One thing I learned quickly is that photojournalism is often about making the best of an imperfect situation. Mobile photography is often like that too. Because you always have your "camera" with you, those random photo opportunities show up when you least expect them. You're in the wrong spot. Or too far away. Someone walks into the shot or a car goes by. You grab what you can. But you don't have to live with it. Cropping became the secret weapon in my photo toolbox.

There’s no better horizon line than the ocean itself, but my pictures tend to lean a tiny bit to the left. Occasionally, I deliberately add some tilt to the composition just for interest’s sake. But, mostly, I’d just as soon take a nice square image as not. Which brings me to the updated Camera App in iOS 17. That has a level!

She would have been 110 years old today. She made it to 89, my mother. And as far as I know, there are only 95 photos of her that remain. About one for each year of her life. Barely a CliffsNotes® version of her life story.

And what a story it was.

We take silly photos.

But we take profound photos too.

Photos that make us think. Remind us how it was. And share the moment.

I went to the 9/11 memorial on a rainy, dismal winter day. And even though it wasn’t timely, it’s a reminder of those days and it serves to reboot the experience and serve as the placeholder that I never made at the time.

And it reminds me that photos aren’t that literal. They jumpstart memories and touch our souls. They’re a catalyst for bigger things.

I’m a fan of random photo samplers. Starting the day off with my pictures from a forgotten moment, portraits of a loved one, or that special trip is wonderful. It’s a delight that’s both simple and profound, like discovering an old cafe matchbook at the bottom of a memory box. Now, since iOS 16.1, you can enjoy that same experience on the Lock Screen itself.

Of all the life skills we learn in school, there are two daily tasks that should be part of every curriculum, but generally aren’t. Money and photography. By comparison, the only time in years that I dredged my memory for chemistry facts was at last Tuesday’s trivia night.

Where I naturally spent money and took photos. Like every other day. Go figure.

Our iPhones are always with us in ways that the film SLR’s of the past never were. And their small size makes them perfect for candid and street photography. So how do you master the iPhone quick draw?

If I hear one persistent complaint about Apple Photos and iCloud, it’s the ease with which you can unintentionally remove entire memories from your life. Precious photos deleted and gone.

But, ironically, it’s also what makes the Apple Photos experience so remarkably good.

For most of us, Summer is the great social experience of the year. And thanks to the iPhone, it’s ultra easy to collect a whole story in photos and video to keep those moments alive. Often, those excursions are as guests with friends or at a special event like a wedding. Whatever the occasion, there are some easy ways to say thanks with photos that will delight your hosts.

Great movies almost always have great B-roll. The moments that set the scene or hint at an unspoken desire without benefit of dialogue or actors. A cityscape, beach, cafe, or local details that set the location apart and give background to the story. The stories we tell with our photos can be just as powerful.

Every now and then I have to remind myself that photography is nothing more than painting with light. The scene we face is a rich palette of colors from brilliant to drab that we use to excite photo-sensitive camera pixels in one way or another and come up with some interpretation of the scene itself.

Summer is officially here.

So now is the perfect time to look at your photo strategy and get ahead of the curve. For many of us, June kicks off the annual photo “season” that starts with graduations, weddings, and travel events, and dissolves into Fall and Holiday festivities.

Here are six ways to approach Summer photos that will enrich your memories without adding overwhelm and turn you into a better photographer. It's like summer school without the deadlines, and you grade yourself.

Software is not that different than dinosaur evolution theory except that the whole Mesozoic Era is about 20 years in digital time and we play the creators.

If you’re an Apple user, chances are that you got an alert recently about My Photo Stream being discontinued on Wednesday, July 26th.

Somehow the announcement recalled my childhood obsession with dinosaurs and their evolutionary trees that played out over eons, dooming some creatures to branch off into obscurity while others kept evolving and adapted into birds.

If ever there was the perfect reason for using Live Photo, it’s to capture the experience of a fireworks display.

Every year about now I remind readers that whatever you love/hate about the Live Photo feature on your iPhone, taking pictures of fireworks is the bone fide, slam dunk best way to get comment-worthy pictures of fireworks in your Photos Library.

And it’s surprisingly easy to do.

If you have a regular Memorial Day tradition, it’s a great time to make your own slideshow retrospective of Memorial Days past. The years you visited friends or family to celebrate the start of summer. Those backyard parties. And, of course, the parades.

Every parent has that moment, or will, when they notice that their kid has become an adult. You were so wrapped up in the journey that you missed the arrival. A few weeks ago I returned from the 2023 Photo Managers Conference in Orlando and felt smacked by the same discovery.

Last Year I replaced my old iPhone with a spiffy new iPhone 14 Pro and I’m all excited about the cool new features. A lot has happened since my iPhone 11 Pro was fresh out of the box, particularly with the camera. How about a 48 megapixel file? A 3X telephoto. Close up Macro photography.

GPS location tagging on iPhone photos is a world class gift and I can tell you that it's saved me more than once from minutes of swiping through years of pictures to find the one I want. When I show the Places tab in Apple Photos to my clients, and teach them how to use it, I swear that I see tears of joy.

I got the news recently, in an email, that they don’t want me anymore.

That hurts. Sort of.

But, I get it. Relationships are a two way street and I guess I dropped out. Didn’t pay at-tention. Things got in the way.

So there it was.

“It’s been awhile since you logged in . . . Due to inactivity, your account is scheduled for deletion on March 1, 2023”

If you visit any large city and photograph tall buildings, you quickly understand the problem of perspective. Unless you are about half a mile away (just try that in New York) you have to shoot up and use a wide angle lens to fit it all in. The inevitable result is a building that looks like it's falling backwards. And if you're shooting 2 buildings side by side, it looks like they are going to hug.