Senior CNET photographer James Martin has decided to test the iPhone X camera by documenting the most devastating wildfire in California’s history.
James lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where smoke and ash blanketed the region as wildfires rampaged through Sonoma and Napa counties just 50 miles north of the city.
He used his iPhone X to document the devastation and clean-up operations.
“Now that the fires have been extinguished, I wanted to document what needs to be done before Napa and Sonoma counties—some of the most beautiful spots in Northern California—can emerge from such unimaginable devastation.
After the first half hour of shooting, James realized he wouldn’t need the DSLR camera he always has with him. “iPhone X did what I needed it to do,” he said.
Taking several hundred photos in a single day, he only applied basic edits for contrast, color and saturation, either right on his phone or in Adobe’s desktop Lightroom app.
“After I got home and scanned through the photos, I was shocked by the power and beauty of the images I’d captured with a phone,” he wrote. “The fire was more devastating than I had ever imagined. These images will make sure I never forget.”
In this Portrait mode image shown above, an EPA crew member gives a double thumbs up during clean-up operations in Santa Rosa, California on Wednesday November 1, 2017.
You can help the relief effort by donating to the American Red Cross.