When it comes to photography, I have one golden rule.
Be flexible.
As with all things in life, things will go wrong. You’ll mess up. The sky won’t be right, the clouds won’t go away, it’s too cold, it’s too hot. There are a lot of things that need to go right and that you need to get right in order to get that shot you want.
So recently I was heading for a walk around Carsington Reservoir near Ashbourne. Although primarily a walk to get a breath of fresh air and a leg stretch, I’m trying to get back into the habit of taking my camera out with me. So, I grabbed my camera bag and took it along with me.
After a little while, the sky is looking pretty, the water nice and still and the sun has come out, I reach for my camera with the intent on getting several shots of the reservoir so that I can create a panorama in Photoshop later on. However, when I turn on my camera, it informs me that I’ve made a completely rookie mistake – I’ve left my SD card in my laptop!
I think it’s about time I invest in another one so that I always have a spare in my camera bag but, I’ll deal with that another time. Disappointed at not being able to get my shots, I cursed myself and stuck my camera back in its bag.
I’m a massive advocate of the idea that, in photography, you should use the equipment you have available to you. Yes, the quality of your images will, hopefully, increase as you invest in better equipment but, I think that raw talent and eye that some people have for framing and creating interesting and beautiful images can be channelled through any device. I’m not saying I have this raw talent, I just try my best and have fun doing it!
As somebody who works with and on social media on a daily basis, I’m a huge fan of Instagram. Whether it’s sharing images I’ve captured on my DSLR camera, or quick snaps I’ve taken on my iPhone, I love sharing and viewing images on the Instagram app.
I decided to use my trusty iPhone SE to grab a few shots – a couple simple landscape images, and a panorama, using the panorama tool that iPhone’s have on the camera app. Although I tend to use my iPhone to edit images using either the camera app itself or Instagram. I decided to tweak the panorama slightly using Lightroom and get rid of some shadows that were in the shot using Photoshop. 
Anyway, hopefully I’ve learnt my lesson and will check over my equipment next time before I go out with an SD card. However, it’s nice to be reminded that I have different means of capturing images and that sometimes, it’s just about being flexible and seeing what you can do, with the equipment you have to hand.
If you’d like to see more of my photography, check out my Instagram and Flickr accounts!
Laura Burden Blogs 