Phone Photography: shooting from the hip

Both the wonder | wander | women have jobs that require a lot of pictures. Often we're lucky enough to have a professional photographer or experienced Instagrammer on site to provide pictures for our copy. Increasingly though, we're becoming used to just pulling out our standard smartphones and taking the pictures ourselves.

We look at so many selfies and unpracticed 'foodstagrams' that we might forget we're living in a great democratic age for amateur photography. It's never been easier to create a visual record.

But a casual snapshot does not make a good story. A photograph needs drama and dynamism, especially when illustrating a blog post or company tweet. We picked up some good tips from our experience and from helpful colleagues and wanted to share them here.


A lot of photography delivers a message through composition. We look for unusual patterns and shapes that draw the eye, and then try to frame them in a way that shows what's happening and adds visual interest.

We like to play with special lenses sometimes. The macro lens is especially good for revealing a previously invisible side of a subject. You can get good cheap lenses from brands such as Camkix.

Even without special lenses, we like to get up close and personal.

Sometimes a feature on the phone enables us to take a picture that's much more dramatic than the standard ratio. If you have a steady hand and a good idea of your start and end point, try exploring the panoramic mode on your smartphone camera.

The best tool for photography isn't a camera with all the bells and whistles, or even a smartphone, but a good eye and a sense of adventure - both things that the wonder | wander | women love to encourage here!