I have been away from Ipernity for a while now, and it was not intentional. If it was intentional, it was only intentional in that I chose to focus on a different kind of project and that project was helping a family member rehab a house that had been a foreclosure and left unlivable. This project has specific deadlines and has required a lot of my focus over an extended amount of time and so I have not been visiting Ipernity during this time. My focus for this project has been primarily electrical. The house will eventually need a complete rewiring as it was built in the 40's and the current electrical system will not support the more modern appliances. We have been able to update enough of the system to make it safe and livable as well as convenient to complete the full rewiring later.
This has left me with little or no time for other hobbies including photography. In the middle of working on this project I updated my cell phone from a standard dumb phone to one of these "I can do anything" smart phones. I have never liked the idea of putting my DSLR down and trying to use a smart phone for photography because I have not been completely convinced that the quality of the pictures would compare. But I wanted to take that step and try it out with my brand new, impressive, mid-line smart phone. It was a perfect opportunity to test how easy and convenient taking photos with a phone really is. I would be able to take great "before and after" photos of our progress on the construction project.
Part of my fear of trying out "phonetography" was that I would put down my very expensive (at least expensive to me) DSLR and stick with the phone and I was not okay with that. One thing I have discovered with the smart phone I purchased is that it did not allow me to make some of the more advanced on-the-camera adjustments I am accustomed to. I am sure some of the more expensive phones give you more of those options. I am very happy with my phone and it works well for taking high quality "reference" photos but I would not want to use it for the photos I enjoy posting on Ipernity. Here are a couple of "reference photo" examples.


This is a reference photo taken on a smart phone to show the size of a tree that fell across a driveway that I helped clear.




It was fairly quick and easy to take a panoramic photo of the sky to show others.

So for now my DSLR is safe. I am currently taking a short break from the rehab project while the floors are being redone and I hope to take advantage of the time I will have to pick up the camera again and enjoy the adventure of capturing the beauty of this world...