This one is so easy!
There’s literally no tough skill to be learnt here, no tricky unheard-of methods to study here and nothing that a single one of us out there can’t apply straight away. I tend to travel with more than one camera. The camera I use for blog photography is not the same as the one I use for videos (they just work differently) and, seeing as neither of them are waterproof, I certainly would never use any of the first two for underwater photography (simple common sense here 😝 ) – I have a different camera for that.
When it comes to ease and convenience though, especially on a night out or for impromptu moments when I didn’t think to bring my huge camera (which happens a lot more often than you’d think, both at home in London and while travelling) my iPhone is always my go to.
In fact, if you look back at some blog posts here, you’ll see several where all I’ve used is my iPhone (case in point – this one from Croatia, this time we were skiing in Zell am See and this one walking around London on a particularly warm and sunny day). Long story short – I used my iPhone a lot!
As with anyone who’s interested in travel, photography or indeed, both, you’ll wanna play around a bit more with your photography – that’s how the really amazing and exceptional photos come about, by experimenting and so after having a look around, I found Pixter.
Pixter essentially has snap-on lenses, which can change your photos in seconds. They’re universal so they work on any phone – Apple, Android or Windows, they don’t need batteries, Bluetooth or any niggly bits. It’s still fairly early days (I have so many more travel photos I wanna try these out on and even more destinations where I think these would be perfect for) but it’s been pretty great so far!
As per usual, I’ve been waffling on and on about iPhone photography instead of getting down to showing you why these lenses are great so I’ll stop with my rambling and get down to showing you why these Pixter lenses are amazing. 📸
1.) The detailed macro lens
Macro photos are easily one of the easiest to appreciate while simultaneously being one of the hardest types of photographs to get! The detail obtained from macro photos is always fascinating and I find, shows you how beautifully patterned and surprisingly organised nature can be! The macro lens is an easy fave as it truly ups the ante on the amount of detail you can get from your phone camera, which I love.
(The Macro lens effect is one the left and the original photo without the effect is one the right)
2.) The wide angle lens
As you can probably tell from our Instagram, I’m really into wide-angle photos lately. I love being able to capture that extra bit of detail and in the past, I’d been limited to using having to get a wide-angle lens for my camera. Getting a wide angle lens for my phone with Pixter now means not only being able to get these amazing wide angle looks for my photos on the go but also being able to use them on apps like Instagram stories and Snapchat to show off even more details.
(The wide effect is one the left and the original photo without the effect is one the right)
3.) The Zoom Telephoto Lens
Sometimes, there’s just no alternative for a good photo than to get a lot closer. Alas, in a lot of cases actually moving closer to the subject is not an option – case in point, photos of wild lions on safari, jagged rock formations out in the sea or the statue of liberty when viewed from Manhattan.
(The zoom telephoto effect is one the left and the original photo without the effect is one the right)
You can always zoom in on your phone of course but you lose so much detail and quality when you do so that you might as well not have even bothered. This is where the zoom lens truly comes into its own as you can get that zoomed in effect without sacrificing the quality.
(The zoom telephoto effect is one the left and the original photo without the effect is one the right)
4.) The Fisheye Lens
On the whole, I’ve never been crazily into fisheye photography. I prefer linear, flat photography to the roundness of fish eye but where fisheye comes into its own for me is when you just wanna have fun and play around with the photos!
(The fisheye effect is one the left and the original photo without the effect is one the right)
The fish eye lens is also a great substitute for the wide angle lens as if you align the middle of the fish eye to the horizon, it actually looks more like a wide angle photograph – plus, if you really want to, you can correct the fisheye distortion with a single click in your photo editor which kinda makes the fish eye lens a secret (2-in-1) weapon as it basically lets you eat your cake and have it!
(The fisheye effect is one the left and the original photo without the effect is one the right)
5.) The non-lens option! Tripod and remote
I swear, I’d never even thought about getting a tripod for my phone before this or even a remote. As soon as I did, I totally got what I was missing.
For starters, when we travel – especially with Georgia and Chris, we have a tradition of taking a cheesy selfie in front of a famous monument in the destination. (We will wait days for the Facebook check-in if we have to, just to find this monument).
Thing is though, when you finally find it, it becomes a case of shuffling around to make sure everyone is in the photo – all while getting the monument in sight too. Then there’s the general awkwardness of trying to actually press the shutter button once everyone and everything is in the photo.
This eventually leads to taking like 20 random photos and hoping one of them comes out okay (usually at least one person doesn’t like the way they look in the photo and after a series of compromises, we just pick one). Sounds like an absurd and rather silly hassle on holiday but hey ho, all of this, right down to the decision of whose turn it is to do the ‘check-in’ is all part of our almost decade-long holiday tradition!
The tripod and remote changes all that! For starters, the tripod (which is small enough to be handheld) gives us much more room to get everything in the photo and then the remote means that once everyone is happy with the photo, we can actually take the photo without moving the phone angle just to reach the shutter button! Simple pleasures, eh?
The tripod-remote combo also means that even when it’s just Lloyd and I travelling, we can actually get photos of both of us at the same time in the same place. (Plus, I know now that the tripod will really come in handy for doing a time-lapse while we travel).
The tripod is also soooooooo much smaller than a regular camera tripod so I can fit it into my camera bag without even once considering the extra weight of carrying it around with me (the remote is the size of a tiny pebble so it’s pretty negligible, weight-wise).
Sidebar: The remote is the only thing here that needs a battery and the battery is one of those time ones you can get millions of for like £1!
The verdict…
Anyhooo, long story short – these Pixter phone lenses are such an exciting way to shake up phone photography – I’m having so much fun playing around with them in Portugal now and really looking forward to taking them along with us on our upcoming travels!
So far, my favourite is definitely the Macro lens! I love the extra detail you can get on this one and it just takes the mundane and makes it into something special! (A close runner-up is the wide-angle one – I still need to work on my wide-angle iPhone technique but I’m loving the possibilities on that one.)
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