The Emotional Value of Having a Camera Around
A week where I had mourned not having a camera around, and not been able to do what I enjoyed. It was strange how not having one thing in my possession pulled on my strings that I ever anticipated, and felt somewhat embarrassing to admit to publicly.
Smartphones take amazing photos, there’s no doubt about it. It’s incredible how good the photos are that you can get from a teeny tiny sensor and a few pieces of glass smaller than your thumbnails.
That said, I am the sort of person who really values having a dedicated camera with me. Part of it is that the right camera can get meaningfully better photos and video than my phone, and another part is that I like the look of photos not taken on phones. It’s not particularly rational, but we’re surrounded by photos that look pretty similar in style because we’re all shooting with the same types of lenses, especially us iPhone users. When I take a photo with a dedicated camera though, I get something that feels different, and I like that.
Take this photo for example, which I took on a walk with the dog a week ago:
I’ve compressed it to not be push page load times on this page into the stratosphere, but you should be able to tell how it’s a bit different from a phone shot. There’s more blur in the background, the shape of things is a bit different from the iPhone’s standard lenses, and it’s a little less sharpened than even the best phone cameras. Even if you can’t tell the difference, I can, and I like it a lot.
Most of my photos are still taken on my phone, and they look great, but when it really matters, I’ll still bust out the dedicated camera.