The past few months have been different than the rest of 2020.

They’ve felt… normal.

We’ve adapted to social distancing, to wearing masks, to interacting with people in different ways. When bigger things happen, like new restrictions on indoor dining, they aren’t as big of a shock as the were in the first wave.

Life continues on. College football came back, but without fans. The election happened, but more people than ever voted by mail. Holidays were celebrated, mostly without the traditions we are used to. It’s not the same, but doesn’t feel like the monumental shift that occluded in the Spring.

The biggest event this season was the election, but that faded away from our conscious rather quickly. Other struggles continue and in many ways they’ve intensified. Businesses, bars and restaurants are having more difficulty than ever. People are still struggling with their mental health, especially around the holidays.

But Thanksgiving and Christmas are markers of how we’re living in this new world: we still celebrate, even though it’s different, and what we can do matters more than ever.

These recent images of our journey in 2020 aren’t as stark or bold as the previous galleries, but they reflect how our lives have continued after six months of the pandemic. I’m sure looking back they might seem odd, but they feel like the “new normal” everyone is talking about. As we take some time at the end of the year to reflect, I hope they serve as a reminder of everything we’ve gone through together. It’s to forget just how much has happened.

Whether this is the end of our hard times or a prelude of more to come, we’ve gone through something together. Hopefully we can be more kind to one another and realize that all of our small, individual actions can add up to something greater. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the impossible can actually happen: we should be prepared for it and also work to turn our dreams for this world into a reality.

As I’m waiting for the iPhone 12 Pro Max to arrive, I’ve been thinking about how great of the camera the 11 Pro has been, and all the photos and videos it’s captured in the past year.

As a photographer, the iPhone X was a major leap forward. It was first time I had a phone with telephoto lens, but also all the camera and screen improvements rekindled my passion for iPhone photography. The XS was a noticeable refinement, but the 11 Pro was falling in love all over again.

Looking back, a lot of the feelings I have about this phone have to do with the historic year we’ve lived in. The 11 Pro was my main, go-to camera for almost everything: the empty streets during the lockdown, social justice marches, violent white supremacist rallies, taking pictures of the same things every day but in new and interesting ways while on a walk.

The 11 Pro was there for all of it, and constantly exceeded my expectations. It has been the most versatile camera I’ve ever used.

Some of my favorite photos from the past year

Lens system

The most consumer-facing feature added to the 11 and 11 Pros were the Ultra Wide lens. Clocking in at 13 mm, this lens was added to both new phones, while the 11 Pro kept the telephoto, making an at first funny looking, but extremely powerful, camera system.

iPhone 11 Pro’s camera

As I noted in my first review, a fisheye lens like this is one of the last lenses I would invest in on a DSLR, and the last I would carry in my camera bag. But it’s now one of my favorite parts of an iPhone camera, ever. A core principle of my approach to photography is to capture the world in a way we’ve never seen it, and the Ultra Wide has allowed whole new types of photos and videos that were previously prohibitive.

The whole three lens camera system together is something to note. To capture those three ranges (wide, ultra wide and telephoto) I would need to lug around a bag with a camera and three lenses, not to mention switch them, which takes you out of the moment. But the ability to switch lenses with just a tap, and even during recording video, was a game changer and the most underrated part of the 11 Pro. Especially for video: Being able to get close AND capture more of the scene WHILE being stable is a photojournalist’s dream.

Covering a large, Black Lives Matter march downtown, I was able to quickly and effortless, and most of the time without thinking, switch between the three lenses. Being able to capture the full breath of a darkened and closed city. The Wide Angel lens allowed me to get some of my favorite shots of the year. The quality of the lens was severely lacking compared to the other two, but distortion is common in fisheye lenses, and frankly, the overall effect was worth the trade off to expand the scene of a moment. And if the composition, lighting and moment are good, quality really doesn’t matter. I’m excited to see how the lens has improved in the next camera system, and the next, but I’m not doing a lot of cropping on these shots.

I’m incredibly glad to have gotten the Pro because of the telephoto lens. Is it really a “telephoto” at 52 mm? Not really, if you compare to other cameras, but that extra distance, the little bit of visual compression, added up. Looking at the stats of the photos I’ve taken, I’ve used the telephoto lens a lot. Switching between the lenses is natural. I can’t imagine giving up the telephoto lens.

iPhone 11 Pro Stats

Total photos and videos taken: 44,692

• Ultra Wide: 10,072 (22.5%)
• Wide: 14,144 (31.6%)
• Telephoto: 9,013 (20.2%)
• Front Facing: 1,013 (2.3%)

The other images were a mixture of multiple lenses

Oh yeah, and the expanded front facing camera was great for selfies.

Background processing

In the background, the iPhone 11 Pro had some serious upgrades, mostly with Deep Fusion and Night Mode (more on that below), which increased the overall image quality through computational photography.

For video, the handheld stabilization was the best I’ve used, and many friends were surprised that video I shot was handheld… they thought it was with a big cinematic camera. I’m not sure how much of that smoothness came from switching to shooting 24 FPS in 4K mostly, but there is a feel about the video system that is super smooth.

The advancements to the software, Smart HDR and the chipset on the 11 Pro gave me the confidence to know that, with little adjustment while shooting or in post, the image would come out as I saw it. It keeps getting better every year.

A marketing photo for work… Looks at the details captured of the crashing wave and sunset!

Shooting outside the frame

When the 11 Pro came out, one of the features I was most exciting about was Shooting Outside the Frame. When enabled, this feature used the other lenses to capture information outside the frame, which allowed you to add parts to the image in during editing. It was like the inverse of cropping. This was a dream come true for someone who shoots a lot of action photography. You had 30 days to made edits with information captured outside the frame. I remember the first weekend with the phone at a friend’s wedding (I was only late 15 minutes to the rehearsal dinner to pick up the phone), adding the bride’s trailing wedding dress into the frame that was cropped out as we were quickly walking down the beach.

But when Deep Fusion was released in an early iOS 13 point beta, it disabled shooting outside the frame, and I abandoned the new feature for an increase in quality I didn’t really understand how it worked. The other week I looked in the settings to enable it again and found out it was cut entirely in iOS 14, which is a shame, but I think has to do with overall performance of the Camera app. I hope it returns in the future on iPhones with more memory because it was one of those hallmark features that only an iPhone could offer and changed how photographs were taken.

Deep Fusion

So, I gave up one feature for another, quality overcoming convenience. Deep Fusion was introduced during the 11 Pro announcement and when it came out, I was super excited. As soon as it was available in beta I turned it on…. and frankly haven’t noticed the benefits. It turns on automatically in low light and captures more details in the image. Some folks did comparisons when it was released, and the differences are noticeable, but it’s not something I think about when shooting or editing. I’m sure I’ve reaped the benefits, but it’s not something I really think about when considering a year with this phone.

Night Mode

Another hallmark feature of the 11 series was Night Mode. In a nutshell, these are handheld, long exposures that are put together through computational photography. The results can be stunning… and strange. Personally, I enjoy photos at night taken without it. Night mode can make the images seem fake. But it does come in handy and I’ve been happy with several shots. I’m looking forward to see how the feature improves.

Favorite shots and memories

This past year has been one unlike any other, and photography and videography have been a constant for me. So much has happened and are some highlights to how I used the 11 Pro during it.

Pandemic shut down

When our state shut down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, I was one of the few people walking the streets of my downtown. I was able to capture what was going on in our community and share it with people who were at home. The Ultra Wide was really good at showing the emptiness of the downtown. I can’t imagine telling this story without it. I’m glad I captured it for posterity. This is what photography is all about.

The first weekend of the COVID closure

Black Lives Matter

After the murder of George Floyd, protests and marches began across the country. There were several that happened in my town, and I would stumble upon them with just my iPhone. The ability to quickly switch lenses on a camera that was powerful enough gave me the confidence as a photographer to know I would get the shots. And also during the pandemic, the telephoto lens allowed me to get shots while keeping a distance.

Violence in the streets

This summer, a White Supremacist group held a march in Kalamazoo… and violence erupted. I was there in the middle of it with my iPhone. I captured raw images of the events. The iPhone 11 Pro was up for the task. I didn’t have to worry about focus, stabilization or any of those other concerns that come with larger cameras. Again, all three lenses were vital, and the ability to take pictures while recording video was convenient to get images quickly to share with local media. The photos and videos were seen around the country and documented a darker part of the year.

Spring… Summer… Fall…

This year I’ve spent a lot more time walking, before work, during lunch and at night. I’m shooting a lot less for work than I normally do, so I kept my photography skills up by capturing images on my walk. The flexibility of the 11 Pro allowed me to create images I never imagined.

One more thing… the Smart Battery Case

I’ve always loved using the Smart Battery cases to get a little extra juice while shooting. But the 11 Pro case introduced something new: a dedicated shutter button. And boy did I use this. Press the button to open the camera and press it again to take images. It really made the phone feel more like a camera. I will miss this on the 12 Pro

A camera unlike any other

The iPhone 11 Pro was really the first Pro iPhone camera. I know the term Pro gets thrown around in marketing and many people think it means “more expensive.” That’s true, but the 11 Pro gave photographers and videographers everything they needed for most things in one package. Instead of a heavy bag full of lenses, it was all just a tap away.

Spending more time at home in the past few months, the only way of getting out of the house has been walking through neighborhood. Not only have my exercise goals been “crushed,” but I’ve been able to finally listen to all of those podcasts that have accumulated — and found more!

The other morning on a walk, I felt a strong urge to rip the buds out of my ear. For the remaining mile of my stroll, there was nothing to hear besides what was around me. The sidewalks I have frequented felt new and alive in a way they haven’t in a long time. And I felt a part of them.

As energizing as it is to get the latest information and insights as the day begins, the birds are pretty great at it too.

There’s a new manual exposure control in the Camera app in iOS 14 Beta 2.

I discovered this by accident while shooting video earlier today. The icon, a plus and minus sign within a circle, appears in the row of additional settings within the Camera app on iPhone 11 and 11 Pro.

When you select it, a familiar slider appears, similar to editing adjustments in Photos. There’s also small histogram also appears that reflects the exposure changes you make.

To get a manual exposure previously in iOS, you would press on the frame and a box would appear with a small sun on a line. You would have to press that line to adjust the exposure. It was always finicky and not really reliable.

In my first test of it, it does not appear to link with the square and sun exposure adjustment. In fact, it seems that you can use both simultaneously. I will play around more with this in the future.

Making manual exposure easier to use is an important addition to the iOS Camera app. While the auto exposure has gotten better and better each year, sometimes you want to accentuate a certain part of the image you are capturing.

A dedicated and easy to use manual exposure control is a welcome addition to the stock iOS Camera app. I often use other apps like Halide because of its ease to manually adjust exposure.

While there was a lot to get excited about in iOS 14, there wasn’t much for Photos or Camera apps, so this is exciting to find.

www.youtube.com/watch

• A lot of people got dogs and are training and walking them.
• A lot of people keep routines going on walks the same time every day.
• A lot of cars drive the wrong way down the one way.
• A lot of cute birds are actually mean and fight with each other.
• A lot of squirrels do the same.
• A lot of people stared running and have noticeably gotten better.
• A lot of people are looking out the window like me because when the mail comes there’s a rush to the mailbox.

Entering the third week of sheltering from the world, I’ve fallen into a new rhythm of day to day life, one that is much more slow.

While things in our world are moving very fast, they are also very slow at the same time. Work is face paced, keeping up with new information is a new area of study, and buying goods is a micro odyssey. A lot of energy is required. But at home, the pace of life has slowed. As most of society has shut down, small things have become a refuge, like meals, a cup of tea, talking to a friend and, yes, even cleaning.

There’s a TV show I watched this week that speaks to this time: Joe Pera Talks with You. It’s the quirky comedy that chronicles about a middle school choral teacher in Michigan’s Upper Penisula. At first watch, it appears to be the soul of a 70-year-old man inside the body of a 30-year-old going through the mundaneness of daily life, but it really is a celebration of those simple things that are now taken away from us. Oh, and it’s hilarious.

As my habits in quarantine have become those of an old man, this show has become much more relevant and relatable.

A Saturday morning breakfast, a relaxing trip to the grocery store visiting friends and family for a cook out — all things that became routine and then for granted but we so desire now. The way Joe talks to you about them are soothing. As we’re looking at the world through a different lens, his perspective is, frankly, inspiring. While each episode is only about 12 minutes, they feel like a full half an hour, a statement of the peace we can find in these things. Time has a different meaning now.

Much of Joe Pera Talks with You celebrates what we can’t do right now, it also highlights things we can do: staying up all night watching internet videos, going for a hike, reading what peaks our interest, lots of reading.

The things he gets excited about are things I am excited to experience again. A story of a simple man with simple pleasures all of the sudden becomes something like an aspiration.

Closed Kalamazoo Week 2: Looking at everything differently

Another week of Kalamazoo being closed. It doesn’t feel as strange as last week, but there are still daily moments that are dissettling.

Like today. I just came back from a walk downtown and it was eerie to see all the churches empty on a Sunday morning. It was very windy, closed signs were flapping on doors. It felt like a storm is coming. Coming home and briefly turning on the news, it appears one certainly is intensifying.

I’ve increased the number of walks I take to two or three a day, mostly in the same area downtown, trying to come to terms with everything that is happening. I’ve walked these streets daily for years, so the changes are stark. As the initial shock of everything being empty has become the new normal, I’m beginning to notice new things in the silence.

The world feels tangibly different in a lot of ways. The birds and other animals seem to roam more freely — maybe they always have, but it’s noticeable with less noise and people. I saw some friends on the Kalamazoo Mall and, as we talked across the street, our voices echoed.

Stores that were open just weeks ago are blending in with those that have been vacant previously. Walking past them, they are like distant landscapes that can only been seen but not interacted with.

Crosswalk signs are really just recommendations now. Social norms and small rules seem to have been put on hold. This week as I was walking around 5:30 p.m., a group was skateboarding on the steps of City Hall. On the Kalamazoo Mall, a woman was walking her dog off leash. A man riding his skateboard, on the sidewalk, whole being pulled by his dog. I don’t know if anyone would have said anything during normal circumstances, but no one is even thinking it now.

It is quite a strange, but freeing feeling to walk and not see anyone, especially at night — similar to walking in the woods. And when there are other people, I try to avoid them by crossing the street. It’s hard to maintain the six-foot distance when passing someone on the sidewalk. But more times than not, they will move over too.

The warm weather is making everything feel more open — the spaces felt larger and the emptiness felt deeper. But there’s also signs of good things to come — Oberon is released, flowers are starting to sprout, the sun is making an appearance. Illuminated windows are welcome signs as people are connecting digitally.

While’s so calm and quiet, seeing ambulances drive by and walking past Bronson are both reminders of why this all is happening. It’s impossible to imagine what is going on for those people and for the folks affected by the virus.

What’s going to come in the few weeks? More of the same, I assume. But how we react will change.

Here are some photos from the past week.

Today is my birthday, and I’m celebrating with a list of 32 things I’ve learned as in many years.

This isn’t a definitive list of the most important things I’ve learned, just what came to mind.

1. You can only have as many true friends as you have fingers.
2. “Good” coffee is a balance of quality and convince.
3. Semper ubi sub ubi (Always where under where — it’s a Latin joke, but also good advice when you read it aloud).
4. Η ΤΑΝ Η ΕΠΙ ΤΑΣ (Come back with your shield, or on it)
5. There’s always something different, you just have to look for it.
6. Discipline is a vehicle for joy.
7. Make time to spend with people you care about.
8. Tweak your system, but don’t have a system that’s just tweaking.
9. There’s good food in every town, you just have to look for it and enter with no expectations and an empty stomach.
10. It’s a lot of work to have long hair.
11. Don’t over subscribe to RSS feeds or over follow on Twitter
12. If you think you have something funny or edgy to say, text it to your group of friends first.
13. You slowly pick up traits of the 5 people you spend the most time with or talk to.
14. You can only physically be in one place at any moment — don’t try to be at both.
15. Turn read receipts on for Messages.
16. It’s easier to find a job when you have a job.
17. If you have an idea, write it down.
18. Our minds aren’t filing cabinets for information and to-dos, have a system.
19. Making broth is one of the most fulfilling things you can cook.
20. When you look at WebMD, remember that they need to say “see your doctor” for liability reasons, you might not need to.
21. Seeing your favorite band multiple times on the same tour is incredibly rewarding.
22. When two cars hit each other, it’s a crash, not an accident: You don’t know the intent of the motorists.
23. Movie theaters are really the best way to see a movie.
24. Study what interests you, not what you think will get you money.
25. Don’t drive too fast.
26. Turn off most of the notifications on your phone and computer.
27. If you do anything with social media for work and post personally as well, get two phones.
28. Some folks just can’t grow a beard (myself included).
29. File organization is important on computers.
30. Back your files up, and back up the backups.
31. If you see something that catches your eye, take a picture, it might never occur again.
32. Don’t get mad at other people, there’s no way you have any idea what they are going through.

One more: The best way to do something is often just to do it.

The one thing that drew me to Apple’s latest Smart Battery case has nothing to do with extending the life of the phone: it’s all about what it adds to the camera.

The Smart Battery Case for iPhone 11 and 11 Pro includes, for the first time, a mechanical shutter button for taking pictures and video.

My short review: it’s amazing.

My long review:

The shutter button

I’ve often used the volume controls on the side of the phone in the past to trigger the camera. However, their placement often requires using two hands. Having this new button for the camera near the bottom of the phone makes taking pictures an ease.

The button fits the index finger well. It feels natural and sturdy, like something you’d have a larger camera.

Holding the button for about half a second will open the camera app anywhere you are on phone, even if it’s locked. I do wish the camera launched quicker, but it’s super simple and has become the most frequent way I get to the camera. I’m not as concerned about accidentally triggering the shutter as much as I am missing the moment I’m trying to photograph.

While it makes sense that the button will open Apple’s Camera app, one downside is that you can only use it to take pictures in that app. There have been times when I’ve lauched a third party app like Hailde or FiLMiC and tried to use the shutter button to no avail. Apple could open this up to developers, since they currently can use the volumne control buttons to trigger the shutter.

Something else I noticed that was frustrating was not being able to use the camera trigger when I had directons throgh the Maps app. Hopefully this is a software bug and will be fixed.

I would love to have a regular case with a shutter button or even have it added to the iPhone hardware. I know Apple doesn’t like to add buttons to their devices (they’ve only removed them) but, as someone who uses my iPhone as their main camera, it would be a welcome addition without the bulk of the battery.

I’ve taken the case off or used a different case a few times and missed the button: my muscle memory adapted quickly. I’ve kept the case on most of the time because of this and have a hard time imaging taking pictures with my iPhone any other way.

The extra battery

I recently took it on a four-day trip to Las Vegas and I only really needed to charge my phone twice. It was great to have the camera shutter (of course) but also to have the peace of mind that, no matter what happened, I had enough battery life to get me through 24 hours plus.

The case is bulky, as expected, but the design feels sleek. You only really notice the bulk when a) you first put the case one b) you take the case off or c) you have another phone that is ceaseless or has a case. I’ve stopped minding the extra weight and size.

What makes the Smart Battery Case so good is the intrigation that Apple includes. You see a battery status when you connect it and the percentage of battery shows up in Control Center. My favorite feature of previous versions of Apple’s case is the iPhone also knows when it’s drawing power from the case and will not perform intensive backup or other processes. Using other battery cases, the iPhone will think it’s charging connected to the wall.

For all the other “smarts” fo the case, Rene Ritchie has a deeper dive over on iMore.

At $130, the Smart Battery Case is a pricy upgrade, but the only battery case to consider if you use your iPhone as a camera. A forewarning: once you start using the shutter button, it might be difficulty to go without it.

One of my guiding principals of photography is to capture the world as I see it. This was core to my training as a photojournalist and the iPhone has been perfect camera for this: a single 26mm lens, no optical zoom and a sensor that allowed little editing.

While being a good snapshot camera, there have also been tools and methods that photographers have used to capture images beyond what the eye can see. The iPhone 11 and 11 Pro are the first to really do this for Apple’s camera system. Night Mode and the Ultra Wide Lens are two hallmark features that bring the iPhone into a different category of camera.

Through the iPhone’s processor, Night Mode captures colors and light in darker scenes while holding the camera in your hands. Any other camera would need a tripod and a long exposure to achieve this. The Ultra Wide lens captures a much larger scene than the eye can see and gives an effect that only an expensive fish eye lens could. Both features provide new ways to capture images with just the camera in your pocket, no additional tools required. 

These are my impressions of the new iPhone having used it for three months. Like any iPhone update, the improvements are noticeable throughout the camera system. But with the addition of the Ultra Wide lens and processing power of Night Mode, the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro take portable photography into a new era.

Ultra Wide

When I worked in my local newspaper’s photo department, there were two rules for interns: You could only take one photo of the downtown fountain surrounded by mirrors and you could only submit two photos taken with the fisheye lens.

Cashing in: a photo o f the mirrored fountain taken with the Ultra Wide lens.

Why these rules? Sometimes, as a photographer, you can overuse a certain lens or location, and these were two that interns consistently overused, especially when they had access to a fisheye lens for the first time

Like one of those young photographer, I found myself immediately drawn to the Ultra Wide lens on the iPhone 11 Pro and have used it for about 37 percent of the pictures I’ve taken.

With my DSLR, an ultra wide or fisheye lens would be the last one I would carry with any regularity. First of all, they are expensive and I only rent one a couple times a year for special projects. Second, even if I had one, it’s another lens to carry. Using it would also require switching lenses or carrying a second body. I don’t know many photographers who have this lens as part of their daily kit. They produce a nice effect, but they do not offer a lot of versatility for the cost and extra bulk.

Without the constraints listed above, it’s been a joy having this lens always available on the iPhone. It really opens up so many new kinds of photos and videos that were impossible to capture previously on a camera that fits into your pocket.

The day the phone was released, I headed to Northern Michigan for a good friend’s wedding. Right away I saw the benefit of being to capture groups of people and the surroundings.

But I also quickly remembered that just because an image is wide doesn’t make it good. I would take a dozen pictures with the Ultra Wide thinking they were great because of the new perspective I was seeing only to be disappointed later when I reviewed them.

There’s also an issue with quality. The Ultra Wide angle lens reminds me of the iPhone 4s camera. It captures stunning images in daylight, but indoors or at night, I was a little disappointed with image quality. A lot of this has to do with the distortion that comes shooting so wide. It doesn’t benefit form some of the same low light sensor as the other lenses, not including Dark Mode.

While the quality isn’t the best, the Ultra Wide lens was able to capture this moment of snow falling during a production of Elf: The Musical. I’ll take the perspective over the quality. Distortion with the Super Wide.

As the quality of iPhone lenses and sensors have continued to get better each year and I expected the Ultra Wide to be on par with the rest of the camera system. This isn’t anywhere near a dealbreaker, however. The moments I’ve been able to capture with it, even if they weren’t as good of quality as the other lenses, is worth it.

For landscape images, Ultra Wide is stunning. Something to keep in mind is that the wide angle lens distorts the image, especially if you put it close to something. It’s very easy to take images that do not look like what the eye sees. This can be a fun effect, but isn’t something you can do for every photo. (It’s a lot of fun with dogs).

For a lot of people, this will be their first time holding a camera with such a wide view. If my excitement any indication, I can only imagine theirs.

The greatest benefit of the Ultra Wide

My absolute favorite feature of the iPhone 11 camera system is being able to capture outside of the frame of images taken with the Wide and Telephoto lenses.

This is something that no other camera offers — additional information. If you take a photo or video at 1x or 2x, it will use the other lenses to capture information surrounding it. So if your taking a picture of a running dog and she moves outside the frame, you can crop and add in part of the image outside of the frame.

This is really revolutionary in a lot of ways, something all photographers have probably hoped for at some point. It really is a photography-shifting feature that I thought I was going to miss when going back to other cameras. However, my use of it was relatively short lived. A month or so after the phone was released, Deep Fusion was released in iOS 13.2. This is a new feature of the iPhone 11 and drastically increases the quality of images by “computational photography mad science,” in the words of Apple senior Vice President Phil Schiller.

There’s no way to easily toggle it on or off outside of the Settings app or to see if an image uses Deep Fusion. So I’m back to taking images the old way. I’ll choose the quality of Deep Fusion over the additional information that is captured. This is probably because I’ve been taking pictures without the extended data collection for decades.

I hope Deep Fusion and outside the frame collection comes in future releases.

Night Mode

One of the three pillars of photography is Shutter Speed: the longer the shutter is open, the more light can hit the sensor. At night, you almost always need a tripod to get a sharp image that’s properly exposed. But if you leave the shutter open for one, two or three seconds, you can capture light and colors in a way the human eye does not perceive because you are allowing the sensor to soak up the light a longer period of time.

I’ve dabbled with night photography in the past, but didn’t get into it too much because I didn’t like having to carry around a tripod with me. iPhone 11 Pro changes that.

I didn’t realize I was using Night Mode the first time I used it. Unlike turning on the flash manually, Night Mode will activate when it notices low light. When you hit the shutter, it will tell you to hold the phone still for one to three seconds. You can turn it off by swiping on the viewfinder to see the redesigned control panel.

I held the image up to what I could see and they were drastic. The Night Mode photo looked as if there were large baseball field lights nearby.

Regular exposure (left) vs Dark Mode (right)

It’s amazing to be able to capture that level of detail. It creates a stunning image that’s free of blur. But after three months of using it, I don’t know what I like more: the standard image or the Night Mode version. However, I’ve noticed friends have been blown away by what Night Mode can do.

One thing Night Mode doesn’t do is capture movement. One neat thing about night photography is when cars or other lights move by, it creates streaks. Night Mode really captures what you see when you press the shutter button and enhances that. If you’re looking for a long exposure app that captures light streaks, check out Spectre.

There’s something about capturing night as we see it. I don’t like the increased colors as I do the more muted and dark ones. I like something in between.

A few steps away for reality

So what do these two new features mean for photography on the iPhone? Is is bad for a camera to capture the world in ways we can’t naturally see it? Not inheritly. A camera is a tools like a pen or a paintbrush — you can create art that is realistic or more fantastic. One great thing about photography is also showing people the world in a way they’ve never seen it, and this iPhone offers two major new ways of doing that.

Using the iPhone 11 Pro is a little jarring at first that it can capture things in ways beyond which the eye can. These are all tools I have used as a photographer, but given the need to carry an extra lens or tripod, rarely used. Now that they fit in the phone in my pocket, I will utilize them more often.

The promise of Computational Photography made with the release of the iPhone XS come true with the 11 Pro. Smart HDR was a stunning addition and has gotten even better. The iPhone 11 camera system is a huge step forward, offering more tools for anyone who takes pictures with it. Night Mode and the Super Wide lens have ushered in the next era of mobile photography, replacing yet again tools and methods unreachable to most people,

Other iPhone 11 Pro observations

• As with other iterations, Portrait Mode has improved significantly.
• The UI redesign of the Camera app is overall nice, but some areas are taking some time to adapt to. Other areas leave me with questions, such as why does the lens selection have three circles in Photos mode but only one in Video? You need to tap it to toggle the different lenses. Strange. But so happy that an iOS 13 update allows you to change the video format settings right in the app.
• All of my selfies are now taken in the wide mode. With the ultra wide lens on the rear camera, I want to the front camera to go even wider.
• I remember the Slofies announcement during in the keynote, but it took me a while to figure out it wasn’t a specific setting, but just shooting slow mo video with the front facing camera.
• Videos are absolutely stunning and the upgrade should be noted.
• I’ve noticed some delays in using the app and switching between different modes on longer shoots. Usually it comes during heavy shooting. No app crashes, just some delays.