Ever wonder if the camera on your phone is as good as a DSLR?
I know I am always inspired by many of the wonderful Local Guides here on Connect with their beautiful photography. As Local Guides photographers, we fall under two camps: Local Guides with DSLRs and Local Guides with their smartphones.
I want to share my personal experience as a Local Guide who only uses a phone, currently an iPhone 8 Plus (Don’t hate me for this!), as my camera of choice to take photos for everything, including Google Maps. You can get just as good results with a high-quality smartphone as with a DSLR.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, throughout the year, we have many types of birds that call this area their home.
I had an amazing “National Geographic Society” opportunity that literally landed on my doorstep during the Summer of 2016. This was priceless and I am still amazed that it happened without any prep on my part.
I was fortunate to be able to watch and capture in photos at the time with my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 the birth of a pair of mourning doves, not just once, but twice in my plant container on my front porch.
Mourning doves are smaller in size to pigeons. They are slightly different but from the same family. They can have up to 6 sets of chicks during their mating season. They are monogamous and form strong pair bonds. And both the male and female sit on the pair of eggs (two) and feed them after they hatch.
Birds, in general, build their nest in private, hidden areas to protect themselves and their eggs from predators, which includes both wildlife and humans. I have never heard of wild birds willing to nest so close to humans and let a human, me, hold out her arm less than 3 feet to take their photos, including the birth of their baby chicks.
Not knowing about Googler @Christina-NYC’s nature photography tip of taking photos in the early morning,
I was actually doing this because it was the best time to capture the right light and it was the calmest time of the day in front of my house. Not as many cars drove by or where my neighbors were walking in front of the house.
This momma dove really did like Chateau Chin because she stayed for the entire summer and did not mind me taking photos of her and her two sets of baby doves. Being less than 3 feet from her with my Samsung, she never once raised her feathers or blinked at me.
What I learned that summer . . .
Taking photos up close of this “beauty of life” gave me the courage to use my phone more and to try different angles to get more of the finite details of an object, such as my recent flower photography using now my iPhone 8 Plus.
I also find I am not afraid to try take photos of birds when they catch my attention with my iPhone too. For example, here on Kauai, one of the 8 major islands of Hawaii, wild chickens have free rein on the island. They can be found everywhere, including in hotel and condo resorts, the car rental agency at the airport, etc. This particular rooster was one of many running around at the place I stayed last year during the Holidays. For more of my Google Maps review, read this.
Check out my less than 2-minute video (and not to bore you with a ton of photos - I took at least one photo a day during the summer of 2016 as I witness the “beauty of life” twice.)
Are you a phone or DSLR photographer? What do you prefer? Have you ever had the opportunity to photograph the stages of life, whether animal, insect, or floral?
Cheers,
Karen