Best Photography Competitions and Awards to Enter in 2026
As someone who has worked within photography, journalism and publishing since 1997 and spent almost two decades building and editing TheAppWhisperer, I am often asked whether photography competitions are worth entering. My answer is usually the same: the right competition can be transformative, while the wrong one can be an expensive disappointment. Over the years, I have interviewed hundreds of photographers, reviewed portfolios, followed careers as they developed and watched photographers move from relative obscurity to international recognition. In many cases, a respected competition or award provided the breakthrough that helped their work reach a much wider audience. At the same time, I have seen photographers spend considerable sums entering…
Between Photography and AI: A Conversation with Dan Marcolina
Dan Marcolina is a photographer, designer, author and visual storyteller whose work spans more than four decades of technological change in image-making. Beginning with traditional lens-based photography, his creative journey has evolved through digital imaging, Photoshop, mobile photography, augmented reality and, more recently, generative AI. An early advocate of digital creativity, Marcolina co-founded with his wife Denise, one of Philadelphia’s first all-digital design studios and has spent much of his career exploring how emerging technologies can expand visual expression while remaining grounded in photographic observation. He is the author of several books on mobile photography, including iPhone Obsessed, one of the first iPhoneography books published, and has lectured internationally on…
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Halide Mark III and Why Photographers Still Need to Make Decisions
I’ve been writing about mobile photography for almost two decades, and if I’m honest, I thought I’d seen most of it by now. Every year brings another camera app promising to turn the iPhone into something it isn’t. There are always more controls, more presets, more editing tools, and increasingly, more artificial intelligence. And Halide Mark III made me pause for a different reason. It wasn’t the new editing tools or the collection of Looks that caught my attention. It wasn’t even the promise of producing better photographs. What stayed with me after reading about the update was the sense that Lux is trying to have a conversation about photography…
Remembering Kerry Mitchell
I was deeply saddened today to hear of the sudden death of mobile photographer and artist Kerry Mitchell. I interviewed Kerry for TheAppWhisperer several times and, like many people within the mobile photography community, I always remembered the quiet sensitivity of her work. Her images never shouted for attention. They didn’t need to. They carried emotion in a much softer and more lasting way. At a time when so much photography competes to be louder, faster and more immediate, Kerry’s work did the opposite. It slowed you down. There was a calmness to her images, but also something underlying them that felt fragile and deeply human. I think that’s why…
“The Integrity of the Fine Artist Must Be Preserved” — Rita Colantonio on AI and Photography
Over the past few years, much of my writing and photographic research has increasingly centred on questions of memory, grief, spectatorship, and photographic truth. I have become deeply interested in how photographs shape emotional understanding, how images linger in the mind, influence perception, and quietly alter how we remember experiences long after the moment itself has passed. Photography has never simply been about documentation; it is tied to absence, intimacy, trauma and belief. We do not merely look at photographs; we inhabit them emotionally. At the same time, through my work at TheAppWhisperer, I have spent almost two decades observing and documenting the evolution of mobile photography and digital art from…
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How to Stop iPhone Photos Looking Overprocessed
There was a time when smartphone photography still felt slightly unpredictable. Images could fail. Grain appeared in low light. Shadows sometimes disappeared entirely. Motion blur crept into night scenes. But photographs still retained atmosphere. They still felt connected to the moment they described. Now, increasingly, many iPhone photographs look as though they’ve already been edited before the photographer has even seen them. Skin is automatically smoothed. HDR aggressively brightens shadows. Textures are sharpened beyond realism. Night skies become electric blue. Faces are softened. Details are enhanced until images start looking synthetic rather than observed. For casual users, this often appears impressive. But many photographers are beginning to push back against…
Best Android Photography Apps – 2026 Edition
The Best Camera & Editing Apps for Android – Tested and Updated – 2026 Edition Tested on multiple Android devices in 2026 Android photography continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace. With increasingly powerful sensors and computational imaging, the real difference now comes down to the apps you use — not just the hardware in your pocket. In this guide, we’ve selected the best Android photography apps for 2026, covering everything from manual camera control to advanced editing and creative tools. Whether you’re shooting professionally or refining everyday images, these apps will elevate your workflow. Adobe Lightroom Mobile Download Adobe Lightroom Mobile here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.lrmobile Download Adobe Lightroom Mobile for Android…
Simple Tips To Improve Your Smartphone Photography Game
Introduction Like a constant companion, your smartphone connects you to the web and keeps you updated with events in the outside world. It is one of the first items you grab before you leave the house, and probably the last you touch before you retire to bed. This makes it one of the most essential things in the world today. Apart from this, your smartphone is also a great digital camera. In the past, taking photos with smartphones was a hassle, due to poor image quality. Fast forward to 2021, and you can get sharp images when you apply the right skills. Here are some simple tips you can practice…
Mobile Photographer Demonstrates Smartphone Photography Tips with Huawei
To mark World Photography Day, an annual celebration of the art, craft, science and history of photography took place yesterday with Huawei sharing top photography tips to inspire our readers toget creative with their smartphone camera. (all images captured on Huawei P40 Pro Smartphone) Huawei has been working in partnership with renowned camera experts, Leica Camera AG, since 2016 to make premium photography experiences more accessible to their customers. With the shared goal of reinventing smartphone photography, the partnership has continued to evolve each year, bringing Huawei users cutting edge innovation across the brand’s smartphone devices. The latest Huawei P40 Pro flagship device picks up the torch from its predecessor,…
Introducing the Profoto C1 Product Range – The Studio Light for Smartphones
Yesterday, Profoto introduced the Profoto C1 product range. These are the studio lights for smartphones that deliver great light to your images. Connect via the Profoto camera app and you hold the secret of professional-looking images. The lights are small, super portable, and incredibly easy to use together with their new and intuitive Profoto Camera – the smartphone app. When using the Profoto Camera app you can easily choose between creating a more natural or dramatic look in your images. And you can also adjust the color temperature of the flash to match the surrounding light conditions. Take a look at the videos below to learn more for now and…
