The amazing world of smartphone photography: professional photographers' images (part 1)

The world of photography has changed so profoundly in just the past few years. With smartphone cameras passing a certain threshold, the sheer number of captured images in the world has grown multiple times, and more and more of them gets shared on Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, and so many other venues. It’s hard to say when this transition started to snowball, but to us it seems that the growth of Instagram is a good point of measure.

In this series of articles, we’d be exploring the amazing world of smartphone photography done right by professional photographers. A small disclaimer should be put here to calm down the crowds, as some would start arguing why most of the pictures in this series comes from the iPhone: Apple’s darling seems to be the preferred smartphone camera by an overwhelming amount of professional photographers, and most of them are pretty vocal about not willing to exchange it for anything else.

We start our journey with a series of authors from Eastern Europe, and Russia in particular, but we’ll be looking forward to you sharing your favorite smartphone photographers, and why you love them.

"The iPhone is simple, laconic, and many are attracted by its simplicity"

The first author we feature here is Igor Burba, a photographer with some 8 years of professional experience. “Nearly two years ago, I switched to" an iPhone, and this decision was the start of my love of phone photography. … The iPhone is simple, laconic, and many are attracted by its simplicity. Even those people who did not think about taking pictures on a phone, begin to do it on the iPhone. That’s a fact," Burba said for Russian publication Hi-Tech. The photographer also mentioned he is using VSCO Cam for his editing.

"Mostly, I take pictures in the art-portrait style. Sadness, and a meditative, melancholic feeling are the dominant mood in my shots. But sometimes, when I take pictures of couples, I do encourage them to smile and have more fun," Burba said.

Finally, when asked whether he’s willing to change his iPhone for something else, he answers with a resounding ‘no’: "Everyone loves what Steve came up with." Well, that’s his personal opinion, and judging by his pictures, he has a solid reason to be happy with his gadget. Take a look at them right below.