Out Now: Mobiography Magazine – Travel with Mimo Khair & Jen Pollack Bianco

The latest issue of the Mobiography Magazine has just been release onto the Apple App Store and Google Play. As usual you will find it packed full of the usual interviews, top tips, tutorials, features and showcases of the very best in smartphone photography.

What’s inside issue 26?

Cover of Mobiography Magazine Issue 16In this latest issue of Mobiography magazine, we take a look at the theme of travel. Travel is something we all love, and for photographers it offers the chance to visit new and exciting locations, meet new people and to get inspired. As the old saying goes, “travel broadens the mind.”

We talk to two seasoned photographers about their work and travels. First up, Mimo Khair talks to us about the portraits and street photography she shoots around the world. Next, Jen Pollack Bianco talks about her trips to different countries and how photography has been an essential part of those journey’s. Kate Hailey tells us about her recent trip to Thailand, which she documented through the lens of her iPhone. And we showcase five Instagrammers who’ve amassed quite a following thanks to the quality of the photographs they shoot.

As if this wasn’t enough, we follow up on a recent article which illustrated how to use the VSCO app. But this time, Kate Wesson takes a more detailed look at the filters and presets that the app offers, and how to use them to add mood to your photos.

We take a look at the new Huawei P9 phone with its Leica dual-lens camera. A lot has been said about this new addition to the Android market, so we ask, does it justify the hype?

Finally, we take a look at how to shoot long exposure photography with a smartphone, and Mark Myerson explores different ways you can get your photography published.

Grab your copy now

In order to grab yourself a copy of Mobiography, head over to the Apple App Store and Google Play and install the app. Single issues are available for $4.99 or you can subscribe to the bi-monthly subscription plan for $3.99 and make a 20% saving or an annual subscription for $21.99, a saving of 26%. Google Play subscriptions are monthly at a cost of $1.99.

Don’t forget to join the Mobiography mailing list, follow us on Facebook and share your photos on Instagram using the hashtag #mobiography.

Out Now: Mobiography Magazine – A Photography in Asia Special

The latest issue of the Mobiography Magazine has just been release onto the Apple App Store and Google Play. As usual you will find it packed full of the usual interviews, top tips, tutorials, features and showcases of the very best in smartphone photography.

What’s inside issue 25?

Mobiography Magazine Issue 25For this issue of Mobiography magazine, we take a closer look at Asia, an area that is rapidly embracing the genre of mobile photography.

To celebrate this, we find out more about Monogram Asia, a new and passionate group who are organising a fantastic series of photographic talks, photo tours and books throughout Asia, the far east and beyond. One of their recent events featured Irish photographer, Brendan Ó Sé. Brendan also tells us about his trip to Bangkok and Jakarta.

Running with the Asia theme a bit more, we also talk to two talented mobile photographers who reside in this part of the world. Firstly, British-born, Laurence Bouchard, who now lives in Tokyo, tells us about his work and his approach to the fantastic photos he takes with his iPhone. Next up, Arik Chan, a retired police officer turned street photographer from Singapore tells us about his unique use of the selfie stick in his street photography work.

In this issue we also take a look at shooting video with your smartphone. Kate Hailey provides a basic look at the features and capabilities of the video app FiLMiC Pro. For Android users, we look at some handy tips to help you shoot better videos with your smartphone as well as five top video editing apps.

Finally, we test drive a new black and white camera app called Blackie; we take a look at nine ways you can shoot more abstract photos as well as the usual showcase of stunning photos in our gallery section.

Grab your copy now

In order to grab yourself a copy of Mobiography, head over to the Apple App Store and Google Play and install the app. Single issues are available for $4.99 or you can subscribe to the bi-monthly subscription plan for $3.99 and make a 20% saving or an annual subscription for $21.99, a saving of 26%. Google Play subscriptions are monthly at a cost of $1.99.

Don’t forget to join the Mobiography mailing list, follow us on Facebook and share your photos on Instagram using the hashtag #mobiography.

A Retrospective Look at MojoCon 2

Its almost two weeks since I attended the international Mobile Journalism conference (aka Mojocon) in Dublin (it’s taken me that long to recover). Following on from last week’s showcase of mobile photography about the Mojocon photo walk I wanted to cover a bit more of my thoughts on the event to do it justice.

What is Mojocon?

Mojocon is short for the Mobile Journalism Conference. It is the brainchild of Glen Mulcahy, the head of innovations at RTE, Ireland’s state broadcaster. The event brings together journalists and film makers from all over the world to talk about and discuss the latest trends and topics in relation to mobile journalism, mobile film making and mobile photography.

This year’s event was the second Mojocon and I was honoured to have been one of the speakers at last years’ conference. It was a truly inspiring event where I met a lot of wonderfully interesting people, many of whom have since become good friends. For this reason I was keen to come back to Mojocon 2.

aviva stadium, dublin

The Magnificent Aviva Stadium, Dublin

This year, Mojocon was held at the Aviva Stadium, a magnificent football and rugby venue in the heart of Dublin. The venue was very impressive and played host to a main room, a break off Havelock suite which hosted several smaller sessions, a fantastic exhibitor’s hall which offered something for everyone from VR, to drones, app developers, accessories such as Olloclip lenses, mics and Manfotto tripods.

Even though the event is more geared towards journalists and reporters the event held something of interest for everyone. This year was no exception.

Samsung VR headset

iPhoneographyCentral’s Nicki Fitz-Gerald trying out the Samsung VR headset

The Friday sessions kicked off with an introduction by founder Glen Mulcahy who promptly tripped up whilst running onto the stage, a by-product of the energy and enthusiasm he exudes. Showing his true professionalism, he laughed it off and then regaled us with a story of singer Meatloaf who did exactly the same thing… by with a lot more showbiz style. I dare say Glen will not live it down for a while.

The first session started off by talking about mobile film-making and reporting, how people are using the latest advancements in mobile technology and asked the question, is Mojo breaking into the mainstream? The session illustrated just how smartphone technology is changing the way we work and the benefits that mobile technology has in difficult and chaotic situations.

mojocon main room

From this initial session, activity broke off into other areas where talks about topics such as live streaming, social media, app tool-kits and workflows, drone cinematography and mobile photography took place. For those mobile photographers amongst us it was the mobile photography session that was of particular interest.

Meeting the Mobile Photographers Session

Last year’s event saw a line up which included myself, Brendan O Se, Nicki Fitz-Gerald, Dan Berman, Michael Kistler, Dan Rubin and Jack Hollingsworth, each talking about our own area of expertise in mobile photography. This year saw Dan Rubin, one of Instagram’s first beta testers, invited back to host the mobile photography session.

The photography session last year raised a few questions and topics for discussion which, due to time constraints, we never really had time to explore properly. For this reason, Dan’s approach this year was to have less speakers and adopt more of a group discussion type format in order to give more time to explore these issues.

meet the mobile photographers

Dan Rubin hosting the Meet the Mobile Photographers session

Speakers included RTE journalist Seán Mac an tSíthigh, Mark Kawano – the co-founder and CEO of a photo and video sharing app called Stonehouse, and two top Instagrammers, Gareth Pon and Paloma Parrot.

The session started off with Seán showcasing a selection of his photography taken along Ireland’s rugged coastline. He explained the stories behind the images and how they were inspired by Irish folklore, and how he went about capturing these locations and the characters that live there.

Mobiography Magazine Is Three – New Issue Out Now

The latest and third anniversary issue of the Mobiography Magazine has just been release onto the Apple app store and Google Play. The last three years have flown by and through it I have had the honour of speaking to many talented mobile photographers and app developers, as well as making many new friends along the way.

What’s inside issue 24?

mobiography magazine issue 24In this anniversary issue, I talk to two of my favourite mobile photographers of the moment, Chris Harland and Graeme Roy. Chris is a rising landscape photographer who beautifully captures the rugged, mountainous regions of the UK, many of which I, myself, am familiar with. Meanwhile, Graeme Roy, a street photographer from Toronto, tells us about his approach to the photos he takes and about his views on the impact of mobile photography in press photography.

On the tech front, we take a look at the new Samsung Galaxy S7 and find out why it is more than just a camera and see how it stacks up against something like the iPhone 6S.

We also talk to Lightricks, the developers of two popular apps, Facetune and Enlight, and take a deep dive into how this small start-up company have managed to create two leading apps. We take a close look at Enlight to see how you can use this powerful photo editing app to create a fantastic double exposure image.

In our beginners guide section we take a look at ways you can photograph nature at its best. We also look at the latest trends on Instagram and Nicki Fitz-Gerald of iPhoneographyCentral shows us some inspiring ideas for shooting and editing when the weather conditions are bad.

Finally, we take a look at the winners of the New Era Museum Impossible Humans – Unexpected Happenings Awards.

Grab your copy now

In order to grab yourself a copy of Mobiography, head over to the Apple app store or Google Play and install the app. Single issues are available for $4.99 or you can subscribe to the bi-monthly subscription plan for $3.99 and make a 20% saving or an annual subscription for $21.99, a saving of 26%. On Google Play subscriptions are monthly at a cost of $1.99.

Don’t forget to join the Mobiography mailing list, follow us on Facebook and Instagram and keep an eye out for some future planned photographic challenges.

 

The Best iPhone Photography Competitions You Need to Enter

It seems that at the moment there are photography competitions ongoing everywhere. Whilst many of these have a tendency to be orientated towards traditional photographers, there are a small number of mobile specific awards or awards that have mobile categories. This is testament to the rise of mobile photography as a recognised and legitimate branch of photography.

I thought it wold be good to look into some of these photography competitions and awards and see what is on offer. I’m sure I may have missed some, if so, let me know in the comments below.

IPPA Awards

IPPAWARDS
The iPhone Photography Awards or IPPA Awards first started in 2007 and is one of the longest running iPhone photography competitions. The event attracts photographers from over 120 countries with winners selected by a jury process. Past winners have included Michal Koralewski, David Craikand and Yvonne Lu.

The IPPA’s allow photographers to submit work to a variety of categories including Animals, Abstract, Architecture, Children, Flowers, Food, Landscape, Lifestyle, Nature, News/Events, Panorama, People, Portrait, Seasons, Still Life, Sunset, Travel, Trees, Others. The cost of entry varies from $3.50 for 1 image, right up to $57.50 for 25 images. All photos entered into the IPPA must have been taken on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and not altered on a desktop computer using software such as photoshop. Editing with iOS apps is ok though.

There are several prizes up for grabs. All entries compete for the coveted Photographer of the Year award as well as 1st, 2nd, 3rd places. First place winners in each category win a gold bar with the photographer of the year getting their work published in the IPPAWARDS online gallery as well as any other published material. Those in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in each category receive a certificate and for some who missed out on these top spots, will receive honourable mentions.

The deadline for this year’s awards is March 31st, 2016.

Find out more: www.ippawards.com

Mobile Photography Awards

Photo by jian wang

UNTITLED by MPA 2015 Winner, Jian Wang

The Mobile Photography Awards or MPA’s as many people refer to it as is now in it’s 5th year. The awards were founded by Dan Berman who wanted to create something that recognised the talent coming out of the mobile photography community.

The competition opens for entries, each year in October through to December with the results being announced at the start of February. Photographers can submit their work via the MPA website to a number of categories including Architecture and Design, Black and White, Digital Art, Landscapes, Macro, Nature, people, portraits, Travel, Silhouettes, street photography, visual FX, Waterscapes/Snow/Ice and a photo essay category. A small entrance fee is required to enter the competition which goes towards a cash prize for the winner, runner up prizes as well as themed exhibitions throughout the year that showcase the top entries.

Find out more: www.mobilephotoawards.com

MIRA Mobile Prize

MIRA Mobile Prize by Brendan O Se

MIRA Mobile Prize by Brendan O Se

Now is it’s third year, the MIRA Mobile Prize is another mobile only photography competition that attracts a lot of attention from all over the world. Photographic entries are judged by a jury of 8 international members which this year includes NEM’s Andrea Bigiarini, iPhoneographyCentral’s Bob Weil and digital artist Meri Aaron Walker.

The MIRA Mobile Prize is free to enter up to 3 images; however, there is a small fee for finalists to help support the cost of the exhibition. The closing date for this year’s competition is 27th February 2016 with the short list of runners up and the overall winner being announced later in March. The winner of the MIRA Mobile Prize will receive a round-trip ticket from a European capital city to Oporto in Portugal, as well as board and lodgings for a 6 day trip where they can attend the finalist exhibition.

Last year’s winner saw Brendan O Se take the overall winners prize with his superb ‘shot on iPhone’ Apple World Gallery photo.

Find out more: www.miramobileprize.com

New Era Musuem – Impossible Humans

IHUH
The New Era Museum is a collection of digital artists from around the world who activity work to explore and promote the boundaries of mobile photography and art. This year, the NEM is hosting a photographic competition and exhibition in Rome. The competition closes on 14th February so you need to be quick if you want to be in with a chance of having your work included in the Unexpected Happening exhibition. This is just one part of a bigger jazz event being held at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica in Rome on March 12th.

The Unexpected Happening event is being organised by NEM founder Andrea Bigiarini. Submissions need to be portraits, in a square 1:1 format, shot and edited on a mobile device. The winners will be selected from a judging panel of 10 who include myself, Brendan O Se and Dilshad Corleone.

If you are interested in this one you better be quick before it closes on 14th February.

Find out more: www.neweramuseum.org

Hipstography Awards

hipstography

The Hipstography Awards is now is its third year and is run by Eric Rozen of Hipstography.com. The awards are a celebration of Hipstamatic photography with contenders being curated and announced over a series of weeks via the Hipstography.com website. Visitors to the website can then vote for their favourite 3 photos with the winners being announced in February. The winning photos will then see their work showcased in a series on Hipstography.com.

Find out more: www.hipstography.com

Terry O’Neil Awards

Photo by Rob Pearson-Wright

2014 Mobile Device Winner, Rob Pearson-Wright

The Terry O’Neil Awards is a predominantly a DSLR photography competition which has, in recent years, opened up a mobile device category. This is yet another positive indication that mobile photography is beginning to get wider recognition in the photographic world.

To enter, photographers must submit between 3 and 10 images in a series along with a short narrative about the series. The images must have been shot during a specified period of time. Photographers can also enter the awards as many times as they like although each entry requires a separate entry fee.

At the moment, it is unclear when the next awards are open to entering.

Find out more: www.oneillaward.com

Sony World Photography Awards

The Sony World Photography Awards is one of the biggest photography competitions around, their sole aim is to recognise and reward the best in contemporary photography from around the world. While it has historically been a traditional photography competition, in 2015 Sony embraced the mobile device by including a mobile phone photographer award. Last year this was won by Turi Calafato from Italy.

The competition attracts entries from around the world and with an incredible $30,000 worth of cash prizes and the latest Sony digital equipment on offer it’s not hard to see why. The awards are currently closed.

Find out more: www.worldphoto.org

Can you suggest any others?

I intend to add to this list as time goes on so let me know in the comment below if I have missed any.

Mobiography Magazine Issue 22 Out Now

The latest issue of the Mobiography Magazine has just been release onto the Apple Newsstand and Google Play. In the first issue of 2016 you will find it yet again packed full of the usual interviews, top tips, tutorials, features and showcases of the very best in smartphone photography.

What’s inside issue 22?

mobiography magazine issue 22In the latest action packed issue of Mobiography we talk to two talented mobile photographers. Iranian street photographer Mohsen Chinehkesh and Italian photographer Valeria Cammareri. Firstly, Mohsen tells us about life in Tehran as a photographer and how it has influenced his work. Valeria talks about the thought process behind her photographic compositions and her conscious step away from being totally mobile.

Meanwhile, in our beginners guide, we look at macro photography and provide some simple tips that will help you take better macro photos with your smartphone camera and review the Inmacus iPhone lens system which offers some incredible macro lens options.

This time of year is often the point where the good intentions that we set at the beginning of the new year begin to wane. This can be especially true for those who have challenged themselves to undertake a year long 365 Project. To help you get through any creative barriers you may be encountering, Kate Hailey, a veteran of 365 Project, offers some insights into ways to successfully completing your own year long photographic project.

Nicki Fitz-Gerald of iPhoneographyCentral.com gives another App Masterclass Tutorial. This time, she takes us step by step through the process of creating a winter inspired piece of art using the apps Snapseed, Leonardo and Procreate. Brendan Ó Sé tells us about the latest workshops he has been running and we look at some of the results his students have been producing.

Finally, Guilia Baita reports on the Vivian Maier exhibition that has been touring Europe and tells us the story of this extraordinary and extremely talented street photographer.

Grab your copy now

In order to grab yourself a copy of Mobiography, head over to the Apple newsstand or Google Play and install the app. Single issues are available for $4.99 or you can subscribe to the bi-monthly subscription plan for $3.99 and make a 20% saving. On Google Play subscriptions are monthly at a cost of $1.99.

Don’t forget to join the Mobiography mailing list, follow us on Facebook and Instagram and keep an eye out for some future planned photographic challenges.