iPhone 15 Pro Max Super Nutter Turbo RS

I change my mobile device every 4 years or so - depending on the requirements of my business at the time. I went from an iPhone 6-plus to a 12 Pro Max for imaging requirements, and last week I upgraded to a 15 Pro Max (in blue titanium) for the same reason (plus, my wife wanted the old 12 as she still had my old 6 model which had developed a bizarre vibrating camera fault). The new model is lightning fast in every respect, but I chose it mainly because of its ability to shoot video footage in Apple ProRes Raw log format. This enables me to keep control over exposure in demanding interior spaces and to get as much possible out of video files using Adobe Premiere Pro video editing software. I’ll be testing it out for a future post. Using a phone for social media video work is a huge timesaver when in a house, so I need the best I can get. Otherwise I hate the whole concept of “mobile” phone communication.

Unfortunately, mobile phones are the bane of my existence, and there’s nothing i’d love more than being able to take them out of the world so I can get some balance back in my life.

I take one week of holiday a year, and my wife generally books the the four of us into a nice cottage somewhere in the UK so we can get away from the everyday routine as a family. In the past I was able to take longer periods of time off at various times of the year, so we could do a two week break in the sunshine perhaps, or do the odd weekend away in the winter months. Now is a different matter however.

My stupid iPhone is active, and on my case 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the negative effect this has on my life and psychology has become tangible. Last summer, my week off had been advertised on repeated occasions to all clients, and I thought i’d communicated this clearly. We were all heading off to a lovely little cottage in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire on an August Friday morning, and returning the following Friday afternoon. I accept that this job comes with the duty to be responsive to enquiries whatever the time and place, so I set aside a couple of hours at the end of each day to check emails, iMessages, and WhatsApp texts, and arrange appointments for the week of my return to work. As the car was being loaded, the phone rang, and a client wanted a house (a holiday let being sold) up on the north east coast shot that very day before new guests moved in. After a brief conversation, I felt that I had no choice but to comply, as the alternative involved the client ringing round to find an alternative who could very well end up being the default shooter of choice immediately. I headed up, waited an hour for the owners who were stuck in traffic, got back, processed and uploaded everything, and headed off 6 hours after we’d originally intended. The traffic was chaos, and the first day of the holiday was written off. Not only that, but there were a raft of emails to contend with.

Our cottage

The following 6 days were intermittently interrupted by calls and “urgent” emails, appointments being cancelled and rearranged, so the phone in my pocket soon became an item of despair. On our leaving day, we decided to stop in York for the day, and as we exited the Park & Ride bus, the despair-unit rang with a frantic client asking why I wasn’t at a particular address as promised. The client had booked me in to do a job without being aware of my weeks holiday.

After a lengthy journey home, and a night of markedly restless sleep, I faced a Saturday with three sizeable jobs, and a Sunday with three, followed by two weeks ram-packed with jobs situated all over the north that had backed up by having a mere 6 days off. Including my post production and travel time, I worked about 180 hours in the two weeks, and never quite recovered until the October half term week. Being accessible on demand all the time introduces a type of pressure that manifests the “fight or flight” response at all times. I’ve cancelled important medical appointments and procedures to accommodate jobs, and received messages at 1am about work that is potentially weeks away. The mobile phone just allows anyone to destroy personal boundaries, delete any vestige of “down time”, and i’m a middle aged adult with the lifetime experience of handling stress - Imagine how our children and grandchildren are being affected?

Bring back the simpler times when I could check my answering machine at the end of each day.

Anyway, just off to check my emails, texts, Whatsapp’s, FaceTimes, iMessages, Snapchats, voice messages.