I enjoyed watching an interview on Phoblographer with New York based photographer Gretchen Robinette who overcame her nervousness taking photos of subway passengers using her iPhone remotely, via her headset.
I’d heard of this before but never got around to trying it so immediately went in search of my headset to give it a go. The cables on these are notoriously weak so my original ear phones had long since been dispatched and I discovered my latest Samsung version didn’t work.
My thinking was I’d head out on to the streets of York and try taking some candid shots using my iPhone 7. Of course the lovely people walking the streets of this beautiful city are no way as terrifying a prospect as New York subway riders but still I have some way to go being as brave as I would like to be!
I went on to Amazon to buy a replacement Apple headset but came across what I thought was a much better alternative –
Instead of fiddling around with cables I could just point my phone in the right direction and click on this bluetooth clicker in my pocket.
I experimented with wedging my phone in the breast pocket of my coat so that it just stuck out at the top and off I went. My first images were pretty poor capturing legs or mid rifts, some missed their target altogether. I had to get my body facing in the right direction which meant turning and facing the target which felt a little odd and, of course, I was paranoid someone would suss what I was up to.
However, I did get a couple I was reasonably pleased with and I’ll certainly be trying again next time I’m out on the streets.
Have you any success using your camera phone remotely?