{"id":49589,"date":"2017-03-20T15:06:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T14:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.procamera-app.com\/?p=49589\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:29:29","slug":"the-elusive-element-guestpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/procamera-app.com\/en\/blog\/the-elusive-element-guestpost\/","title":{"rendered":"The Elusive Element \u2013 Creative Mobile Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”49610″ img_size=”full” alignment=”right” css_animation=”fadeIn” image_hovers=”false”][vc_column_text]For this guest article, we invited visual artist and art educator Lance Hewison<\/a> to talk about his approach to mobile photography and how he finds inspiration in everyday life:[\/vc_column_text]

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<\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As a photographer it\u2019s not easy to get a unique, visually striking shot. It\u2019s usually only 1 in a\u00a0100 photos that have that special something, and that\u2019s a rather generous estimate for me\u00a0personally.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”49616″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image” image_hovers=”false”]
<\/div>[vc_column_text]I recently took a trip to the city of Heidelberg in southern Germany. It was a mild and\u00a0sunny January afternoon, so I wandered around, coffee in hand, and admired the beautiful\u00a0architecture and charm the city possesses.
\nAs I always have my iPhone handy, I decided to use\u00a0ProCamera to take some shots. I snapped lots of photos of the city\u2019s most impressive sights.\u00a0Although the details of the churches and town squares looked great in the photos, the images were\u00a0nonetheless a bit predictable and didn\u2019t really say anything interesting. I felt that anyone could\u00a0have easily snapped the same photo.[\/vc_column_text]
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The Old Bridge is one of the most popular sites in Heidelberg, where hundreds of tourists\u00a0flock per day to enjoy the stunning views across the Neckar River. On this particular day at sunset,\u00a0there were at least a dozen people standing at various spots along its length, some alone and\u00a0others in small groups, most of them snapping selfies with an outstretched hand. A few of the\u00a0others had big professional DSLR cameras mounted on tripods, and they appeared concerned with\u00a0capturing a precise composition of the landscape over the water.<\/div>\n
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As I paced up and down the bridge looking for inspiration, I became interested in the\u00a0tourists and how they were an integral component of this environment. However, I wondered how I\u00a0could snap pictures of complete strangers without invading their privacy. I certainly didn\u2019t want to\u00a0ask them if I could take their photo, because the moment you do that people stop being natural and\u00a0tense up in a forced smile, or a big scowl if they don\u2019t wish to be photographed. By pure chance, I\u00a0noticed a small grid made of tiny square mirrors glued to one of the bridge\u2019s lampposts. I have no\u00a0idea how it got there, but I was intrigued with the effect it might have on my photos.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Out of curiosity,\u00a0I placed my iPhone lens close to the mirrors. In Auto Mode, the camera focused on the nearest\u00a0object\u2014the tiny mirrors. The people and landscape, on the other hand, were blurred. I wanted the\u00a0opposite effect, so I needed to have more control over the focus reticle. I dragged the focus reticle\u00a0directly out from the center of the screen and onto different areas of my composition until the\u00a0mirrors became blurred and the tourists and surrounding environment came into sharp focus.\u00a0Because I had great late afternoon light and clear skies, it wasn\u2019t necessary to adjust my\u00a0exposure levels much at all. To make small adjustments, however, I tapped the +\/- symbol to\u00a0reveal the exposure slider and adjusted the exposure level with the swipe of my finger. I used the\u00a0dark edges of the lamppost as a device to divide up my composition and frame my subjects. These\u00a0out-of-focus borders created wonderful effects that I hadn\u2019t anticipated and gave a unique, collagelike\u00a0twist to the photos. If I didn\u2019t tell you about these little square mirrors attached to the lamppost,\u00a0you might wonder how I got this effect. I like that sense of ambiguity in a photograph\u2014where it\u00a0isn\u2019t exactly clear what\u2019s going on.<\/div>\n

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In a nearby caf\u00e9, I began to pick my favorite photos from the bunch and deleted those I\u00a0knew I wouldn\u2019t use. In the camera roll, I was able to conveniently swipe my finger across entire\u00a0rows of photos I wanted to send to the trash. I then applied crops to the photos that remained,\u00a0really focusing in on just the most interesting part of the composition. ProCamera always makes a\u00a0copy when you edit and keeps your original photo untouched, so there was no worry that I would\u00a0ruin anything\u2014I could always start over from scratch if I was unhappy with the saved edit. Next, I\u00a0went into the Tools function and used only the Curves tool to increase the contrast in each scene.\u00a0Personally, I like rich, deep shadows for a more dramatic effect. One last touch I added to each\u00a0photo was to adjust the color temperature so that the photos appeared slightly warmer overall\u00a0since this bright blue sky provided plenty of cool tones already. I enjoyed the convenience of being\u00a0able to snap, edit, and share my photos all without leaving the app.<\/div>\n

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People sometimes ask me where I find inspiration. Instead of looking for something\u00a0specific, I try to take my time and simply observe what\u2019s around me. That way the moment of\u00a0inspiration happens more naturally. It simply comes to you. I also look into my camera roll from\u00a0time to time and ask myself\u2014does this image really excite me? If not, I go ahead and delete it.<\/div>\n

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\n
Less is more, so I try to focus on quality over quantity. The unexpected is elusive and not always\u00a0easy to find, but when I slow down and take the time to really look around, I often discover a little\u00a0detail or particular angle to help bring a more artistic edge to the photo. It\u2019s far better in my opinion\u00a0to have 10 interesting shots, even if they\u2019re a bit odd, versus 100 that look like something you\u00a0could find from a quick google search of the word \u201cHeidelberg\u201d. The element of surprise doesn\u2019t\u00a0have to be over the top, but it\u2019s a necessary ingredient in creating a photo that looks more uniquely<\/div>\n
yours.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For this guest article, we invited visual artist and art educator Lance Hewison to talk about his approach to creative mobile photography. Let’s join him on a trip to the city of Heidelberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":49677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,362,40],"tags":[1301,1302,1305,1306,1304,1303],"class_list":["post-49589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hall-of-fame","category-projects-guestauthor","category-stories","tag-creative-mobile-photography","tag-guest-author","tag-heidelberg","tag-lance-hewison","tag-mirror","tag-photo-art","category-67","category-362","category-40","description-off"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Elusive Element \u2013 Creative Mobile Photography City Trip Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For this guest article, we invited visual artist and art educator Lance Hewison to talk about his approach to creative mobile photography.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/procamera-app.com\/en\/blog\/the-elusive-element-guestpost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Elusive Element \u2013 Creative Mobile Photography City Trip Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For this guest article, we invited visual artist and art educator Lance Hewison to talk about his approach to creative mobile photography.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/procamera-app.com\/en\/blog\/the-elusive-element-guestpost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ProCamera + HDR - 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