Best shots of the year..from an iPhone
Thanks to the iPhone Photography awards we get to see some of the hottest shots of the year that were all taken on an iPhone or iPad. Yep, these shots and many more were all shot with a simple device that many of us have with us at all times. The perfect travel camera. The iPhone. Take a look at some of this years winners below, and click on over to the IPPAWARDS website HERE To see ALL of them. Pretty incredible and inspiring if you ask me, especially since the rules state that no processing was allowed in any way on a desktop computer but apps were allowed. This contest was organized by Apple and it goes to show it is always the photographer and their eye more than anything else. But as I said before, those who buy cameras and upgrade do so not for the better photos but for the fun and hobby of owning different cameras.
The way we take pictures today is so much different from the way we took them many years ago. Today EVERYONE has a camera in their pocket in some way, shape or form and thousands of images are snapped every second around the world. There is hardly a moment anywhere that does not get recorded. The iPhone and other smart phones is the main reason for the huge decline in sales of point and shoot cameras and the photos below show a good reason why that is the case. Enjoy!
Third place in Children: Melisa Barili’s shot.
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This amazing shot using light and shadow was taken by JOSE LUIS BARCIA FERNANDEZ from Madrid Spain.
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One of my faves by Mihai Coliban Bucharest, Romania
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Aaron Pike took 1st place in the Tree category.
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1st place for people, Lauren Smith from Pensacola, FL
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Michael ONeal from San Fransisco took 1st place for Animals.
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Athena Tan took 2nd place in People.
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Cocu Liu from Chicago with his image. LOVE this one as well.
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Reportage with an iPhone? Why not? Gerard Collett uses his phone to capture scenes such as this one
Just goes to show good photographs need a good eye rather than expensive gear.
I was under the impression that you needed full frame to take photos 🙁
I just saw a beautiful photo reportage on Rio de Janeiro done by one of our local boy with one of that cheap throwaway b/w cardboard cameras (the shots were processed there by a local 1-hour lab). They were very beautiful and meaningful and got the praises of some high-profile pro photographers. So, I think the best camera is your mind: SHE creates the shots, the gear used is just subsequential. Horse manure shot with a 8000$ rangefinder or dsrl is still horse manure…
The last shot was made in my hometown Stuttgart, Germany.
Great shots by the way.
Hi Robert, I’m very glad you like my photograph! Stuttgart is a wonderful and fascinating place!
the second photo is superb! Elegant, simple and beautifully composed. Shades of Henri Cartier Bresson and other Magnum photographers. It does not matter which camera you used to take this photo. The quality of the image trumps all else. I am impressed with your “eye”- the ability to see and appreciate the image. Mr. Fernandez- congratulations.
Wonderful examples of simplicity in beautiful composition. JPEG vs raw, prime vs tele, ff vs micro 4/3 sensors, mirrorless vs dslr …….. none of that matters here and it shouldn’t matter anywhere. It’s art and it’s wonderful!
A good photo tells a story. What kind of camera was used is irrelevant.
Well most of them actually show today is all about post processing. The quality of the camera is nearly irrelevant as well as proper lighting. All done in post.
All images go through post-processing, whether it’s your camera cooking a jpeg or a negative being developed. What these photos show are photographers with a genuine talent for composition and creating eye-catching images.
What Huss said. Wonderful photos, no matter how they’re processed or what they’re shot with. Thanks for the post.
These shots are great. No desk top processing but you can use apps? Well, let’s be honest here, that pretty much is the same thing.
But… all that matters is the result. And I love these results.
I have an iphone and only use it for pics in emergencies as I just do not enjoy the ergonomics of using a flat, thin, long thing with no viewfinder to take pics. I like the way a camera feels in my hand, the way the focus and aperture rings feel, the way the image comes in to focus in a viewfinder.
Each to their own.
Best regards
Huss
These are very nice photographs. But the thing about exhibits of iPhone photographs is that there aren’t any that don’t insist upon the viewer knowing that they were taken with an iPhone. Were it not for the novelty of having been shot with a phone camera this would be just another collection of nice images that few would linger over. If you were to put on an exhibit of, say, the best shots taken with an Canon SX700, not many people would care, even though the Canon is capable of producing better looking shots. So as nice as they are, the real attraction of these photographs has less to do with the images themselves than what they were shot with. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but the attraction is ephemeral. It’s all about trendiness. In ten years, the photography fashionistas will be fawning over shots taken with something else and iPhone photographs will have to stand on their individual artistic merits.
doug . . . i’d be willing to bet that if you were told that images made with a camera phone were made with some kind of “real” camera that in many if not most instances you not think otherwise . . . in a word i think think that your asserion is wrong” . . .
I dare anyone to put on a show of iPhone photographs and not disclose what they were shot with. It’ll never happen.
You are totally wrong. I have exhibited 1 photograph made with my 4S and also made a video piece shown in a cinema. Nowhere was the camera (iphone) mentioned. Have several colleagues that have done the same.
Doug….while I get what you are saying, many of these photos DO stand on their own artistic merits. Aside from that…in 20 years people might be saying, ‘how in the hell did these people manage to get these photos out of that antique 5S???’
Clint, in 20 years no one will care what these images were shot with and they won’t stand out any more than a billion other images taken with other cameras. Yes, they are nice photographs, but so what? There are lots of equally nice and better photographs out there. The only reason that these are being singled out now is that they were taken with a phone. In 20 years that won’t matter.
Doug….show me a photo that DOES matter….art is subjective, to each their own.
which is exactly like everyone getting all hot and bothered about the crap photos taken with a leica M or what have you . . . no one would cares about the large majority of photos posted here other that it was taken with some “camera / lens” of interest . . . i look at these images and most of them imo are far more engaging than the “typical” image one sees day in and day out . . . personally i think coversations about “better and best” are generally stupid but, that said i think you’re “right” in the end, it’s not about what camera one uses but about the images themselves . .. .
I agree with Doug, there is really no need to celebrate the fact these were taken with a phone. Artists often hamstring themselves and get appreciated for still being able to produce good results, i.e. using non-traditional materials for sculptures, creating paintings on iPads, using post-it notes instead of paint. In the end, the image, or art, must stand on it’s own merit without a disclaimer that the artist made the task of creating it more dificult than was necessary.
Doug, it was the same story with polaroid. I think that is not important the single picture but the photographic project, whatever camera you use. :))
My wife is a very proficient iPhone photographer. In fact, many times we would be together, me with my camera, her with her iPhone and often I’m jealous of the shots she’s able to capture. It always puts the whole ‘gear’ issue in perspective for me 😉
Iphone 5 is my most used camera.
For me it is the perfect sketchpad and I got my best shots recently with it.
With Hipstamatic I get some of the feelings in the shots like my Holga.
It is in a class by its own in unobtrousiness.
My M9, RX1 xpro1 have better technical IQ – but…
Have a nice summer day.
Greatings Jens
Nice chemtrails on the last one
oh, c’mon…. “chemtrails”? the conspiracy theory for people who have never opened a science book in their lives? those are consansation trails of airplains. jeesh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrail
The cameras in phones have gotten a lot better. Many people don’t use their cameras to create art, they just use cameras to document their vacations and other life events. For those people, phones have completely replaced point-and-shoot cameras.
Yes indeed, my father in law lately asked advice for what camera to buy. I said ‘iPhone 5S.’
Now he’s super happy with it, it’s super easy to use, 8 MP and f/2.2 and it fits in your pocket.
It has dual flash for nice skin tones in dark, e.g. when out for dinner, locks always on focus, beautiful colors, slo-mo camera, and it shoots at 10 fps!
Serious, it even replaced his dated-after-one-year htc!
Just goes to show, the best camera is the one with you… Sadly my HTC has a very, very, very, very, very poor, terrible just down right not good camera on it. But