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Lotte Vale's avatar

I share your love for the process. I crave that sense of intimacy with the scene, that slowness, that act of making instead of just taking. But I also want to say, I’m grateful for my iPhone.

It’s a tool that’s reignited my passion. It’s helped me practice the art of seeing. I use it to experiment with light and framing, to train my instincts, and to keep photography alive in my everyday life. It’s made me want more, a better camera, a deeper understanding, the full arc of creation from shutter to final edit.

Reading your piece reminded me that I’m not just someone who likes to take pictures. I’m someone who wants to become a photographer.

Thank you for this post and your perspective.

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Jason Odell's avatar

Thank you for the insight, and taking the time to comment! I appreciate your perspective!

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Donna Bertrand's avatar

I use my iPhone for “snapshots” or when I don’t have anything else with me. I use my Nikon when I want to “make an image.” I enjoy the process and the options. I just came back from a trip throughout France. I took the Nikon everywhere and shot just over 3,000 images. Out of those, I ended up with 405 “keepers.” I enjoyed making every one of them. Even the throwaways.

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Jason Odell's avatar

Thanks for sharing, Donna! I think I take a similar approach. I just feel more in control with a “real” camera.

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Josh Weinberg's avatar

Yes! “slowing down, enjoying the sense of place, and embracing the process”

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doclrb's avatar

In my opinion, I don’t think that the dichotomy is lazy vs energetic. I believe at least in my case that it’s planned vs unplanned. Typically, when I’m carrying my cameras while I won’t call it a vision, I’ll say that I’m on a mission. Perhaps to document a bird species or to capture a landscape or to explore a new area. Just as a pocket camera was useful decades ago for unplanned events, so is the iPhone. My two cents.

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Jason Odell's avatar

Excellent take. I use my phone all the time for scouting locations; the built-in GPS is super handy! And using a phone for photography isn’t lazy, but it can make people forget about their other tools.

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Bruce Smith's avatar

I find myself using my iPhone 15 Pro Max much more than my primary camera (OM-1 Mk2). Often, because I don't want to carry the extra weight when hiking/walking. Second, because I'm very pragmatic about the best results. We took a trip to Monument Valley. Almost every photo I shot was with both my OM1 & iPhone. I even had them both on tripods w/remote-releases on our balcony of The View Hotel. When we got home, I selected the best photos to post. Over three-quarters of them were from the iPhone. Now, I only gravitate to the OM-1 when I need more telephoto, like birds, wildlife, or sports. (I'm guessing that's not what you wanted to hear, sorry, lol.)

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Jason Odell's avatar

Hi Bruce... that reflects more on post-processing than image quality between the two cameras. ;)

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Bruce Smith's avatar

All photos were brought into LrC and processed. I like how the iPhone software creates the photo, leaving very little work in post, rarely requiring anything beyond my import preset. Perhaps the issue is my vision for the results? I'm usually going for the look that most closely resembles what I saw with my eyes, nothing artistic.

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Jason Odell's avatar

It's all good! I find that the combination of computational photography plus the extreme DOF in smartphone shots can be great for landscapes. Here's something fun to try: Shoot a RAW image in your iPhone and bring it into Lr. Then go to the "Profile" item in the Basic Panel and slide the Amount to 0 under "Apple Pro Res." That takes away the computational effects (more or less) and shows just what the in-camera processing is doing. Pretty wild!

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Bruce Smith's avatar

The other thing I've noticed is (that I'm assuming is computational), when I compared the two in a slot canyon on a bright day. Both exposed for the walls of the canyon, the OM1 gave me a white/blown-out sky. The iPhone gave me a blue sky with details in the clouds. No HDR required.

I have shot in Pro-Raw when I first got the iPhone when I first got it. That was interesting to see the difference!

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Jason Odell's avatar

Yes, the iPhone takes 5-6 photos nearly instantly most of the time and auto-merges them!

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Bruce Smith's avatar

The thing that surprised me the most is something that happens when I shoot Infrared with a 720nm or 760nm filter on the iPhone with the default Camera App (other than it actually producing a decent IR image).

The iPhone's lenses have a known hotspot in the center of the lens (soft sides, easily fixed with a LR radial filter), but when I compose the shot, I can watch the screen and the center of the screen will darken over about one second, reducing the hotspot (but not completely removing it). It surprised me by being able to see it happen on the screen.

At first, I thought it was my imagination, but I've seen it happen many times.

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Sheila Galloway's avatar

Yes photography is a dying art because film developing is expensive but I will never stop

my art.

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Terry Odell's avatar

I'm looking at the pictures I took on a recent trip to New Orleans and the Mississippi River. I think my husband and I were two of maybe six people on the riverboat cruise using cameras. Phones were the thing. (Granted, most of the passengers were of my generation.) I used my phone the way you mentioned. To get quick, sharable pictures. Or to grab things when I wasn't carrying the camera due to the venue.

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White Sands's avatar

So much change since the Y2K bug. It’s amazing. Love my Olympus and iPhone. Eliminating software and updating workflow accordingly. Win-Win: more time and money back into my pocket while being more focused on creativity and composition and so superior results. Thank you Jason for all your investigations and research. And staying real!

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White Sands's avatar

Riiiggghhtt… I don’t feel so well lately…

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Leslie Pulford's avatar

Like you, I was big time into photography when I was young - before the advent of digital. I still have SO many cartridges of slides in the basement - it is amazing. Then, life took over. Now that I am heading into retirement, I have found that bird photography is fascinating and a skill that I can hone with a digital camera. No, I don't want to haul around a big lens, so found a Nikon P950 that works wonderfully. (I just won Viewer's Choice part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's 2025 Photo Contest!!) Sometimes it lacks the clarity that I want, but I am learning how to overcome that. It is a GREAT camera for little old retired ladies like me!! Thank you for your post, thank you for showing me that I am not alone. I have also started a blog. Please visit me at lpulford.substack.com to see my bird photos!!

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Marion J Chard's avatar

Ditto! While it's convenient having a cell camera, and I've taken some really good photos with it, nothing compares to capturing images with a REAL camera, aka my Canon RP with an assortment of lenses. I too grew up experiencing the love of photography thanks to my uncle who had a darkroom. Instantly hooked. In many photos from an early age, you can see my with a camera hanging from my neck. Later in life my husband and I had our own darkroom. Enthralling.

Then of course we switched to DSLRs. Being hesitant at first, but knowing I could take as many photographs as necessary, was an instant buzz. Now I'm mirrorless. Will wonders never cease?

I love the process. I love the play. I love the thinking and the prep that goes behind each image. That will never change.

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Matt Pritchett's avatar

I love my camera phone and I get great shots from it, snapshots & planned out ones.

I can’t use a “real” camera anymore because of all my chronic illness issues-pain, fatigue, dizziness, tremors, and more.🤦🏻‍♂️🤕

I’d love to shoot with a bag full of different lenses again & adapt a tripod or a couple mini-tripods to use in my wheelchair. But I don’t have the money for that or anything else that isn’t a medication or doctors appointment co-pay.

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Jason Odell's avatar

Thanks for sharing, Matt. If that brings you some joy, then that’s all that matters! It’s good to have technology like this today.

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Jason's avatar

I must admit, I've pulled out my S23+ at times when I'm too lazy to take my backpack off and get my "camera" out. There, I said it. #lazy

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Lauri Novak's avatar

Excellent article, Jason. I tend to reach for my phone for the mundane, everyday snapshots of our lives. Once I stopped taking photos of anything and everything and honed in on my fine art subjects, a lot of the rest of it became unimportant to me to photograph in a way that needed to be post-processed.

That said, I love to play and experiment with my phone camera. It allows me to let go of the technical and see what I can find.

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Jason Odell's avatar

Thanks, Lauri! I absolutely consider my iPhone part of my kit (it has a lot of value), but rarely do I go out looking to make photographs with it alone.

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Eric M Guli's avatar

Fantastic, Jason! Thanks for sharing.

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Jason Odell's avatar

Thanks, Eric! Thanks for reading!

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White Sands's avatar

You meant likely complacency of the marketing pressure and the Nah-sayers, not laziness.

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