iPhone Photography Conference

I'll be speaking with many other greats

The KelbyOne annual online iPhone Photography Conference gets under way soon, and I’ll be there, along with many greats, including Scott Kelby, Erik Kuna, Rick Sammon, Glyn Dewis and Lisa Carney.

If you haven’t grabbed your spot yet, there’s still time to snag the early bird price!

Here’s your code for the early bird discount, before the price goes up from $149 now to $299 on the day the conference goes live on March 9.

I’ll be talking about my favorite phone photography accessories and the art of storytelling. Others will dive into the iPhone camera for landscapes, portraits, editing and travel photography. I hope you’ll join us. These online events are always a lot of fun, and educational.

Speaking of great photography with the phone, can you believe how cool this shot is? It was taken by my wife, Ruth Stroud, in Savannah, GA at the historic Forsyth Park fountain, which is the symbol of the city.

Tip: shoot a fountain statue into the sun as it’s falling down, about 15 minutes before sunset, and you can get dramatic, moody Hollywood level backlighting and frozen water action. Kudos to Ruth for discovering this on her iPhone 15 Pro Max.

By the way, if you haven’t caught Ruth’s terrific newsletter yet, it’s called RuthTalksFood and is available here.

Newsbytes:

This week Samsung unveiled the latest update to its premium phone line, the Galaxy S series, with predictable raves from many media who were flown in at Samsung’s expense to report about its event. New features sound minimal, and the price got hiked. (Maxed out, the price is $1,799 before tax.)

Semafor’s Reed Albergotti was so under-whelmed, he penned a column on what he called the death of mobile.

“Samsung should be worried, and Apple should be terrified. Many of Samsung’s and Apple’s newest AI features — like message summaries and photo recommendations — seem quaint when you think about how AI power users are now hooking up hundreds of AI agents with tools like OpenClaw to schedule appointments, answer emails, and zoom through work tasks.

Now, companies are treating AI as a smartphone feature. In fact, it’s a novel technology that reduces the need to use a handset at all.”

I’n not a fan of the AI mobile features, but I’m still a huge believer in phones. I don’t need AI to take my photos, make my calls, answer my text messages. But that’s me. I don’t see mobile phones going away anytime soon—how about you?

Netflix, ICYMI, dropped out of the bidding for buying Warner Bros. Discovery, leaving Paramount Skydance as the likely victor. The upshot: Paramount may merge CBS with CNN, hundreds if not thousands of people will lose their jobs, fewer movies and TV shows will get made.

Nextstar, which owns TV stations across the country and is trying to merge with Tegna, just laid off many top anchors and reporters, to improve its bottom line. The talent weren’t even allowed to say goodbye to their longtime viewers on the air.

Can someone explain how the public is served by these mergers?

That’s a wrap for this edition, from beautiful St. Augustine, Florida. Thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen!

Jeff