Bill Leyden's Photog Blog

How did I ever get by without apps on a smartphone?

“Hi, my name is Patty — Denise said that I should call you. All my friends tell me that I need new images for match.com,” she said to me.  She continued, “It’s been 20 years since I have had good pictures taken – I hate my picture taken, I have ‘issues.’  I think ‘smart’ is sexy; I don’t want to show skin!”

This is not an unusual phone call.  At this time in my life, I think that I enjoy the “I hate my picture taken” call the best, because I know he or she is about to be thrilled with the results!

I asked Patty, “What are you doing when you feel most like yourself?”

“Reading!” she quickly replied.

I thought to myself and said, “reading can be alluring; bring a book and your reading glasses – how do you feel about the beach? — we’ll do something with you, and tide pools and books.”

“Great! I go to the beach all the time”, she said.

Tide Graph

Knowing that I would be near Malibu at a time convenient for the session, I pushed the button at the bottom of the iPhone and quickly checked my two go-to apps while I was still on speaker with Patty.  The first, to see if we would be inundated by the tide.  Enter Tide Graph.  I kept chatting with Patty about what she wanted to create while I quickly checked the tides two weeks in the future.

“How does 3pm two weeks from Saturday sound?”

“Great!” she agreed.

Tide Graph App

Sunseeker

Now, what kind and power of light will I need? Enter app 2: Sunseeker.

Sunseeker app

Then, for the date of the session, Sunseeker tells me the elevation and direction of the sun at 3pm – I can use either a Speedlight or Quantum Q Flash for a kiss of light and maybe a translucent screen to block the direct sunlight.

Without missing a beat, I can confirm that 3pm 2 weeks from now would be a great time to create her images.

“See ya then Patty. We’ll have fun!”

The Result

Postscript: And here the image is:

low tide right where we want it,

sunlight right where we need it,

the book in hand, and

the Quantum Q Flash gently filling in the shadows from the late afternoon Malibu sun.

I hate to think that I could probably sell the expensive DSLR camera that made this image and make the image on the smartphone.