The ultimate photo shoot: on location in Iceland with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus By Austin Mann

As with any smartphone in 2014, there's no more important feature than the camera. It's what we use to take photos with our friends and families, how we remember what we ate and what our kids looked like way back when. The camera has always been one of the iPhone's most impressive features, and this year, Apple says it's gotten a huge upgrade. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus feature new sensors, better optics, new technologies that aid in stabilization and HDR, even slower slo-mo video, and much more. They're meant to destroy your point-and-shoot, your camcorder, and maybe even your DSLR. To see what the new devices can really do, travel photographer Austin Mann went to Iceland on a week-long photography adventure. He's been shooting in some incredible places, in incredibly difficult conditions; he's put both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to their ultimate test. Here are his photos, and his story. For lots more of both, check out his website. — David Pierce

All the places are so hard to spell and remember here. We landed in Reykjavik late on September 10th, and went to Kex, my favorite hostel in the world. The next morning we met up with my friend Johannes and went with him to Seljalandsfoss waterfall. Then we went to Markafljótsgljúfur, where we photographed its incredibly beautiful canyons. Next we saw Jökulsárlón, the floating glacial lagoon. We had very few specific plans for the trip. Iceland is an incredibly diverse place, and the weather changes quickly, so you kind of just have to go with the flow. I’ve found that the iPhone is really liberating in this type of environment because it’s so flexible and can handle so many different types of situations. We had planned to be working with a local tourism company, HELO Iceland, flying with them on their chopper, but we found out just days before departure their helicopter was damaged. I knew I want to get in the air at some point so started talking to all the pilots I know in Iceland. I spoke with ten or so pilots, and wound up spontaneously joining the Iceland Coast Guard on a training mission so that I could shoot from the air.

In the middle of this week we were driving back from the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon when we passed a road that had a couple of extra signs. I looked at the road and saw it going up into the mountains. Since we had plenty of time, we decided to turn around and see what was up there — the signs indicated there was some sort of snowmobiling adventure. It was super foggy and we just kept driving into the mist with very limited visibility. At one point, we passed a giant gorge and looked down, only to see the faintest representation for what looked like a ski slope. We kept going, got to the end, hung out there for awhile and turned around. On our way back about 30 minutes later, the fog had lifted and at the bottom we saw the largest glacier I’ve ever seen in my life. We decide to take a hike down a fairly steep hill and explore a bit. It was there I captured one of my favorite images from this project. The entire scene was neutral: literally zero color. My images looked like they were auto-converting to black and white. It was a bit eery, but mysteriously beautiful. Jordan was exploring the glacier, and that’s when I captured this panorama of him.

There are a few ways to create a shallow depth of field; with an iPhone, one of the best is to change the distance between the lens and the subject. Here I was extremely close to the water drop and my depth of field was so shallow it was almost impossible to capture handheld. I used AE/AF Lock (Auto-Exposure/Auto-Focus Lock) to lock focus on the closest water drop. You can do this on the iPhone by touching and holding on an area for a couple of seconds until the yellow indicator shows. Once your locked, you can move your camera freely around without it auto-adjusting focus or exposure. AE/AF lock is really useful when shooting macro shots like this one, but also for high-speed photography or any shot you are lining up and waiting for. For instance, if I’m on the sidelines at a bike race and want to get a shot of a biker whizzing by with perfect composition, I would AE/AF lock on that composition ahead of time and then wait for the rider to cruise through. That way, the exposure and focus have already been chosen and your phone just needs to actuate the shutter.

At this point, after shooting with both new iPhones, I’m unsure which I’ll get. I’m such a sucker for the small and nimble, but I love the giant screen on the 6 Plus. At first I found the 6 Plus a bit too large for my taste, but I've quickly grown to like it, especially when I can make it my primary focus instead of just whipping it out for a quick task. I also suspect the Apple Watch will streamline the experience using the 6 Plus, as it will allow me to remove the phone from my pocket less and less. I really enjoy the challenge and spontaneity of capturing powerful images without directing them. I love to explore, see a moment coming, line up the shot and capture it as it passes. The great thing about carrying the iPhone as my primary shooting device is it’s simple yet so powerful: it's ready to capture virtually any scenario I encounter. It enables images like this in a way no other camera ever could, no matter the cost.

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Videos

Focus Pixels test Focus Pixels are all about autofocus. They enable phase-detect focusing on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which makes switching subjects in your frame both smooth and fast. It works well in stills, helping you always keep your subjects in focus, but it's most useful when you're shooting video.

Time-lapse videos In iOS 8, a time-lapse mode lets you set your iPhone up and forget about it for a while. It automatically shoots at certain intervals, and then stitches photos together into a fast-moving video. It's cool, but one warning: it takes a long time to make a short video.