All photos in this Blog were taken with an iPhone 16 Pro and edited with Lightroom Mobile.

I decided that for one entire week I would only use my iPhone camera for photos and leave my Sony A7RV sitting on the shelf.

It is really unfortunate that I already had about 8 paragraphs wrote out for this Blog and Square Space did not save it. I guess round two here we go.

The idea for doing this came from this photo. Me using my phone to take a photo of my camera body being the main focus but showing my camera focus of what I am fixing to take a photo of.

I have read that 9 times and it still sounds weird but you should understand.

Short version: Hey a photo..

Mobile photography used to be my only option. I personally owned digital cameras growing up, as a teenager but I shot more with the few cell phones I had. Back when per text counted.

I remember very specifically playing around with the color profiles in the LG Shine camera settings and the Samsung SGH-D807.

These two phones I got most of my photo and video experience with.

I remember when I was introduced to Photoshop my Freshman year of High School in photography class and all I wanted to do was edit my photos and make them different and look better.

I learned so much that year. Full access to YouTube editing tutorials before 2010 when everyone was trying to teach each other and not teaching trends and showing how to make your photos look like everyone else’s.

Even before the days of AI and advancements in photoshop tools, I remember taking an hour to very carefully outline my subject and create a new cut out layer so I could use the Gaussian Blur to separate my subject and create the bokeh effect like the pro cameras and lenses. It worked, safe to say this was way before Portrait Mode on iPhones too. I wanna say around the iPhone 5 and Galaxy SII. It has been a lot of fun.

So with a little not really needed background information, fast forward 15 years and here we are.

Phones can shoot in .RAW format, Lightroom and Photoshop have now moved to mobile devices so it is easier to just open and edit and export.

YouTube is absolutely flooded with how to videos and learning videos for camera settings how to understand color, you can literally spend less than an hour a day on YouTube for a week and you will learn so much for shooting and editing photos and it applies to the photos. It’s not catered to the camera you are using, and everyone has a camera in their pocket.

Being able to just pull my phone out of my pocket and open the camera app and shoot has been awesome. No adjusting settings or setting anything up manually.

Really just

Open
Point
Shoot

I do wish that I had added more of my analog presets and tested how cool I could have made that look work, but there is always next time.

I relied mainly on what I was shooting in frame, and worried about everything else like exposure when editing. I could have made adjustments in exposure but I did not have to and it all turned out pretty great. Doing this has made me want to setup an actual session with only using my iPhone and see how much I can actually push this. I think I am going to have to do that now.

The only issue I had which was on my own was cropping these images from 4:3 to 3:2, 4:3 is iPhones native aspect ratio and I have been used to shooting in 3:2 with my Sony A7RV so I wanted to keep the borders and everything the same as they have been but trying to do quick edits some times I would forget.

I don’t think I have appreciated my A7RV for what it is. I think at some point I have slowly forgotten the actual limitations of where I started with most of my learning in Photography. I know now I am focusing mostly on the color grading process, but the overall fact of not being able to select your focus, not being able to edit a photo the way I truly wanted unless I had a school computer. It has been really nice taking a step back and only shooting with my iPhone.

The only goal that matters is getting the photo. That’s it. It might not be perfectly how you wanted it, did you get close though? That moment is captured forever. Digital, film, DSLR, Mirrorless, it doesn’t matter how. That moment, the memory you caught to share with others is the main focus. I spent a week shooting Black & White only, it’s not about the colors. Maybe the contrast was off, lighting wasn’t perfect, you can still make it work.

I am not sure what else to say, I think this was a pretty awesome thing to do. I had so much fun with it. I will probably shoot more with my iPhone now that I have made myself.

0.3 Megapixels or 61 doesn’t mean shit as long as you are shooting what you want and having fun. I don’t think anyone needed this but now that I have done it I know I did. in many ways.

And just for anyone that has ever ran their mouth about my photography and made fun of me behind my back.

Long Version:

I take better photos on a cell phone than you do with an actual camera and instead of being mad at me for continuously wanting to learn and do better you should spend your time advancing your skills and mindset.

Short Version (because you read at a 3rd grade level and I was raised to speak my mind):

Fuck you hoe.