Out of curiosity, how long have you been into photography for? Was your first "real" camera the one from 2017?
I ask because what you wrote here reminds me a lot of how I felt when I was newly into photography with a "real" camera. I felt that way for the first 2-3 years, I think it was. It was exhausting. Everything seemed like a photography opportunity that I was missing. I'd bring a bag full of lenses, and it felt like I was cycling through almost all of them multiple times per hour. My family put up with a lot every time I'd go out with my camera bag.
I don't know when the shift occurred, exactly, nor why it occurred, but at some point that just went away. Maybe it was time, or taking a certain number of photos, or personal maturity. Now I can leave home with a single prime lens and it's fine - I get what I get, and that's that. Sometimes I don't even take a single photo, and I'm fine with that. My camera is slung behind my back most of the time so my hands are free to interact with my children, yet it's readily accessible in case I find a situation where I'd like to round off a few shots.
What you wrote here is really interesting to me. I'd say that the one area I prefer iPhone photos to my camera is Live Photos. That brief snippets of video and audio surrounding the photo do a lot to make the photo more meaningful than a single, static photo. But I've also started doing more family videos, originally starting in iMovie and then moving up to Final Cut Pro. In some ways video is the more stressful. Family can help with the filming, and you can utilize the video portions of Live Photos for video segments as well, but it takes a lot of time to film and edit if you want a coherent video. I can take a photo or two and be done with my camera for photography, but I need to keep my iPhone (or camera) in front of me to keep getting video. It's also easier to quickly edit a photo or two with downtime, but it's harder to edit video in brief bursts like that.
Granted, I'm newer to videography than to photography, so my workflow may not be as well established. Family pressures are also a bit different; people rarely press me for photos (maybe because I'm doing it regardless), but occasionally they'll remark that something would be a nice event to have video from, or they'll provide me with long segments of video that they took on their own... and creating a narrative off of someone else's filming can be quite difficult. It's a different sort of challenge.
Same... but why is this a bad thing? Maybe it doesn't lead to super artsy shots that the world would want to see, but is there anything more worthwhile than capturing precious moments as your family develops? I've made some large wall prints of those moments and love them. We've printed iPhone photos, too, but nothing larger than 4x6. I'm not sure they'd hold up to printing much larger than that.
Interestingly, most of what you wrote has more to do with photography mindset than with anything technical. Your camera makes you feel too focused on photography, but there's nothing inherent in the camera that causes that; you could just as easily get into that mindset with the iPhone, too (although it's a bit more simple and limited). Similarly, unless you're using a DSLR or a MILC that somehow lacks a video function, your camera should be just as capable in video (if not more so) than your iPhone.
If the iPhone feels better and lets you have that happier balance between photos/videos and actually living life rather than just documenting it, that's certainly a valid reason to ditch the camera. As I wrote above, it's very possible to do that with a "real" camera, too. But there's no reason to feel obligated to "work at it" so that your photography desires calm down when using the "realm camera," particularly if the iPhone's quality is satisfactory for your purposes.
No, our hospital didn't. I've been at a few hospitals and haven't seen that service offered, either. The photos I'm referring to were the ones immediately after birth, when they've basically wiped the baby down and placed them on mother. I think it'd be incredibly intrusive to have someone (particularly someone who wasn't on the labor team) barging in and taking photos of that moment.
Although it's interesting that you mention that, because it reminds me that when our second child was born there was actually some mention of photographs that made it sound as if a professional photographer would take some photos before we left the hospital. I'm now realizing that they never did. Which was just as well - we wouldn't have purchased anything, and at that point I already had my "real" camera, so it would have been superfluous. It would have felt intrusive to have someone come into our room to take photos of our newborn.
Last edited:
