On my way back home from a very fulfilling trip, I had a short stopover in Hong Kong. The weather was dreary. Not cold but not warm either and foggy enough to obscure most of the skyline for which the city is famous. The grey sky took nothing away from the fantastic food and colourful street scenes, however. I decided to leave my camera packed away while I snapped random photos with my smartphone. The results were rather mixed but I’m quite happy with the more candid perspective that it seemed to give me.

Smartphones rarely take photos as quickly as a “real” camera. By the time your phone captures the shot maybe a taxi cuts right in front of you.

Perhaps you just need to choose a scene where life moves at a slower pace. Everyone likes to have their picture taken at a famous monument.

…or a luxurious hotel

How do you capture a place when it’s constantly changing?

At least some things always stay the same

…and delicious

I don’t think I’ll give up using a “real” camera, but I enjoyed how the ubiquity of the smartphone encouraged me to take more photos than I usually would, especially when there was nothing particularly special to capture. Sometimes the most interesting photos are simply daily life, even if that life happens to unfold on a grey day in Hong Kong.