|
The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (Voices That Matter) |  | Author: Chase Jarvis
Brand: Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $11.46
as of 7/30/2010 13:13 CDT details
You Save: $8.53 (43%)
New (32) Used (10) from $10.83
Seller: any_book
Rating:  43 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 6 x 6 x 0.7
MPN: 0321684788
ISBN: 0321684788
Dewey Decimal Number: 778
EAN: 9780321684783
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | Inspiration and insight for every digital photographer and iPhone owner from THE trendsetting photographer or our time, Chase Jarvis | | • | Guaranteed to be the ideal gift for photographers and iPhone users alike | | • | The only book devoted to iPhone photography! | | • | Provides insight and inspiration from one of the most popular photographers working today |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A beacon of creativity with boundless energy, Chase Jarvis is well known as a visionary photographer, director, and social artist. In The Best Camera Is The One That's With You, Chase reimagines, examines, and redefines the intersection of art and popular culture through images shot with his iPhone. The pictures in the book, all taken with Chase's iPhone, make up a visual notebook--a photographic journal--from the past year of his life. The book is full of visually-rich iPhone photos and peppered with inspiring anecdotes. Two megapixels at a time, these images have been gathered and bound into a book that represents a stake in the ground. With it, Chase underscores the idea that an image can come from any camera, even a mobile phone. As Chase writes, "Inherently, we all know that an image isn't measured by its resolution,dynamic range, or anything technical. It's measured by the simple--sometimes profound, other times absurd or humorous or whimsical--effect that it can have upon us. If you can see it, it can move you." This book is geared to inspire everyone, regardless of their level of photography knowledge, that you can capture moments and share them with our friends, families, loved ones, or the world at the press of a button. Together, the book, app, and website, represent a first-of-its-kind ecosystem dedicated to encouraging creativity through picture taking with the camera that you already have. The Best Camera Is The One T
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 43
 Wonderful and inspiring October 1, 2009
Craig Dickson (San Mateo, CA USA)
22 out of 26 found this review helpful
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.
chase rocks September 25, 2009
Joseph M. Mcnally
20 out of 26 found this review helpful
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.
Inspiring September 30, 2009
David duChemin (Vancouver, Canada)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
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.
A cool little book that opened my eyes as to what really makes a great picture... October 31, 2009
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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
My thoughts November 25, 2009
Lawrence Ripsher (Seattle, WA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
[...]
Showing reviews 1-5 of 43
|
|
|
|
| | Our Partner |
Custom Essay
Essaywritingblog.com offers the service of Essay Help. This website also deals with helps for thesis or else.
Find a better writing help with Custom Essay through customessayblog.com. Find also helps with other writings
Interior Design Colleges
Trade Schools
The service of Custom Essay is available in masterpapers.com. It can also help you with other types of writings
For your research Paper, essaycapital.com is ready to help you. They are ready with Custom Term Paper
Make a deal with ma-dissertations.com to write your Dissertation
|
|
|
|
