Professional photography agency Getty Images sends its photographers out with the regular digital SLR equipment, but now it's also using smartphones and mobile apps to add a new dimension to its coverage of sporting events.
“The main players like Apple, Samsung and HTC are producing phones now that have eight to 10 megapixels, you can select focus, exposure, composition, you have a lot more creativity than you did 12 months ago,” says Getty Images photographer Cameron Spencer.
Covering events like the Olympics, and more recently the Melbourne Cup, Spencer and his colleagues were equipped with smartphones.
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“The idea was to photograph extra images throughout the day that showcased the event from a different angle, so the images we captured on our smartphones were complimentary to the images we were already providing,” says Spencer.
The small format allows photographers to get more candid shots. They then give the photos a different look and feel with mobile photo-sharing app Instagram.
“If you point a big camera in someone's face that might react differently to a small phone you can be a lot more inconspicuous.”
(All photos: Getty Images)
The development of mobile phone cameras has gone hand-in-hand with an explosion in mobile photo sharing. Instagram, a social network that allows users to shoot, crop, enhance and share photos within seconds, currently has over 100 million users, according to its owner Facebook.
“People often ask me, what's my favourite camera?” says Cameron. “My best camera would be the camera I have on me at all times. These days almost everyone has a smartphone on them.”
(Getty Images is a supplier to SBS World News Australia online)
