Beck Diefenbach photojournalist

“Practice your ABC’s.”

That is a phrase I have heard a few times in the photographer circles. It stands for “Always Bring Camera.”

But what kind of “C” are we talking about? If we are referring to a professional camera, then I used to practice ABC all the time. In college, while an intern and even as a staffer, I always carried a DSLR or film SLR on errands or nights out with friends.

But the negatives of ABC eventually outweighed the positives: the weight on my bad shoulders, the fear of dropping a $5,000 camera, the constant photo gear questions at bars – all lead me to stop bring my camera everywhere.

Now I practice ABP, Always Bring Phone.

Yes, I have an iPhone. And this isn’t going to be a discussion about iPhone photography taking over the biz. This is just about my personal work.

My personal work has tripled or quadrupled because by practicing ABP, I am actually practicing ABC. Get it?

The camera in the iPhone is good enough. Not great. But good enough.

The Instagram app is heavily influence my shooting. The square crops mean I force myself to shoot straight, often square scenes.

The filters are gimmicky. They are just a quick and easy way to make boring photos interesting. The filters give emotion to images that didn’t have them originally.

It is not classic photojournalism, but that is the point. This is not work to me. It is just fun.

A lot of the work I do for money is not the most invigorating (I don’t post a lot of my hired work on this blog).

But many of these images are made while on assignment. But due to image quality or context, these images would not be desired in the editorial world. That is why they are just for fun. That’s why I throw goofy filters on them and share them on Instagram.

BTW, Sarah made those pancakes and they were amazing.