Before the year 2023 comes and you go on that well-deserved holiday, the question is do you have the right gear to capture all your precious holiday moments? Along with the right equipment, you must consider other factors that will allow you to make memories you will want to share with your loved ones, flaunt on Social Media and maybe even print!
Here are some tips:
Clean the lens: When it comes to photography, you will have to do a lot of preparations that will help you get great results. And we point out one of the simplest tricks – hardly worth mentioning – clean the lens of your mobile camera regularly, especially before you want to take a picture. Use a soft cloth to clean your lenses. Never use a paper tissue or paper in any form, this will result in scratches on the lens.
Consider the lighting: Lighting can make even a regular photo into a great one. While smartphone cameras are getting better, they can disappoint in low-light situations. So, while taking photos make sure you have lots of natural light. Open those curtains. In the evenings, turn on overhead lights, lamps and as many lights as possible.
Have innovative perspectives: A lot of motifs, especially in busy holiday destinations, are mostly regular ones. Buildings like the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa are captured by tourists from all over the world from the same perspective. To give it all a break, you can break away from the crowd and change the perspective – this immediately results in new views of the same motif, which can be really impressive.
Using flash: The smartphone flash can often make the pictures look very unnatural. So you should really pick the moments where you can use this feature wisely.
Avoid zooming: Not all smartphones come with an optical zoom; most have a digital zoom. This aspect immediately makes the picture pixelated. Moreover, it has a wide-angle lens, which is good for panorama shots, but not ideal for zoom shots. However, if the subject is too close, the picture can become blurred. As a guideline, try and maintain a distance of 15 centimetres.
Choose focus: You can choose where you want your camera to focus when clicking photos. Simply tap on the subject that you want to be the centre of attention and your phone will automatically focus there.
Invest in the right smartphone: While you consider all other aspects, the most important question to ask yourself is whether your smartphone camera is good enough. You should first check the technical side of your handset. How many megapixels does the mobile phone camera have, is there an image stabiliser, is there a wide-angle function, and more?
Here are some of the best camera phones in the world, that you can invest in if you want to take your photography game a notch higher:

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

As of December 2023, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the best camera phone because of its incredible flexibility. The lenses and features are absolutely incredible, making it shoot almost anything and everything. Different smartphones might create somewhat better pictures in certain circumstances, yet the Galaxy S23 Ultra can deal with each circumstance well, from close-ups to night photographs to ultrazoom distances.
While the 12MP ultrawide and dual 3x and 10x 10MP telephoto sensors of the S23 Ultra feel good, the phone disregards the 108MP resolution sensor seen on previous entries and replaces it with a whopping 200 MP primary camera to deliver a noteworthy photography experience.
Samsung also continues to work closely with Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other big social brands to ensure that the S23 Ultra benefits from higher image and video quality.

Best Suited For: The people who absolutely do not wish to compromise on the camera clarity and want nothing but stunning photos.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

Apple’s latest 2023-launch iPhones are mostly distinguished by more than just display size and battery. For instance, the cameras on the iPhone 15 Pro Max are slightly better than those on the standard-sized iPhone 15 Pro, primarily because of its 5x optical zoom.
With this handset, Apple has embraced the periscope technology using an innovative ‘tetraprism’ design to offer the best zoom capabilities ever seen on an iPhone.
Additionally, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has an identical 48MP main camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera, and 12MP front-facing camera. The phone stands out with its AI processing, which can tweak images to make them more. They’re also great for recording videos with a few fun modes like focus pulling to help you record cinematic shots.

Best Suited For: iPhone loyalists who want a compact iPhone that still captures quality photos and videos.

Google Pixel 8 Pro 5G

The Pixel 8 Pro is indeed one of the best cameras you can buy at its price for photography. It gives good competition to the much pricier iPhone 15 Pro Max.Google Pixel 8 Pro 5G has a new RAW capture that allows you to take full advantage of the 50MP sensor, as well as a new pro controls mode giving you control over the look of your images. With a sleek design, a bigger screen, and excellent future-proofing with continued software support for up to 7 years, this is really worth the money you spend on it.

Best Suited For: Those who want absolutely the best pictures along with great performance.

Google Pixel 7 Pro 5G

The Google Pixel 7 Pro takes amazing photos, in all lighting conditions. The Pixel 7 Pro recognizes speech more accurately, making Google Assistant more useful. It makes your photos clearer, and more inclusive, using Real Tone technology to enhance skin tones. The Google Pixel 7 Pro has dedicated night modes that take multiple images and combine them in a single photo that’s brighter and has less image noise.

Best Suited For: Incredible day and night photos at a lower price than the Google Pixel 8 series.

OnePlus 11 5G

Every photography enthusiast admits that the OnePlus 11 is suitable for a specific type of photographer. The telephoto shots or super-close macro photography are very average. But the area where the OnePlus 11 stands out is with its portrait and landscape photography. Photos have a rich, natural look to them. Overall it seems that the OnePlus 11 gives the artistic feel of a real, prime photography lens.

Best Suited For: For portrait and landscape shots
Frequently Asked Questions: Best Camera Phones
Which phone camera offers the best night photography?
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, Apple iPhone 15 Pro and Google Pixel 7 Pro all have dedicated night modes that allow you to take stunning photos even in the least lighting situation.
Are iPhone or Samsung cameras better?
Samsung Galaxy phones and Apple iPhones have some of the best cameras. Phones from both manufacturers have a capable photographic tool, but neither is such a clear leader that it’s worth moving from Android to iOS or vice versa. While the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra offers the biggest telephoto zoom camera, the iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max produces natural-looking images and videos, along with pro features like ProRes and Log video capture.
What’s the difference between real cameras and phone cameras?
The biggest difference between a dedicated camera and a phone camera is the size. A dedicated camera has a larger sensor and bigger lenses that take in more light, resulting in more detailed photos and a wider dynamic range. A phone camera is really small with a sensor that is smaller than a fingernail. To overcome the limitations of a small sensor and lens, a phone uses computational photography (AI and machine learning) to combine parts of multiple images into a single photo that’s brighter and has more detail than a phone camera alone.
Disclaimer: The Times of India’s journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The product prices mentioned in the article are subject to change with offers given by Amazon.

Every year, countless stunning images are submitted to a variety of photography competitions around the world, and 2023 was no exception. From cosmic structures light-years wide to microscopic marvels and everything in between, here are some of this year’s most awe-inspiring images.

Whatever it is you’re interested in photographing, chances are there’s a competition suited to your tastes. Animals feature pretty heavily in competitions like the World Nature Photography Awards, Nature TTL Photographer of the Year, and the Environmental Photographer of the Year, as well as their own specific awards like Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The Bird Photographer of the Year and the Audubon Photo Awards focus on our flying feathered friends, while the Comedy Wildlife and Comedy Pet Photo Awards showcase the lighter side of nature.

Among the highlights are “Milky Way” by Hungarian photographer Bence Mate, which won The Night Sky category of this year’s Nature TTL competition. A remote-controlled camera was placed inside a fish tank and left on the ground, where a curious wild boar came to investigate at just the right time. The resulting image gives the impression that the animal is a celestial being, peering down from the stars.

The night sky is a focus of other competitions too. The Astronomy Photographer of the Year covers everything from the Sun and Moon to galaxies. One of its standout entries was Angel An’s Grand Cosmic Fireworks, capturing a rare atmospheric phenomenon called red sprites in exceptional detail. Meanwhile, travel blog Capture the Atlas runs two annual competitions, one focusing on the Milky Way and the other on aurorae, always with spectacular results.

At the opposite end of the scale from the giant cosmos is the tiny world of insects, fungi, and even microscopic cells and structures, which is covered by the Nikon Small World Photomicrography competition and the Close-Up Photographer of the Year. An intriguing image from the former is Ole Bielfeldt’s entry of a matchstick catching fire as it’s struck across the box, captured within 1/8,000th of a second.

Other niches covered this year include the Urban, Mobile, Mangrove, Canarian, and Black and White Photo Awards, and even an image competition from the BMC Ecology and Evolution journal.

Browse through our gallery to see the best of the best from the year’s photography competitions.

Capturing resilience in a man scarred by gun violence

By Anthony Vazquez

My first encounter with James Bell was in January 2021. We met in a parking lot as he prepared for a stellate ganglion block procedure, a treatment for PTSD. Nervous about the procedure, James didn’t talk much. Our connection stemmed from a friend of his, whom I had previously covered in a story addressing the realities of post-traumatic stress disorder in gun-prone neighborhoods. James seemed like another compelling story to explore.

Over the next few hours, I stood by James’ side, waiting patiently in the reception area, observing as they checked his blood pressure and prepped him for the procedure. I was in the operating room as they administered the shot on the operating table. My initial interaction didn’t provide many hints about the troublesome story James had lived through. I only knew on the surface that he was suffering from PTSD due to a traumatic event.

Several months passed after our initial meeting, and I finally found the time to sit down with him and delve deeper into his story.

What he revealed was a lifelong narrative of various traumas. As a young boy in Louisiana growing up in a poor household, issues with his parents prompted a move to his grandparents’ home in Chicago. He faced troubles as a teenager, engaged in street drug sales, became a victim of gun violence and experienced the heartbreak of losing the love of his life and the mother of his children. Amid all his trauma, one constant remained — his love for football.

Football was his refuge as a child and the anchor that pulled him away from the streets. It provided him peace and led him to his calling as a coach. Unfortunately, an act of gun violence left him blind, ending his coaching career. He descended into depression but slowly found his way back onto the field through his sons and as an assistant coach.

From our initial meeting and through the next year and a half, I followed James. I witnessed him as a coach, a single father and a man grappling with PTSD. I joined him during family holidays, training sessions with his oldest son, football practices and everyday moments. More than two years after our first meeting, I wrote about his epic tale of loss, resilience, family and an enduring love of football.

The photo above captures just another training day. We had spent the morning at the park as he ran his sons through various agility drills.

The reason this photo is my favorite lies in its depiction of what James embodies. It was taken immediately after a set on the bench press when James struggled to finish his last reps. Catching his breath, he epitomized resilience. Despite the physical and emotional traumas he faced, he persists in pushing himself to become better, not only for his sake, but for the sake of his children. His desire for a better future for his kids propels him.

Covering an armed standoff

By Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere

During my tenure with the Chicago Sun-Times, I’ve covered a lot of breaking news. I was initially hired to do that — and only that — on overnight shifts. I’ve seen and captured a lot over the years, but no image to date comes close to what I captured in June when John Litsiardakis, armed with a gun, got into a standoff with Chicago police and SWAT officers while atop a makeshift tower with a swastika on it.

When I arrived at the standoff, I had no view of the tower. But after checking out streets nearby, I stumbled down North Karlov Avenue and saw another news photographer on the block and dozens of neighbors on the sidewalk and on their porches.

At the corner of the block I could see this man who’d been standing off with police for hours just sitting in a lawn chair with what appeared to be a shotgun. I found cover behind a car’s engine block and sat there with neighbors and the other news photographer for hours capturing Litsiardakis as he climbed up and down the tower, flipped off police, grabbed different guns, sat back down in his chair and so on.
At one point he grabbed the weapon you see in the image and walked out on a ledge in his tower fanning the gun at police. At that moment I captured the image you see above. Then he saw me, the other photographer and the crowd of neighbors and onlookers and swept his weapon at us. We ducked and took cover.

I stayed behind cover for hours after that point not knowing how this would end, but also making sure to stay as safe as possible. SWAT, who was only mere feet away from us, made sure we were OK, and suggested different places to take cover.

Eventually Litsiardakis retreated inside the building, and we heard what sounded like a gunshot or two a little while later. Police blew off the building’s door, but after that it went eerily quiet, other than the sound of music and Litsiardakis’ ramblings playing in a loop from a loudspeaker.

As the day turned into twilight I made my way back to my car to file my images and knew not only was that the most dangerous situation I’d ever put myself in, but I’d also taken one of the most unique and dramatic images to date of a breaking news story.

Witnessing the most intimate moments in people’s lives

By Pat Nabong

This photo of Sherrif Polk and his 1-week-old son Sherrif Polk Jr. is one of my favorite photos this year. I had been assigned to photograph Chicagoans who were receiving monthly stipends from the city, the county or nonprofit organizations for Elvia Malagón and Esther Yoon-Ji Kang’s story about how guaranteed-income programs were having an impact on Chicagoans’ lives. Polk received $500 a month from Chicago Future Fund, which gives monthly allowances to formerly incarcerated people. For Sherrif, most of his stipend went to buying clothes and toys for his kids, he told me as I photographed him by the lake in May. We started talking about his kids, and he mentioned that he had a newborn at home. I asked if he would be willing to be photographed with his baby for the story. After calling his fiancee to make sure, he said yes. 

When we arrived, his fiancee brought out Sherrif Polk Jr. As I approached, Polk carried his son and brought his tiny hands to his lips. 

It is one of those instances where we are invited to witness people’s lives in a more intimate way, which we don’t always get to see as photojournalists and as readers. I was struck by the tenderness of the moment. It reminded me of why I love to photograph: because of photography’s ability to make visible and give importance to the fleeting and fragile moments that make up our days — like the way light bounces off a person’s face, a small hand to the lips and the warmth of a father holding his child. Working in the news industry can often feel loud and frenetic, with our weeks filled with protests, politics and heavy stories. But I come back to quiet photographs like this that allow me to connect with Chicagoans through the simpler moments that make up their lives.

Cherishing the animal assignments, especially in hard moments

By Ashlee Rezin

I have to admit, when it came time for me to pick my favorite photo of 2023, I struggled quite a bit. For a lot of reasons, many of which I won’t get into, this year has been one of the hardest years of my personal life.

In June, a family of federally protected peregrine falcons made themselves at home in the Loop. They were dive-bombing pedestrians passing below their seventh-story nest at an office building on Wacker Drive near the Chicago River.

This was my first assignment after my mom died.

“How about an easy day?” I remember my editor, Rich Hein, saying in one of our usually innocuous morning chats.

“Want the bird assignment?”

Rich knows that, for me, animal assignments can be a welcome reprieve from the day-to-day grind of daily news, which is often emotionally heavy. I jump at an opportunity to photograph endangered piping plovers at Montrose Beach; a baby animal’s debut at a zoo; therapy dogs making people smile at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse; or a herd of deer finding refuge in a city cemetery.

Falcons fly very fast. This was not an easy assignment. But it brought me joy in that moment.

In a year full of pain and struggle for me, I am grateful for empathetic editors and co-workers. Life sucks sometimes, and every once in a while, everyone deserves their equivalent of an animal assignment.

Each year, we recognize the work and importance of local journalism through the lenses of the member and affiliate NPR stations. Photographers have covered pivotal moments throughout the year; that’s why we asked them to share memorable events they covered this past year.

Reflecting on the photos… I’m struck by the recurring theme of large gatherings of people. Whether in joy, prayer, protest or grief, it seems 2023 was a year where the desire to be around others was particularly palpable.

Some of the events included the East Palestine train derailment, the leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents, Texas women challenging the state’s abortion bans, the end of the nation’s COVID-19 immigration emergency order, the controversy around Title 42, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to end race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country and calls for a cease-fire in Gaza in several U.S. cities.

From moments of joy for concertgoers with Beyoncé‘s return to the stage to grief in vigils for the deaf and hard of hearing victims of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

From each corner of the country, these photographers have documented the events that have shaped the stories from their states and cities. “Through photos, I sought to convey the distinct tapestry of the place I call home, highlighting both the realities that demand attention and the aspects we cherish,” said KQED’s photojournalist Beth LaBerge.

These images from across the country represent some of the year’s most remarkable stories:

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

TOKYO, Dec. 28, 2023 — Ultrafast optical imaging is typically measured in picoseconds, whereas high-speed electronic cameras image at the millisecond and microsecond timescale. To bridge the gap between these technologies, a research team at the University of Tokyo developed a technology they’re calling “spectrum circuit,” a precision optical circuit that allows superfine images to be taken over multiple timescales at high speed. Using the new technology, the researchers demonstrated nanosecond photography as well as ultrawide-time-range, high-speed photography.

Spectrum circuit produces nondamaging laser pulses that are set to emit at different time intervals. In addition to tunable time intervals, the pulse trains produced by spectrum circuit have short pulse durations and high temporal accuracy. Pulse manipulation is performed in free space while retaining the optical power and short pulse duration.

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An underwater shock wave moving through a HeLa cell. Using their spectrum circuit technology, the researchers could see the difference between how the shock wave moved inside and outside of a cell submerged in water. They noted that the results suggested that the cell structure shifts with the visualized wavefront position (shown in the red/orange line in the image). Courtesy of Saiki et al., 2023.

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The researchers combined spectrum circuit with a single-shot optical imaging technique called sequentially timed all-optical mapping photography (STAMP). Using spectrum circuit to provide a time-stretch approach at the nanosecond timescale, the researchers achieved superfine-exposure, nanosecond-scale photography based on STAMP. The single-shot, nanosecond photography demonstrated high spatial resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio, and a superfine-exposure time about 103 times shorter than the frame interval.

The researchers realized single-shot, multi-timescale, ultrafast photography by combining spectrum circuit and STAMP with other photonic time-stretch techniques to capture femtosecond-nanosecond dynamics, and with high-speed cameras as detectors to capture microsecond-millisecond dynamics.

Although the researchers used spectrum circuit with STAMP, use of the technology could be extended to applications like burst pulse generation and spectroscopy by optimizing each parameter design or optics. A diverse range of ultrafast light sources with broad bandwidths could be used, including supercontinuum white light lasers, mid-infrared lasers, and ultraviolet lasers. The researchers attribute the versatility of spectrum circuit to its free-space operation based on a combination of dispersive optics and mirrors.

The researchers demonstrated the new imaging technique by photographing a microscopic shock wave passing through a single cell. They captured the shock wave propagating through a biological cell with a 1.5-ns frame interval and 44-ps exposure time, while suppressing image blur and avoiding damage to the cell.

“For the first time in history, as far as we know, we have directly observed the interaction between a biological cell and a shock wave, and experimentally demonstrated that the velocity of the shock wave propagating inside the cell is faster than the outside of the cell,” researcher Takao Saiki said. “Furthermore, our approach has enabled us to demonstrate high-speed photography across a wide time range, which includes picosecond (one-trillionth of a second), nanosecond (one-billionth of a second) and millisecond (one-thousandth of a second) timescales.”

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Images of laser ablation taken using the ultrawide-time-range, high-speed camera. Applying this new imaging technology, the researchers could see the propagating shock wave and plasma and the progress of laser processing over multi-timescales (~10 to 100 ps, ~1 to 10 ns, and ~1 to 100 ms). Courtesy of Saiki et al., 2023.

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The researchers used the same approach to visualize the effects of laser ablation on glass. They focused an ultrashort laser pulse — just 35 fs long — onto a glass plate. Using spectrum circuit, they observed the resulting shock waves and the laser’s effect on the glass. They visualized femtosecond laser processing over multiple timescales (25-ps, 2.0-ns, and 1-ms frame intervals), and showed that the plasma generated at the picosecond timescale affected subsequent shock wave formation at the nanosecond timescale.

“We could see the interplay between different physical processes taking place over time, and how they took shape,” said Keiichi Nakagawa, professor at the University of Tokyo. “Our technology provides opportunities to reveal useful, but unknown, high-speed phenomena by enabling us to observe and analyze such ultrafast processes.”

Nakagawa said that the team plans to use the new imaging technique to visualize how cells interact with acoustic waves like those used in ultrasound and shock wave therapy. “By doing this, we aim to understand the primary physical processes that activate subsequent therapeutic effects in the human body,” he said.

The team also wants to use spectrum circuit to improve laser processing techniques, by identifying the physical parameters that could enable faster, more precise, more consistent, and more cost-effective manufacturing.

“We expect to make broad contributions in various fields, from biomedicine to manufacturing, materials, the environment, and energy,” Nakagawa said.

The research was published in Science Advances (www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj8608).

More often than not when someone is trying to break into an industry it can be overwhelming just trying to get noticed, and this was no exception for Georgia Politis.

The second-generation Greek Australian from Darwin runs her own photo studio Georgia Politis Photography, and is popular amongst the Greek community for christenings, having photographed 300 since she began in 2017.

Like many passions, photography began as a hobby for Georgia, but it wasn’t until a local Greek woman suggested she pursue it further.

“When I think of this moment, I remember actually denying the idea, laughing as I thought ‘there is no way that will work, I am not good enough’,” Georgia told Neos Kosmos.

But after sitting on that thought for a few months, she decided to just do it and started out as Lens Photography in 2017 when she was 23-years-old.

Georgia had to work her way to where she is today, and that she did. “I found it very difficult for the first few years to showcase my skills and willingness to work in the industry.”

“This is because there is a pattern of behaviour with everyone, we all go by trust and what/who we know.

“So, having my new name and business out there in 2017, as well as being young, took a lot of courage.”

She believes part of the reason why it is hard for people to break into the industry and maintain their brand name is because photography is not really respected as it used to be.

“Many people have cameras on almost every device they have, many people may have professional cameras too – or people in the family who do.”

“We are often seen as ‘point and shoot’, where the background work is never seen or the true investment we make in our equipment and education is never thought of.

“As a woman who is young, I was seen as just a young girl with a camera, but not a businesswoman, so I made it my mission to show I was far more than that – and ended up loving it so much.”

To get her name out there, Georgia had to just jump into the deep end and volunteer cover events as a sponsor, regardless of her confidence – events like Darwin Greek GleNTi, The Blessing of the Waters, Easter and church ceremonies.

She says she does this not only for enjoyment but because it helps the Greek community and being around her community is important for her.

Georgia is now being recognised in public as a photographer and much to her surprise, even all the way in Greece.

As mentioned christenings are Georgia’s busiest service having done 300 of them since 2017. When she first started, not many people hired photographers for christenings, so she has helped change the industry in that sense.

Before Georgia became the professional award-winning photographer, she is today, awards like being in ThreeBestRated’s top three photographers in Darwin every year since 2018 and silver awards from the AIPP and the Icon International Photography Awards, her professional ethos was influenced by her Greek background, particularly her parents and grandfather George.

She has been working with the family business since eight, given small tasks that would pave the way she runs a business today. It was here she “learned the importance of honesty, the value of hard work, good customer service skills and most of all – importance of family.”

Also instrumental to her development was her time spent in Melbourne, learning under Nick Ghionis and Jerry Ghionis.

“It was during this workshop that I decided that I was going to push the boundaries; I quickly transformed my business from a ‘hobbyist’ photographer to a completely new business from this workshop.”

“When I returned to Darwin, I changed the business name to my own name, rebranded and began taking on any challenge.”

Georgia also runs Top End Virtual, helping other businesses with their administration needs.

You can find Georgia Polites Photography on Facebook and Instagram or via www.gpphotographer.com.au