Recently, my wife and I went to Edinburgh. It was a short trip but one that I had been looking forward to both as a photographer and purely as a holiday. I had a plan to shoot a YouTube video based on only taking one camera and one lens on a trip.
I had been planning the video for several weeks. In essence, I would vlog my experiences wandering a beautiful city with limited photographic hardware, explaining my rationale for each shot. It never happened, and on many levels, I am happy it never happened.
Let me explain why.
Creativity Does Not Flow Evenly
I have talked before about the fact that our creativity ebbs and flows. In the lead up to our Edinburgh trip, I had been very much in the photographic doldrums. In the two days prior to the trip, I was feeling very down indeed.
Like many photographers and other creative people, my mood can swing a fair bit, and for very little reason. I have not been diagnosed with clinical depression and am pretty sure I am nowhere near that, however several times a year, I can hit a deep low. Not a black dog deep low, more a slate grey low.
That low was severely affecting my desire to shoot both the video and Scotland’s beautiful capital.
I had hoped that the exhilarating drive from Newcastle to Edinburgh along the A68 would lighten my mood. Sadly, however, by the time we reached our destination, the mood was very much the same.
Rain Starts Play
Fans of cricket will very much recognize the term rain stopped play, particularly English cricket fans. In my case, however, an hour or so of rain in Edinburgh, helped lift my mood and inspire me to take photos.
Here’s the story.
By the time my wife and I hit the streets of Edinburgh, I was tired. A sleepless night, an early start, and a 3-hour drive were hitting home. As we wandered the streets, I just could not get inspired either to get my Fuji X-H2 out or to start vlogging.
Then it started raining.
We made a decision to duck into a local pub and have a pint. In hindsight, it was a great decision. Whether it was the alcohol or just the fact that I was relaxing, I realized that I did not have to take stunning high-resolution pictures, nor did I need to create a video around the trip. I had two perfectly capable cameras in my pockets. My aging iPhone 11 Pro for photos and my fairly new DJI Pocket 3 for video.
The decision was liberating. In one simple decision, I had lifted the pressure I had put on myself and was free to enjoy the city, enjoy time with my wife, and shoot whatever I wanted, when and if I saw it.
The Freedom Of Smartphone Photography
I have written about this before, and under similar circumstances, on a trip to Porto. However, I want to look at it in the context of this trip to Edinburgh. This particular trip was never about shooting stock and making money, however, it’s very difficult to get out of that mindset.
Whilst I didn’t intend to shoot stock photography, the YouTube video that I had planned was part of my project to get monetized by the end of 2024. You can read more about that here. That video had been preoccupying my mind for quite a while before the trip and was mostly responsible for my mood.
This is something I think many of us photographers do, whether we shoot professionally or just for ourselves. We set out a preconceived idea. It might be a very particular shot, it might be trying to capture a whole city in a couple of days. We then put immense pressure on ourselves to achieve that.
This is where the beauty of a smartphone comes into play.
We can remove that pressure from ourselves. We know that if there is a photographic opportunity in front of us, we do not have to dig around in our bag to get the camera and correct lens. We don’t have to worry about setting up the camera, checking that we have the correct shooting mode, and metering mode, have set the white balance, focus area et. al.
We simply lift the smartphone up and shoot away.
You Still Have Control
One of the criticisms I hear about smartphone photography is that it’s all fully automated. First of all, that’s not a bad thing, as photographers we should already know our stuff from shooting with our main cameras. Going full auto is not diminishing your skills in any shape, way, or form. Secondly, it’s simply not true.
Even base-level default camera apps give you some control over the image. You can slide to change exposure or focus. On many cameras, you can shoot RAW.
Move to more advanced apps such as Lightroom Camera and you get pretty much full manual control over your shots. You can set shutter speed, ISO white balance, and many other things. However, for me, the most liberating thing about shooting with a smartphone is that you don’t need to set these.
You can pick up the phone and simply shoot. If you want a bit of extra control in post-production, you can shoot RAW. And that’s it.
Pressure Kills Creativity
Whilst a professional photographer working to a brief will have to work creatively under pressure, many of us who shoot either for ourselves or not to any spec, do not need to. By removing that pressure from ourselves, we will, ironically, find ourselves being more creative.
On our brief trip to Edinburgh, once I had freed myself from the shackles of shooting a video, I started to see all sorts of photo opportunities. Many of which, given the weather, I would not have even bothered to shoot on my main camera, yet because my iPhone was there, in my pocket, I got the shots.
I didn’t take a huge number of shots in Scotland’s capital, but those that I did take, I really like. And that’s the most important thing, enjoying what you have captured, regardless of how you captured it.
