I’m routinely asked how I get the shots I do with my iPhone and what app I use for them, as if there is one simple magic bullet for it. In an effort to help any of you interested in the same thing I’ve attached the response I just wrote to the most recent person that ask me:

“I use a bunch of different ones, ___________. They all do different things and give me different results I’m looking for. I routinely run photos through three or four of them before I publish / post them. I know this may not be much help, but there really is not a single program or filter that’s gonna make all your photos sing. Visualize how you want the shot to look before you take it, get the shot as close as possible to that vision when you take it, and then learn how to get the finished look you were going for out of whatever apps you use. The processing of the file has just as much to do with the finished look of the photo as it did in the days of the traditional darkroom.

All of the photos in this post are recent shots I’ve done with my iPhone. The top one (the portrait) took the most knowledge from a photography standpoint to do. It took putting him in a place where both the background and light was good, and then catching him looking at ease. The outcome of the other three shots are very much a result of the time of day I took each of them. Had I taken them an hour or even minutes before or after for each of them and I would have gotten entirely different results.

I think you may have the patience and eye for it, so I encourage you to go for it, but a lot of people are too impatient for it. They think the photos I post with my phone just happen instantly, but I sometimes spend thirty minutes to an hour processing each shot in my phone that I have taken with and post from it. Most people don’t care enough about a photo to spend an hour or more with it unless they’re a photographer — and some, or a lot of photographers aren’t even willing to.”

This post is going to become my default answer to those that ask me about it. Now, go have fun with your iPhone and create something cool or even priceless to you with it.