21 May Livin’ The Dream In Tahiti with My Mom and My iPhone

I recently got back from a 10 day vacation with my mom in French Polynesia.  It had been a lifelong dream of hers to travel there ever since she saw the 1951 film, Bird of Paradise, as a teenager.  Since my dad had no desire to spend 10 days in the humidity, I luckily pulled the short straw and got to go with her.   Even though I took all my gear, pretty much the only camera I used was my iPhone. I think I was inspired by, Allison V. Smith who’s been showcasing some beautiful iPhone snaps on her blog and flickr…love her work.

Of course, I had this vision that while we were there, I would shoot all sorts of stock photos, maybe hire some models, scour every inch of the islands (Tahiti and Moorea) for the best shots, possibly to shoot a story..I wanted to make the most of my time there.  And I did make the most of my time, but not in the way I had initially thought.  Ultimately all I did was hang with my mom.  Partly because I was too worried to leave her alone, partly because, well, we were on vacation, but mostly because I genuinely enjoyed spending all that one on one time with her.  I will cherish that time with her more than I ever would the “perfect” shot.  Sitting on the beach watching the sunset with her, while she gets a little tipsy from one piña colada, listening to her tell me stories about her life..that’s the stuff that matters.

I’ve mentioned it before, my mom is not a fan of me pointing a camera in her general direction BUT, I can’t help it, I love photographing her.  I imagine there is some psychological component as to why, but I’m not ready to explore that just yet.  For now, I’ll chalk it up to the fact that I love her dearly.

So here is a little montage of some of the shots I took of her with my handy 1st gen iPhone.  Most of these were shot using the Hipstamatic App and a few were shot with the ShakeItPhoto App.

Stay tuned for another iPhone Tahiti post.