The other day I went to the English Garden to take photos of flowers with my Nikon camera and 105mm f/2.8 macro lens.

My goal: to enjoy a day off, do some slow walking, look at the intricate details of flowers and take photos.

I had recently upgraded my pro camera, and I was especially excited to try it out on an easy subject matter: flowers.

I say "easy" because flowers are gorgeous. It doesn't take much to create a stunning photo with such a spectacular subject.

While I was there I was also acutely aware of my iPhone camera, burning a hole in my pocket. I was thinking of you, my newsletter reader, and thinking about how I could use this as a learning experience.

The question I could almost feel you asking was: can the iPhone camera and its macro lens do as good a job as the pro Nikon camera?

I finally decided to pull out my iPhone camera and do a side-by-side comparison.

I started with a regular shot with my iPhone. No zooming in, just physically getting the iPhone 1x lens up and close up to the flower.

I snapped a photo.

It looked like how I expected it would: kind of wide angle, distorted and looking like a typical amateur iPhone shot. Yuck.

Then I decided to apply my “tricks” to improve my iPhone camera shooting:

• I zoomed in
• I brought the iPhone physically closer to the flower
• I made sure the macro function was turned off
• I filled the frame with the main flower as much as possible
• I adjusted the angle so the background blur looked its best

I took the photo and of course, I also edited it in Lightroom mobile. Much better:

These iPhone tricks always do well for me. It improves my boring, iPhone snapshots into an iPhone photo that looks a little more beautiful, more breathtaking, more pro-looking.

I’m happy with the result.

But when I compare it to my Nikon photo - it just doesn’t hold up as well. This was taken with my professional camera:

It's expected that my iPhone shot doesn't hold up to this professional photo. That’s normal. An almost $6000 camera & lens system should outperform my iPhone 17 pro. Otherwise why would I even bother to have Nikon gear for my professional photography work?

It comes down to this:

If you want to get the highest results in photography, using pro gear is necessary.

But if you’re passionate about photography and capturing beauty with any camera you may have, that’s a commendable desire and possible to achieve with any old phone camera.

So use your phone camera!

My goal in this newsletter is to inspire you in your photography journey without requiring you to drop thousands of dollars on camera gear.

It’s about making photography accessible to all, inspiring you to experience the awe and wonder of this art form without restriction.

So if all you have is an iPhone when you go take photos of flowers, revel in the joy of being a photographer that is not dependent on expensive gear to get a nice shot.

You have the ability to fully enjoy the beauty of nature, capture it in its best form with any old camera you may have on you.

I’m cheering you on!

Two things I always do for better nature photos with my phone:

•••

Hi I'm Gabrielle. I run a full time photography business in Winnipeg, specializing in portrait and commercial photography. This newsletter started with my passion for helping everyday people realize their full photography potential. With a bit of technical and creative help, you too can take better photos with the phone camera you already have.

Find more of my resources here:

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Gabrielle Touchette Photography

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