Hit the image above and grab the high-resolution option from the lightbox that comes up.

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.

Get into my office and discover that the links they’re providing are, to put it kindly, a bit awkward for getting something that you might actually want put in your camera bag. A buddy of mine forwarded a link that led to Scribd source. And that’s great, but I’m not interested in trading more of my information for something that should be much more easily available.

About ten minutes later and I’ve cut up a PDF from printing the Times document and reassembled it in the three-page PDF it should be. Download it as needed.

I snapped these two shots with the iPhone on the ferry and had posted them to my Flickr account, Twitter and Facebook before we set foot on St. Thomas. (There’s still some issues with the WordPress iPhone app that need to be worked out a bit.)

I’ve gotten some questions about how I’ve processed some of these. So here’s the scoop:

A few weeks ago, I apparently drank some of the Chase Jarvis Kool-Aid. The flavor being the Best Camera concept. The Reader’s Digest version of that concept is that the best camera is the one that you have with you. For Jarvis that came to be the iPhone’s built-in camera.

If I don’t have my Canon 5DMk2 with me, I have the G9. In fact, around town it’s almost always in my bag. It’s easily the best point and shoot I’ve had. Don’t get me wrong, it still has some weak points. Chiefly the shutter lag. If it had a shutter response that was more akin to the 5D or any of my old film cameras I’d have no complaints with the camera.

Still, there’s a few times, when the G9 is just out of reach or it’s still in the bag in the office. But, I’m never without my iPhone. And the camera is decent if not spectacular. I think it has the same issues that most small sensor digital cameras have and that’s chiefly contrast. But for a 2MB camera phone it works. (Especially if you remember that “shutter” doesn’t release until you remove your finger from the “button.”) Being part of my “always with me” iPhone certainly has it qualify as the Best Camera on more than one occasion.

This is where software enters the picture. Like I said, the iPhone camera has it’s issues and can use a little help. I think software like Best Camera and Adobe’s Photoshop.com is much like the Lomography folks shooting with Lomos, Dianas and  Holgas. For the record: There’s a taped up Holga gathering dusk in the equipment locker behind me.

Where was I? Right. The same way those analog equivalents embraced the inexpensively, plastic-lensed cameras and the random color shifts, light leaks and whatever else happened through processing, I see the tweaking of the soft, flat images off the iPhone as a related idea. And there’s a certain irony to using all this technology to render images that remind me of family pictures taken with a 110mm camera.

The difference being that it’s much quicker to get these images out—to share them. Before, with film, you had to make an effort. You had to really work to get an image out. Film or slides needed to be processed, then printed—or scanned. Then you could get to sharing them. The process itself encouraged editing. Required it.

With digital? It’s on the photographer to really think about the editing process. Instead of simply uploading the contents of a card.

Shot this with iPhone and tweaked it with Ps.com’s mobile app. I’ve definitely started drinking the Chase Jarvis Kool-Aid. Of course, I took some with the G9 too but without a laptop this is the only way to post for this trip.

That’s about how long it takes, including photo stops and lunch, to work your way through Grand Teton and then loop around Yellowstone, clockwise. We were up at 4:30. No coffee until we hit Signal Mountain around 7:00. Actually, make that exactly 7:00. We arrived as the store clerk did. But the morning hours are worth it, being out before the day’s gotten too old, you get better light (unless you’re lucky and storm rolls in) and a better shot at seeing critters.

And the early legwork did pay off for those shots at Jenny Lake. They’re included in the gallery below which is what the 15 hours on the road netted. It was a good trip. Saw a lot, but it still felt a bit like a rushed greatest hits tour.

Maybe go back one day and spend a bit more time in Yellowstone.

Jetlag and Whitewater

Sometimes, jetlag can be your friend.

Saturday, the plan was to go to the morning-after breakfast in Jackson, then chill out until we joined a bunch of folks from the wedding for a white water rafting trip on the Snake River.

Welcome to Mountain Time, eastcoaster. So, you’re in Teton Village. It’s 05:30 and you’re awake with your camera equipment. Not too many options come to mind. Have to be at breakfast in Jackson at 10:00. Check.

I get the car, Laura gets coffee for me and tea for her from the cafe next door. By a bit past 6:00 we’re heading to the park via Moose-Wilson Road. The recon from the day before pays off as we know there’s a beautiful grove of aspens not too far from where we are.

We hike a little further up and catch our first spotting of big wildlife when I notice the antlers of a mule deer. We stop and appreciate it for a bit. I quietly curse that I packed, then unpacked a longer lens. We headed back to the car.

Moving further towards the park proper, Laura checked the map for scenic drives that wouldn’t endanger making the breakfast we RSVPed to. Meanwhile, I looked for something interesting to take a picture of. It was about this time when the tandem cyclist buzzed by. All the panning for motorsports paid off in snapping a shot of these two. (To be honest it’s a little softer than I’d like.)

From here we headed out of the park—out towards some drives in the general direction of the Gros Ventre Slide. Let’s make it clear: You can’t turnaround out here without seeing stuff that’s amazing. Stunning. You almost get saturated. Being out early does add wildlife to the mix. Early bird really does get the deer and bison. That’s one of two shots of bison I’ll post. Seriously.

The first time you see one, you’re stunned. I actually saw the one pictured here and thought: “Bison!” The next thought was, “Oh. It’s just a rock.” And then I stopped and waited for it to move. But even with that, the longer you stay in the area you realize they are Wyoming’s squirrels.

Not that they still aren’t amazing. They are. But, like I said, you get saturated. To get a real interesting shot of bison the right time to go must be winter. The fact these animals are out there. All the time. In that weather. I think the contrast would drive that home. And yes, plan on not lamenting the 400mm lens that you own, but don’t have with you.

A little more driving to the slide proper and then back to the hotel to get cleaned up for breakfast. We hit the farmer’s market in the center of town and then a grocer to get supplies for the big trip the following morning before heading back to the Inn and getting ready for the rafting trip.

The river is cold in July. But not so unbearable that some self-induced swimming couldn’t happen. The highlights of the rafting trip would be Big Kahuna and Lunch Counter (and not just because of the photographic evidence from those features).

After all this, we met up for dinner at Snake River Brewery for drinks, some Donkey Kong and I had a chance to try my first cask beer: Custer’s Last Ale. We retire for the night. It’s going to be an early day Sunday.

Earlier this month we found ourselves heading to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In a word it was a fantastic trip. That’s more than one word, but you get the point. Laura had never seen Yellowstone. I’d been once, but I was a kid. Maybe eight years old. I think I was younger to be honest so, I don’t know if that counts. Actually, it probably does. But more on that later.

The occasion for us to go was for Mona and Will’s wedding. Mona and Laura have been pals since seventh grade in Kuwait. Lots of history there. So the decision to go was easy. Destination wedding here we come.

With the Grand Tetons in the background, the wedding was going to be amazing and it was. A simple, elegant service. Before a stream with a small group of friends and family.

After the wedding, we get to the reception back at Teton Village and after a little R&R Laura and I set out to check out the area. Grand Teton National Park was all around us. On the recommendation of a friend we set out to find Jenny Lake.

Before I get too far into this, I should say that it is firmly my belief that the last thing the world needs is another landscape photographer. More specifically, the last thing the world needs is for me to be another landscape photographer. Landscape photography takes saint-esque patience. Being willing to go back to the same spot over and over, day after day. Waiting to see the hand the weather deals you.

I’m not that guy.

I don’t have that patience. To be up and out before you can get a good cup of coffee. Not me. Not it.

For the storytelling I want to work toward, the landscape can be a vital part. It’s the frame the story takes place within. For me, on it’s own, the landscape isn’t enough. Having said all that, with the time we had—with so much to see—this is the story I can tell. A whirlwind of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of adventure associated with landscape photography. The brilliant mornings. The idea of dragging your gear out to your Jeep. Or your Land Rover Defender. But it doesn’t work that way.

We were driving a Yaris.

That makes it sound like we didn’t like it. Or that we had issues with the car, but to be honest, had it been a stick instead of an automatic, it’d actually have been a pretty entertaining little ride. Enough with the car talk before I have to add a motorsports warning on this post.

So there we were, looking for Jenny Lake. It’s about eight o’clock, an hour to go before sunset. The sky is cloudless, the light is to bright. To harsh to get much of anything worth while. So we decide to call it a reconnaissance trip. To find out where stuff is. That way, when the light is good, there’s no fumbling around looking for some place to go take pictures.

You know, so we have a plan.

After about a half hour we head back to Jenny Lake via the scenic route. Grab the camera and hike down from the overlook to the waters edge. And wait. The sun is setting right behind the Cathedral Group. It should be spectacular in any minute.

Ten go by. Still. Nothing really going on yet. I get bored. Climb out and stand on some rocks and find a perspective I like better. Still nothing. . . truly spectacular. I fall back on my old friend textures and grab a shot of the stones around me. Just under the water.

We’re getting hungry. So we throw in the towel, leaving with few photos, but with a plan.

Grab a late dinner at the Mangy Moose and call it a night since we have a big day of rafting ahead of us.