A few weeks back my son and I have spent a wonderful couple of days exploring the old town of Tallinn in Estonia. Usually I carry my “big” camera with me whenever I travel, as I love capturing our adventures, but after a busy month the last thing I wanted to do was to be in work mode again (and I can’t help it, if I have my big camera I feel like I have to work really hard to create great photos). So instead this time I decided to go light: no camera, just a brand new Google Pixel – and it’s pretty impressive camera.

It was very freeing to not have to carry my heavy equipment with me, and really focus on spending some wonderful time with my son, while at the same time being able to capture great memories for us.

Smartphone photography is a little different to photographing with a proper digital SLR. For example, you can’t exactly shoot “wide open” which is what I love doing with my DSLR to really focus on the main subject in the photo and throw the rest out of focus. You are also limited to a wide angle lens, so you need to look at the complete frame you’re capturing and really utilize the compositional techniques like the rule of thirds to create impactful images that are more than just a quick phone snapshot.

I have really enjoyed this challenge and while I think nothing can quite replace “proper” big camera photos, I will treasure these just as much!