As a professional photographer, I invest a lot of my earnings back into the business to ensure I have some of the best equipment to enable me to produce top-quality images for my clients.
When I’m embarking on a commission, I make sure I have the required camera bodies, lenses, flashguns, modifiers and, if necessary, the backdrop my client has asked for.
All of this gear, as well as being expensive, is heavy, and there are times when I’m out, particularly on my daily walks, when I don’t pack the full kit, and quite often I go out without my professional cameras at all.
There’s a saying among photographers that the best camera is the one you have with you. There’s certainly an element of truth in that and I can count quite a few times on my outings onto the moors and hills when I wished I’d packed a particular lens that would have been ideal for the shot I’d have liked. But I had to make do with the kit I had with me.
But what of the numerous times I didn’t have my full professional body and lens(es) with me? Fortunately, like almost everyone these days, I always have my smartphone with me. It’s light, and slips in my pocket, unlike the mirrorless body and lens I use professionally.
So I thought it’s worth demonstrating that a camera phone isn’t just for selfies. Point the lens away from you and capture the world you’re in.
I’ve put together a few of the pictures I’ve taken over the past few years on my iPhones to show how, with a little thought, it’s possible to produce some decent photographs with this ubiquitous little modern marvel. All of the photos on this page were taken with my phone’s camera.
This is a shot of the summit ridge of Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales on a summer’s Saturday. I was leading a sponsored youth group tackling the Three Peaks, a challenging 24-mile walk taking in lots of ascent, so I needed to keep the weight down. Solitude was in short supply as lots of Three Peakers hit the hills.
After a foggy night on the moors, the temperature had dropped in the morning and the heather and other vegetation was covered in rime deposits, imparting the hills with a ghostly white appearance.
This is the only selfie on this post, and it’s a picture of me at the start of the Pennine Way, at Edale, Derbyshire. I wanted a quick snap to mark my departure and, though I had my ‘proper’ camera with me, it was just easier to whip out my phone and take a snap with the Pennine Way sign behind me. I’m clean shaven, as it would be two weeks before I would approach a shaver.
This is my son Luke’s dog Noah, who jumped in my car as soon as I opened the door. Greyhounds have keen eyesight and he’s keeping a keen lookout on the road ahead.
I cross this footbridge over a beck each day on my daily walk, and on this occasion someone had decorated it with some wild flowers in a used Prosecco bottle.
This is my cat Mia, who sadly died last year, enjoying an outdoors snooze in the summer warmth, oblivious to the rude rooster who appears to be about to disturb her sleep.
This horse’s disguise, in a field near my home, is fooling no-one.
A who could resist the opportunity to mark the consumption of this comedy-name beer during a visit to Belgium?
This is an overhead shot of one of the circular grouse butts that are lined up on Oakworth Moor.
This is sunset on Angle Tarn, above Patterdale in the eastern Lake District.
I pass this disused phone kiosk regularly and it’s fascinating to see how nature has been slowly recolonising it.
Warm crepuscular rays light up the moorland sky at sunset.
I have no real idea what was going on here, but this gentleman was wielding his magic wand at the summit of Whernside, the highest hill in Yorkshire, while a dog subtlely photobombs the shot.
A Highland cow plays peek-a-boo over the drystone wall near my home.
We awoke one morning to find that a large water main had burst in the field near our house, where the previous day workers had been excavating during maintenance work on the pipe.
Out for an evening’s music at Studio 5 Live in Keighley, here’s blues-rock guitar virtuoso Ben Poole with his band.
This one wasn’t taken by me, but my son Luke, who was at Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders to record my completion of walking the Pennine Way. And yes, that is my big camera strapped to my chest, but it was quicker just to get out my phone and ask him to record it in the same way as the one I took 13 days earlier at the start of the challenge.
I spotted these starlings perched on electric wires against a deep blue summer sky while out walking.
Another lightweight walk up Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales, with a stop-off at Whernside Tarns for lunch under the sun.
This beautifully patterned butterfly was exploring the flora in the woodland I pass through regularly on my walks.
Heading back from a walk up to Top Withins, a magnet for Brontë enthusiasts, this sunset sky was too entrancing not to photograph.
Almost all of these pictures were taken during my everyday outings. So I’d encourage anyone to try finding some interesting imagery in the familiar. This footpath is one I use almost every day. I just liked the pattern of the convergence of the scenery and the summer growth on the verges. And, as always, luckily I had my phone with me.
