In most lectures, being on your phone is not typically acceptable. But for one National Geographic photographer, being on your phone is encouraged.
Bruce Dale is an award winning National Geographic photographer who brought his talents to the small town of Aurora.
“I’ve been coming to Aurora for the past, golly, 20 years probably off and on, and I came down here to give a lecture to the people about pictures that I’ve had published in the magazine,” said Dale.
Dale was invited to speak and conduct an educational course as part of the Aurora project, which aims to preserve all forms of art in West Virginia including photography. The course was based on how to create high quality photos with your smartphone.
“The iPhone is great because its always in your pocket. And I’ve been using it more and more, and I’m getting some what, I think, are fantastic [photos] with it, that I would not have had primarily because I don’t have the camera with me. But the quality of these new cameras is really spectacular,” said Dale.
Participants from surrounding counties were in attendance for this crash course to learn the basics of fast, yet professional smartphone photography.
“How to utilize the panorama for example, which is very powerful. And Apple and all the others, you know, Samsung, everybody has put incredible amount of effort in to developing the technology in these little cameras, so they really have gone a long way,” said Dale.
The course lasted several hours and consisted of an educational lecture followed by participants going out and taking photos of their own.
Dale said the whole purpose of this course is to help others find a passion for story telling through photography while also promoting the aurora project.
