June 2009s Featured iPhographer - Shawn Blanc

In my usual trolls of the web to find any interesting iPhography projects, I came across Shawn Blanc’s project For an iPhone, By an iPhone. Shawn was kind enough to join us for a Q & A session to share his experience with you.

iPhography.com: What got you into iPhography?

Shawn: It was a combination of things, really. The first was discovering CameraBag and CameraKit. These two great iPhone photo-editing apps made it a lot more fun to shoot pictures with the iPhone. Secondly, discovering Greg Schmigel’s daily weblog of iPhone pictures, Just What I See, gave me the idea of actually posting my iPhone pictures to the web in some sort of organized fashion.

My initial intention was to just post the photos to my Flickr account like Joshua Blankenship is doing. But one day, when out on a walk with my wife, I had the idea of turning the iPhone pictures into iPhone wallpapers and making a website out of it.

So the combination of cool apps, inspiration from other folks, and a fun outlet for the photos are all what got me into “iPhography”.

iPhography.com:What is it that you are trying to achieve with your ‘For an iPhone, By an iPhone’ project?

Shawn: I wouldn’t call For an iPhone, By an iPhone a “project”, but rather an “outlet”. My goal for the site is simply to take fun, intriguing and/or beautiful pictures that myself and others can enjoy. Not all the shots make ideal iPhone wallpapers, but that’s OK. Part of what makes the whole thing fun and successful is the concept itself: that each picture is not just an iPhone wallpaper, but is also a real-life image taken with an iPhone.

iPhography.com: Can you tell us a bit about your process?

Shawn: Each picture is shot at random times during the day. I don’t go out on photo shoots, and I don’t have anything specific I’m looking for. When I do see or come across something that looks like it would make a good shot, I’ll take half-a-dozen pictures of it with the standard iPhone camera app. (Or sometimes I’ll use the app, ProCamera.)

I pick the best of the shots, import it into CameraBag or CameraKit for processing, and then send it to my laptop. I then crop the image to exactly 320x480 pixels, add the watermark to the footer, save it, and upload it.

iPhography.com: What would you wish for in a future iPhone?

Shawn: Other than what is already due to come out next week in the 3.0 OS update and the iPhone 3G S, the only other thing I would wish for would be a return to the original hardware shell. I’m not really a fan of the iPhone 3G / 3G S shells.

iPhography.com: What do you like most & least about the iPhone you are using & what model do you have?

Shawn: I have an 8GB original-model, metal-backed iPhone. What I like most about it is everything.

The iPhone truly is an amazing piece of technology. The software and the hardware are still a joy to use every day. What I like least about my iPhone is the speed of the EDGE network and the lack of MMS capabilities.

iPhography.com: What do you see in the future of the iPhography movement?

Shawn: Well, I imagine that with even more sales of iPhones due to the lower price point of the 3G model, and the additional sales of the 3G S model with the better quality camera we will see a lot more people taking pictures (and now video) with their iPhones. Some people will upload more pictures to Flickr, or their weblog, or MobileMe, etc. to share with their friends and family. Others will make some income with their pictures and video, and others will no doubt create some truly amazing things.

I’d like to thank Shawn for sharing with iPhographers a bit about himself & his iPhography experiences. Don’t forget to check out his site For an iPhone, By an iPhone & pickup a few cool wallpapers whilst your at it