Another new year begins and as the calendars roll over from 2024 to 2025, it’s time once again to pick up my camera. After a busy 2024 finishing off the renovations on our bungalow, I need to set aside some time to focus on my photography. To push me to do that, I’ll be undertaking another Project 52 for 2025.
My record with these projects isn’t great. This year I’m going to add a twist. Hopefully, this will motivate me to stick with it longer than two weeks. For 2025, I’m going to try and complete the project using only my iPhone. I always have my iPhone with me, unlike my larger camera setups so hopefully there will be more opportunities for me to capture images that meet the criteria for the weekly challenges.
Like previous years, I’ll once again be following along with Nicole Young’s 52 Photo Challenge. The community over there is really friendly and supportive. The only issue I have is that some people treat it like a competition and have to get an image up within minutes of the challenge theme being revealed. If you ignore this (as I do) then you’ll find it one of the most pleasant photography communities on the internet.
New Gear
To help me get the best images I can from my phone and hopefully make sure the work I produce is of a decent quality, I’ve made a couple of purchases. This may also have been to ease my gear acquisition syndrome.
Phone Grip
First up is a grip for my phone. Although, I didn’t purchase this. This was a gift I received for Christmas. If you’re anything like me, you struggle to find stuff for people to buy that is affordable. I added this to my wish list because I struggle holding my phone when taking photographs. Either I get my fingers in the way of the lens, move the phone when trying to hit the shutter, or worst of all, drop my phone.
The grip I opted for is the Shiftcam Snapgrip. My initial experience with the snapgrip has been good. It makes the phone feel more like a mirrorless or DSLR body and makes it much easier to change settings while framing images. As an added bonus, it also acts as a power bank and will charge your phone while attached using the magsafe system.
Portable Tripod
The second accessory is another Christmas gift, and also falls in to the affordable category. It is a folding tripod for the iPhone. It’s really light weight and when folded flat, it’s the thickness of two credit cards. It’s made by a company called Geometrical. It can be purchased directly from their website pocket-tripod.com or from Amazon.
I’m still on the fence with this one. I haven’t used it in anger, so I won’t give a verdict yet. My initial thoughts when I unboxed it was that it’s a little flimsy. I think for the price, I was expecing something more robust. I was also expecting it to be metal and not plastic. Having read the blurb, I can see now that they’ve opted for plastic to get around problems with airport security when flying. I’ll probably do a post giving my thoughts on the product once I’ve used it in anger.
Books
To prepare for a year of iPhone photography and help me complete my project 52 for 2025, I’ve also done a couple of things in preparation.
The iPhone Photography Book
While I have a basic understanding of the iPhone camera and the app, I’m no expert. To help me get the best images from the camera on my iPhone, I purchased The iPhone Photography Book: How to Get Professional-looking Images Using the Camera You Always Have With You, by Scott Kelby.
I’m a KelbyOne member and I’ve read a lot of Scott’s books. I find his writing style easy to read and the way the subject is broken down makes it easy to digest. The book is also realatively inexpensive. I opted for the eBook version available at Rocky Nook. If you’re a KelbyOne member, you can also use your discount code to get 50% off the advertised price. If you prefer printed books, or if you’re in the UK, the book is available at Amazon. For UK based readers, the Amazon option works out cheaper than shipping it from Rocky Nook in the US.
52 Assignments: iPhone Photography
There are a number of the books in the 52 Assignments series and I’ve purchased several of them. Each one is by a different author, usually an expert in the field in which the assignements are set. While they’re not the type of book you read cover to cover, they do server a purpose. I find them particularly useful for breaking creative ruts. I also find them great for inspiration when you’re struggling for ideas. While I haven’t tied any of the assignments in this volume, I do recommend the series as a whole.
Online Training
As I mentioned earlier, I’m a KelbyOne member and have access to their entire course library. There are several courses dedicated to iPhone photography available. I have only watched two so far.
The first course I picked to watch was a course called Essential Gear for the Modern iPhone Photographer with Glynn Dewis. The course is only forty-five minutes long but covers everything from additional lenses and accessories to camera and editing applications. This is a great course if you want to elevate your iPhone photography (iPhoneography, is that even a word?) to the next level.
The other course I chose to watch is titled Using Your iPhone for Travel Photography, with Scott Kelby. Again, this is a short course at 45 minutes and is based on a virtual trip to Tuscany. Scott runs through the settings and features you need to know about the iPhone camera. It also includes some tips and tricks as well as some useful accessories to help you create better iPhone images.
My Project 52 for 2025
This has turned out to be a much longer post than I originally intended. I wanted to share my ambitions for this years project, but also to share an insight to how I’m approaching it. If nothing else, I hope I can inspire you to try a project 52, or a project 12 (monthly assignment). I hope from this post, you can also take away the idea that it’s ok to fail. These projects are not easy to complete, but can be hugely beneficial. Just take a look at how many different educators, photography websites and organisations are running variations of these projects. That will tell you that there is something to be gained from attempting one.
The challenge starts on January the 6th 2025. You can follow my progress here by subscribing to my blog updaes. I’ll be posting each week with my image (assuming I get one) and. brief narrative about the process I took to get the image. I’ll also add all the images to a gallery on the main website.
This post has gone on way too long, so I’ll wrap it up. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with it.
Take care and have a good one.
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