I have been experimenting street photography with iPhone camera recently.
The phone camera is so ubiquitous that it became the most recognised object of modern life. People got used to it as an accessory. Hardly anyone pays attention to you when you take pictures with it. This makes it a potent tool to solve the most pressing problem for street photographers; proximity to subject.
If it's not good enough, you're not close enough - Robert Capa
I noticed this family was walking in front of me in the George Street. Before then I had never seen someone riding on an electric suitcase. Two elders were riding on their suitcases, their children and a grandchild were walking beside them. Interestingly men had identical shirts like a ceremonial uniform.
There was something in their unity that touched me. The grandchild with a jacket with oversized sleeves was giving a helping hand to his grandad, while the young man in the front was looking back, checking on them. It was the decisive moment. I approached, framed the picture and shoot.
iPhone tips:
- I have an iPhone 13 Max Pro. This image was shot in 1.5x zoom which is equivalent to 39 mm focal length.
- I used jpeg output. My editing software Affinity does not handle Apple ProRAW format well, but handle JPEG files much better.
iPhone limitations:
- Unfortunately the current iPhone camera app does not have a “save and recall” capability. Every time you access the camera app it just resets the zoom factor to 1. You then need to bring up the zoom-wheel and set it 1.5x. So long as the app is in the foreground and the phone is not locked it, it will use the current zoom factor. But as soon as you switch to another app or your phone is locked you need to set it again before taking a picture.
