Lounge Ruminator

The winners of the 2018 iPhone Photography Awards were announced this week and the included images are nothing short of breathtaking. From the artistic to the tragic, they all leave a very strong impression.

Source: Mateusz Piesiak/IPPA

What is perhaps most impressive as you scroll down the list and tap on each one, however, is the handsets that were used to shoot these images. Not all photos were taken with a recent iPhone X or 8 Plus; many were taken on older SE, 6s and even 5S models.

This made me reflect on just how different the art of photography is today and it’s now easy to pinpoint when this change began. We’ve just passed the tenth anniversary of the release of the iPhone 3G, which was the first truly international iPhone after the US-only first-gen model in 2007. The 3G brought the launch of the now mammoth iOS App Store along with it and at the time, it sported only a two-megapixel camera. It wasn’t even capable of taking video—a typical Apple feature omission, as when certain features aren’t up to scratch, they’re just chopped and included when ready.

The iPhone 3G was the first iPhone that I ever owned and I have bought multiple new models since. Whilst apps, messaging and full Web browsing were amazing, it was the camera that really resonated with me at the time. The idea that you had a decent camera with you everywhere that you went and that the camera came with its own pinch-to-zoom photo studio was flabbergasting.

Seeing what such tiny cameras are capable of today is a sign of just how far we’ve come since 2008. Improved aperture, secondary lenses, native software enhancements and third-party camera apps on iPhone have led many to leave their DSLR cameras at home. This is undoubtedly why Apple has so strongly pushed its yearly Shot on iPhone campaign and new support and tutorial pages. Not everyone needs a DSLR to capture the world with such precision and realistic colour; an iPhone does the job nicely indeed.

Considering all of this, check out the beautiful winning photos and maybe even take the time to look back at your own photo library from the last 10 years. Has your smartphone changed the way that you take photos? Do you take more or fewer? How do you organise them? Do you share them online? Most importantly, do you back them up? I doubt highly that there is a single person on the planet who has been untouched by the influence of the modern smartphone camera.

Never take the empowering technology in your pocket for granted.