Mission Impossible? Take Professional Photos with an iPhone

, a professional photographer whose work has appeared on National Geographic Creative and in adventure campaigns around the world, had doubts about the quality of smartphone photography. So, to see if the mobile devices could capture the kind of imagery he wanted, he headed to Iceland with an iPhone 6 and 6+. These are the photos he came back with and the lessons he learned during the process.
(Spoiler alert: It鈥檚 time to ditch the DSLR.)

Leaving my reliable Nikon D4S kit behind, I flew to Iceland with a single objective: Make great photos with an iPhone 6 and 6+, as well as the . Pictured: Blue lagoon.

When I go on a shoot, I usually need ten to 12 bags, including several , for all my equipment. That adds up to about 600 pounds of luggage. When I went to Iceland, I brought a single Pelican case filled with an iPhone 6 and 6+, Moment Lens , FreeFly Systems, M5 iPhone, Mount Watershot Inc., Dome Port, Goal Zero , and The North Face .

There鈥檚 no shortage of natural creativity in Iceland. To make this photo, I strapped on my crampons and braved the stairs. Spray from the waterfall not only helped me capture a scene right out of Frozen but also coated me with ice. The key to success? I kept moving, using my wipe cloth repeatedly on the Moment 18mm wide-angle lens. Pictured: Seljalandsfoss Waterfall.

I鈥檝e made photos in this cave before with a professional DLSR, and it takes a few shots to dial in the correct settings. Having mounted the iPhone 6+ with the Moment 18mm lens on a tripod, I activated the interval-shooting mode through the and walked into the scene. Pictured: Skaftafell Glacier.

I found that making amazing images with the iPhone 6 was often much easier that with a DLSR. Every photo I take with the DLSR is designed manually, meaning I control everything from the sensor settings to the focus. With the iPhone, I turn it on and we鈥檙e ready to go.
Getting this shot: Hiking into a massive glacial ice cave is very dangerous. The ground you see here is a partially frozen lake with weak spots covered by snow. Needless to say, we walked carefully. Pictured: Skaftafell Glacier.

The iPhone 6+ was the first to go up in the drone. I affixed the Moment 18mm lens, pushed the throttle forward, and watched the system lift off into the evening sky. The smartphone flew around for about 10 minutes before I could no longer handle the cold. I was surprised that the iPhone was still recording when it landed, with temperatures hovering about negative 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
Trips like this aren鈥檛 easy to pull off because of how challenging it is to reach each location. The (provided by my sponsor Land Rover) connected all the dots to make these photos possible. I aim to present a beautiful and interesting image, but it鈥檚 often hard to show how much work goes into making that one shot. Pictured: Near Grindavik.

When I walked up to the edge (see next slide) of that cliff under the lighthouse, I noticed fog lingering about 100 yards offshore. I ran out to the arch (directly under me here), placed my behind me, and stepped into the light. Pictured: Dyrholaey.

At night, everything deceives you. Looking across at this arch, it seems small. Don鈥檛 be fooled. That rock is 400 feet high and has more than enough surface area to support two simultaneous football games. Pictured: Dyrholaey.

After about of week of running around in the middle of the night making photos, I began to think I was becoming afraid of the light. One morning, I woke up and ran down to the beach to catch the sunrise. Pictured: Vik.