Mennonite tractor by the steel wheels. I asked a Mennonite farmer why their tractors have steel wheels, and he smiled and said, "So we don't get too comfortable and use them to go to town." There are two sects up here. One uses cars. But the horse-and-buggy Mennonites believe they're supposed to travel that way or by bicycle. Their carriages are rather severe enclosed black boxes, but you'll often see them on nice Summer evenings packed into little un-sprung open carts out for pleasure rides, especially on Sundays.

This fellow barks at me on the way out and not on the way back. I'm old news by then.

By the way, this is one of those pictures that I hoped would be something but isn't. That's something that's been happening to me all my life. You'd think we'd have a word for it. Is it enough to say that the scene was more dramatic in person? The sun was right behind the middle silo and blindingly bright. I should have dodged the doggie a little.

Red-winged blackbird, not that you can tell. That's just like me, trying to take bird pictures with a 50mm lens! I do like watching the red-winged blackbirds, though—they're in about half the pictures I took on my walk. There's one in the picture of Honeybee Dave's house too. They'll divebomb right at you if you get near a nest, but the ones on the hill are more entertaining than aggressive.

Another former No Trespassing sign with the sign gone.

I often take pictures of the sky just for the joy of it. I don't know why—everyone's seen skies, and skies generally are not good subjects for photographs, something Stieglitz taught me with his snooty "Equivalents," all of which are not-very-good pictures. But how can you resist?

Here's where I park. Les lives on the lake, but he has a big mown field up here with a shed with a workshop in it and some fruit trees, and a swinging settee in front of the shed where he and his wife can sit and look out over the lake and the hills on the far side. The road still rises another 250 or so vertical feet from here, but this way I skip the steep part. Some relatives came to visit me, and coming down the steep parts of the roads in a car scared them. It is a little unsettling at first. I'm so used to it I don't notice. People who live in real mountains wouldn't think it's much. When I was young I went up into the Swiss Alps in a bus and I had to move to the front because, on sharp turns, the rear of the bus felt like it was swinging out over dizzying vertical drops.

It was 63°F by the time I got back to the car, but I was comfortable in shirt sleeves. The breeze had no bite and felt friendly and enveloping.

...And then one more for good measure. As always happens, once I get into "picture-taking mode" I have trouble stopping. I made a loop to the grocery store after my walk and took this from the parking lot, resting the camera on the sill of the driver's side window. It's next to the Catholic church and I think it's where the priest lives. Beautiful old Gothic Revival house. Can you see where the shutters used to be?

Thanks for coming on my evening walk with me. Hopefully this was a relaxing respite from all the trouble out in the world. Now, back to work.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Glenn Allenspach: "Gotta say, Mike, I greatly enjoyed these photos. They gave me a real sense of the place where you live, and 'sense of place' is to me one of the great purposes of photography."

Jeroen Pulles: "Remarkable light/contrast on the last photo. The two trees in the front seem to be catching some light from your direction, as if you carry a giant strobe on your walks."

Mike replies: Streetlights from the grocery store parking lot. The balance of lighting was one of the arresting things about the scene.

Gordon: "You live in Eden, Mike. I’m envious."

Mike replies: You know, it really is one of my favorite places of everywhere I've ever lived. The scale of life is just about right: the density of people, the way everybody has potential connections, the Mennonites and Amish maintaining the farmland in good fettle, the casual friendliness of the people, the low crime. I have more friends and acquaintances here than anywhere I've ever lived. The relaxed way people do business can be a little annoying, but that has its advantages too and you get used to it. But there's a reason why it's essentially a Summer resort area: the temperate months are glorious in many ways (weather, wildlife, plant life, the big show in the skies, the halcyon life of the wealthy along the lakeside), but in the Winter months it can be like the slough of despond: grim, gray, bleak, lonely. Ideally one would live here five months out of the year, and someplace else, like a city, the other seven months. I'll work on that, but I'm running out of lifespan in which to imagine a roseate future! 

Mike: "Love that last one. Reminds me of the picture you made years ago of the house in the dark using a D700."

Mike replies: You've got a long memory. That was a long time ago.

Franklyn Hamsher: "This post is lovely.

"I am no longer able to get out an walk for more than a a couple of hundred yards (which I do all within the confines of my back yard). To share your thoughts and pictures of your walk delights me no end.

"What you have done reminds me very much of a project done by the Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi: 'Seven Days Walking,' a series of short compositions he wrote while walking near his home over a seven-month period. He would stop in the same spots each day to drink in the feel of each place and compose short pieces of music to reflect his impressions. Seven albums in all. These albums have become real favorites of mine when I am working at the computer or doing my exercises to keep fit. I recommend the albums for you. You can probably find them on Spotify or a similar service.

"They songs remind me of a series of photographs that my father, an avid and talented amateur photographer shot probably 40 years ago. He took one series of four photos of things that interested him in the wild, (a creek bank, a group of trees with entwined trunks, a forested path, the light filtering through tree branches seen from inside a copse of trees, etc). He came back to the exact spot, composing a frame of the exact scene in all four seasons. He sold many sets of these four photos to admirers when he retired and the sales funded his ramblings. Sadly I no longer have copies of any of his photos.

"Please keep doing what you are doing!"

Mike replies: Funny you should mention Einaudi. I just discovered him for the first time recently, while researching the piece "So You Say You Like Everything." I'll go put on "Seven Days Walking" now.

Stephen F Faust: "Sometimes, simply looking at pretty pictures is the best possible use of time. For me, your timing was perfect. Thanks for letting me join you on this walk."

Ray L Hudson: "Thanks for the walk together. I'm feeling pretty trapped indoors these days.

"I will say, being an amateur birder myself, if that bird is on the other side of the wires, as it seems, that's a world record red-winged. Also it has the outline and wing pattern of a soaring hawk. Out here, (Oregon), it would be a red-tailed. Not sure what's back there. Just saying."

Mike replies: He was only a few feet the other side of the wire. I'm reasonably certain it was a red-winged blackbird. There were a bunch of them. But then I'm not a birder so maybe you're right. Here's a detail crop from a different frame:

Boat Show!

Ed. Note: It turned out that "Look at Tone as Light" post was a great last post for a Friday, because the lively comments kept it going all weekend. Thanks to everyone who contributed their expertise and spoke to their own experience. I thought it was interesting that a number of people reported doing something similar (by a variety of different methods) as part of their regular workflow, and several people said they thought "depressed midtones" predated digital. Check out Doug Thacker's Featured Comment on that post, last in the stack.

Earlier last week I used a classic wooden boat as a rhetorical parallel (you remember the picture of the Chris-Craft barrel back), and, as if to order, there was a Classic Boat Show in Hammondsport this past weekend. I took the Fuji and THZ (the hated zoom) and did a little photography. How can you not like a boat show?

Do classic boats make you happy? These smiling ladies were clearly having a good time. Or maybe they just thought my hat looked funny.

Massive throngs of people jamming the waterfront. (You don't often see anything that can be called a "crowd" up in this part of the world).

The boats first did a slow parade in front of the crowd and then each did a "fly-by," i.e., passes at speed.

Just as all cars above a certain level of luxury are muscle cars these days, so all boats are now speedboats—you could pull skiers behind most bass boats, fer pete's sake. This is a launch, a boat intended to go slow. These have been replaced by the "martini boat" or pontoon boat for relaxed cruising these days, although Olive Oyl here has more style, don't you think?

(Even some pontoon boats are speedboats now too, and look at this!)

Old and new. I took the picture on the right up at Morgan Marine. Although you can't tell from the picture, the 200-horsepower supercharged Merc (spellcheck thinks I want to write "Mercado") is enormous—taller than the average ten-year-old and as burly as a gorilla in a zoo. Most outboard engines are now bizarrely huge, come to find out. When did that happen? I was unaware.

At one time there were 24(!) active boatbuilders on Keuka Lake where I live. This is a Penn Yan, named for the town just north of me. The Penn Yan Boat Company built wooden runabouts like this one meant to compete with the likes of Lyman. (The town itself was named to settle a dispute between Pennsylvanians and Yankees over who got to name it. There are a number of boats on the lake named "Penny Ann.")

The stylishly nautical helm of 1958 Century Raven, a boat that's just a tad younger than I am. The owners were very nice. The boat is an unrestored survivor in remarkably good shape.

The third cockpit of the appropriately named Razzle Dazzle, a three-cockpit Gar Wood. I learned to my surprise this is a 2007 boat—they still build Gar Woods new. You will need to bring your wallet.

Classic boating is a family affair!

Something for everyone—classic car buffs had these 1940s Chevrolet "woodies" to gawk at. And classic train buffs amongst ye will doubtless be interested in the police station building behind the cars, as it used to be the town train station.

Note the height of the vehicle—and we thought SUVs were a recent idea? This one had the original invoice in the window—written on a typewriter. The car cost just over $2,000 in the mid-1940s.

loading Queeny on her trailer. I hope you like the positions of the two gentlemen in the frame—it took me a lot of shots and lot of jockeying to make it look easy!

Time to wrap up! Show's over.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

John: "Your post triggered some good memories. As a kid I spent my summers on Keuka Lake, skiing behind a boat much like these. Our cottage was just across the lake from the college. When we five boys weren't on or in the water, we were usually exploring the endless creeks and gorges. Or in Penn Yan spending the quarters our grandfather paid us for pulling weeds. Life speeds along like a Penn Yan Swift. Thanks for the flashback."

Steve Higgins: "I think we need to see the hat to be able to make a sensible critical decision....  :-)   ."

Mike replies: Here you go. Bought on doctor's orders—dermatologist's, actually—to protect my bald spot from excessive sun and possible future skin cancer.

MikeR: "Your hat looks funny! (I have one just like it. Recent trip to Florida proved its worth.)"

Mike replies: It only looks funny if you're younger than 55. Otherwise it looks perfectly natural.

Dave Kee: "I have a hat like that, but years ago I was told by SWMBO not to wear it because it made me look as old as Henry Fonda did in 'On Golden Pond.' Just checked, and I am now as old as Henry was when he made the movie. I think I will dig the hat out of the back of the closet."

Bob Johnston [no immediate relation]: "Thanks for showing these great photos Mike. Those boats are works of art. I particularly liked Olive Oyl. Isn't it great that there are people who keep these going for us to see?"

Mike replies: It certainly is. I wouldn't want to do it. I have a cousin who loves these boats, and he's rich, but what he does is build models of them. When I asked him why he doesn't buy a real one, he said something like "who needs the headache?" Re the hat scene from 'Caddyshack': "Looks good on you though."

D. Hufford: "Yep. Checked the hat at the link. No doubt it was the hat."

Mini-Portfolio: Ben Rosengart's Family Pictures

I spend too much time looking at awful snapshots and "test shots," and it's a nice antidote to occasionally come across sets of pictures that are straightforward and joyful and well seen.

Ben Rosengart is a regular here, and a regular commenter as well, whose comments I sometimes feature. Born in New York City in 1978, he says he "followed his youthful love of science fiction straight into a career in computing," which explains his sig line:

2.3.2 418 I'm a teapot
Any attempt to brew coffee with a teapot should result in the error code "418 I'm a teapot." The resulting entity body MAY be short and stout.

He's good with kids. Ben and his sweetheart, now wife, relocated to the Bay area in 2007, where they're raising a son. Take lots now, Ben, because by the time he's 12 he'll stop cooperating.

His pictures (we're aware that we're looking at personal documentation, of real lives) are simple and unpretentious, without trying too hard to be arty or edgy or fashionable, but you believe the moments and the expressions.

This fits our recent "quiet color" theme, doesn't it? Ben's pictures are pretty remarkable in their quietude, actually. He doesn't hit any of the sliders very hard.

You should never mix color with black-and-white, but he does, so I will too.

These pics look better on Flickr, bigger.

I can't stop to present on the site samples from every reader's portfolio I visit, but it's an important part of my day, part of what I get back from doing this.

Ben Rosengart (photo by Oliver Rosengart)

Stop by and take a look at more of Ben's work, if this quiet and real style of photography appeals to you.

Mike
(Thanks to Ben)

Photographs ©2013 by Ben Rosengart, all rights reserved

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Ben Rosengart: "Thank you, Mike. Your criticism on this site has influenced my work, helping me feel comfortable shooting what I shoot, without trying too hard to emulate my heroes."

Mike replies: Never meet your heroes—and never emulate them, either. You should see what happens when I try to take Koudelkas and Friedlanders. It is not pretty.  :-)

Steve J: "Back when I was just beginning photography, I went through numerous related magazines, especially as I had easy access to U.S., U.K., and Australian editions. One of the greatest lessons I learned from this early instruction (aside from the utmost importance of preternatural sharpness) came from an issue that featured a photographer's family photos. Names of the photographer and magazine unfortunately forgotten, and the photographer did not have a website at the time. Nevertheless, I still clearly remember some of the amazing photos he took of his kids (and I ain't one to like children that much). Anyway, the lesson learned: Great photography is great photography; the subject matter can be anything."

John Frendreiss: Environs of Chicago (a Mini-Portfolio)

Chicago, Illinois

Norridge, Illinois

Norridge, Illinois

Park Ridge, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois

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These (mostly) were John's entries to the "Horizonless" post, and I liked looking at them as a set. John is a 49-year-old database developer in Oak Park, Illinois. He says he's still trying to figure out what kind of photographs he really wants to make.

Mike

P.S. "Environs of Chicago" is the title of a famous Harry Callahan photograph.

Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

David Bostedo: "I have no idea why, but that frozen bicycle is great...I wish I understood why, but it immediately jumped out (for me) as the best of the bunch."

Dogman: "I love the sailfish (or marlin, or whatever). But all five photos are outstanding. My favorite photographs are photographs that look like photographs."

Tom Kwas: "I miss those Chicago newsstands. That's how you can tell you're in a 'real' city...extra gold star if they start to recognize you and grab your papers when you pull up or walk by...."

Christian: "....Oh, and the bike is SMASHINGLY good. As are the rest."