The Importance of Being Mobile
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, how important it is that you can be mobile in every sense when capturing photography either planned or coincidental. Triggered mainly by a recent trip to India where I took some of my dSLR camera kit with me most of it saw very little use. The camera that did see the most use was my GF1 followed very closely by the camera on my phone.
I’ve also recently started to post seriously to my instagram account and there is a marked difference from when I was doing it casually to when I got a phone with a decent camera on it. There’s been a lot said recently about the death of dSLRs and people getting the rage because they think it’s all a load of nonsense and that surely camera phones will not replace the traditional SLR camera and in some ways I agree. I don’t however think it’s nonsense and I don’t think we’re seeing the death of dSLR cameras. Every tool has a purpose and I don’t see the purpose dSLR cameras serve as one that will evaporate in the near future.
In saying that there is one exception and it’s understandable to see why point-and-shoot camera sales have been so depressing lately. Before if you were to have a go everywhere camera you’d most likely buy a small point and shoot like a Nikon or a Canon to drop into handbag/man-bag. Now you don’t need to do that because you most likely have a camera on your phone that can produce equal and in some cases better results than something that was built with the sole purpose of doing.
It’s almost like the democratisation of photography, in a way that people said the 5dmk2 had made film making accessible to the masses. Anyway, I digress slightly. Back to my point.
After a couple of months off from photography over the festive period I’ve started to get back in to the flow of things. Making regular trips out on foot, bike or car to locations nearby to capture images that I’ve been meaning to get but never got round to doing.
During these trips I’ve noticed just how important it is to have a camera that is accessible when you need it. I know a lot of people plan their trips and give a lot of thought to what kit they need to take with them, but it is the moments that are unplanned that always cause me great sadness when I miss them because I’m too busy faffing around with a camera or lens that was brought along for another purpose altogether. The saviour in all this has been my camera phone.
I’ve always wanted to climb to the top of a hill and be above the clouds but the opportunity has never arisen before. This weekend past I was embarking on a 4 hour journey to the west coast of Scotland, to a place called Applecross. As I drove through Perth I hit some pretty thick fog. There are some relatively high hill tops in this area and I thought I’d take a chance and climb to the top of one, Kinnoull Hill, as I’d been up it before and thought that there was a good chance that the fog was low and rolling over the surface.
What I saw when I got to the top was awe-inspiring. Mile after mile of rolling fog lit up by the rising morning sun which shone unhindered by the fog. The camera that I reached for first wasn’t the one you’d assume correctly in most situations. It was my phone. After I was satisfied I’d collected a decent amount of images on my phone it was then and only then that I reached for my SLR.
I’m still analysing why this happened but there are a couple of things that stand out for me in this decision process. The most important of which is as follows; it’s so quick to take a photograph, process and then upload to a social network using a 3G connection from pretty much anywhere in Scotland. The first thing I wanted to do was share this scene with friends and family. I can’t do that was my dSLR, and I certainly can’t process the images in camera. The workflow is just so refined and fast. My normal workflow for my dSLR would have been at least 20 times as long and involved transferring images to a laptop computer, processing in Photoshop / Lightroom and then uploading through a wi-fi connection after arriving back home.
Sure, the purpose is slightly different. With the mobile phone it’s all very fast. Capturing a photograph and sharing it in a few minutes is fantastic and some might argue that it makes photography feel a bit disposable. Personally I think that’s rubbish. Everyone should have a massive library of photographic images. The end goal with the dSLR camera is different for me. My dSLR workflow is refined to producing images that could potentially have a sellable value or at the very least be printable for competition. That takes time and can’t be rushed.
Equally important is the fear of missing the moment. Reaching into my pocket, double tapping the home button on my phone and firing off a few images is a ridiculously quick process. It reduces the risk of missing the moment exponentially. Now this is operating under the assumption that you’re camera gear is still in your bag, something that happens frequently when being you’re not prepared for what’s about to unfold before you.
I wanted to put this out there to see what other people where thinking. I’d be interested to hear / read if you’ve experienced something similar and are going through a transition right this moment.
Yea I think that’s it, for the 5% of the time most of us really need to do some serious picture taking ew want to have an SLR but the other 95% of the time its about mobility, and nowadays “point & shoots” and pro-sumers have become good enough that you’re really not sacrificing much by doing so. I need a new camera and at least for now it will come down to replacing my aging DSLR or my P&S and I have no doubts that the P&S will be getting the upgrade first.