Photo taken at Broadway San Jose's after party of Avenue Q at Morton's Steakhouse. Photo is taken with a Moto Droid since my iPhone doesn't have a flash and the party was dimly lit. Photo here is untouched.

Recently, I attended Broadway San Jose’s “Avenue Q” a production featuring puppets that sing, dance and prance around; hitting on humorous, taboo topics. On this particular evening, I rushed out the door with my purse brimming full of gadgets including my iPhone, Flip video camera and something less common, a Lamb Chop puppet that someone had given me one Christmas. The latter I thought may add a little interest to our coverage of the event. Lamb Chop would be my side-kick.

It wasn’t until I was in the lobby of the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts that I realized I had forgotten my Canon PowerShot Elph camera at home for the still photographs I like to take. Not ideal, but not a problem I thought. I had my iPhone and Clint brought his Droid.

I shot most of the photos with my iPhone because I have found that it takes photos with more natural tones than the Droid. Photos taken with the Droid often have an unnatural bluish tone to them. The iPhone is also sleeker, more comfortable to hold and seems to have a shorter delay between the time one snaps a photo and when it finishes processing and storing in memory. The pictures from the iPhone are definitely clearer than those captured with my three year old BlackBerry…may it rest in peace.

After much laughter, review of the musical here, “Theater review: Puppets gone wild at ‘Avenue Q’ at Broadway San Jose,” I headed out to the after party wondering if any of the puppets would show up to add some non-PC humor to the evening. Alas, none of the puppets showed but we did have some great chats and interviews with the talented cast of Avenue Q.

Amidst all the conversation, wine and appetizers, it occurred to me a couple of still shots with the cast would be nice to capture for StarkSilverCreek.

I whip out my iPhone, snapped a photo and found it was too dark. Why didn’t the automatic flash go off?

Crap, with all it’s sexiness, the iPhone doesn’t have a flash! I vaguely recall knowing this fact, but somehow the consequences of it didn’t strike me until that moment.

Above, a photo taken, untouched with Clint’s Droid. That evening, Droid 1, iPhone 0.

P.S. Besides no flash, the iPhone is the only phone out of the 20 top smartphones that doesn’t support Adobe Flash either. Flash photography…Flash Player…hmmmmm….

Loni Stark is an artist at Atelier Stark, self-professed foodie, and adventure travel seeker who has a lifelong passion for technology’s impact on business and creativity. She collaborates with Clinton Stark on video projects for Atelier Stark Films. It’s been said her laugh can be heard from San Jose all the way up to the Golden Gate Bridge. She makes no claims to super powers, although sushi is definitely her Kryptonite.