I've been behind in my iPhone blog reading. I recently managed to catch up on Life In Lofi and I came across the post about a free two day online iPhone photography seminar.

The seminar is Jack Hollingsworth at Seattle's Creative Live talking about his passion for and techniques he uses in iphoneography. He's a highly successful and prolific professional photographer who is finding that he's increasingly relying on his iPhone over his DSLR for his work. I was only able to catch the second half of today's seminar live but was happy to discover that they put the day's talk on repeat afterwords so you can watch a second time for those of us stuck with day jobs.

Jack is a very talented photographer who has a great stage presence. Lots of great tips and tricks were to be found and the overall production of the seminar...both the in-house live broadcast by CreativeLive and the pretaped 'in the field' mini videos were stellar. A really great production! Try to catch day two today if you can.

I took notes today when something caught my eye/ear and I realized that the big benefit of this seminar is to shake you out of our habits. Not that our habits are necessarily bad, but it's easy to get too comfy with what you know and forget to learn new things. What I gleaned from today's seminar from Jack as well as from the great people in the live chats:

1) iOS 5 now has focus lock! How did I miss this!? Tap to focus, tap -and-hold to lock focus. Whoa! I feel quite embarrassed that I didn't know this.

2) I know of Instagram and had tried it for a while but it didn't really click with me. I wasn't aware how truly popular the sharing service has become now. I also learned that you can use instagram primarily as a sharing/social network rather than just a retro cam. In fact, the filters are purely optional. Looks like I'll be updating my instagram stream soon!

3) Flickr is still relevant, popular, and widely used but everyone pretty much agrees that it is getting dusty. Personally, I worry that flickr has completely missed the boat with the mobile revolution. I truly hope they get back up to speed but I'm also not holding my breath.

4) Apps I need to check out: picfx, photostats, filterstorm, labelbox, postagram, paper camera,

5) I need to change my shutter release technique. For starters, I need to do more two-handed shots (two hands = better stability). The big technique "aha!" moment for me though was when several pointed out that the shutter on many of the photo apps releases on finger-up rather than finger-down. This lets you set things up, tap and hold the shutter button, and then reposition as needed. This makes it so much easier to take arm-extended shots, stealth shots, self portraits, or any shot where it's not so easy to see the screen. As a bonus, the finger-up action is a lot less likely to introduce shake than a tap would.

6) The iPhone flash sucks as the cool blue color of it tends to be not something that enhances. The fix? Cover it with some form of colored overlay. (Tip comes from Filmic.)

7) I need to purchase Filmic Pro to replace the native camera app for videos. It's a very professional app.

8) I need to visit iPhoneographyCentral more often to watch all sorts of iPhone photography tutorial videos to find new techniques and find some different sources of inspiration.

9) I'm not alone in disliking Apple's apparent indifference towards apps that are named suspiciously similarly (there was MUCH confusion about the Camera+ app in the chat rooms. Is it Camera+? Camera+ Pro? Camera Plus? Camera Plus Pro? [FYI, it's Camera+ that everyone loves])

I'd like to thank both Jack and CreativeLive for putting this together! I look forward to seeing today's presentations!

I'm a big fan of external lenses for the iPhone. A bit dorky, yes, but it adds a nice analog element to the process and, well, the default iPhone lens is lacking in the zoom and macro departments. I even started a Flickr group for fellow fans of external lenses for the iPhone (flickr.com/groups/iphonelenses) and found a surprising amount of folks share this odd little passion. 

Over the past couple of weeks, a new way to utilize external lenses based on a rotary dial popped up in two variations. I dub thee dial-a-lens! 

The first offering is from Holga Direct:

It's priced nicely at $25 and offers 9 lenses along with one open slot for the standard lens. These include a macro lens along with several colored filters and special effects. It's attached to a case that comes in a variety of colors and the entire package is evacotive of a 70's era Viewmaster--which is fun. 

For the price, the Holga kit is probably a fun gift idea. Teens would love it (especially the heart lens). The effects are more cutesy than useful, though, and while there's an appeal of going lo-fi with true analog lenses, most decent photo editing apps have (somewhat ironically) more realistic 'holga' effects than these lenses provide. 

The other offering is from PhotoJoJo:

(Buy the The iPhone Lens Dial at the Photojojo Store!)

This one is at the other end of the budget spectrum coming in at $249. It's also at the other end of the fidelity spectrum with 3 seemingly high quality lenses: a 1.5x zoom, fisheye, and a wide angle. It's also attached to a case that takes a different aesthetic route going with a sleeker all-black look with a large handgrip giving it more of a true camera feel. Many of the other lenses that PhotoJoJo sells appear to be the same as (or a variation of) the ones I've purchased from USBfever. I've been quite impressed with the quality of all the lenses ordered from USBfever and don't see why these wouldn't be as good if not better. The only drawback is that in looking at the samples, the lenses have the vignetting of the older-style magnetic lenses. The newer threaded lenses don't have the same extreme vignetting (I wouldn't say the vignetting is a bad thing, just something to consider).

The Verdict

Would I use either of these rigs? Probably not. The main drawback is the bulk. They're going to make your iPhone a lot less portable as it's not going to fit into all the usual pockets and pouches that it did before. And, after all, isn't the main benefit of using the iPhone as your camera its portability? That said, I don't always have my lenses with me, and I can see the appeal of always having them at the ready. 

For now, I think I'll stick with popping my zoom or macro lens into my pocket on my longer photo walks or the larger 8/12x zooms into my messenger bag and keeping the slimness of the iPhone. But these may be the right solution for many of you. If you've used one of these dial-a-lens options, please share your thoughts!

@eastbayjay asked me today what was in my camera bag and I realized that'd make a fine excuse for a blog post.So here it is!

I have about 2 dozen photo apps on my phone, but really only use a half dozen with any regularity. Here they are.

In (almost) daily use:

• Camera App = yep. Still my main camera. The HDR feature is easy to use and handy.
• Camera+ = Probably my most used app at the moment. The Camera is good and I really like the UI for editing. It has a nice list of adjustable effects, easy-to-use photo correction settings, and, IMHO, the nicest crop tool of any of the apps I use. Plus, it has some nice borders. I'm a sucker for borders.
• Hipstamatic = I use it less and less these days, but it's still a great app. Admittedly, maybe overused in general, but in terms of quality effects, and ease-of-use, it's at the top of the list. And I have to give them credit for constant feature upgrades.
• TiltShit-Generator = I love the the UI on this app. Super simple and is my go-to for adding a vignette or some quick contrast/saturation adjustments. I rarely use it for true TiltShift emulation, but find the blur tool useful for all sorts of other uses.
• Lo-Mob = Lo-Mob's effects are excellent and come in a 'package' format in that you get a film, border, and processing rolled into one. I tend to use Lo-Mob when creating a series of images across a theme (such as my current fascination with tree stumps). 
• Flickit Pro = A must-have if you use Flicker. It makes batch-uploading to Flicker easy. While doing it, you can label your images, put them in sets, add them to groups, include tags, and CC twitter. In addition, it's my preferred tool for browser my Flickr group. In fact, I prefer it to Flickr's own web site. If it allowed me to do group admin as well, it'd be perfect.
• Lenses! Yes, I'm a dork. I bought a external lenses for my iPhone. And love them. You can read my full review: iPhone Lenses: 12x, 8x, 2x, Wide/Macro, Fisheye

Useful, but used sporadically:

• CrossProcess = The UI is a bit clunky but the results are great. This is one of those one-trick apps that does its trick very well. It adds the perfect patina to a lot of shots.
• ShakeIt Photo = From the same company that makes CrossProcess, this app, too, has a bit of a wonky UI, but does an admirable job emulating a Polaroid. It was my preferred fauxlaroid app after doing a review of the options. One large caveat: I only like version 1.3 of this app. This is the one version that has a more muted processing style that, IMHO, emulates the original polaroids better than the current processing options. I even set up a Flickr group: Stubborn Fans of ShakeItPhoto 1.3 only
• Plastic Bullet = Another one-trick-(but-it's-a-good-one)-pony app that does some wonderful toy camera processing.
• Infinicam = A nice set of filters and frames. I tend to use it more for the frame styles it includes more than the effects.
• Picture Show = I put this in the same category as Infinicam and Lo-Mob. Definitely a nice app with some great filters, textures, borders and photo adjustment tools.
• ProHDR = My go-to HDR app
• AutoStitch = an impressive seemless collage app for panoramas.
• PicGrunger = a really fun app with quality grunge settings. Easy to abuse, so I try to use it sparingly. 

Good apps that I should try to use more often than I do:

These are some good camera apps that I've used on occasion. I need to find excuses to use them more often:

• ClassicPan = wide angle shots with a variety of film filters
• ClassicToy = various lenses and film effects
• Lomora2 = a Lomo cam. A bit over-the-top effects but nicely done.
• AndiGraf = fun toy cam.
• ClassicInsta = my runner-up Polaroid emulating camera app. 

These are some utilities/editors that either serve a very niche purpose, so only used rarely, or tend to have features already found in some of my favorites above.

• PhotoForge and PhotoForge2 = general image editing such as cropping, color adjustments, some filters, etc.
• Touch Retouch = a 'magic wand' repair tool. Handy for when you need to erase that ugly telephone pole in the middle of your shot.
• PhotWizard = another image editor.
• VintageScene = makes some grungy 'old-timey' photos
• PhotoStudio = TONS of filters. Some are good.
• Phoster = for making posters. A rather unique app that is a sort-of page layout app with type and layout options. 
• Iris Photo Suite = a rather powerful image editing app with complex layer support. Not a great UI, though. I always forget how to do things. That said, it does have a sharpen filter which I find very useful.
• Percolator = a funky filter for photos. Niche, but fun.
• Diptic = for making geometric photogrids.
• Phototreats = a simple app but has some very respectable processing effects.

So, there you have it. Still way too many apps to keep track of. I think I need to do some more culling.