It seems there has been quite a bit of interest in an iPhone image I took yesterday. The shot in question is of Tower Bridge in London. I have had a lot of questions about how I actually achieved the shot so here is how it went…

Peering out the train window I spotted Tower Bridge to my right. I could see a train approaching in the opposite direction so I switched on the camera app, held my iPhone up to the glass to minimise internal reflections and shot through the carriage of the passing train. I then opened the image in Snapseed (a fantastic and fast processing app from Nik Software) spent a few seconds on the black and white conversion, saved and closed. The whole process from conception to processed shot took about 30 seconds.

Had I been using a ‘real camera’ the image would probably have been sharper, I would certainly have had greater control over exposure, depth of field and more details in the shadows and the highlights. But had I been using any other camera I probably wouldn’t have achieved this shot the way I did. And I certainly wouldn’t have been able to process it and upload it to several different social networks in a matter of seconds.

It raises the question, is it the camera or the photographer that makes a great photograph?