I had the pleasure of meeting up with several Photocascadians when they visited Tucson in December. Their trip coincided with peak fall color in Sabino Canyon, part of the Coronado National Forest on the northeast edge of the city. I hadn’t previously explored this area in autumn, but their enthusiasm on the tram ride up the canyon made me realize I was overlooking a real gem that was located just 15 minutes from my home.

Since starting to use my iPhone more for photography, I have mostly favored non-nature subjects. In fact, I liked the fact that I was exploring a larger variety of subjects with this camera than I ever did with my DSLR. However, I still felt the big camera was necessary to capture the detail and dynamic range present in the natural environment and was debating whether I should take it along when I met the Photoscascadia crew at Sabino.

In the end, I decided to go with just the iPhone. I had recently gotten a new one, upgrading from the 1st-gen SE to a 3rd-gen SE (definitely not state-of-art) and was anxious to try it out. It has single iPhone 8 camera (28-mm equivalent focal length, f/1.8). It’s noticeably bigger than than my 1st-gen SE, but still smaller than the current iPhones. I carry my phone in the cargo pocket of my pants and feel most other models are too big and bulky.

I have previously hiked in Sabino Canyon with the DSLR and tripod in tow. It’s not that hard given that the main hiking road is paved and doesn’t have much elevation gain, but, to be honest, it’s also not much fun.

My DSLR gear, including the tripod, weighs 8 pounds. My iPhone weighs 5 ounces. Beyond the joy of NOT carrying all that extra weight, the iPhone is also significantly more maneuverable. I can hold it over my head when I need more elevation or quickly bring it down to ground level simply by sitting down. I can also easily balance on a rock in the middle of the creek to take pictures. The screen is bigger and brighter than my camera’s LCD and the image view is not cluttered with a couple dozen icons, so composition is easier. I also take more pictures simply because it’s so convenient and accessible. The end result is that I explore the scene more thoroughly and discover more pictures than I do with the DSLR and tripod.

Sure, there are compromises. The iPhone’s tiny 12-megapixel sensor is never going to match the detail and dynamic range of a DSLR sensor, but I can still make an acceptable 12 x 16-inch print, and the online images look fine (at least I think they do). I also, unfortunately, have extremely limited focal length options with a single-camera phone and this isn’t ideal for nature photography. That’s a bit frustrating when I’m seeing a telephoto shot, but getting to know the field-of-view for a single lens eventually makes finding pictures with it easier. I’m getting better at seeing in 28-mm.

Of course, the camera is only one component of photography now. Software is another element that needs to be considered. I have been using the Adobe Lightroom Mobile camera app to capture images since a friend made me aware of it. It’s free if you have an Adobe Lightroom subscription. Just load Lightroom Mobile onto your phone and the camera app is there. You can even create a separate icon, making it as easy to access as your phone’s regular camera app. I used the “Pro” mode for these images. It allows me to lock the light, choose the focal point, and adjust exposure.

Another advantage of the Lightroom camera app is that images captured with it are true raw files. Some “raw” formats actually process the image to remove noise and add sharpness. This means that when you go to process it later, you may have to contend with artifacts that were never present in the original capture. The DNG file from the Lightroom camera has no processing applied. It’s created from the phone’s raw capture data, and Adobe even makes all it’s standard profiles (Adobe Color, Adobe Vivid, Adobe Landscape, etc.) available for the iPhone cameras. This increases the options when deciding how to process an image. Linear profiles even work with iPhones, and I often prefer trying this option as my starting point for processing.

Like most photographers, I really enjoy taking pictures. Unlike some of them, though, I also like processing them. It’s exciting watching a raw file transform into a finished image. There’s a certain level of challenge in finding the right tools and then applying them, often with brushstrokes, to get the results that look right. While many consider smartphones point-and-shoot cameras, the reality is that, by capturing raw files, a full menu of processing options remains available.

There are plenty of software alternatives that not only make processing easier, but also allow smartphone images to looks surprisingly good. The Denoise option in Lightroom, for example, does a remarkable job cleaning up the noise in my iPhone images, and the Topaz Photo’s “Standard Max” upscaling creates some beautifully sharpened prints. One additional processing benefit of smartphone images that’s sometimes overlooked is that there is no sensor dust to clean, and that’s one processing step I do not miss.

So, overall, from both a shooting and processing standpoint, I enjoy and am generally satisfied with what my iPhone camera has to offer.

SUMMARY: As a result of this autumn’s hikes in Sabino Canyon, I’ve grown more comfortable using my iPhone as a primary camera for nature photography. Its compact size and convenience make it a surprisingly effective tool for exploration, and in this case, it exceeded my expectations. While there are inevitable compromises, I realized that NOT using the phone might have limited both the number and variety of images I was able to capture. A DSLR and tripod would certainly offer greater versatility and image quality, but the added gear would also reduce the ease of using the smartphone and detract from the overall enjoyment of the outdoor experience.

That said, I recognize there are plenty of situations where a smartphone camera simply won’t suffice, so it’s important to consider the location and subjects in advance. I’m not suggesting that photographers abandon their DSLRs. My experience simply reaffirmed the value of the iPhone as a versatile and creative option, even for landscape and nature photography.

To see larger size images from this article, click an image below to open a gallery.