Everyone remembers their first and mine was a steamy and sultry Monégasque beauty. This picture was taken at the southern end of Port de Fontvieille near the Héliport de Monaco. It looks to be an almost perfectly centered, vertical slash between the sky and sea though I think the sky covers a bit more of the picture. I took this freehand with no tripod or any kind of horizon leveling assistance and from the smartphone I had at the time. It was an HTC Sensation and I really hated the camera on that phone. It took far too long to focus, write the information to the phone’s memory and reset the shutter before I could take a new photo. Sometimes I would have to wait five or more seconds between actually being able to take a new picture and on top of that, most of the pictures came out blurry. Back then I didn’t exactly care about taking beautiful photographs. I mean I tried but I only cared that my phone was conveniently on hand and took “good enough” pictures. Continue reading →