Not too long ago I came across a facebook post in a group of photographers lamenting the new iPhone. The new "portrait mode" camera option is just too good, this photographer claimed. Just wait, we won't be getting many clients because people will have this amazing phone to take their pictures.

Since I started photography, there has been a new fancy phone basically every year. Each phone boasts an upgraded camera. And, probably once a month there is some new technology making editing camera photos that much better. And, let's face it, every week some old friend we knew has started a new photography business. About two or three years ago I heard of a career photographer that warned photography was essentially a dead industry.

This has been the industry landscape for years. And it probably isn't changing any time soon.

Phones may have amazing cameras, but being an amazing photographer is a hell of a lot more than having an amazing cameras. This shouldn't be news. 

Being an amazing photographer is about how you see the world, how you translate your vision into reality so that everyone who doesn't see it that way finally can. It's about working with what you have to create magic. It's about your experience, your expertise, your skill. It's about the experience you create for others. It's about the PHOTOGRAPHER.

People may be able to snap better shots of their kids at the playground or more flattering selfies before their date night, but odds are those are not the photos they would be seeking a photographer for anyway, right? 

People who are blown away by the quality of the camera will quickly realize how much MORE it takes to create amazing photos. Period.

So, if you are feeling like the new consumer-technologies are going to make your job obsolete, maybe look inward and figure out what you have within you that no iPhone camera could ever have... because there's a LOT.