Giving in or embodying change?
My favorite cellphone pics of 2013
2013 will go down as the year that I gave in and started to try understanding how to make photos with my cell phone. I started the year slow, but began posting cellphone-shots almost daily by autumn.
We were supposed to ski the Wildcat Valley Trail, the fantastic, lift-served cross-country ski trail that drops 3,000 feet from the Wildcat Ski Area to the town of Jackson. Instead, the thaw had reduced snowpack to hard ice. So, the ski leaders and I decided to do a short hike. The open slabs of Welch-Dickey seemed like a great option, short, adventurous and with open slabs looking out over Campton and Plymouth. We all had crampons and we needed them. This was one of those rare cases in New England where micro-spikes were not enough.
I am still trying to form a project on the Black Belt of Alabama, and attempt to make a trip to the central Alabama counties and explore this swath of farmland each time I visit my parents in Birmingham. I had heard about a place known for its Brunswick Stew near Demopolis, and headed down in that direction. Forklands is just north of town, on the other side of the Tombigbee river.
More than any other image that I made in 2013, this photo of skiers climbing up Hillman’s Highway on a spring day brought home the potential of cellphone image-making. I had stopped to catch my breath and contemplate climbing higher above the pinch (the only part of the gully steeper than 40-degrees). I was able to snap the photo, edit it and upload it from the side of the mountain, sitting in that spot where the krumholz gives way to grass and bare rock. There might not be a signal in the valley, but it turns out there is one up high enough.
I wasn’t the only one skeptical of cell phones. OK, maybe she’s just skeptical of the guy holding it. In China I made it a point to use my phone less overall, but I was able to post to Instagram and through it to Facebook even if the government’s firewall blocked my ability to see Facebook.
I love architecture and nature. When I got home from traveling in Yunnan province, in Southwestern China, I noticed a number of my landscape photos and the way the built environment fit into those landscapes.
The places I visited in southwest China were largely free of the stereotypical smog that appear in so many western publications. Dali was an exception. The days I spent in the city were overcast by smog blocking the view of 12,000-foot peaks towering over it.
Photographing the rice harvest near Erhai Lake outside of Dali involved a lot of walking out into the middle of the rice paddy walking on a narrow concrete wall. Usually I was told off and had to walk all the way back out to the road. After a while I stuck to the road. This guy was walking back to the harvest after taking a snack break.
There are a number of fun antique stores on Foreigner street. One would hang a red banner covered with pins featuring Mao on the outside of the shop, for sale for $4-$6 each. It was one of those scenes that I knew was too great to pass up, so I photographed it each time I passed by. they only came out to try to get me to buy one once.
It took me a while to figure out how to zoom and control exposure. After taking care of a friend’s yard I stopped by the river to check out some rapids that had been taken over by a hydroelectric dam. The sunshine almost made the day warm, but it was a losing battle.
It also meant testing the low-ISO capabilities of my cracked and bruised iPhone. In the above case, through an airplane window.
I found myself switching from SLR to cellphone and back as I shot photos for myself.
In some places, it was just easier and simpler to use the phone and keep the camera in the bag. Small airplanes are already cramped enough, after all.
For years I have been taking a small point and shoot camera with me on climbing and backcountry ski trips. I still do, it just doesn’t get pulled out very much. The cellphone has taken its place.
