Vacationing with the iphone

The last time I was on vacation in Europe, I was walking around with a film camera and a bagful of lenses. For this latest trip I figured, I already had a bunch of keepers taken in most of the places we were visiting, and this time around,  I wanted to just "be there" with Dada and the kids, not wandering about taking pictures. As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you when the opportunity arises.  Since my iphone5's always in my pocket... why not?

In good light, it actually performs very well. 

 Parthenon

Or even in mixed lighting, as long as you know how meters work.

Bridge of Sighs

Forget the useless flash in backlit situations, but the AE lock feature helps:

Back of the Bus, Dubrovnik

And I don't think you can beat it for stealth:

Sketching the Colosseum

Or getting off a shot quickly

Kotor, Montenegro

I really liked the easy-to-use panorama for sweeping scenics

 

Venice, Italy

 

Santorini, Greece

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Or to play around with.

St. Peter's Square

And even to convey space in crowded street scenes.

Piazza Navona

 Just be careful with subject movement, like when Miguel decided to skip a stone while I was panning.

Kotor, Montenegro

There are, of course, other limitations.  A big one is that "zooming" is basically cropping, and will quickly deteriorate your photo.  Just try to be judicious and use only as little of it as necessary. 

This view of St. Mark's from the cruise ship shows a lot of noise particularly in the sky, but I otherwise would not have been able to capture it.

All in all, as long as you stick to the same sound basic techniques that you would use with any camera, I would think that the iphone is capable of decent results.  And along with the numerous advantages, especially the portability and unobtrusiveness, I can see why many tourists are happily snapping away with their smartphones.  Sometimes, it may even surprise you, as with this dreamy photo from a cliffside cafe in Santorini

What I don't get are the folks taking pictures with ipads.....