So, I think I may have sipped the Kool-Aid….

I’ll admit it. I’m ready to eat crow. Ready to take the hat off my head, put it in my mouth, and chew on it. Or a shoe. Whatever. It started slowly, almost without warning, when I got my iPhone and downloaded Instagram. I would snap a photo here, there, whenever something caught my eye and I didn’t have the GF1 or a DSLR handy. I started to follow some of my favorite photographers on Instagram, some of my friends, watching their feed. Some of the photos may have inspired me. Maybe.

I complained about the whole Instagram fad before I had it. It’s been so long ago now that I can’t find where I said it to quote, but I’m pretty sure I said something about phone camera photos being not that great. I worried that crappy cellphone photos were taking the place of photos that could have been taken with proper cameras. It was not a tremendous amount of bellyaching over it. But I thought about it hard enough to mostly dismiss photos taken with phones. Mostly.

A curious thing started to happen. When I’d be out shooting with my GF1 or Canon DSLRs, sometimes I would want to share what I was shooting. Not in an hour, or later that evening, or tomorrow. Right then, while I was in the moment and feeling it, with the light right and creative juices flowing. So I’d pull out my iPhone, get Instagram going, and take a photo. I’d apply my favorite filters, then upload it to Facebook and/or Twitter. Just like that. A moment shared, immediately.

The more I took these little photos and shared them, the more I started to find some that I liked. And when that happened, I started to TRY to take good photos with my iPhone. And when I started to TRY, I started to feel really… CREATIVE. Sometimes, I would be out with my son Isaac and I wouldn’t have a camera at all, or HE would have my camera. But I always have my phone.

The watershed event was a recent trip to Southern Oregon to visit my mom. I took my GF1, I took my Canon 5D, I took a few lenses for both, and I of course took my iPhone. While flying across the country, I had WiFi on the plane (another modern marvel to discuss in some other post at some other time!).

I could have unwedged the 5D or GF1 from under the seat, or taken the 5D out of the overhead compartment, contorted myself to try to take some photos out of the plane window, removed the SD or CompactFlash card, ingested the photos into Lightroom, exported them as JPEGs, uploaded them to Flickr, then shared them with my friends. Or… I think you see where I’m going with this… Or, I could just take my iPhone out of my pocket, take the photo and edit with Instagram, flip a couple of tabs, and *POOF* my photos are online, shared with my little network as I flew high over the Great Salt Lake.

It was a pivotal moment, to be sure. For the first time, I have images from three different camera formats that I would use for a photo essay, or a photo album, or some other method of telling a visual story. The iPhone, the GF1, and the 5D worked together as a team, as tools in the bag, serving different purposes at different times. Just as a photographer of yore might have packed different color films for different applications, I had used different tools to different ends.

And you know what? I really like the results. The images I took with my iPhone don’t–can’t–tell the whole story of my journey, but they do say something, they do have their part to tell. The GF1 adds its voice, and the 5D its own, as well. I have images from all three that are deeply satisfying.

Chase Jarvis, a professional photographer that I follow and admire, is a big proponent of “the best camera is the one you have with you,” even going so far as to have an Instagram-like photoblog of his own by that name. He also has elevated and celebrated the snapshot, pointing out the importance of those fleeting moments, those records of the ordinary or the sublime.

I’m not sure where I fall on that spectrum, but like I said, I’m ready to eat crow. I’m a convert. A believer. A born-again photographer. Whatever you want to call me, my ID on Instagram is markitos57. Check it out, if you want. Whatever you do, be creative, with whatever tool you have. Don’t let its limits keep you from expressing yourself and your vision.

One thing I am sure of: it is a fascinating time to be a photographer.