It’s complicated. But taking pictures shouldn’t be.

Chase Jarvis kicked things off with the “Best Camera is the One That’s With You.” Complete with an app for the iPhone and it’s own built in eco-system. The sentiment is true—without a doubt. A camera is better than no camera. Even when the Best Camera app was announced I think the iPhone 4 was still an undisclosed, rumor of a myth. And—to fall back into the well of gear geekery—the iPhone 4 really does have an extraordinary camera in it.

An entirely random image. The only reason it applies is that it was, indeed, taken with an iPhone.

David Duchemin consistently has some good rants about the gear thing, like this one on spending the money on tickets instead.

One of my all time favorite photographers Norman Mausfopf has been shooting with the same Leica kit for years. With the same film. Processed in the same developer. It hasn’t slowed Mauskopf from making absolutely magical photographs.

Other options followed for iOS—Hipstamic, Camera+ and finally Instagram—which really took off and started spawning it’s own set of services for sharing. But still, for people not keeping up it’s easy to write the whole thing off as “it’s just a phone camera.”

This is a good thing.

People change when you reach into a camera bag, pull out a some giant, begripped digital SLR with a gaping, hooded lens on the front of it. They get worried. They start second guessing what your motives are. You’ve become part of the situation instead of documenting it. Plus, you have to get it off that card, into a computer or iPad. Some people get obsessed with editing, culling, doing hours of post-processing.

Your iPhone on the other hand isn’t hanging off your shoulder along with another twenty pounds of additional lenses, a flash and extra stuff. You see an image or a situation and quietly retrieve your phone. Capture your image and move along. Plus, you can share it almost instantly—right from the “camera.”

The longer the majority of the population views the iPhone as a “not serious” piece of camera equipment the better. You can catch people a bit closer to being themselves. And it can be used to create compelling, challenging, work. Want more proof? Look no further than the results of the Basetrack project featured at Foreign Policy.

This isn’t to say I’ll be selling my dSLR any time soon. I do enjoy shooting with it—but it’s just way past time to stop thinking of the iPhone as a toy.

No. I don't actually keep my office this way.

They got, well, mostly everything: Two MacBook Pros, two cinema displays, some external drives. But the worst thing is that they got my loaded up camera bag—I’d just been on two location shoots that day. I hadn’t had time to download the images off the card yet. That day’s work would be the first in several irreplaceable things taken. They got the MacPro as far as the patio before the 40-plus pounds of aluminum and four hard drives made them give up on it. It’s got a cool scar on the case from the experience. I’d call it a conversation piece but it usually lives under my desk. Not many conversations down there.

We’re still digging out close to 48 hours later. I’m going to post a list below. I’ll update as we get it organized. Where I’ve had them I’ve listed serial numbers.

Anyhow, for those of you in the Raleigh area if you would be kind enough to take a look and keep an eye out. I know it’s all a long shot, but it’s better than no shot. And who knows, maybe this will inspire some of you to do Christmas shopping in your local pawn shop.

Like I said, better than no shot.

This is mostly business stuff and doesn’t include personal things that were taken. Like a box full of wedding memorabilia. Some of Laura’s jewelry. AMy brother’s watch. The simple enjoyment of being in your home.

What wasn’t taken? My friends and family whose support (and offers to help) over the last 48 hours has been tremendous. So thanks to you, our friends and family.

As for the people who broke in? I sincerely hope that their legs grow together.

The List

The following was in my ThinkTank Photo Retrospective 30 Camera Bag, Black:

• Canon 5D Mark II Camera s/n 0320213513
• Really Right Stuff B5D2-L: L-plate for Canon 5D Mark II
• LumaLoop Camera Strap
• Canon 16–35/2.8L s/n 193390
• Canon 50/1.2L s/n 1241365
• Canon 25–105/4L s/n 01320190
• Canon 77mm UV Haze
• Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras
• PocketWizard MiniTT Transmitter for Canon s/n 1CU119025
• PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver for Canon s/n 5CU119668
• Canon LP-E6 Battery – OEM – for Canon 5D Mk II
• ThinkTank Pixel Pocket Rocket
• Tamrac S.A.S. MXS536801 Memory and Battery Management Wallet 4
• Sanyo Eneloop 8 Pack AA NiMH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries
• 2 Lexar 16 GB Professional 330x UDMA Compact Flash Cards
• 2 8 GB Compact Flash Cards
• 2 4 GB Compact Flash Cards
• Polaroid CZA-10011B PoGo Instant Mobile Printer (Black)
• Polaroid Black Carrying Case for PoGo Instant Mobile Printer
• Lumiquest Promax System
• Lumiquest LQ-121 Fxtra 8 Gel Filter Set With Storage Pouch and Holder
• LumiQuest Cinch Strap

The following stuff (and more) was in my Maxpedition Messenger Bag:

• Incase Nylon Sleeve with Handles 15, Black
• Panasonic Lumix GF-1 Camera, Black s/n FV9LB101016
• Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Lens s/n BR9KB027072
• Panasonic H-FS014045PP 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS Micro Four Thirds Lens s/n B002IKLJV4
• Panasonic DMW-BLB13 Battery for Panasonic G1 Digital SLR Cameras
• Casio EX-FC150 Camera, Black s/n 31002305A
• Pelican 0910-010-110 Secure Digital Memory Card Case
• SanDisk Ultra 16 GB Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card
• SanDisk Ultra II – Flash memory card – 8 GB – Class 4 – SDHC
• Kingston 4 GB SDHC Class 2 Flash Memory Card SD2/4G
• Apple Magic Mouse

The following stuff is what I’ve cataloged as stolen from the office.

• Apple MacBook Pro 15.4″ 2.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB/500GB s/n W89234ZM644
• Apple MacBook Pro 15.4″ 2.33 Ghz Core 2 Duo 2GB/500GB
• 23″ Apple Cinema Display s/n 2A74012YXMN
• 23″ Apple Cinema Display s/n 2A7321BCXMN
• Canon PowerShot G9 12.1MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
• Really Right Stuff L-plate for Canon G7 and G9
• Canon HV20 3MP High Definition MiniDV Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
• 2 Sony DCRHC30 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom
• Apple Universal Dock
• Apple USB Keyboard
• Griffin Technology PowerMate USB Controller

Since it was about 500° K that week, it was a perfect opportunity to break out the backdrop, put the remotes on the speedlites and see if I could pull something out of the camera. After talking to Sue, we came up with a shot list. Managed to get a bunch of shots about with water dripping into pans and the requisite ripples, and so on. And some shots of water falling. Those were fine for the project, in fact they ended up using a handful of them.  But the last set up was actually an effort to use smoke to get images of flow.

That was fun to set up, fun to shoot and the house smelled like Chinese temple for day or two.

The trick was to set up a black backdrop and then rig up some barn doors for one speedlite. Enter some old matte boards, a knife and a roll of gaffer tape to make sure they trapped the light properly and set it up perpendicular to the backdrop.

Focusing was tough, but once I got a handle on that, it was pretty easy to track the smoke. Finally, I found a handy preset for rendering an image as a negative in Aperture and then jumped to Photoshop for getting the colors where I wanted them.

So here’s the learning Lightroom I guess.

Apple – Aperture – Pro performance with iPhoto simplicity..

A few words about the later first: It’s a fantastic little camera. It’s easily my new everyday carry camera with the 20mm lens on it. This is the closest thing to an heir apparent to my M6 which has been gathering dust for the last year and half. Actually, writing about how long it’s been since I’ve shot film could be another post entirely.

Where was I?

Right. Fantastic camera. My current workflow is Aperture. And that’s where digital rangefinder nirvana begins to crumble. The GF1 isn’t supported by Aperture. Apple seems to have let Aperture fall by the wayside in the grand scheme of RAW support. That’s  a bummer. Shoot JPEG you say? If you have a camera that shots RAW there’s only a handful os situations that makes shoot JPEG. I shoot RAW almost exclusively. Enter the Lightroom 3 Beta. I thought I’d have a good jump on the learning curve with my experience in Adobe’s Creative Suite.

Not so much.

I think some of it is that Aperture had really shaped my view of what to expect out of a photo management application. Apple consistently nails user interface. Aperture is no exception—it really is, at least in my opinion and experience, the better photo management application. This isn’t a shortcoming on Adobe’s part. It was a conscious decision by Adobe to publish a photo manipulation package for photographers. Comparing them becomes an exercise in apples and broccoli because of this fundamental difference.

But where Adobe appears to be pulling ahead is that they keep rolling out support for new cameras. I have a hard time imaging a technology that’s moving faster than digital photography right now. Keeping up with it all is a big deal. If Apple wants to continue touting Aperture as a solution for professional photographers they need to pick up the pace. Personally, I don’t need a lightroom. I want to get the shot as close to perfect in camera. Maybe bump the contrast. Maybe push the saturation a tick. That’s usually it. But I need RAW support.

I’ll eventually adapt to Lightroom’s workflow. It obviously works for thousands of people. And for now, I’m not planning on shooting hired work with the GF1. Not yet. So in that regard there’s some separation between church and state—rather personal and work. Maybe that’s a good thing.

These shots are some of the first I’ve taken with the GF1 taken over New Year’s Eve up in the North Carolina mountains.

It is now. And since I hate leaving things undone, we went back and shot a few portraits of the daughter settled into the renovated space.

This was also the first time in the field with the new Pocket Wizard set up.

I knew the room was going to be dark and while I favor natural light, this shot wouldn’t have been possible without some help from my speedlites.

One on camera with a pop and another behind the subject to bring the background up a bit.