Always an Amateur

When I was in my early 20s and worked in a camera store, I thought I knew almost everything about photography.

First of all, I was studying photojournalism at college, where we learned all about shutter speed, aperture, and ASA, and how they all worked to capture the correct amount of light, clarity, and depth of field. I learned all about composition, to shoot for the greatest impact, to tell a story with a single photograph. And I learned how to develop film and print images, and how to manually dodge and burn (though, I actually learned a lot of those skills because of my best friend's dad, and by being a photographer for my high-school yearbook).

Working in the camera store, I got to play with a lot of different cameras and read lots of books by the pros. When a representative from Nikon, Canon, Minolta, or Pentax dropped in the store, I gleaned a lot of information about creating special effects and getting the most out of each camera.

Yeah, in my 20s, I thought I was hot shit when it came to photography.

More than 30 years later, I realize that I still have a lot to learn, that I'm still of amateur rank.

On our recent trip to Mexico, I made the decision to leave my D-SLRs at home and only took my smartphone—a Samsung Galaxy S10—and my two Insta360 video cameras. During December's trip to Cuba, I had also brought my Nikon D7200, my 24–70mm f/2.8 lens, my 70–300mm f/4.5–5.6 zoom, my travel tripod, one of my speedflashes, and a remote trigger.

I only used the D-SLR a couple of times. I only used the zoom lens once and I never used the flash. I used the tripod two times and ended up forgetting to bring it home (I usually had it tucked in a corner of our room, out of the way—and, apparently, out of sight). Most of the time, I used my smartphone and my Insta360 One R.

For Mexico, I wanted to travel light. My smartphone would have to capture all stills (though, the Insta360 cameras also capture stills and you can take a sharp image from video footage—see my snorkeling photos in Akumal Bay).

I thought my photography skills would mean that I could take great photos from my phone. Easy-peasy. Though it's pretty good at capturing images in Automatic mode, there is a Manual mode and I thought I could handle more complex shots with it—at night, for example.

I'm not the hot-shot photographer that I used to think I was. Truth be told, I haven't felt as confident since I moved from 35mm film to digital. But in working with my smartphone, I've discovered that I have so much more to learn.

One evening, when we had a full moon, I was standing in the dark on our balcony, listening to the soothing waves, taking in the fresh air, and admiring the view. I told myself that I needed to capture that moon, and so I placed my phone on the selfie stick, attached it to a mini tripod, and got to work with my manual settings: f/1.5, 1/7 second shutter speed, at 2000 ISO.

I know. It was awful. I fidgeted with a few more settings but the images just got more and more blurry or would only show the moon properly exposed.

As a sidebar, I have a horrible habit of using my smartphone without glasses. Because of this, I can't read half of the settings on the phone, especially the camera app. So after squinting at my screen with each shot, I decided to fetch my reading glasses.

With my next shot composed on the screen, I was about to put the camera in Manual mode, again, when I saw a small button, next to the shutter button, that read Night Mode.

Apparently, I've never worn glasses while taking a picture at night. I tapped the button and took my shot.

I need to go back to school.

Happy Friday!