The Smartphone Photography Playbook

Cherish Collins is a photographer and educator whose career began the way most do — with a phone, a curious eye, and no camera lessons. Over more than a decade of shooting and teaching, she has helped thousands of absolute beginners discover that striking photographs are within reach long before any expensive equipment arrives. Her workshops, which she leads in person and online under the name "Shoot What You Have," focus on light, observation, and editing with restraint — the same philosophy at the heart of this book.

Collins started as a hobbyist documenting family life and city walks, and her images gradually found their way into local galleries and regional publications. But her real love is teaching. She is known for replacing jargon with plain language, for exercises that fit into a lunch break, and for the calm encouragement that brings her students back for a second class. Every tutorial she writes returns to one conviction: a photograph is a way of paying attention, and attention is a skill anyone can build.

*The Smartphone Photography Playbook* grew directly out of the questions her students ask most — the same questions she once asked herself. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she photographs fog, ferries, and the family dog far more often than anyone requests. When she isn't teaching or shooting, Collins is usually walking slowly with her phone charged, looking for the next good light.