The theme for the last Mobiography smartphone photo challenge was ‘Urban Life’ and again, the Mobiography community submitted a fantastic collection of photography. For this challenge you were asked to think about subjects such as buildings and architecture, cool street photography, street portraits, neon lit streets or reflections in glass and puddles. Here is a selection of some of the photos submitted to the challenge.
Featured photographers this week include: @allophile_, @chasread, @christinemignon, @cresting_wave, @detailsofberlin, @lenah243, @magdalena.szurek, @mariyon_enoki, @mobilographynet, @reneetakespics, @saminnnimas, @ushi.g, @the.r.a.b.b.i.t, @sombra_y_luz, @_g.vale and @redwoodraven
Take part in the next Mobiography photo challenge
The theme of this weeks photo challenge is ‘Water’. For this challenge think about sharing your best water inspired photos that were taken and edited with a smartphone. Think puddles, lakes, raindrops, reflections or seascapes.
To enter the challenge simply start sharing your best images on the theme of ‘Water’ that were taken and edited with a smartphone by using the hashtag #mobiography_challenge_152 on Instagram.
The best ones will be featured in the next photo challenge showcase, so get sharing now.
Join The Mobiography Facebook GroupUrban Curves, Time & Space
‘Urban Curves, Time & Space‘ by @allophile_ – “Seoul’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which opened in 2014, has become one of the city’s iconic buildings. Located just down the street from one of the city’s remaining old gates, dating from the 1300’s, it also happens to be the world’s largest amorphous and asymetrical building, with over 45,000 aluminum panels on its curving neo-futuristic surface. The celebrated late architect Dame Zaha Hadid described her planned structure as an attempt to ‘blur boundaries between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape,’ providing the South Korean capital with a new space to dream, design, and play—in her words: “Architecture must enable people to think of things they are not able to think of.” At their best, cities can sometimes fit that description, too.
I took this with an iPhone5s, using the native camera. The cloudy day already gave the scene a darker mood, and using Snapseed, I corrected a bit for exposure before converting it to black-and-white. I waited for a pedestrian to begin going up these steps before taking this picture—without the human element, the scale of this massive structure would be absent in the photo.”
Any given day, a gift
‘Any given day, a gift‘ by @chasread – “New York City’s five boroughs (and miscellaneous outlying islands) are all separated by water, so urban life for many New Yorkers requires daily passage by tunnel, bridge, or boat. It takes under 10 minutes by ferry to Governor’s Island, but if the sun is bright and seas are calm, it can feel like you’re a million miles away from Manhattan.
Shot with iPhone X and composited, edited, and cropped using Snapseed – the scene through the window was so bright relative to the dark interior that I took a second shot to get the exterior exposure right and blended the two shots in Snapseed. ”
Untitled
‘Untitled‘ by @christinemignon – “Public transport is always a good source for great street photography moments. The expressive face of the elderly man on the subway of Vienna caught my eye and I just couldn’t resist. The picture was shot and edited on iPhone 6s with Hipstamatic app (lens: Stavros, film: Aristotle, flash: Apollo)”
Load #3
‘Load #3‘ by @cresting_wave – “From the moment we’re conceived in our mother’s womb, we become a load in the lives of our parents even after we’re fully independent. Remember to always be grateful to your parents for bearing the load.
This is one from the “Bike Nation” series depicting urban life on a bicycle or motorbike. The image was made with the iPhone XS Max. Raw file from the ProCamera app was developed with Lightroom Mobile. RNI Films was used to apply the Kodak Gold 200 look, and then dodged and burned and rendered black and white in Snapseed. ”
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‘Untitled‘ by @detailsofberlin – “More than 5 years ago I started participating in this weekly photography challenge called 52Frames and the theme 2 weeks ago was “Horizon lines”. I probably would not have taken this photo without this challenge. On Friday in this week it started snowing in Berlin and and the snow was still there when we woke up Saturday (which is rare these days). So I told my husband we need to get to this former airport that is now open to the public and you can walk for hours. The melting snow created amazing leading lines to the horizon and have some really nice reflections as well. ”
Japan reflections
‘Japan reflections ‘ by @lenah243 – “I had an amazing trip to Japan and it’s very hard to articulate the full range of thoughts and emotions that I experienced when taking the picture.
Japan is a country with details that approach perfection and wabi-sabi at the same time. It is a country that touches your heart with polite arigato and you lose your heart forever. It entices you to stop your rushing steps, browsing eyes, and your monkey mind. It teaches you to notice rain drops on the dragon, flowers on the branch, ripples on the water surface… Finally, it is a country that invites you, even with all the modern technology and urban architecture, to see the reflection of your soul in the water of a tsukubai.”
Untitled
‘Untitled‘ by @magdalena.szurek – “Walking through the streets of Warsaw on a snowy afternoon, I noticed an unusual play of lights. Everything looked like a starry sky, a passing person with an umbrella emphasized the dynamics of this frame. I edited the photo in the snapseed app, emphasizing the contrast of the image.”
Dungeon
‘Dungeon‘ by @mariyon_enoki – “This photo was taken with Huawei P20 Pro HW-01K. Everything was edited on a smartphone using Instagram and Snapseed.”
Commute
‘Commute‘ by @mobilographynet – “I take the train to and from work here in Stockholm pretty often. The sun rises low this far north during winter and has a magic warmth to it in the spring. So over the years I’ve made it a point to sit on the side opposite the sun and other commuters. It’s become an ongoing series, mostly in black and white. I’ve captured exhaustion, rage, laughter, flirtation, sleep, stress, and this chill dude, sunglasses straight out into a wonderful light. People are seemingly just sitting there, but there’s a wide range of emotions going on inside them. This is especially true on the train, where people don’t tend to stare at one another, but turn inward as the scenery goes by on the way to work.
The photo was shot on a Huawei P9 and edited in Snapseed, first to enhance the lighting and create mood for a color version, and then to convert this to a strongly contrasting black and white version. In the monochrome I removed a bright and distracting advertisement logo from his bag.”
Baby with a Handgun
‘Baby with a Handgun‘ by @reneetakespics – “I was on a photowalk with a friend and when I rounded a corner, there was this mural. It hit me like a ton of bricks – so thought provoking. In reading about it later, I learned it was unsurprising quite controversial when it went up. The lone jeep in that big empty parking lot, courtesy of COVID shutdowns somehow made it even more impactful for me.”
Seek Solace in Solitude
‘Seek Solace in Solitude‘ by @saminnnimas – “The moon was an immersive installation art by Daniel Arsham for Nuit Blanche, an annual art exhibition in Toronto.
2019 was a very confusing time in my life and was reaching its peak near the end of the year. The environment around this installation art was cold and silent, a zen environment. I was completely dazed as I stood there in the cold watching people pass by, no thoughts in my mind but calmness.
I wanted to capture what I was feeling at that moment and waited for a single person to pass by to capture the scene. Hence the title, “Seek Solace in Solitude”
It didn’t take much to process the photo as the silhouette came out great directly using an iPhone X. Later I used Lightroom mobile to play around with the light tones to darken the surroundings and create a minimalist photo.”
Downtown
‘Downtown‘ by @ushi.g – “I saw this young woman sitting opposite me and she was seemingly lost in her own world. She looked like she was from another time and place and she fascinated me. I couldn’t leave without capturing her in her moment.”
Untitled
‘Untitled‘ by @the.r.a.b.b.i.t – “It was like any other day in Pettah. The traffic was congested as always. In addition to this the rain made nothing better. As I resigned myself to a long and gloomy ride I spotted a flash of yellow. A man was heading my way with a sunny umbrella. It was such a welcoming contrast to the dreary weather. I had just one moment to capture a perfect shot. I felt like a sniper waiting for my next shot. I focused my camera on the car window drizzled with raindrops and waited for him to pass by to get my perfect shot.
The image was captured using my iPhone 8 plus and edited via the Lightroom mobile app.”
The Common Reader
‘The Common Reader‘ by @sombra_y_luz
Untitled
‘Untitled‘ by @_g.vale
connecting the dots
‘connecting the dots‘ by @redwoodraven
Don’t forget…
The theme of this weeks photo challenge is ‘Water’. For this challenge think about sharing your best water inspired photos that were taken and edited with a smartphone. Think puddles, lakes, raindrops, reflections or seascapes.
To enter the challenge simply start sharing your best images on the theme of ‘Water’ that were taken and edited with a smartphone by using the hashtag #mobiography_challenge_152 on Instagram.
The best ones will be featured in the next photo challenge showcase, so get sharing now.
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