IOS 14.3 and ProRaw photography

 

Cold and windy outside.  High of just minus thirteen degrees Celsius today.  Took a few quick shots of the Air and Space museum located in Ottawa today.  I used the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max using iOS 14.3.  This is the baked in app on the iPhone.  Shot with the Camera app using the ProRaw option.   Absolutely love doing photography just with the iPhone.  No lugging around a camera body and huge lens.  The ability to shoot in Raw natively in the Camera app on the iPhone is very freeing.  Today was windy and cold.  Lasted maybe a few minutes outside.

All I need now for my landscape photography is my iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPad Pro.

It has started

 

So yesterday I grabbed my tripod and my newly acquired Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max with the 512GB of internal storage and went out for a short photo walk.  I photographed the Parliament buildings, the Supreme Court of Canada building and the National Arts Centre.  On my way back to the parking garage, I caught the above shot.  The building is part of the World Exchange Plaza located in downtown Ottawa.  Yesterday was a cool and brisk day.  I think the high was around -4 degrees Celsius with some wind.  I am totally impressed with the quality of the camera on the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max.  The HDR photos and video are simply stunning.  This photo was taken at about 3:30pm with a setting sun in the west.  I think today is supposed to be the same in the afternoon so I’ll just go around the Ottawa downtown core and just do some handheld photography with the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The video sizes are simply immense coming from the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  On Saturday, the fiancee and I went up for drive up to the Ottawa Valley.  I decided to use the Filmic Pro app on my iPhone and do a whole video of driving from Arnprior to Ottawa.  The 50 or so minute drive was about a 50GB file.  This is the reason I got the 512GB storage option on the iPhone.  It also took a while to Airdrop the file from the iPhone to my iPad Pro.  The iPad Pro handled the 50GB HDR video file a champ.  It’s on my YouTube channel if you want to check it out.  Here is the link.

The malls are empty

 I’ve been picking up accessories for my new Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max this past week.  I’ve gone to one of the larger malls located in the west end of Ottawa this past week.  The mall is 90% empty.  There is maybe 10% of the people that are typically there.  It’s still a few weeks before Christmas but this particular mall and all the other malls in Ottawa are typically full of people.  But this year, all the malls are void of people.  You had a few thousand people in the malls at this time last year.  This year, it’s less than a few hundred.  There is hardly anyone there.  I went to this particular mall around 3:30pm on a Wednesday and Thursday night and it’s empty.  No one is doing any in person shopping.  The Apple store located in this mall is pretty empty.  You have maybe 20 employees if that and you got people lining up outside because they have one or two people at a time.

The rona virus is making people miserable and mean.  I think this is another reason I want to get out of Ottawa and Canada actually.  They say Canadians are nice and all, but in fact they are the complete and total opposite.  Just mean, grumpy a-holes for the most part.

On a brighter note, the above shot was taken with my new Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max with the ultra wide lens.  For me now, there is no point in carrying around my Canon PowerShot G7X Mark III or my Sony a7R Mark II.  I don’t think I’ll be using my camcorders either.  Next week, I’ll have more time after work to do some more photography and testing out the new iPhone for photography and videography.  I fortunately have the last two weeks of December off because the department is really slow and there aren’t that many people at work anyways.  Actually there aren’t any people in my building at work at all.  There are more security and cleaning staff than actual government employees.  

My fiancee and I are going to the Greater Toronto Area during Christmas to visit my fiancees sister.  So the iPhone 12 Pro Max (512GB storage edition) will be coming with me.  I think we’ll be hanging around Niagara Falls and the downtown core.  I’ll take my Sony a7R Mark II with me just in case.  It’s still a good camera for night time photography because of the full frame sensor.  We shall see.

So just one more thing

 

So I have one more thing to pick up today at the Apple store at the Bayshore shopping centre.  It’s the Apple wireless charger for my Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max with the 512GB internal storage option.  Then off to do photography with just the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  

With the iPhone, my photography style will change I think.  I’m going to be going more stealth mode inside shopping malls and office buildings.  Hopefully, if they get approved on Adobe Stock (probably not), they’ll start selling.  Those pesky property releases are a pain in the butt.  

I am also hoping iOS 14.3 comes out soon as well.  Can’t wait for the ProRaw option on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  Raw files allow you to better edit your photography.  Gives you more options to edit your photography.  I’m hoping Apple Photos will be updated to handle the ProRaw files on my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  

2021 has to be much better than 2020.  2020 is total gong show.  This year has totally sucked travel wise, freedom wise and every other thing.

iPhone photography. Just iPhone photography

 

I am thinking of selling off all my photography gear like my Sony a7R Mark II, my Sony FDR AX-53B, Canon Vixia G50 and my Canon Powershot G7X Mark III.  I haven't touched any of them in weeks since I don't like to carry so much equipment with me.

When Apple release iOS 14.3, all Apple iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max shooters will be able to shoot in Raw mode.  That is a huge improvement for iPhone photography.  I do mainly landscape photography right now along with cityscapes.  I hardly do any night time photography or early morning photography.  The iPhone 12 Pro Max has excellent lenses on the phone and they're only to get better.  I have enough storage on the phone and the iPad Pro that it won't be a hinderance at all.  I have the phone with me all the time.  I don't carry around the big cameras.  

I don't do photography people or animals.  I don't do any studio work.  Mostly I am outside in nature.  It will also help with the minimalism type of life style I'm developing.  By spring of next year I want to be out in western Canada and away from the miserable and bleak landscape of Ottawa and eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

I've noticed with the iPhone 12 Pro Max I hardly use the battery.   I use maybe 30% of the battery with all day use listening to music, checking emails and watching YouTube videos.  I am so engrained in the Apple eco-system, it's hard for me to leave.  My current 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 512GH internal hard drive and the 12.9" screen is a fantastic complement to the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

I want to start creating more and more YouTube videos to sell my existing photography on the various micro stock sites and my own site.  The iPhone 12 Pro Max will definitely be useful for that.

Finally got everything I need

 So I got the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max with the 512GB of internal storage which is more than enough to shoot 4K/60FPS video.  It's also more than enough to do a lot of photography with the phone.  Yesterday I bought the Apple 12 Pro Max Clear case with Magsafe.  This case allows me to connect my external Shure MV88 microphone without any obstruction.  

The bad thing over the last couple of weeks is that the weather here in Ottawa has been a total crapshoot.  It's either raining or snowing.  It's been cloudy for pretty much everyday for the past month or so.  I think we've had maybe one or two somewhat sunny days here since October.  Up until 2 weeks ago, we had what's called a Bermuda warm front come through Ottawa so we had several nice warm days.  Now, not so much.  It's been just above 32 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and below freezing at night.  

When I leave for work at 7am, it's dark and when I go home at 4pm it's dark.  I hardly take breaks and my lunch is short.  So getting out do do any photography during the day is pretty much non existent.    I am not making any excuses but I've been off work since April 1st till the end of October.  So I kinda value my job for the income.  I'm going to do more photography now and I'll be doing YouTube videos as well.

iOS 14.2 is pretty solid and stable.  Just waiting for iOS 14.3 to come out as the native camera app will be able to support proRAW natively on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  Currently I am using Camera+ 2 as my main photography app.  For video, I'm using the Filmic app.  All are pretty easy and functional apps to use on the iPhone.

Everything is edited on my 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 12.9" screen and 512GB worth of storage.  Plus I have 4TB of iCloud storage which is pretty sweet.  This is the whole reason I cannot or will not leave the Apple eco-system.  I'm just too far ingrained and used to the Apple eco-system.  I just want to go out and shoot with the iPhone.