Lens-Artists Challenge #391: On The Phone

Lens-Artists Challenge #391: On The Phone

This week it's Tina's turn to host the project, and her theme is 'On The Phone'. Actually,  it's not. On her blog, Travels and Trifles, the really title is, 'Phone Photography', (https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/2026/03/28/lens-artists-challenge-391-phone-photography/) but I really couldn't help taking a little liberty with the title. 'On The Phone' just made me chuckle. Sorry, Tina. She writes, 'it occurred to me how rarely I shoot with anything other than my iPhone these days, [so] I thought it might be fun to post specifically about phone photography ...'.

I take loads of images on my phone, it's just so convenient, and even with film and digital cameras I've incorporated the smartphone into my workflow (this post is being written on the phone). But whenever we're going out, and I'm hunting around for a camera to take on the trip, my better half will say, 'just take the telemóvel,' and I'll sneer disdainfully and reply, 'that's not a real camera', as I rummage through my box of film (just don't get me started on what she thinks of me using film).

So Tina's Challenge this week was like a breath of fresh air. What if I was only allowed to take the phone, what could I do?  I had a couple of ideas, I could get a cheap smartphone from CEX and replace the lens, or try and circuit bend the sensor (yes, I know, there's apps for that, but, really?) But that would take time, and I want to get out now. Or I could take the phone out with a 720nm filter and do some infrared photography? Or, add a 6-stop neutral density filter for some intentional camera movement. But I did that last week. And then I remembered. The Deakinizer. 

I've used the Deakinizer on a Challenge before, but here's a quick recap. Back in the early 2000s, the cinematographer Roger Deakins was making the film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and he was looking for an effect that would evoke the look of nineteenth century imagery with a reasonably sharp centre to the frame but blurred around the edges. He came up with a modified tilt-shift lens that became known as the Deakinizer. This has been used in many films and TV shows ever since, and once you've spotted  it the unused of the Deakinizer is unmistakable. 

But they're expensive, of course, and are well beyond the means of most photographers. Then, a few years ago I came across a video on YouTube by Chung Dha who came up with two cheaper alternatives for a Deakinizer (https://youtu.be/o8JF0kTsVXE?is=w3MMa1s8gVQ_I1P8). The modified Mir lens option was still beyond my budget (those things are pricey), but I definitely liked the idea of holding a reversed wide-angle converter over the lens. Since then, I've bought a few of these converters, all different shapes and sizes, but the one that has always worked best was the Panavision Wide-angle Converter, a cheap Chinese lens ('lens') that I picked up for a few Euros. 

So I headed out for an extended 'walk around the block' armed just with my smartphone and the Panavision Deakinizer, this time to specifically take close-ups of the spring flowers that are currently filling the fields behind our house. Of course, I couldn't resist taking a few images of the telegraph poles at the same time. I really like the dreamy look this lens-camera combination produces, and I hope that you have, too.

Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the following week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here (https://photobyjohnbo.com/about-lens-artists/), and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag 'Lens-Artists'.

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