Pittman Wash trail - Cell phone photography

Sometimes, photo opportunities present themselves in unexpected situations. I hit the Pittman Wash Trail in Henderson this morning for a jog. It was late spring and the flowers were in full bloom. I did not have my camera gear handy. So I tried to make the most of my Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone camera.

Composition is very important with cell phone photography as you don't have much control on the other aspects like shutter speed, aperture, etc. In the photograph above, I tried to use the trail to lead the eye towards the center of the photograph. Below are some more examples of the same technique.

Background blur, although difficult with the small apertures of cell phone camera, are no doubt possible as the image above illustrates. You need to place the subject as close as possible to the cell phone camera. You have to be careful though, I got many pictures out of focus while trying to do this, despite ensuring the focus rectangle turned green before the click.

If the background is uninteresting, try to fill the frame with the subject like this one:

Sometimes, you can use the sky as a background, but be watchful of overexposure:

Whether you shoot with a DSLR or a cell phone, good composition will ensure your pictures are eye-catching.

Niagara Falls

Niagara falls are located on the border of US and Canada. The falls are on the Niagara river that drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. Niagara falls is the collective name of three waterfalls: Horseshoe falls, American falls and the smaller Bridalveil falls.

Although not as large as the Iguazu falls in Brazil, the Niagara falls carry a great volume of water.

American Falls at Night

The falls are illuminated at night (9pm to midnight during spring) from the Canadian side. At 800 ISO, my new full frame Canon 6D had no problems capturing the illuminated night falls. The low light at night allowed me to use a slower 0.5 second shutter speed to capture the motion of the falling water. Lens is Canon 24-105 f4 L at F4.5

Horseshoe falls

Here's another shot of horseshoe falls. We were lucky that the wind had blown away the mist to reveal the falls:

Here's a view of the falls from the boat, most of it shrouded in mist:

View from observation deck

The sun peeked out from behind the clouds just long enough to cast this double rainbow.

View from Luna Island

The observation deck and rainbow bridge connecting US and Canada are visible in the background.

American falls by boat

The smaller falls on the right is bridal veil falls which is separated from the larger American falls by Luna island.

View of Rainbow bridge

This shot captures the Canadian skyline and the rainbow bridge that connects US and Canada at Niagara falls.

Seagull at the falls