瞬间转瞬即逝，很难捕捉，更不用说细节了. Trust me. 作为一个早熟的9岁女孩的父亲，我非常了解这一点.

I also happen to be an amateur photographer who for decades has been accumulating a collection of both vintage film and modern digital cameras and lenses. I was enamored by the immediacy of photography the first day I stepped into a photojournalism class in the early 1990s. Before that, 我花了无数个小时拿着画笔或铅笔, trying to capture the movement and emotion that a single press of a shutter button could accomplish.

我积累了这么多装备, 你会以为我会有一个照片库，里面都是我女儿的漂亮照片. But the reality is that those photos are few and far between because I lost critical minutes choosing the right camera body and lens and then fiddling with f-stops, 快门速度, ISO和其他设置.

在COVID-19大流行期间，我们都在自我隔离, I’ve been going through my photo archives to look for any noteworthy shots I might have overlooked over the years. I cringe every time I come across a photo of a blurry elbow ― the only part of my daughter in frame ― or highlights that are blown out or shots where my daughter is staring at me uncomfortably because she spotted me trying to capture a candid moment seconds too late.

捕捉“决定性时刻”

但这些尴尬和模糊的照片在我最近拍摄的照片中变得不那么频繁了. 我突然想到，这是因为, 在过去的几年里, I have been taking fewer and fewer photos with my DSLR and more and more photos with my smartphone.

Photos of indecipherable blurs have been replaced with dynamic photos of my daughter jumping from jungle gyms and speeding by on her freshly training-wheelless bicycle. These priceless images are captured in vivid detail and shot at the “decisive moment” ― a concept referring to capturing a spontaneous event that was popularized by my favorite photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Modern mobile photography made it possible to capture the moment my daughter jumped from a play structure despite her fear of heights. HDR mode, 更快的传感器和多镜头优化快门速度, aperture and ISO ensured that both my daughter and the sky have the optimal exposure for the scene and the movement isn’t blurred.

But it should be no surprise that I increasingly rely on my smartphone for day-to-day photography. 令人难以置信的软件数量, hardware and camera technology packed into the small space inside smartphones is improving at what seems like an exponential rate. 难怪 摄像系统 消费者升级手机的首要原因之一是什么.

We need the ever-increasing number of lenses and larger smartphone camera sensors to capture our most memorable moments. However, the physical size of a smartphone means lenses and sensors will never be a match for a DSLR or pro-level photography gear.

克服小透镜和传感器的局限性

为了克服物理限制，智能手机利用了处理能力和 计算摄影 技术——而不是光学处理——来捕捉我们值得在instagram上发布的照片. Computational photography employs AI-integrated software and digital computation to choose the best settings, 正确的颜色, 锐化图像, 处理肖像，甚至组合多个“堆叠”的照片，以创建最好的照片.

Every precious second I once spent fiddling with knobs and settings on my DSLR or digging through a camera bag searching for the right lens is now handled by software in a fraction of a second ― without the lag that could make me miss a shot. I also spend a lot less time in Photoshop color-correcting my photos while desperately trying to bring details out of shadows and toning down the harshness of bright white skies. Memory, like 微米LPDDR5，对于这种无延迟体验至关重要.

回归摄影的本源

相反, all the advanced technology packed into smartphones has returned photography to its 19th-century roots. 在摄影的早期, the worthiness of a photo was determined by how well the photographer composed a shot to record a decisive moment in time and influenced the audience’s emotional reaction to that moment ― not by how much expensive gear they could accumulate or how deft they were at Photoshop.

这是很合适的, 第一次印象派画展于1874年开幕, the Paris studio shared exhibition space with the pioneering photographers that inspired and influenced Cartier-Bresson. 捕捉瞬间的即时性是摄影和印象派的共同特点.

This immediacy is understood by every dad like me who has hastily reached into his pocket to pull out the smartphone just in time to photograph a toddler’s first galloping steps, 或者每个妈妈第一次看到一辆训练用无轮自行车模糊地划过她的相机屏幕.

如果我说我再也不会用我的数码单反或老式相机装备，那我就是不诚实的. 但随着智能手机摄像头和计算机摄影技术的不断发展, 我对他们的依赖会越来越少.

Sometime soon, my bulky camera gear will become like the suit hanging in my closet that I pull out only for special occasions. And more often than not, I will rely on my smartphone to capture those decisive, memorable moments.