Photographer #1  "What is your best Camera? "  

Photographer #2  "The Camera I have with me!"

I was reminded of this dialogue last week as I prepared to travel to South Texas for a long weekend "family" event.  I was debating about including my "best" camera and lens in my luggage or just winging it with my iPhone.  ( FWIW, I really dislike packing these days and the thought of adding 10 more pounds to my luggage wasn't very appealing.)  But, there might be some photo opportunities as this would be new territory for my photographic eyes.  In the end, I opted to travel light...Sigh.

The Best camera would have to be my iPhone!

South Padre Island:

The first three shots of this post were taken on S. Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico located at the very tip of Texas. The weather there is HOT and Humid ... essentially 90+ degrees during the day dropping to 85 degrees at 11:00 PM! 

The heat was a central and ever-present theme.  It was impossible to ignore.  This black and white image of the Sun glowing behind the Palm trees was meant to convey a little of that presence!

While eating dinner at the Hotel, I  noticed this really soft sunset.  I excused myself from the table; walked out and took this shot.  Though I had my best camera with me, I began to wish I had brought the "better" one.   I really wanted to isolate the mound (on the far side of the walkway) with the tall grass blowing in the gentle breeze but that wasn't possible with the iPhone.  Instead I choose this equally compelling but very different composition showing the hand of man ... the walkway, in the image.

One morning from my room.  The skies seemed to perpetually have really cool looking clouds hanging around. A nice change from Los Angeles which has really boring skies!  But, what really caused me to take the shot was the floating oil drilling rig being towed-out to sea by 4 tugs in this scene:

San Antonio:

We spent a few days exploring San Antonio.  It's an interesting city with an area called "The River Walk."  Think of a modern mini-Venice situated in the middle of a large Texas city.  There are several miles of canals, and it's located a couple of blocks from the Alamo.  The river's banks are lined with large beautiful cedar trees (and, of course, shops, hotels, restaurants, etc.) giving it some relief from the ever present heat.  Here's a simple snap from the iPhone:

Another simple shot.  The iPhone couldn't produce the shot I wanted of the colored umbrellas ...

So, I went for the reflections:

Here, too, I couldn't get a clear shot of this old, interesting building so I opted for the reflection and converted it to black and white. It's my favorite of the trip:

Here's another scene along the River Walk.  I took care to include the state flag flying atop the building in the background but that left the walkway in the dark shadows.  Photoshop saved the day!

And, yes, it is even possible to take a close-up of a flower with the iPhone!

Like most human endeavors, photography involves making kinds of compromises.  Certainly, the camera gear is on of the types of compromises, but it  usually isn't the most important one.  More often it is the view of the person taking the picture.  Recently, I ran across a nice short blog that might help explain this better.  You can find it here: http://www.shotwithmytrustyiphone.com/you-say-you-dont-see-like-a-photographer-but-you-want-to-maybe-this-will-help/

That's it for South Texas ... an interesting but very hot place in September!

Adam