By Mike Swift
As a professional photographer I have seen the development of the smartphone camera over the years since I noticed the Apple iPhone 3S.
The cameras on these smartphones were largely useless in the early days.
However, over the last four or five years they have become serious pieces of kit in the camera bag of the professional photographer.
I am nowadays a street photographer and the latest cameras, yes plural, on the iPhone 14 PRO are really good for working in the streets. You can get on a tube train and look like you are sending a text but are actually documenting life in 2023 for future generations to enjoy.
The iPhone was a phone with a camera in 2006, but today it is an excellent camera and a computer with the ability to make phone calls.
It is far from being a phone.
I have had double page spreads and front page pictures in the newspapers I have worked for and videos broadcast on TV and online, all created with the latest smartphone technology.
I always believed it could do 90% of the jobs that you could do with an expensive DSLR or mirrorless kit.
What it couldn’t do was fast moving action and sport.
But in the last few years the technology has allowed the design to accommodate three optical lenses.
So, I took up the challenge to cover a football match using just the iPhone 14PRO and to get three pictures that an editor would be happy to choose from and publish in a newspaper.
Last Saturday I covered the Reading vs Watford FA Cup Third Round tie which Reading went on to win 2-0.
I reckon I got about six publishable images which I am very pleased with.
Now I don’t think anyone could do it as you would have to have an extensive knowledge of both the sport and photography to be in the right place and using the correct professional manual exposure camera app.
As with all sports photography, luck plays its part in being in the right place at the right time too.
Are the pictures ,as good as the pictures from the £10,000 worth of cameras and lenses the sports chaps use? Well no, and that is why there are not the midfield tackles, pin sharp and full frame from 80 yards away – it is not up to that.
If my camera failed though while out on a sports job, I could have got three pictures for the editor and that is quite satisfying.
It really is the most amazing camera in the right hands.
Editor adds: We think this is a world first – the first match action shots taken from the touchline and printed in a newspaper. We’re thrilled to be sharing them with you
Mike Swift is a professional fine art and street photographer and a former chief photographer at a national newspaper group. He tweets at @swiftmik, and his website is www.360swift.com
