Quote of the day: “We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play.”  ― Charles Schaefer

Using my new iPhone toys

New iPhone Toys Mean Play Today

Today is day 23 of my 40-day photo challenge to myself. The challenge is to make at least 25 photos per day in my house each day. So far, I’ve made my 25 photos + each day. I have an amazing variety of photos and have used the project to focus in on learning new skills.

I love flowers and macro photography, but I can only do so much at a time before I find myself repeating myself or getting bored. Keeping a fresh outlook is essential. It has become my daily meditation practice to attempt to see with the heart each time I pick up my camera.

It gets more challenging each day

To stay present and to do something from the heart with my camera each day is a challenge.

It’s not work exactly, but it requires digging deeply into my desires and creative impulses. I want to create something with meaning or beauty or that tells a story or to learn something new, not just record the same things in the same way.  On busy days it is especially challenging.

Occasionally, I find something new that I want to explore or play with. Today was one of those days.

New Toys to Experiment With Mean Play Today

Today, my day was wide open—which was really good—because I got some new toys for my iPhone camera and wanted to play with them.

Introducing olloclip—combination macro, wide angle, and fisheye lens

I almost returned the olloclip before figuring out how it worked.  It looks like this. After some experimenting and research I figured out how it works. It is simple and easy once you get how it works.

olloclip

The clip fits over the corner of the iPhone over the camera lens like this.

olloclip fits over the corner of the iPhone over the camera lens

There is a large lens on one side (the fisheye lens) and the wide angle lens on the other side. To use the macro lens you screw off the wide angle lens. In the photo above the macro lens is positioned at the distance I used to photograph the rose petals up close.

Macro rose photo made with iPhone and olloclip

I found it difficult to hold the iPhone steady enough in my hand to get sharp focus like in the photo above. The photo below shows what my photos looked like when I hand-held.

Hand-held macro photo using iPhone and olloclip

You might have a steadier hand than I do, but I found my other new iPhone toy indispensable for sharp focus. It’s a Studio Neat Glif iPhone Tripod Mount and Stand. That’s what’s holding my iPhone on my tripod in the photo below.

Studio Neat Glif Tripod Holder

Here’s what it looks like when it’s not on the tripod.

Glif iPhone Tripod Holder

I also played around with the macro lens and several of the iPhone apps that I have on my phone. So far, my favorite app is still the plain camera app that comes on the iPhone. A close followup is the free Camera Awesome app.

Here are a few more of today’s photos.

Rose closeup

Curves

Rose Leaf Macro