I met a friend at a recent athletics meeting, and he reminded me that he had ‘covered for me’ at an event while I was away on holiday recently. I thanked him, and he added, ‘Of course my photos weren’t as good as yours, I was just using an iPhone…’ That conversation reminded me of an apocryphal story I heard a while back. Permit me to share…

A celebrated photographer was visiting a college, to give an inspirational lecture to the photography students. He spoke of his long career in the visual arts, the wonderful places he had visited and the famous people he had met, and of course the top commissions he had earned. He illustrated his talk with a PowerPoint presentation with stunning landscapes and documentary images that had been published by the world’s leading news outlets. At the end of the lecture he opened his camera bag and showed some of the professional equipment he used, all of it top of the range gear; a whole range of professional camera bodies, fast lenses and much more. 

Finally he opened the class up for questions and discussions. One of the students tentatively raised his hand. “You have several cameras and lenses, – so how do you decide which camera and lens to use in any particular location and event – say an unexpectedly glorious sunset?”

The great photographer didn’t have to think too long before the answer came. It was a simple reply, “The one you have with you…”

And that in turn, reminded me of the sunset above… It was ‘unexpectedly glorious’ indeed. Janette and me had been having an after dinner stroll on the deck of a ship out in the Atlantic, and when we reached the stern we were confronted by this beautiful setting sun. The only camera I had with me was a phone – an iPhone SE that I had bought second-hand for £160, and that image is the result, with just the tiniest amount of editing in Lightroom.

Don’t let an image go un-photographed, or a decisive moment pass by just because your top of the range Nikon or Canon is in the car or at home. Use whatever camera you’ve got with you!