iPhone Photo Review: Post-Pandemic Odds and Ends

Prohibit Enganxar Cartells (Prohibited Hanging of Poster Ads), L’Escala, Catalunya, 2022

It’s always fun to go back through my various iPhone Xs snaps to see what scenes happened to snag my eyeball over the previous years, months, and weeks.

Many of these “pandemic era” images I had completely forgotten about (poor things!), and they have been gathering digital dust, lying as dormant 1s and 0s in my phone’s memory bank. Others, I have previously posted but will post again here… well… uh, just because I liked them.

They were processed primarily through Adobe Photoshop Elements and Silver Efex Pro.

A Brief Aside About the New iPhone 14 Pro

The camera that comes with this recently announced mobile phone (with 48 [very small] MPs!!!) looks like it might be a Bob Beamon leap ahead in terms of flexibility, image quality, and low light capability. I’m sure a lot of photogs will be jumping on this. Unfortunately, not me at the moment as the price is also quite a leap.

So, for now, I think I’ll keep plugging along with my Xs version until the iPhone 15 comes out and the 14 Pro gets a fat price reduction. I like skipping multiple generations for the sake of the bank account as well as to stave off (for as long as possible in this consumer world) my personal participation in the Planned Obsolescence Waltz.

All In Black and White…

Nice criss-cross patterns… but many of these contrails disappeared during the early months of the pandemic as air travel was restricted and demand dropped. The iPhone Xs handled this quite well, considering I shot directly into the Sun.

Chaotic Sky, Barcelona, 2021

Boss of the barrio on her aging wooden throne, in the beautiful little town of Peratallada…

Rei del Barri, Peratallada, Catalunya, 2021

Shadow patterns are always interesting to me, and framing them I find a nice challenge…

Monestir de Pedralbes, #66 Barcelona, 2021

Santa Maria del Mar, the people’s church, is a Catalan Gothic gem and the story of its construction during the 14th century is fictionalized in the novel, Cathedral of the Sea, by Ildefonso Falcones…

Spiral, Santa Maria del Mar, Barcelona, 2021

I do take a whole lot of the standard “tourist shots” when visiting the standard tourist sites. But I also keep my eyes open for possible oddball abstracts, like this one I found in Palau Güell, one of Gaudí’s wonderfully bizarre buildings…

Palau Güell, #47, Barcelona, 2021

And another abstract from Gaudí’s Casa Vicens (but showing part of the recently renovated museum area of the building)…

Casa Vicens, Interior Staircase, #4, Barcelona, 2021

Ah, the stories this boat could tell!

Fishing Boat, Arenys de Mar, Catalunya, 2021

A creative restaurant ceiling…

Raining Umbrellas, La Roca Shopping, Catalunya, 2021

This time, a canine “boss of the barrio” at his strategic perch…

On the lookout, Sant Celoni, Barcelona, 2021

Is this, perhaps, the most photographed ceiling lamp in Barcelona???

Casa Batlló, #9, Barcelona, 2021

Quite different from the masts of old, these modern ones are built for satellite communications, internet, GPS, radars, and the like. I like to include the contrails as an additional compositional element… “X marks the spot”.

Modern Masts, Port Vell, Barcelona, 2021

More shadow play… the ominous hands are what I thought made it a bit nicer.

Dark Shadows, Barcelona, 2021

Two best buddies as screen door sentinels… or they are just begging to go hunting outside.

Two Cats, Mendoza, Argentina, 2022

This one I have posted before. I really liked the rhyming of the shapes and patterns of the stone cavern’s structure with the similar shape and patterns found on the human bean in the photo.