…Is the one you have with you. We’ve all heard that saying, right? And like me, you’ve probably scoffed at it or maybe rolled your eyes because you know your dSLR is the best camera and you should just always have it with you! But if you are like me, you may have also wished sometimes that your dSLR wasn’t so heavy, or big, or fragile. I find myself leaving my camera behind more often than not because it does get more than a little cumbersome.

When my family was set to head to Disney World in early May, I had given a lot of thought to what camera I would take with me. I had my first dSLR, a crop frame, and I had decided I would take that camera since it was smaller, lighter, and if it got damaged, it wouldn’t be a huge deal. Fast forward to packing to leave and I can’t find my battery charger for that camera anywhere. So with great reservations, I packed my full frame camera and lugged it all over Disney World. And guess what happened? I barely used it. It was hot and humid and we had long days, the last thing I wanted was my heavy camera hanging around my neck. So did I just not take any photos? Of course not! Don’t be silly. What I did was use my phone. And I felt guilty about it. Here I have this amazing camera sitting in its bag and I’m capturing these beautiful moments with my phone?

I’m over the guilt now. Could I have taken better photos with my dSLR? Definitely. But would I have? Probably not. And I’m so thankful I have these wonderful moments captured!

Just like with any camera, its more about how you use it than the camera itself. It might feel silly but still pay attention to how you compose the shot, tap on your subject to tell it focus and expose for them, and if you have an iPhone, you can even scroll up or down on the sun to control the exposure even more. There are even apps if you want to take it to the next level and do full manual control with your phone camera but I haven’t gone that far yet!

Some of my favorite photos of my girls have been taken with my phone so if you’ve ever felt guilty for leaving your big lug of a camera behind and just using your phone, make like Elsa and let it go and just treasure the moments!

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