The best camera is the one that’s with you.

Nuno Oliveira knows this meme well. Blogging over on Defgrip and running his own photo blog, Olivejuuuuice he’s constantly shooting photos on a variety of film and digital cameras.

Over on Olivejuuuuice, he does a weekly feature, “The Week in iPhone Photos”. While a camera phone is certainly no replacement for a more traditional camera rig, the convenience and immediacy they provide is hard to ignore. We caught up with Nuno to chat about how the phone in his pocket plays a role in capturing moments in his day-to-day.

What do you like most about using your phone as a camera, especially when you have legit camera rigs of your own?

Easy, quick and it’s with me all of the time.

What are some of your favorite people/sites/flickr streams that feature iphone (or any phone) photography?

Off the top of my head, Nick Maggio takes rad iPhone pics. I haven’t really seen anybody else’s stuff that looks like his. Here is his site: http://andthesearethedays.tumblr.com/

Are you processing the photos you take? With apps on your phone or afterwards in something more traditional like photoshop?

In terms of apps, I have “Best Camera” and “Hipstamatic” that I use most, with Hipstamatic being my go-to. It has good processing built in and I don’t really need to do anything afterwards except maybe hit it with some sharpening. You can’t edit pictures with Hipstamatic, you sort of just choose a lens and “film” and the different combinations give you certain effects. It’s good. I don’t really want to go overboard with processing iPhone photos, so if they look good through an app, I’m cool with that.

What are some of the negatives to using your phone to shoot photos?

I can’t really think of any. It’s meant to be fun and easy while on the go, and not really a “tool” for serious jobs or whatever…. I’m not discrediting how awesome iPhone photos are and can be, but it really is just a quick easy way to document stuff (as of this point and time). I can imagine iPhones being really powerful camera-wise in 5-10 years though.

You do “The Week in iPhone Photos” feature on Olivejuuuuice. Do you find yourself snapping photos more often with your phone because of that feature?

Totally! The site gives me a reason to use the iPhone to shoot pics, and doing those posts is a good way to have fun with it. Plus, I can look back and see where I’ve been and what I’ve done.

Jason Morris

Code slinger at leastmost and bmxfeed. Ramp building and lip trick enthusiast.