As we walked in the park the sun was just beginning to dip into the horizon casting a golden hue onto everything around us. At the time the air was beginning to get a fall chill causing fog to rise off of the warmer bodies of water.

I began to kick myself for not bringing “a capable” camera while this surreal scene unfolded in front of me. I soldiered through with my iPhone, thinking to myself that I wouldn’t really get anything usable. What I realized though, was that because I didn’t have gear and I wasn’t planning on taking photos I was present in a moment in nature and with my family in which I would have otherwise been distracted. I saw things from different perspectives. I slowed down and appreciate what was in front of me before raising a viewfinder to my eye. The results I think speak for themselves.

What makes me a photographer is not my camera, not even my technical prowess, even though those things are helpful. What makes me a photographer is the willingness to see, to slow down, to not rush past the beauty that is contained in the mundane. What makes me photographer is not my camera, but my soul.

*All photos taken with an iPhone, while actually enjoying nature and my family.