There is no doubt about the convenience of the smartphone camera. What isn’t there to love when an HD quality camera fits right in your pocket? Professional quality photo shoots can be done with smartphones. Even short films and music videos are being recorded on iPhones in recent years; it’s hard to argue their technical prowess and prevalence among the everyday person.

However, where smartphone cameras favor pristineness, digital cameras value the feeling of living in the moment. Digital camera photography has an almost dream-like quality, highlighting what it feels like to reflect on a memory.

I took to photographing various things I found around me like landscapes, close friends, and other random objects. Simply taking out my camera when the opportunity arose.

In my escapades, I captured a stunning scenic photo of the HFC campus and stumbled across a rather surprising find—a banana in the snow! Such moments make you feel lucky to have a camera on you.

In addition, I took the time to snap a few companion photos with my smartphone to compare and contrast my photography.

In the photo of my best friend holding a geode, I was looking to capture something stylized with a purposely strange composition and lighting. When reviewing the photos, my best friend said, “The weird, abstract composition of the photo lends itself better to the digital photograph than the smartphone one. It looks like a still from an old, dreamy movie.”

As is observable in the smartphone camera, the details of color and contrast are sharper and glossier than its digital camera counterpart; the eye focuses on the model’s hair first and foremost. However, in the digital camera version, the key components of the photo—the model, the geode, and the house through the window—all feel like they share equal value in their integrity to the visual story.

Furthermore, the contrast in sharpness and definition are even greater in the photos of the toys in a basket. The smartphone photo is saturated and bursting with color, no detail being spared. The digital camera version favors fuzziness in a way that is almost comparable to watercolor painting. When reviewing the digital camera version of the toy basket photo, my partner said, “This is what it feels like to be a child,” highlighting how digital camera photography is not about trying to catch the most technically pristine photo but the most memorable.

We see a plethora of people editing their smartphone photos to look grainy or overexposed like we see in old fashioned cameras. Many individuals favor these old aesthetics and will go as far as tweak the high quality to look low quality. Producing a grainy and shaky candid photo is a priceless memory, with all of its imperfections.

It has become a common occurrence for young people to browse old school websites like Flickr and share their finds of digital camera photography on social media. Often lamenting for a bygone time, the youth has an exceeding interest in old forms of tech and the memories of others through this photographic medium.

There is an unmistakable aura and warmth that comes from digital camera style photos. Digital camera photos make you feel like you’re stepping back in time and retracing your steps. There will always be serendipity to be found in taking photos, especially when using an older piece of camera tech like a digital camera.

There is a lot to gain from downgrading your camera and capturing photos in the moment, reducing the need and desire to heavily edit photos. There is an intimacy to be found in handling a digital camera, and in looking at the unexpected results.