I Upgraded to a Pro iPhone (after saying I wouldn't) LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | December 3, 2025 In 2011, I got my first iPhone and started taking photos with it. Over the years, I upgraded from the 5, to the 6, to the 8, to the 13 mini, to the 14 regular. But there's one upgrade I've never done. Until last week. I upgraded to a Pro iPhone. That's right, for the first time ever, I have an iPhone Pro! Unboxing my new iPhone 17 Pro. I was perfectly fine with my iPhone...
14 days ago • 3 min read
A Simple Shift That Makes Every Photographer Feel More Creative LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | November 26, 2025 The number one thing I hear from new photographers feeling frustrated about their lack of progress is this: "I'm not creative enough." Creativity, like an elusive stroke of luck, seems to be just beyond reach for them. They resign to the fact that they'll never truly be artistic enough to take great photos. They feel doomed to be a subpar photographer with no...
21 days ago • 2 min read
Convert Your iPhone Camera For Night Photography LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | November 19, 2025 Did you get sick of seeing tons of aurora borealis photos in your social feeds last week? Not me! I couldn't get enough of it. I LOVED seeing everyone's photos! I also jumped on board. Instead of using my fancy Nikon camera, I brought my iPhone 14 out one night and it did a pretty good job. Today I'll show you how easy it is to capture Aurora Borealis (or a starry night...
28 days ago • 1 min read
Editing Photos with AI: a deeper look into how I do it LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | November 12, 2025 Is it ok to edit your photos? Or are photos best untouched by an editing app? To take the question further: Is it ok to edit photos using AI? Take a look at my before and afters and I'll tell you why I love editing my photos (and why I think AI is ok for some stuff): BEFORE Unedited, straight out of camera: AFTER Edited in Lightroom Mobile, using all the bells and...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Unlock the Power of Light in Your Photos LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | November 5, 2025 The best photographers are lifelong students of light. If there’s one thing you should pursue, it’s the discovery of light. Its attributes, its quirks, its beauty, its quiet way of speaking 1000 words in one photograph. Often times we chase obvious subject matter. A cute cat. A mountain view. An architectural marvel. A culinary spread. We don’t see the forest for the trees. We...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The antidote to anxiety isn’t productivity, it’s creativity. LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | October 22, 2025 Photography is a lot more than just taking nice photos. To me, photography is a lifeline. It's a form of therapy. It's a creative habit that has benefits far beyond what we realize. Adopting a creativity lifestyle is crucial. Being creative, engaging in artistic activities and making art is crucial to our well-being. When @newhappyco posted this on Instagram, I...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
The Richness of a Curious Life LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | October 1, 2025 Curiosity doesn't have to end in childhood. What I love about photography is that it gifts us the skill of curiosity. Some people might call curiosity a character trait. Or a subconscious behaviour. But I like to see it as a skill, because I believe it can be developed. We can train ourselves to be more curious. So how do we gain more of the richness of a curious life? By practicing it. And it...
3 months ago • 1 min read
It's not you. It's your lens. LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | September 24, 2025 Have you ever noticed that iPhone photos generally look flat? But professional camera lenses create more texture, depth and mood? That's because mobile phone lenses aren't as sophisticated. They don't take photos how our eyes see. When you look at an object with your eyes, the lens inside your eye changes shape in order to focus on the object. This naturally makes the foreground and...
3 months ago • 2 min read
We are drawing with light (with our exposure slider) LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Gabrielle Touchette | September 10, 2025 Control the light, control the mood Photography means "drawing with light". That's what the word actually means in its original language. So controlling your light might be the single most important thing you can do when taking a photo. Lighting is everything. Every great photographer, film director and visual artist will tell you that. In photography, the single most...
3 months ago • 1 min read