Up until a few days ago, all of the pictures and videos I’ve ever taken throughout my adult life, and particularly those of the past several years where I’ve published and sold some of my work, I’ve used a phone, first the Galaxy S7, then the S22, and since last July, the S24+.
I’m a big believer and practitioner of “a tool is only as good as the user,” and based on my own perceptions and the opinions of the thousands of people I meet each month during sidewalk astronomy, I’m confident enough to say I’ve honed the art form of cell phone photography.
For years, however, I’ve dreamed of entering the realm of DSLRs and drones. While cell phone photography has come a long way from the late 2000s and early 2010s, there is that critical element of image scalability missing, and my personal known-unknown: editing features.
The past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to invest in Canon’s entry-level Rebel T7 and DJI’s Mini 4K drone, neither of which is expensive compared with the professional cameras and drones I’ve seen people work with, but which, given my knowledge of photography and editing, I knew were good fits for me to get a leg rather than a foot in the door. Between them, I invested less than $1,000, and bought a few extras (tripods, gimbal, and the 75-300 lens that, while it has mixed reviews, I’ve personally enjoyed the past couple days learning).
I’m going to save photos I’ve captured for a separate blog post next week. My goal in this was to update about the new format I’m practicing. Because it is a skill. In the outings I’ve taken with the T7 already, I’ve come back to look at the photos on the computer, and they are a world of difference compared to the dressed-up output that a cell phone produces. I see how the light, the texture, the colors are different. These photos physically feel different as well, more authentic in some ways, because to my trained-on-a-phone eye can see all the subtle variations in color and shading and contrast and sharpness that the phone automatically corrects for.
Taking the T7 out feels like a game. I’m intentional about my observations, seeking out nuances and subtleties in the environment, little aspects of places familiar to me that I haven’t chosen to notice until now. Certainly there’s a difference between holding a phone out for a picture, and analyzing a shot through the camera viewfinder before pressing the release.
As for the drone, I haven’t yet taken it out, saving it for Sunday or Monday after all my other work is complete since I need to be more intentional about learning how to fly it first, and want to do that away from buildings and people. Celery Fields or some other large flat area is a good location to start, so maybe that’s where I’ll fly it for the first time.
I’m excited to practice this art style, and I know it’ll lead to new skills and journeys along the way.
Summer 2025 is coming, and what an adventure it will be. Life is changing. This chapter is coming to a close, and the story continues on.
See you on the sidewalk.
Alex Martin
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