I’ve been taking photos with my phone off and on since I got it but not seriously. Once in a while I’d snap a landscape because of the phone camera’s wider, almost panoramic format. Then recently I took a close photo of a mushroom and was surprised that it did so well, so I decided to put it through its paces and really see what it could do. This post is made up entirely of photos that I took with the phone, starting off with a foggy, rainy view of Half-Moon Pond in Hancock. The phone camera did about what I’d expect in such gloomy conditions; the scene looks like it was shot in black and white.
This was taken with the phone camera on another rainy day but the colors of the crowded parchment fungi (Stereum complicatum) still came through. One of my mushroom books describes them as orange fading to cream, or cinnamon buff. These are definitely orange fading to cream. Sometimes crowded parchment fungi grow so close together that their edges fuse together, even though there seems to be more than enough room on the branch for all. This fungus grows on fallen deciduous tree branches; usually oak.
The phone camera seems to handle color and high contrast quite well, as the yellow lemon drop fungi (Bisporella citrina) on a dark log show.
Lemon drops are very small but even when cropped the phone photo still holds plenty of detail. The smaller examples in this shot are about the size of a period made by a pencil on paper. These tiny disc shaped sac fungi actually have a stalk but it’s too small to be seen by me.
Milk white toothed polypore (Irpex lacteus) is a crust fungus with “teeth” that are actually tubes or pores in the spore bearing surface which break apart with age and become tooth-like as the above photo shows. As they age these “teeth” turn brown as they have here. I wasn’t sure if the phone camera could pick them out but it did a fairly good job of it. This crust fungus is common on the undersides of fallen branches and rotting logs.
I’m not sure what happened to make the hill lit by the rising sun in this photo so red / brown. Since I didn’t look at the photo until a few days after I took it I can’t say if the colors were enhanced by the phone or not, but do know that I’ve seen the early morning sun do some very strange things here at Half-Moon Pond in Hancock.
The phone camera has a macro function so of course I had to try it, but I ended up not liking it. Either I was doing something wrong or it has trouble focusing in macro mode. When I zoom in on the photo of the bud on this black raspberry cane (Rubus occidentalis) I can see that it isn’t in sharp focus at all. It seems like the camera actually does better with close up shots when it’s in normal shooting mode.
It did okay with these black locust thorns (Robinia pseudoacacia) as far as focus goes but there is kind of a garish look to this photo, as if it was done in high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) that wasn’t set quite right.
The phone camera picked up the pucker on these oriental bittersweet berries (Celastrus orbiculatus) with no problems and also did well on the color. Red can be a tough color for some cameras, especially in bright sunlight as these examples were.
The strangest thing about witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) to me is how its leaves always seem more colorful after their fall color has left them. They turn yellow in the fall but it isn’t the blazing yellow of beech and maple. It isn’t that it’s a drab color; it’s just not very exciting. Then the leaves go from yellow to brown, but it isn’t just any old brown. It’s a beautiful, vibrant and rich orange-brown that always makes me stop for a closer look, and sometimes a photo or two. I think the phone camera did a good job with the color. Even though I’m colorblind I can still see certain colors, and I can see that this one is very different from the pink brown of an oak leaf, or the red brown of iron oxide on stone. This brown is warm and alive, and on a cold winter day it can warm your perspective.
Now that I see these phone photos I wish I had also taken the same photo with a different camera so I could compare the two. I’m fairly certain that either one of my other cameras would have seen the brightness of the quartz in this scene and darkened the shot considerably to compensate. But the cell phone didn’t and I really didn’t have to fiddle around much with this shot. The broom moss (Dicranum scoparium) looks more alive than just about any other photo of moss that I’ve taken, and it’s very beautiful against the milky white of the quartz.
The spore bearing apothecial disks of the smoky eye boulder lichens (Porpidia albocaerulescens) look blue in the right light. They have a waxy coating that reflects light much like the whitish bloom on blueberries and that makes them appear blue. The black border on each disk makes them really stand out from the body of the lichen which can be brown or the grayish white color seen here. They’re very small and I was surprised that the phone camera picked them out so well.
I wanted to see how the phone camera did on stop action shots and what could be a better subject for that than a feather blowing in the wind? The camera failed miserably but I think that’s because I didn’t have the settings adjusted the way they should have been. I really don’t use it enough to know what’s best.
This simple shot of water plants on a foggy morning is my favorite shot to come out of the phone because it speaks of serenity, solitude and bliss; all things that I find regularly in these New Hampshire woods.
What I hope this post shows is that you don’t need anything more than a phone camera to record what you see in nature, and I hope it will inspire more people to get out there and give it a go. As I’ve said here before, if you photograph what you love that love will burn brightly in your photos and it will be very apparent to others. I don’t think the brand of camera you use matters as much as how you feel when you use it. If the subject and the photo please you they will please others as well. If you’d like to see a daily blog done solely with a cellphone you should take a peek at Marie’s blog, called I Walk Alone. She’s been writing a blog for several years now and uses nothing more than a phone camera, and her photos are often stunning.
Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself. ~Annie Leibovitz
Thanks for coming by.
Landscapes and close-ups, you seemed to have really nailed it with your phone’s camera! My iPhone is very old, by iPhone standards, and I never get a shot I’m pleased with. Hadn’t given any thought to the fact that it has a rather wide angle approach, so perhaps just knowing it’s limitations and capabilities would help. I am worried about the things I see budding in this strange, warm winter.
Thank you Martha. I think it’s just like anything else; practice makes perfect. Mine does a fairly good job on landscapes but I’m not thrilled with it’s macro function.
I wonder if you remember that winter we had a few years ago when it was 60 degrees for most of January? I was worried about the plants then but they did just fine. I’m sure they will this year too.
Interesting to see how your phone does at taking photos. Thank you too for the mention. I think the modern smart phone cameras are getting better by the day and have certainly noticed the difference between photos taken on my last model and the one I’m using now. For me it’s about having something with me all the time and taking pictures when I see something interesting. I’m also not at all technical so fancy cameras with lots of different setting confuse me. The one thing I wish I had on my phone though is a proper long lense. It really doesn’t do well on things like distant birds as I found out recently with some black swans. Maybe the next model will 🙂
Yes, I noticed that when I used the zoom function on the phone it lost clarity, so that’s something they need to work on. I’m sure yours must have a zoom, but some subjects like squirrels and swans are still too far away even with the zoom. I think phone photography is just like anything else; the more you practice the better you get, and you’ve had lots of practice!
The zoom function seems to be no more than a glorified crop and, as you say, clarity is lost. It will be interesting to see how they improve when I get my new phone next May.
Very impressed with these shots! Lots of great compositions here with appealing detail and colours. You take better shots with your phone than I do with my camera! That last shot in particular – awesome! 🙂
Thank you Jane. There is a folder full of rejects from this post so they weren’t all good. I often take far more photos than I need and then use only the best ones here. It’s a strategy that has served me well over the years.
Your phone does take very good photos. I especially liked the sunrise, broom moss and the last picture of the foggy lake. Thank-you for the link to Marie’s blog too.
You’re welcome and thank you Clare. I think you’ll probably recognize a lot of places on Marie’s blog but maybe not. It’s certainly worth a look!
I had a quick look at her most recent post last night. I have been to that part of the country a couple of times but not recently.
Maybe her blog will entice you into visiting again. There seems to be a lot of sea shore there.
We have been discussing visiting the south coast again. Richard doesn’t know it well as he comes from NW England but I grew up in SE England and the seasides we visited were all on the south coast but not usually as far west as where Marie is.
She has a palm tree in her garden so it must be plenty warm there!
Yes; it’s much milder there than the rest of the UK. A few cordylines are quite hardy and can be grown in most places with a little winter protection.
Those are some great photos, but I think the operator has a lot to do with their quality. I’ve seen some pretty bad phone photos taken with the most recent model smart phones, so kudos to you for getting the most out of what the phone can do, and finding the best scenes to photograph. I’m not too fond of the images my smart phone takes, as they seem overly sharpened, but yours don’t. What kind of phone is it?
Thank you Sue. This one is a Samsung Galaxy. I bought it because it had a flash that I thought would come in handy for mushrooms and other things that grow in dark places, but I’ve never used it. I’ll have to try it some day.
Actually that is the phone I have, but maybe I have it set up wrong, because my camera photos are not nearly the quality yours are.
That’s interesting because other than going into macro mode for this post I’ve always just gone into the camera and snapped a photo without adjusting anything except the exposure value. I’m not sure why they’d be so different.
Wonderful photos! I’m quite new to your blog….and also to photography, and to blogging, but I do love photography, and I appreciate your encouraging words about taking photos..I have been surprised at how a photo can look lovely with a little love and care, without a high powered camera.
Thanks very much and welcome. I mostly relate what I’ve found in nature here because that’s what I love, but I do occasionally speak about the tools that I use.
I think that if you photograph those things that really appeal to you and get your motor running, you’ll do fine. I’d like to see some of your work someday. Good luck!
These photos are excellent! I think that your statement about photographing what you love is spot on!
Thanks Montucky. And if nature is what you love you’ll never run out of subjects!
Many great pictures you took with a phone!
Thank you Jaime. Have a great week!
My new phone takes very crisp shots when the light is right and does well on extreme close ups but it too tends to to give an HDR look to pictures in some curcumstances. You have got excellent results with yours.
Thank you. Yes, I’ve seen some excellent photos come from your phone camera.
As usual I had plenty of rejects for each one posted, except for that last one.
Really good photos, Allen. Interesting what you suspect about the brightness/darkness in that one shot, if you had used one of your other cameras. I would likely not know the difference!
Thank you Cynthia. Cameras see things differently than we do and they often over compensate for bright and dim light. That’s how shots come out over or under exposed, so I always try to correct for it as I’m taking the photo.
Remarkable quality in these phone cameras. I truly love that picture of Half Moon Pond.
Thanks! I don’t think anyone could take a bad photo of that pond. It’s a very photogenic place.
I am very impressed with the photographs. I would be very tempted to have one because of the spontaneity of taking the photographs at times that have not been planned. We have Internet but none of the mobile phone nets reach us in the house or garden so I do not use a mobile phone here in France. Amelia
Thank you. No, it sounds like in your situation a phone camera wouldn’t be much help.
There is so much to see that is fun interesting on a walk around the garden or across the woods. Love your photos, especially the bud; I love watching this part of the plant world unfold from fall to spring.
Thank you Charlie. I agree; I’m forever watching buds to see what nature is up to.
Camera phones have come a long way in the past few years, as the manufacturers are competing to make the cameras in their phones better than the other guy’s camera phones. However, to a large extent, it’s not the camera gear that makes a great photo, it’s the person behind the camera. You’ve proved that a great eye is what matters, and you certainly have that, not only to find the things that you do, but to shoot great photos of what you find as well. Like every one else, I adore that last photo, it reminds me of the many mornings that I’ve been up before sunrise and wandered the shoreline of a northern Michigan lake.
Thanks Jerry! I think I do tend to look at things in a kind of “artsy” way but I do like to keep them as true to what I’ve seen as possible. As you’re finding now, sometimes just a simple shift in perspective can make a huge difference.
I think I was as surprised as anyone with how that last shot came out. It was just a quick couple of snapshots before work one foggy morning. I didn’t even look at it until days later but I immediately liked it.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays and commented:
Thank you very much, Allen.
You’re welcome, and thank you!
Very nice. Pretty amazing what our little phones will do now.
Thank you. It sure is! Actually it’s pretty amazing just to have a phone in your pocket!
There’s a freedom in not having to lug a camera, but to simply pull it out of your pocket when you want a photo. In the hands of a good photographer (you), its a great tool to have handy. It’s kind of liberating, isn’t it?
Thank you Judy. Yes, it is nice to have it right there at your fingertips any time you want it. So many times in the past I’ve said “I wish I’d had a camera.” Now I don’t suppose I’ll ever have to say that again!
Agree, the last one is spectacular. I have a good phone cam and I use it a lot. The wide angle makes a mess of mid-ground images, and just forget about action shots, but landscapes and close-ups work well. It’s become a part of the photography arsenal.
Thank you Kate. I have a feeling that I’ll be using mine more than I have in the past. It’s nice to have it so handy all the time.
Many of today’s smart phone cameras have more megapixels than my first DSLR and with the increasing number of apps available, there isn’t much they can’t do. The best camera is always the one you have with you!
Thanks Laura. I realized when I read your comment that I don’t even remember how many megapixels this camera has!
I am quite simply amazed by some of your shots–I had no idea that a camera on a phone would be able to capture close-up details so well. I love the artistry of the final shot and it really proves your point, Allen, that in many situations, the equipment is not as important as we think.
Thanks very much Mike. Yes, those little cameras they put on phones have come a long way and I’ve seen some incredible photos that people have taken with them. I find them kind of awkward to use but I suppose you’d get used to it.
Yes, I think our feelings and emotions really do come through in our photos, whether we want then to or not!
Nicely done. Just yesterday I had a conversation with my husband about the smart phone’s picture-taking capabilities. Our phones are but one step above flip phones…maybe it’s time for an upgrade.
Happy picture taking!
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Thank you. I don’t think this phone will ever completely replace my cameras but it’s nice to know I can use it in a pinch. Newer ones might do an even better job; this one is a few years old now.
That final picture, what a treasure!
Thank you Susan. That’s my favorite too.