What happens when you put down the SLR’s for a day and carry around nothing but the cameraphone on the Motorola Droid?
I did not even take the Nikon or the Canon out of the room today.
Sometimes, when I feel a little dry on the creativity, it really helps to change formats. I wish I had a Leica or a medium format body with me but there’s no way film would make it through the number of x-ray machines I’ve been around recently.
One of these days people will give me cameras to go overseas and test them in really hard travel environments to see if they’ll make it. Not that I’m hard on equipment, but traveling months at a time in some of these places is hard on anything… even me!
Speaking of which: I’m really interested to see if the Olympus PEN system is travel-worthy considering its interchangeable lenses exposing a raw sensor! The fact that its so small and compact and inconspicuous and quiet – sounds like a great international street camera to me. Olympus, are you listening? I’m about to go to Haiti in a little while…
Anyways… I digressed a little far…
All the photos you will see today were taken and processed/edited using the Vignette app on the Motorola Droid. Its earlier versions were a little on the clunky side, but I’ve been using it for a long long time and its really turned into a great piece of software.
So, enough of my words, just the photos through a lens a fraction of the usual size…
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I sat at a cafe for a while for the next few:
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And, by the way, the Vignette app doesn’t just do these heavy vignetted photos. Its the certain filters I was using that did it. But, really, they’re only simple toy-camera filters. Nothing really special. Take away the vignette and you get something like:
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I always feel a little compelled to help the lost touristas wearing frontsy backpacks… but they will only learn if they figure it out themselves. Hey, I use Lonely Planet guides: no shame in that at all!
Sorry this post is so disjointed. Nothing special to say today, just photos from walking around with a 5-megapixel camera phone all day playing around… getting joy out of seeing what happens when I take a picture of something.
I like that last one. Its actually in full color.
And I really love patterns…
There’s always a limit to equipment… but harnessing the limits to make somewhat of an interesting image is exciting. Gets the creative juices flowing again.
…like showing a soccer/football game in dark cafe.
Anyways, whatever you think of the images, I’m glad I put down the big SLR’s today. I got to see Marrakesh, Morocco, through a different lens – literally and figuratively.
But then again, even after only a handful of days in Morocco, there is just so much to see. It ranks quite high on the Gotta-Go-Back Scale and Fes is definitely in my top favorite places in the world. Although I’m leaving for London tomorrow, I feel like I will return to this country. There is so much to see, so much to learn, so much to experience.
I see so many stories: in the faces of the people here, in the way things are done, the who/what/where/when/why/how’s of this place are at every turn. Maybe my greatest lesson from this place is much like me putting down the SLR and seeing through a different lens. For a time, I have had to put away the rest of my world and experience a new one.
That, in itself, is an amazing lesson to learn.
Please, stay tuned…
-noah d.
