lol... I know. Technology changes they way tools are used, if at all.

I use my pocket computer to: talk, text, know the weather prognostication, check my calendar, photograph, write Yelp reviews, get an Uber/Lift, facebook, instagram, tweet/thread, get CVS medication notifications and etc.

It's true I am not a professional photographer and kudos to you if you are.
When I started taking pictures and developing B&W pix in 1970 very few people carried cameras. Photographer filled a niche. Today EVERYBODY has a camera. Today celebrities with millions of followers have their images seen within minutes. Ansel would be envious.

Smartphones are here, that's clear. Deal with it.

I'llmak a very sophisticated and philosophical comment, You y'all stand by and get ready for some enlightenment"

Here goes! All the cultism, tribalism, and snobbism about gear is stupid!

I have been interested in photogahy since I was 7 years old. There were always folks who simply enjoyed makg family snapshots with simple equipment- box camera made of Bakolite, Kodak "folders" Brownies, Instamatics Polaroid cameras, and some ventured into consumer-grade more complex gear. Most regular folks brought their film to the drugstore, had prints made, and pasted them in albums. Waht the Dickens was wrong with that?

There were always more advanced amateurs- they made Kodachrome slides and sent the film to Rocherter for processing, some had darkrooms and processed and their own negatives and prints. The invited friends and family to sit through endless slidshos and home movies! A few of us decided to take up photography as a career- cool?

So, what's the big deal with cellphones- Are they some sort of plague? They have just taken the place of all the box cameras, Instamtics, and Polaroids, they are cheap to run- no film and processing to wort about. and folks are having fun- just like in the olden days. The devices are just making photography accessible to more regular folks and kids and who knows, the bug may bite and some will become advanced amateurs or pros- or not! Many will become snobish gearheads and still make lousy images and some will create little masterpieces with their phones.

Y'all gotta admit, these phones are neat little gadgets. They can produce surprisingly good results. My reading is that many of the snobs are jealous. They have invested their life savings in high-end gear and can not shoot their way out of a wet old photo mailer while their kids are producing perfectly well-exposed and saturated images and videos! Some of those kids have a natural talent for composition!

Too much competition? So, everybody is taking pictures, more than ever before. They are doig "selfies", party pictures, vacation shots, and more. So, if you want to be recognized for great work, enter photo competitions, or become a professional, you have to be damn good at what you do- a significant cut above the unwashed masses! Folk won't pay hard-earned money for waht they can do by themselves.

My first studio boss and mentor taught me a valuable lesson when he took me on as an assistant/goger/ janitor, apprentice. He said, "There are two kinds of photographers- the ones who TALK a good job and the ones who DO a good job- they are usually not the same photographer"! Lately, I have augmented that philosophy. There are photographers who talk about GEAR and photographers here who talk about SUBSTANCE AND CONTENT. A typical question here is "I wanna set up for portrats, sports, landscape, still life- whatever... I shoot NIKON..." So waht? I would rather hear, I wanna set up for portraits and I shoot kids, pretty ladies, ugly wrestlers, birds, great sunsets, whatever., etc. Get my drift?

No issue that cell phones are here to stay. BUT...cell phones don't make a photographer any more than golf clubs don't make an excellent golfer. Almost everywhere I go I see people shooting like crazy on their cell phones. When I know the shooting conditions, it's easy to know what kind of images they are getting. Mostly garbage...which is my guess as to what millions of cell phone shooters are getting. Just look at what shows up on social media. For example: vacation pictures. Most of them are pure garbage. I'd be embarrassed to show them to family and friends. The horizon isn't straight. It's often hard to identify the subject matter. The image is out of focus. The image is under or overexposed. The shooter doesn't even know what the term "composition" means. I could go on and on. Great images are still taken by great photographers. And great photographers use really good equipment. Do I take pictures on my cell phone? Sure! But certainly not for any serious shoot of an important subject matter. I shoot college football frequently. If I tried to do this on a cell phone I'd lose my job within two weeks. I need the proper equipment. And I read often about people not wanting to carry around a lot of equipment. Okay. But accept the fact that you are going to be compromising some images at some point because you don't have the right lens or the right camera that can handle your lighting situation. I'll pay the price to get the images I want.

lol... I know. Technology changes they way tools are used, if at all.

I use my pocket computer to: talk, text, know the weather prognostication, check my calendar, photograph, write Yelp reviews, get an Uber/Lift, facebook, instagram, tweet/thread, get CVS medication notifications and etc.

It's true I am not a professional photographer and kudos to you if you are.
When I started taking pictures and developing B&W pix in 1970 very few people carried cameras. Photographer filled a niche. Today EVERYBODY has a camera. Today celebrities with millions of followers have their images seen within minutes. Ansel would be envious.

Smartphones are here, that's clear. Deal with it.

No issue that cell phones are here to stay. BUT...cell phones don't make a photographer any more than golf clubs don't make an excellent golfer. Almost everywhere I go I see people shooting like crazy on their cell phones. When I know the shooting conditions, it's easy to know what kind of images they are getting. Mostly garbage...which is my guess as to what millions of cell phone shooters are getting. Just look at what shows up on social media. For example: vacation pictures. Most of them are pure garbage. I'd be embarrassed to show them to family and friends. The horizon isn't straight. It's often hard to identify the subject matter. The image is out of focus. The image is under or overexposed. The shooter doesn't even know what the term "composition" means. I could go on and on. Great images are still taken by great photographers. And great photographers use really good equipment. Do I take pictures on my cell phone? Sure! But certainly not for any serious shoot of an important subject matter. I shoot college football frequently. If I tried to do this on a cell phone I'd lose my job within two weeks. I need the proper equipment. And I read often about people not wanting to carry around a lot of equipment. Okay. But accept the fact that you are going to be compromising some image at some point because you don't have the right lens or the right camera that can handle your lighting situation. I'll pay the price to get the images I want.

lol... I know. Technology changes they way tools are used, if at all.

I use my pocket computer to: talk, text, know the weather prognostication, check my calendar, photograph, write Yelp reviews, get an Uber/Lift, facebook, instagram, tweet/thread, get CVS medication notifications and etc.

It's true I am not a professional photographer and kudos to you if you are.
When I started taking pictures and developing B&W pix in 1970 very few people carried cameras. Photographer filled a niche. Today EVERYBODY has a camera. Today celebrities with millions of followers have their images seen within minutes. Ansel would be envious.

Smartphones are here, that's clear. Deal with it.

I have a friend who is finishing her MFA degree this month. Her major is Illustration, and she already is doing incredible work.

Part of being an illustrator is building a library of reference photographs. These are high-quality images from which she can answer questions like, "What color is a ______?" "What does the texture of a live _____ (starfish, maybe) really look like?" "How do the shadows really fall if a young girl is running down a hallway lit by chandeliers and large windows on one side?"

She now uses her cell phone camera to take her teference photos, mostly retiring her nice Canon system. Why? Partly because it produces very high quality and accurate photographs. (She doesn't get paid anything extra for being an expert with Adobe products.) But also because using her phone allows her to capture life without altering it, at least not very much.

I am hoping to get her to let me go along on one of her expeditions to capture reference photographs. Maybe to teach me to be her photographic assistant. It would be a good way to learn more about this whole CPP (Cell Phone Photography) phenomenon.