An Experiment for the Ages (or is it Aged?)

I'm going mobile on a trip to Spain

Typical field kit when I’m travelling

I'm about to try an experiment and, honestly, I'm scared. Anxious might be a better word - it sounds better - but I'm plain out scared.

I'll be traveling in Europe for a couple of weeks in May and I have decided to try traveling with no camera equipment other than my 12 MP iPhone 13 Pro Max and a flimsy smartphone selfie/tripod.

Some of you may wonder what's so frightening about that. The answer is that for many years I was a travel photographer (an international award-winning one, just to be clear) and a photojournalist. For the past 55 years I have never traveled without a Herculean load of equipment. Cameras, too many lenses, filters, panorama brackets, heavy tripods, you name it and I probably hauled it around in my backpack.

Now my wife and I are traveling to Spain, a country she has always wanted to visit. So I decided to try being a tourist of sorts and travel light. Of course I'll still take photos, but I saw it as an opportunity to climb out of the box and try something totally alien to me. Besides, being 75+ years old, I could use the break from 30 pound (13.6 Kilos) backpacks. But, what photo opps will I miss without specialized equipment?

Will the iPhone camera win my approval if not my heart?

My intent is to put the iPhone through its paces and see if Bob and I can wring out a few nice prints from this experiment. And, to be frank, making prints from iPhone images has been on my mind for a while. Most people I know simply use their smartp[hones for all their imagery, so why not test their capabilities for prints. My Fujifilm GFX system cranks out 102MP files. So, I'm curious if my iPhone can produce small prints, on 8.5 x 11 paper, that will work. How about small artist cards, gift cards, small framed prints or even small gallery displays? Bob and I will keep you posted on this evolving experiment.

I'll be filing a few updates for you during our travels, mostly showing how I'm approaching an image-capturing challenge like we all face whie traveling. There should be lots of opportunities for architectural shots (after all, it is Spain!), curving streets, extraction images, landscapes, and much more. I fully expect to be frustrated, wishing I had that 13-stop ND filter or my macro lens with me. Frankly, if Fujifilm had one of their new medium format tilt-shift lenses available nowadays, I'd probably have scrapped this experiment and stuck with my Sherpa routine.

Bob, by the way, thinks that I will end up buying every iPhone photography device known to man. He thinks I have an inborn need to travel with a heavy backpack. The real goal of this experiment, I admit, is to PROVE HIM WRONG!!

Follow Along With Notes From The Field

Nonetheless, there's a challenge to face and I'm game for it... sort of. Please follow along and feel free to comment, give (much needed) advice, or tell me what an idiot I am for even considering this.

I rarely use the internet or anything similar to social media in real-time while "out in the field". Since I'm experimenting with going totally iPhone, totally mobile, I'll also be experimenting with the notes feature of this platform as well. I'll be posting successes, failures, lamentations, and victories as I go.

Two weeks and then I'll be back to my beloved Fujifilm GFX system or... possibly... even the iPhone 16.

And We Have A Winner!

A few weeks ago I discussed an incredible exhibition and book of Dorothea Lange. For those generous enought to help us keep the lights on we gave away a copy of the book via a fun "contest" with simple rules; Send us three black and white photos and we'll pick a winner. We didn't have any other criteria beyond whatever set of pictures Bob and I liked the best.

We received a bunch of entries all of which were great work. It was diffucult if not impossible for us to come to a concensus on any single photograph submitted so we decided based on which group of three images were most in the spirit of Lange's work.

Art Meripol's Entry

Congratulate our winner and the recipient of Dorothea Lange: Seeing People…

Check out more of Art Meripol’s work.

Fun idea for a contest. Love Lange’s work as well as all the FSA era shooters.

Last year, after 50 years, I had my first gallery show. I thought the photos from concerts in the 70's and 80’s should feel like darkroom prints. After looking at several different papers I fell hard for Moab Juniper Baryta Rag 305. Because my show included both color and black and white I thought this paper would give me the the results I wanted without changing papers. The 17 x 22 prints were very similar to the Darkroom prints of the past.

BTW, that first show was very successful and led to a larger expanded version now up in the Statehouse Museum in Little Rock.

- Art Meripol