[UncleVanya]

My dad recently got a grip for his iPhone 12 max pro. It allows him to treat the phone more like a camera. It clips on and off quickly and uses Bluetooth to simply use and make things more ergonomic.

My phone may have contributed to this as I had set it to auto upload all photos to private folders for backup. Many many photos. I’ve disabled this recently as I never use 95% of them since they aren’t taken for long term use. Many are quick shots to remind me of something.

[photoptimist]

I don't worry about the Flickr stats because:

1. Snapshot photography has been the most popular form of photography for decades -- free image sharing platforms just make that more visible.

2. Popularity isn't the same thing as quality of either the gear or the images -- just because something is common, doesn't make it better.

3. Gear does not matter in a wide range of photographic genres and shooting scenarios. The photographer's eye (and brain) matter a lot more in picking the subject matter, composition, and instant of capture. Smartphones are the perfect starter camera.

4. However, ultimately, gear does matter when it comes achieving better control of the image (e.g., through focal length, depth-of-field, exposure control, controlled lighting), higher-volume shooting, as well as in some genres of photography (e..g wildlife and astro). Most people seeking to improve their photography or "go pro" will eventually get a dedicated camera.

5. Therefore: anything that makes photography more popular and rewards those starting out (with "likes" of easy-to-sue free platforms) is going to help the dedicated camera industry in the long-term.

[Madaboutpix]

We are social animals, and the zeitgeist indicates that dedicated cameras, and images created using them, are far less popular than the images created using smartphones. The question it raises is this - will, in the coming decade, our perceptions as a society shift far enough from what was, that smartphone pictures actually become the standard of what should be?What is your take on this trend? Do you find it disturbing or do you find yourself ignoring it to shoot your next image?

There are long answers and short answers to this, I guess. Suffice it to say that when I took up SLR photography in 1983, I didn't so much do it to win popularity contests, and I didn't enter DSLR photography in 2009 primarily to be popular, or because everyone seemed to be having or getting one, either. Now, I'm not going to pretend that positive feedback on my images doesn't matter to me, but I have learned to differentiate between meaningful and less meaningful feedback. And don't I regret a bit that there used to be a time when family or friends looked at photographs together on larger screens or even in print? Well yes, certainly. Still, that never was the driving factor. The main thing always was that I was fascinated by good photography, wanted to practice photography myself and get at least reasonably good at it. I wanted to handle those cameras and lenses, I wanted to take them out, and I wanted to preserve what caught my eye and what mattered to me, what I found intriguing, beautiful, and occasionally funny. I wanted something to immerse myself in. I wanted something that I could do strictly for fun. DSLR photography still ticks all those boxes for me.

Maybe it's a little easier for me than for some, since I've always been more of an introvert, but why would I let something as fickle and significantly driven by sheep as the zeitgeist ruin a hobby of a lifetime for myself? As long as my eyes and body allow, and there's compelling gear out there that I can afford to shoot, I'm pretty sure I will go on with it and have fun in the process.