As the old saying goes, the best camera you have is the one you have on you.

I don’t know about you but I certainly don’t have my DSLR on me at all times. This doesn’t mean we have to succumb to badly taken photos. It does mean that we have photos that are lower resolution though, so we won’t be able to print them off to billboard size (unless it gets picked up by Apple for it’s “shot on iPhone” ad campaign). Never the less there are some really creative ways to display your phone photos and not just on social media. So if you are one of the millions of parents that use their phone to record events in your life, big and small, you’ll probably want to know how to take better photos using your phone. Here are my 5 top tips:

Choose your focus point

Including a foreground, middle and background is a sure fire way to create a more professional looking photo. Here I just included a bit of the fallen tree in the foreground. It’s not the main focus of the image as it’s blurred and my little boy is in focus. All I did was tap the screen on him before I took the shot and that meant that he was in focus and the tree was not.

Use the sky as a background

I love using big, clear blue skies in my images. I always try to get down low so the subject stands out against it very clearly against the sky. It creates a kind of silhouette and add interest the photo.

Photograph everyday moments

creatively that is, keep it simple with as little clutter as possible. The bathroom is a great pace as it’s nice and white and is usually the least cluttered room in the house! (yeah right, I hear you say but just go with it ;D)

Watch your horizon lines

Keep it as straight as possible and position it in the top third or bottom third of the frame, try not to have it in right in the middle. Also, a top tip: never ever have it running through a persons head. Move yourself so they are above or below, here it’s going through my son’s waist.

Look out for interesting stuff

Get yourself into the habit of looking out for interesting stuff, think about how you could use it in your photos. Try different angles and have a play around, what’s the worst that could happen?

Now that you are shooting intentionally with your phone, you’ll want to make sure you regularly cull, upload and print them. That’s a whole other post you’ll need to read. If you’d like to sign up for the next Beginners DSLR Photography Course for Parents, check out more details here