Less is more

Here is a little encouragement to go out and just take some photos using anything you have on hand.

If you want, you can view the original photo here.  It opens a new window, in case you care about that sort of thing.  Also, feel free to browse the other photos you find on that site.  I signed up for it many years ago for some reason, and I just dump something on there every once in a while.  This particular photo was robotically entered into some internal contest they run on ViewBug from time to time.  It's always been my most popular photo on the site.  However, making the top 10% ahead of over 400,000 other photos in this competition is kinda cool.

Now, I didn't post that just to blow my own horn, not that I'm above that sort of thing.  No, it's because that photo was taken on a foggy morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, near Grandfather Mountain, with......wait for it.....an iPhone 3G.

Yes, an iPhone 3G.

It's obvious that it wasn't taken with the most expensive camera, but the iPhone 3G only had 1.9 MP.  Even toys for tots these days have better cameras.

So why do you think this image has been so popular?

I know why I think so:  Because it's spooky.

It's got issues with composition because I could not get to a position that gave me the exact arrangement of the elements without a bunch of extraneous clutter in the background.  So I just did the best I could to get that rail fence zig-zagging into the mist with the limbs hanging over like gnarly arms about to grab anybody foolish enough to walk there.   But in spite of the less than perfect composition, it conveys the mood I was hoping for.  And apparently does so pretty successfully, since it has been such a popular shot.

So, I am not going to talk specifically about cameras in this post, because I wanted to hammer on the idea that IT'S NOT ABOUT THE CAMERA.

And by that I mean, IT'S NOT COMPLETELY ABOUT THE CAMERA.

Obviously it's a little bit about the camera.  We'll talk about cameras next time.

If you have any questions about any of this, comments, names you want to call me, credit card numbers, etc., just post them in the comments and I'll address them as soon as I can.