Michael Fagans - IPhone Photography for Everybody: Artistic Techniques

Copyright 2020 by Michael Fagans.

All rights reserved.

All photographs by the author unless otherwise noted.

Published by:

Amherst Media, Inc.

PO BOX 538

Buffalo, NY 14213

www.AmherstMedia.com

Publisher: Craig Alesse

Publisher: Katie Kiss

Senior Editor/Production Manager: Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt

Senior Contributing Editor: Michelle Perkins

Editor: Beth Alesse

Acquisitions Editor: Harvey Goldstein

Editorial Assistance from: Carey A. Miller, Roy Bakos, Jen Sexton-Riley, Rebecca Rudell

Business Manager: Sarah Loder

Marketing Associate: Tonya Flickinger

ISBN-13: 978-1-68203-432-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934901

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Notice of Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on the authors experience and opinions. The author and publisher will not be held liable for the use or misuse of the information in this book.

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Contents

About the Author

Michael Fagans enjoys telling peoples stories. His journey has taken him to the Navajo Nation, Malawi, India, Afghanistan, Scotland, Austria, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Belize, and Guatemala.

Michael graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology and currently works as an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. He has worked in the nonprofit sector with the United Way of Kern County and served as coordinator for the Kern Coalition Against Human Trafficking. He was also employed by the newspaper The Bakersfield Californian and focused on multimedia, video, and web projects.

Michael is the co-producer and director of the documentary film The Trafficked Life. He is also the National Press Photographers Association Photographer of the Year for New York State and Ontario and Quebec provinces. He is married to the Rev. Deborah de Boer and lives in Oxford, MS, with their daughter, son, and cat.

Acknowledgments

An enormous thank you to my wife, who handles being married to a photographer with grace. Big thanks to my brother, Joshua, for collaborating with me, encouraging me, and inspiring me. Much love to Mum and Da for creating the spark. Thank you to Nalani and Chai for providing daily reminders about why life is precious. This could not have happened without all of my photographic mentors, known and unknown, named and unnamed, and my colleagues at the School of Journalism. Thank you.

CHAPTER ONE

With Beauty Around Me

At the start of my career in photojournalism, I had the opportunity to work at The Gallup Independent in New Mexico. In addition to a paying job, one of the benefits was covering the Navajo Nation. For a New Yorker and longtime resident of the northeast in general, it was culture shock, to say the least. I soon learned to be quite focused on seeing and soaking up multiple cultures.

My apartment was on Nizhoni Boulevard, and I came to admire how our Navajo sisters and brothers saw the world and approached life. I even had the opportunity to document the end of a blessing ceremony; I am not even sure that was for the newspaper.

Something that has stuck with me through the years is to find and appreciate life where we are. Too often, I think, we are waiting to have the right equipment, travel to the right place, or for our children to be in the right mood. We are never satisfied with where we are now; we are always looking to the past or the future instead of living in the moment.

My wife and I differ in the way we respond to enjoying and experiencing moments. She likes to quietly soak them up, while I prefer to make images and document the people, places, and events around me. Part of the problem is that I sometimes disappear into the photography rabbit hole, where time seems to pass at a different rate for me. Our children just seem to accept this, though I am sure that they mutter under their breath and keep walking.

Our son has been holding objects up to his eyes for some time, like me. Though he is only 3 years old, he has a penchant for art directing and telling me what to photograph. I enjoy seeing the world through his eyes, and I remember experiencing that when I went on walks with our daughter, often on our way to her elementary school. Seeing things for the first timereally seeing themis a special, powerful experience.

The photographer Jay Maisel said, Its always around. You just dont see it. My goal in writing this book is to encourage you to see it, whatever it might be for you on that day, and to create the best-possible images to document it.

Put the book down right now and walk out the front door of your residence. Ill wait.

This first chapter features images I have made in everyday life. I didnt necessarily travel anywhere amazing or interesting. One was even made on the front steps of our house in Oxford, MS.

Heck, put the book down right now and walk out the front door of your residence. Ill wait.

Well, what did you see? Did you bring your camera? Did you make an image?

My first book was all about how the iPhone saved my career and revitalized how I saw things and made images. I always had my iPhone with me. It fit in a pocket, so there was no excuse not to have it. So, readers, there is lesson one: Always have your camera with you.

Walking in Beauty

(closing prayer from the Navajo Way blessing ceremony)

In beauty I walk

With beauty before me I walk

With beauty behind me I walk

With beauty above me I walk

With beauty around me I walk

Small Town America

(top) Downtown Oxford, MS, has worked to retain the charm of small-town America. In the square downtown, its common to find vignettes that lend themselves to photos.

Here, the color palette of a local business simplifies and unifies the shapes in the frame. The pink connects round shapes with the rectangular lines on the lower-right side of the frame.