For the last three years during December I have run a series called ’24 Mobile Photographers Til Christmas’. Each year, I invited 24 mobile photographers to chose one of their favourite photos and asked them to answer one of five questions. Each day until christmas eve one photographer was featured. The series has proved to be very popular.
Believe me, to put the series together is quite an undertaking, and very time consuming. This year, I had the idea of doing something special with the ’24 Mobile Photographers’ series. However, due to many other commitments such as running the website, publishing the Mobiography Magazine, writing my new eBook ‘Camera In Your Pocket: How to Take Better Photos With Your iPhone‘, plus my business work and family commitments, I felt the 24 Mobile Photographers series would be a step too far. Consequently, I decided not run the series this year.
However, a number of people have contacted me over the last few weeks to ask where it was. I have therefore decided to put together a collection of 24 of my favorite photos and photographers featured in the Monday showcases over the past 12 months.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited Mobiography’s website and magazine, who has shared, commented and supported me this year. It means a lot.
So without further ado, here is this year’s 24 Mobile Photographers Til Christmas.
01. Michaela Meerkatz
‘Lines‘ by Michaela Meerkatz – “I took this photo with my iPhone 6 sitting in a chairlift in Southern Italy’s Abbruzzi region where I was skiing. It has been shot with Hipstamatic. As I wanted to enhance the black and white contrasts, I chose Hornbecker lens, Rock BW-11 film and Triple Crown flash without any further changes of settings.”
02. Chris Harland
‘Late Sun at Castle Stalker, Appin, Argyll & Bute‘ by Chris Harland – “When planning my trip to Scotland, Castle Stalker was always high on my itinerary, as I’d passed it many years ago on a driving tour and been blown away by its romantic setting, on its own little island on Loch Laich
After doing my usual research with Ordinance Survey Maps, Google Earth and consulting my LightTrac and Tide Time apps to ascertain the best time to visit I scheduled in my visit to the location
The session lasted 2 hours, with the tide receding – but was almost a complete failure as the good weather that had been promised failed to arrive, and I ended up with 200+ prints with muddy light and a fairly uninspired view.
Having a tight deadline – and many more locations to visit, I’d decided that on the whole it may be better to scrap all of the prints and make a plan to re-visit Stalker on a future trip.
As it happened a small change in plans resulted in my passing Stalker again, this time at the end of the day (rather than in the morning) just as the sun was sinking behind the mountains. I parked and jumped out, firing off about 20 frames (thinking that the direct oncoming sun would perhaps not produce useable images. I tried a few new settings with the ‘Classic Toy’ app, just for experimentation’s sake, including the ‘RedScale’ film, which I’d never previously used.
As it happened, the iPhone lens captured the sun beautifully, with its shortcomings (as they often do) enhancing the image. And the three frames taken with the RedScale film were the clear standouts, giving a lovely Orange/Pink hue that added a certain sense of peace and serenity to the scene.
Compared to many of my images, this one needed only the slightest tweaks to reach completion, as the original print contained all the necessary in ingredients to give the scene the poetry it deserves.
It was straightened, sharpened a little and a few tweaks to contrast and colour and it was done.”
03. Ludwig Wagner
‘Light Snowstorm on the Farm‘ by Ludwig Wagner – “I was on the family farm in Northern Ireland where we spend every Christmas when it started snowing and I ran out to take some photos with my iPhone5s. I prefer to use ProCamera with the HDR option for low light and cloudy landscapes, especially here in the UK where our days can be very dull and grey. I always save a LDR version too which I can adjust separately and layer in Superimpose if need be (sometimes the HDR images turns out too bright). In this case I only needed to adjust the ambiance of the HDR image slightly in Snapseed to ensure the white snow was pure white and adjusted the saturation to bring out the green more. I was lucky I guess, the effect was an almost surreal combination of only green, white & black. I then used the edger brush in Repix to enhance the black lines of the tree trunks and branches slightly. That’s all, I didn’t add any other effects or filters or remove any elements, and the snowflakes are as shot.”
04. David Ingraham
‘Worlds Apart‘ by David Ingraham – “I was shooting at Disney Hall, Downtown LA, and after shooting in this particular area for a few minutes, the elements started to fall into place. I liked the balance and geometry of this particular shot which was one of about two dozen.
It was shot with Hipstamatic and then worked in Image Blender and Snapseed — basic sort of darkroom work: dodging, burning, and finding the right balance between light and dark, as well as contrast. I liked how the guy to the right seems entirely oblivious to the guys on the left, and vice-versa. ”
05. Laurence Bouchard
‘Never trust a zip..‘ by Laurence Bouchard – “‘Never trust a zip’ was shot just around the corner from the National Art Center in Roppongi.
There’s a cool tunnel at the back of the center with bits of art on the walI. I particularly like the zip art as a back drop and if you get there late afternoon you get these great shadows forming against the wall.
Fortunately it’s also quite a busy street so once I’d decided on the composition it wasn’t long until the right person walked into the frame.
I then tweaked the image a bit using the noir and vignette filters in Snapseed.”
06. Rob Pearson-Wright
‘The Connoisseur‘ by Rob Pearson-Wright – “London’s Borough food market is a wonderful but dangerous place. Dangerous for the wallet. There are always fantastic stalls filled with great artisan foodstuffs. One section of the market is a wine merchants run by a lady and the man in this photo with a distinctive and well maintained moustache. I’d been collecting pictures of men with elaborate facial hair in the past few weeks so I asking him if I could take his portrait. Which he was fine with. It helped that I had bought two glasses of prosecco from him.
Apps used: Snapseed for a fine tune of saturation, contrast and brightness. VSCO to add a little warmth and colour pop and finally Mextures to add a tiny bit of texture and vignette to the image.”
07. Gianluca Ricoveri
‘Untitled‘ by Gianluca Ricoveri – “Tuscany, is a beautiful land! I took this photo at sunset along a road that runs in the middle of the lovely hills. I used VividHDR, Snapseed and Stackables for the editing.”
08. Brendan Ó Sé
‘This divide between us will be filled with love or loss‘ by Brendan Ó Sé – “Shot on iPhone 6 in Ginza, Tokyo.
I am always drawn to lines (pun intended). I found these diverging lines and I knew how I wanted to compose the image. I wanted a couple to approach and part on either side of these lines. Now, this is much easier to imagine in the inside of my head than to actually occur, what with me lingering on the line waiting to snap the approaching passersby. I had to pretend I was talking on the phone. I saw this couple approach and like so much of photography – patience met luck and as they came to the line they parted and walked on either side of the line.
Click! I got the shot.”
09. Kate Hailey
‘A little twist on the Burj Al Arab‘ by Kate Hailey – “Having recently relocated to Dubai from the US, I wanted to capture some of the awesome architecture in Dubai. Along with that spend a quiet morning at the beach. On this day I got up around 4am so that I could arrive at the beach long before sunrise. I captured images with my iPhone 6+ and my Fuji XT-1.
The beginning of this image was a panorama. Panorama’s on their own have this broad sweeping story they tell. While that original view was beautiful, I felt a desire to have a little fun with my edit of this image. I used the Circular + app to create a tiny world, sometimes referred to as tiny planet. This app works best with images that are wider, like panorama’s. From there I pumped up the colours and added some texture via Mextures. ”
10. Scott Woodward
‘The Velvet Underground‘ by Scott Woodward – “Taken with iPhone 6S, Processed Using: Snapseed. I made this photograph on a recent visit to Japan. As I was rushing through Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya Station, I noticed the train conductor at the back of the subway step out of the final car and watch all the passengers disembark/embark before stepping back into his car and signalling with his gloved hand that it was safe to depart the station. It was a fantastic little scene — a brief choreographed routine that is repeated thousands of times every day at Metro stations across Tokyo — but it seemed to go completely unnoticed by the crowds rushing past. I decided to stop and wait for the next train to roll in, my iPhone in my hand. I didn’t need to wait long; within a few moments, another subway appeared, passengers flooded in and out, and the conductor drill was repeated. This time I was ready, quickly snapping a few frames before the train disappeared into the tunnel.”
11. Michael Kistler
‘Rated g for graphic‘ by Michael Kistler – “I shot this image in Shanghai after the latest ‘Finding Yourself in the Streets’ photography workshop with Mimo Khair. I had seen this location in her work before so we went there together. Before I had a chance to get my Canon out, I saw this woman with the blue umbrella coming and was able to get a quick snap as she was walking past. I am a big fan of lines, arrows and other graphic elements so the location really appealed to me. I processed the image in Snapseed – I increased the ambiance a bit and then added a glamour glow filter for just a hint of softness. After that, I square cropped the image in Instagram. ”
12. Marco Lamberto
‘Exploring point of view‘ by Marco Lamberto – “Milano Central Station is always such an inspiring building. Lots of people passing by, so many stories crossing. I’ve simply exploited a glass for getting the wanted symmetry while travelers and lights made the scene. I went through my usual edit involving Adobe Photoshop Express (noise reduction, sharpening and minimal edits), the final touch was made with VSCO cam (WWF preset).”
13. Nicky Fitz-Gerald
‘Weymouth Harbour‘ by Nicki Fitz-Gerald – “This photo is taken 5 minutes walk away from my home in Weymouth. There are lots of very pretty cottages around the harbour, each with their own character and this is one of them. There is something about windows and doorways; the arrangement of the elements in a ready made frame and the colours that make them very attractive to photograph.
This was a quick shot taken with ProCamera, my favourite app to shoot in because of it’s ease of use and advanced controls particularly over focus, exposure and colour temperature. When I reviewed the photo, the colours looked dirtier and more muted than how I had remembered them and there were also some grubby marks on the brickwork here and there that didn’t support the vision I had for the photo.
First of all I removed the dirty smudges on the brick work using the magical paint brush tool in TouchRetouch. Then I used Snapseed to brighten the image and also to selectively saturate the flowers and the little blue bottles sat on the window frame. Saturating just the flowers and the bottles without touching the rest of the image ensured these elements popped out from the background.
After brightening the image, the top half looked a little too bright and some of the detail of the bricks was lost so I imported the last edited image from Snapseed (with the popping colours) with the original image into Superimpose and used the Gradient Mask tool to blend the top half of the original image with the bottom half of the last edited image.”
14. Katie Teixeira
‘Just one look at you and I know it’s gonna be a lovely day‘ by katieteix – “The inspiration for the photo was simple. Daisies. They’re simple beauty and exude happiness. The self portrait was taken with my iPhone 6 and then edited with the Mextures app.”
15. Niels Brunelli
‘I believe I can fly‘ by Niels Brunelli – “This is my little girl, Eva. On vacation in Denmark (I’ve got some relatives there), I went on a cycling tour on a warm afternoon in the Danish countryside with Eva and her oldest sister. After feeding some cows and petting some goats we found a playground near a camping site. She couldn’t stop hopping around on this very big balloon like cushion half inflated with air. Eva was happy, I was happy, the sky was photogenic… impossible not to take a picture (using Hipstamatic app with the combo Jane/BlackKeys Supergrain).”
16. Jian Wang
‘Untitled‘ by Jian Wang – “The photo was taken at the Museum of Natural History, Beijing, China. I found the architecture fascinating under the sun, with all these crossings of lines and shadows, creating a powerful visual impact. There wasn’t a suitable spot to take the picture, so I climbed into the clusters of flowers to achieve the best angle. The photo represents my shooting style, which is choosing the best available angle, and waiting for the right characters to show up. I stayed for two hours and captured the arrival of these two people, it was totally worth the wait.”
17. Bobbi McMurry
‘In progress…‘ by Bobbi McMurry – “This is a portrait of my youngest son who’s a very gifted decathlete. He’d been experiencing back pain for a while before last years State Championship and decided to compete anyway. Remarkably, he placed 3rd, despite the agony he endured those two days. After an MRI we found that he had 3 fractures on his lower spine explaining the pain he was enduring. This portrait honors his tenacity, dedication, and focus.
The image was created with the apps: Art Studio, iColorama, Metabrush, Pixelmator, and Stackables. The backstory: ”
18. @Alice1280
‘Rainy day stride by through the window‘ by Alice1280 – “I was sitting in the car park on a rainy day and took pics of people walking by. The phone focused on the raindrops and i ended up with some depth of field. I did a lot of editing in snapseed to smooth out the backround and to darken it,to make the raindrops stand out.”
19. Armineh Hovanesian
‘“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” ~ Angela Y. Davis‘ by Armineh Hovanesian – “That particular day was quite frustrating throughout and since my venting tool is my photography, I decided to get busy. This shot is a double exposure shot taken with Hipstamatic on my iPhone6. ”
20. @Justanotherdayin
‘Pause‘ by justanotherdayin – “This was taken at the Richard Serra exhibition in the Gagosian Gallery, London. My friend Wendy and I were wandering through the NJ-2 sculpture, and by chance ended up chatting to the older gentleman seen in the photograph. He shared his idea for a double exposure photograph and expressed regret about not having a camera with him. I offered to take the photograph with Wendy and him, so that he may have a memento of his idea. The theme for Instagram’s Weekend Hashtag Project for seeing doubles was on my mind, and I liked the tension created by the juxtaposition of the dissimilar ‘mirror’ figures across the strong diagonal line of Serra’s sculpture.
On processing, I used a Moment wide lens on my iPhone 6s, and the photo was then edited in VSCO to adjust the tone and exposure to create the mood I was after.”
21. Elaine Taylor
‘Stephen and Charlie‘ by Elaine Taylor – “This is a shot of my husband and oldest son walking, talking nonsense and generally making each other laugh as I followed behind. It was early evening and very cold but the sunlight and sky were gorgeous.
I shot it from a low angle using my iPhone7plus and edited it using Snapseed and Picfx.”
22. Ushi Grant
‘Finding the Light…‘ by Ushi Grant – “I was drawn to the play of light on the floor when suddenly I saw this figure coming into the space. I loved the way the light caught her face. In these uncertain times, the title I gave it is my hope for the world going forward”
23. John Nieto
‘11:16am. december 6th 2016. alamo square‘ by John Nieto – “In a city full of bustling youth I found this woman to appear so timeless and beautiful as she waited for the bus in her full coat and scarf. It’s not often in California that you see someone with so many clothes on. This was the last photograph I shot on my iPhone 6. Edited using Snapseed.”
24. Nei Cruz
‘That shot that everyone took (with a twist)‘ by Nei Cruz
Do you have a favourite from this weeks showcase? Let us know your thoughts on the featured photos in the comments below.
If you haven’t already done so, follow Mobiography on Instagram and hashtag your photos with#mobiography for a chance of getting featured in future showcases. Don’t forget to sign up to the Mobiography email list to get the latest news and updates direct to your inbox.
