Cecil Sharps wrote:
I'm not arguing that someone should show up with a motorolla flip phone and do a photoshoot with it. I am arguing that you can get amazing shots with most anything.
Craft, compostiton, exposure are what is important.. A competent photographer will get a good shot no matter what equipment he uses. 5x7, 35mm or even digital.
The equipment is an aid, it is not the determing factor.
I am in iraq. The reason the photos, videos were captured is quite simple. The size of the phone. It isn't the journalist that gets these images, it isn't the soldiers. It's our interpreters and friendly locals. You can not walk down the streets over here with a camera or a camcorder. You will be stopped, local, army, or journalist. You can not get to a scene of an incident if you are a journalist. By the time the journalist finds out the event is over and he/she is standing around a big hole in the ground.
It is everyday people with a flip phone that have walked around snapping shots of criminals and terrorist in the act. It is the fact that so few people realize what can be done with these little gadgets that the pics and videos have been recorded.
I don't work in an s2 shop but i've seen more than my share of these grainy little videos and images to know the inherent value. And i would rather have these gizmos in the hands of 10 locals than have 500 journalist.
Ok.....and I do understand the validity of your point....but I think the original post had more to do with model ports rather than war coverage which I think most will agree is better getting something than nothing.....
But one more point which may have escaped everyone is the lowering of expectations by using cell phone pics over higher quality equipment.....once you begin to accept a lower standard or quality....all other standards begin to slip lower also...
I equate it to the "dumbing down effect"......it's easier to drop to a new level than to raise to a better one....just human nature to seek the easier path to an end....like water seeking it's own level......but sometimes you have to go aginst that human nature in order to create something better.....
If good enough was always used as a criteria.....we'd still be riding in horse drawn buggies....we'd have no planes....no medicines to fight disease....no light bulbs.....or have cell phones with the ability to take pics......see what I mean....it's that raising of expectations which is difficult but the only way to improve.....
And also....I think there is a difference between "art" and "commercial".....no problem with the artistic side.....I've done it myself....using pin hole cameras or Dianas.....but you can't always re-create those images on demand.....something commercial shooters are called upon to do.....
