Photography without my Nikon

My primary camera, my Nikon D5100, is being repaired, as well as my favorite lens, my Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.8. Almost two weeks ago the aperture on the Nikkor stopped working. It was stuck at f/16. This happened just after the D5100 had a mirror lock up. The two incidents might be related.

The lens and camera body are in the hands of PhotoTech Repair in Manhattan. They found no problems with the camera but will clean the sensor. I should have them both back this week.

In the meantime, I was feeling frustrated. The weather and lighting have been great this weekend. Despite my allergies, I had hoped to get outside and capture early Spring nature and landscape photographs.

We've had some strange Spring weather, and I'm afraid that when my camera returns the weather will switch back to April showers. I'm really tired of gray skies. I understand the rain is necessary to bring the new life, but I'd like some sun too.

So I woke up this morning around 7 AM and looked outside. Beautiful day. I made my coffee1, and a toasted a bagel with cream cheeses and smoked salmon. And looked out the kitchen window.

I couldn't get rid of my need to capture something. It was like an itch that has to be scratched. But I didn't have a camera.

Suddenly I realize that that was a lie! I had another camera. I have a Sony point-n-shoot, and I have my iPhone!

For some reason, I chose to use my iPhone. The Cyber-shot has similar technical specs to the iPhone but a larger sensor and more controls. But the iPhone has photo editing apps and a faster workflow. I can snap, edit and post to my blog within minutes. So I chose the iPhone over the Sony2.

This set of photos were all taken on my iPhone 5 with either Camera+ or vividHDR and then edited in Photogene4. I cropped out an area on the left of the photos of my backyard. The miniature tripod grip covered part of the lens area while I composed each photo. I added a vignette to each photo.

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  1. I recently bought a Chemex coffee maker, Kone filter, and CJ-4000 scale. 
  2. Both Sony batteries were discharged. My iPhone is almost always charged due to necessity. 

Crack in the Sky

This morning I was stuck in the traffic behind a school bus on Princeton Pike. I pulled out my iPhone to snap a photo of Princeton Battefield Park.

Sunrise

This morning I was stuck in the traffic behind a school bus on Princeton Pike. I pulled out my iPhone to snap a photo of Princeton Battefield Park. The snow had melted and I loved the play of the early sunlight on the mostly brown grass on the field. Only after processing the image in Photogene did I notice the slant in the cloud line. It almost looks like a crack opened in the seams between the land and the sky and the sun peaked out.