Customer Reviews

The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (Voices That Matter)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This book is a brilliant demonstration of what a talented and creative artist can do with the most basic tools. Chase Jarvis gives us 200+ photos taken with his iPhone and processed only using iPhone-based tools (no Photoshop!). In a way, this is comparable to the kinds of exercises that are sometimes done in other artistic fields, such as painting a picture using only two primary colors or writing a novel without the letter E (both of which have been done) -- a conscious device to spur experimentation to discover ways of working with or around the limitation one has chosen to adopt. But there is a crucial difference here: the use of the iPhone is itself a solution to the problem of not always having a camera in hand and ready to shoot whenever a photographic opportunity presents itself. And this is the point of the book: that there are always such opportunities around us, and that you don't necessarily need an expensive camera rig to catch them. Jarvis writes, "There are at least ten great pictures waiting to be taken within ten meters of where you are standing right now." This book is his proof.

Another inspiring aspect of the book is the way Jarvis sometimes takes advantage of the iPhone's limitations. It is not a high-resolution camera, nor are its optics any match for the better compact point-and-shoots on the market today (let alone any SLR), but Jarvis shows that this can be useful. Some of his pictures actually benefit from imperfect focus, digital noise, and limited dynamic range. In a few cases, I found solutions in his work to failed pictures that I have taken. I can see now that those pictures failed, at least in part, because the images were technically too precise. I played by the usual rules of photography (correct focus and exposure, etc.) when I should have broken them. "Louvers" on page 206 is one example of this. I shot a picture once very like this one, but it was too clear and too detailed; anyone looking at it would have said, "Okay, a picture of louver blinds, so what?" Jarvis' picture of the same subject is more mysterious, and therefore more interesting, due to blur and "incorrect" exposure. It becomes an abstract graphic design (and a good one) rather than just a shot of vertical blinds.

I think anyone interested in photography should buy this book. You may not "get" it right away, and it may be best not to rush through the whole thing in one sitting; but over time, I think it will help your mental and creative gears to turn in new ways, and the pictures really are great in their own low-tech way.

This book is great for one reason. It's simplicity is inspiring. Everyone takes pictures with their camera phones, but most people just brush them off as "not good enough." This book is proof-positive that "not good enough" can be "good enough to publish a book with." On top of this, add what other reviews have called The Best Camera "Trifecta" and you get an ecosystem that is both creative and technically genius. Great work, Chase.

Chase has done it again. The Best Camera is like visual proof that Jarvis' manifesto (the best camera is the one that's with you, and it doesn't have to be fancy) is right on the money. His images, and the way they've been curated into this mini-exhibit, are inspiring. It's not a how-to book, in fact it claims to be nothing more than what it is - a collection of images that re-examine the intersection of art and pop-culture. If you're looking for technique, move along. If you're looking for inspiration, this is a great reminder that the brand wars (Canon vs. Nikon) are irrelevant and that the camera really has so little to do with this art. I love this book and will pick it up time and time again just to stir the paint and poke the muse a little. Well done, Chase.

chase is the walking embodiment of the digital tsunami we are in the midst of. cool thing is he blends traditional ink on paper with an app that extends the reach and enjoyment of all this to lots and lots of folks, more than would just get a book, or just get an app. he puts himself at the middle of the wonderfully frenetic intersection where imagery meets and is augmented by technology with his talents and his generous nature....this book is just like chase...cool, in the moment, and visually smart.

I reviewed this book on my blog (and provided a few samples with permission from the author). Here's what I wrote:

Chase Jarvis is an award winning, internationally renowned photographer based in Seattle, WA. While Chase is well known for his innovative commercial work, he has also gained a large following through online forums due to his willingness to share advice / tips on his blog, his inspiring collection of personal photography and his advocacy of social networking.

"The Best Camera is the one that's with you" is his latest initiative, a 256 page photography book featuring only images taken with his iPhone. The book was released in 2009, and also coincides with his online iPhone photo ecosystem via the website [...]. I purchased my copy through Amazon a couple of weeks ago and just managed to get around to reviewing it.

The book itself comes in a minimalist, small format (6 x 6 x 0.7 inches). There is little in the way of written work, consisting mostly of images and titles, with a few of Chase's personal inspirational quotes scattered throughout. The photos are clearly the focus of the book, with each one attempting to underscore the statement that it's "the photographer that matters". Chase cover a wide range of both subjects and locations with images shot from plane windows, around the streets of Seattle, in bars and restaurants and by hotel pools. It's clear that Jarvis' iPhone goes pretty much everywhere he does. Many get a heavy dose of post processing, using a variety of filters. Several shots are black and white, others highly saturated mimicking a Holga or Lomo like effect. Others receive a lensbaby like finishing. The effects are wide and varied and it keeps things fresh. The quality of the shots themselves vary. A couple rank among my favourite images I've seen this year (irrespective of the camera used). Others are more slivers of insight into Jarvis' daily life - immensely meaningful to the subjects and the photographer and inspirational examples to anyone else.


Chase's work in "The Best Camera..." reminds me somewhat of the groundbreaking photos from Hiromix (real name Hiromi Toshikawa), a female Japanese photographer who rocketed to fame in the mid 1990's when she won a high profile Canon competition in Japan at age 19. Her original work could be characterised as the simple photo diary, and spawned a generation of female photographers who started seeing their every day lives around them a little differently. Chase's promotion of the camera phone as a meaningful photographic tool could potentially do the same.

In addition to the images, the quotations found within are of particular interest. "Each photograph is a tiny invention" and "No longer do I tire of the lounge or the crappy food or the painfully lines at airports" are both statements that have lived with me long after my first reading. Chase's quote about the gourmet chef who comes home and makes himself a grilled cheese sandwich is pure class. It's the perfect example of "strong words, softly spoken" - a case brilliantly argued without a great deal of fuss or words. In doing so, "The Best Camera..." quietly and effectively goes about putting to shame anyone whose ever muttered "there's nothing to shoot" or "if only I had a more expensive camera".

Undoubtedly with work like this, there will be some critiques who will pour scorn on the image quality found on some of the pages. The digital photography industry has given birth to a generation of "pixel peepers" and "The Best Camera..." stares down and challenges that trend. The few who walk away from the book thinking "so what" are the ones who are are missing a bigger point when it comes to photography. Inspiration is often what you make of it.

While the book benefits from a close association with the iPhone, it's not about the iPhone as a photographic tool. They key aim of the book is simpler - a demonstration that you don't need the latest or best equipment to produce great images. However, even with Jarvis' status, the book will ultimately will live or die by the quality of the work found within. And on that basis, how does it rate? My verdict is that the book absolutely succeeds in what it sets out to do - to challenge, to lead by example and to inspire. While it's a different experience than flipping through a commercial portfolio, the images are all about inspiring the reader to go out and shoot something different (or shoot something ordinary, but do it differently) and by this measure, "The Best Camera..." triumphs in every way.
[...]

The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis showed up in the mail today somewhat unexpectedly. I started to leaf through it (it's small and nearly all pictures), and was quickly distracted from whatever it was that I was supposed to be doing. Jarvis makes the case that the best camera for a particular picture at any given time is the one you happen to have on hand. My DSLR is of little use if it's still in the camera case at home. He shows how you can take and enhance photos using nothing but the iPhone and an iPhone app called Best Camera. I normally don't buy many iPhone apps (in fact, all the ones I use to date are free), but I spent the $2.99 (yeah, I was feeling extravagant!) to check it out. Between the app and this book, I'm sold.

In terms of looking for in-depth technical discussion on how the iPhone camera works and compares to other options, forget it. Jarvis doesn't go into *any* of that. Instead, he takes you on a photo exposition of normal scenes and images that you would probably overlook on a daily basis. But with some decent composition (closeup, blur, cropping), you can get images that are quite striking. Then using the Best Camera app, you can apply filters (vignette, warming, saturation, etc) that add that extra zing to the picture without taking it outside of your iPhone. Granted, it's not PhotoShop, but then it's not meant to be. The whole concept here is to use the camera you have to take the shots you'd normally ignore or miss.

The images inspired me to do better, and there was one phrase that really caught my attention. Actually, there were a couple. "No longer do I tire of the lounge or the crappy food or the painfully long lines at the airport." With the iPhone and imagination, you should be able to entertain yourself for hours. "There are at least ten great pictures waiting to be taken within ten meters of where you are standing right now." That sort of goes hand-in-hand with the other statement. I always find myself looking for "the perfect picture", when in reality there are a lot of great pictures to be taken all around me. It's just a matter of opening my eyes, getting out of my normal mindset, and *taking the picture*!

The Best Camera Is The One That's With You is a great little book that has me excited again about what I could do with stuff I already have with me everywhere I go...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

I've been doing amateur photography for 7 years and pro photography for about 3. I bought this book because I'm a big fan of Chase and his works, and thought I'd get some inspiration from this. It's true that camera technology doesn't make the picture, but in some instances, it helps for a photo to not look so digitized (some pictures are very pixalated.) The camera in the iPhone is very limited, which actually helped produce some of the blurring effect. I take iPhone photos quite regularly also when I'm not lugging around a camera.

The misleading part is that these photos are post-processed. Some of them have blatantly been messed with in LR3 or Photoshop to add blur, increase vibrancy and saturation, and to improve sharpness and definition. This is 100% fine but it creates the illusion that people can also achieve similar results using the iphone camera without processing.

I make fun of hipsters all the time but if there's one thing they're good at and enjoy, it's photography. That and using their iPhones for everything. So a book about iPhone photography sounds, on paper, like a great idea. The book works for what it's supposed to be, a collection of good photos ranging from several artistic themes taken with an iPhone. However, once you've paid almost $20 for it (I got this for 85% off at Borders during its very last week in Portland so I paid much less) and get through looking at all of the photos within an hour or so and pick out your favorites, you're left with the faux-inspirational typography shlock that goes with the territory. For every few good pictures, there are a couple of suitably grainy non-sensical ones. And for every couple of those, there's a white page with black helvetica lettering because that's cool. "Big text, little text." "Fragment sentence." "Something that Jared Leto would say in a song." And every time Chase Jarvis says something, you roll your eyes, go "wow, this dude sounds obnoxious" and go right back to looking at cool pictures. Thing is, the pattern repeats like this for the whole book and then it's over before you know it. It reeks of the kind of money-making mentality that also drove him to write the introduction to the book, in which he says "I didn't retouch any of these photos or use any modification apps because all you need to take a decent shot of something is the basic iPhone camera. Btw, buy my new camera app for $3." No thanks. Wanna save yourselves some money, go to Flickr and spend time looking at random shots. You'll be equally as inspired for none of the cost.

I knew it was more images and not much text. And I expected to like the images in the book. I also expected to pick it up, look at a few images, then set it down for another time. But I couldn't put it down. I had to look at everything right away. Chase takes the mundane and makes it beautiful. It's something I try to do as well. And really, it's not the equipment or the method but the vision.

I purchased this book because I like and use the author's iPhone app on a regular basis. The best camera app is so easy to use, and it provides some awesome enhancements to iPhone photos. I was surprised, though, that author didn't discuss how he used his application to process his own photos. It looks as if the photos in this book may have been processed by other iPhone camera apps, but it's hard to tell.

Jarvis's images lean more toward the abstract, urban gritty style, which I find very artistic and fitting for iPhone photos, or what is being called iphoneography. Jarvis has the advantage of being a professional photographer who has worked in such places as New Zealand, Chile, Dubai, NYC, and Seattle. His subjects are primarily of the mundane,showing that you don't have to travel the world to get good iPhone shots. You simply have to shoot, and shoot on a regular basis.

His spiffy typographical one liners about photography ("Each photography is a tiny invention.") compliment his collection very well.

The book closes with a index, but it doesn't seem very useful, mainly because this book is for browsing images and getting inspired. It's minimalist style compliments the idea of iPhone photography, which is about taking photos without the need for extra lenses, buttons and or even knowledge of exposure techniques. It's more akin to classical Lomo photography, whereby you compose and shoot. It's the subject, not the camera, that really makes the image.