The best camera? The one you have with you.

I had spent the evening cleaning my lenses, packing my cameras and charging my batteries, (or so I thought) - for a 5am trip to the Tegalalang Rice Terraces near Ubud in Bali, Indonesia.

Except I hadn’t. I clambered the terraces, set my camera up on its tripod and prepared to shoot some luscious landscapes. Then discovered every single battery was dead. All I had was my iPhone 8 and about five kilos of bricked photo gear.

These are the results.

I believe it was Chase Jarvis who coined the phrase the best camera is the one you have with you. These images prove that point. I wasn’t going to go on a two hour detour to get the cameras and I was leaving Ubud that day anyway.

A more important lesson followed. Cameras do matter, but not as much as a good eye, patience, remembering to look behind you as well as forwards and recognising good light.

Most of all, photography rewards those prepared to set an early alarm..

From Observation to Participation