While in California last week, the inspiring + talented photography duo White On Rice Couple made a an all-day appearance at the Thermodor headquarters. After learning all about kitchen appliances, then combining our forces in the test kitchen to make lunch, Todd + Diane gave a spectacular photography presentation.

Part of the presentation was a tutorial, which you would think would be the most useful [and it was very helpful!]. However, the most valuable part for me was the lecture.

A large portion of the talk was focused on common questions they receive like, “What camera should I buy?” and “What lenses are a must have?” etc. These are not easy questions to answer. As it’s not always about which camera or lens you buy and how much they cost. It becomes more personal. Photography starts with you. With your eyes, with your feelings, with your dedication to the art.

Before you spend any money on a camera or lens the most important factor in the equation is you. You are the one creating the art. Your camera is merely capturing what you see. You find the photo first with your eyes and then try to save it with the click of your camera.

So, for this week I will be taking photos entirely with my iPhone. These won’t all be “my day in photos” type posts. Recipes are coming! I plan to take my time composing shots. I will treat the small camera as an artistic tool to capture what I see and not just quickly document a moment. Although, sometimes the beautiful thing about a point + shoot camera is the no-fuss aspect. You are able to quickly capture time without all of the technical thinking + setup of a dSLR camera.

Diane gave a small demo on how she uses her iPhone camera to capture artistic moments.

After their lecture, I began taking a few extra moments to think about composition when using the iPhone camera and it really helped!

I will be using my iPhone and the editing app called Snapseed. I haven’t tried many photo apps, but I absolutely love Snapseed. It takes a little while to get the hang of it but it’s worth the time in learning.

Here are a few photos I took this past week after taking just a little more time to think about the shot and just a little more time editing the photos. [some in California, some in Colorado]