5 Minute Photos Weekend Digest #16
IPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS • PHOTO SHARING ACROSS PLATFORMS • ICLOUD STORAGE TRIAGE
IPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS
Asking a photographer what camera created that picture is like asking a chef what skillet created that dish. Photography, being a technical medium, has long suffered from a focus (pun intended) on the equipment we use to create our images. And right out of the gate, iPhones were deemed second-class citizens in the pantheon of photographic tool sets.
‘Real’ photographers didn’t use iPhones.
Until they did.
Today, it’s hard to find a photographer of any sort who doesn’t respect what the iPhone can produce and how handy it is as a primary or backup camera. Stunning images from iPhones abound in the hands of National Geographic photographers, NASA astronauts, and amateurs. We see them every day.
Which refocuses attention on the photographer’s creative talent, where it should be. And validates the notion that anyone with an iPhone has a pathway to remarkable photography.
IPPAWARDS was launched the same year as the iPhone, in 2007, to recognize the potential of the iPhone as a first class creative tool for photographers. Where some contests excluded iPhone images, IPPAWARDS rejected everything else. Photos must be created on an iPhone or iPad and not altered in Photoshop or other 3rd party software.
This week, the IPPAWARDS for 2026 was just released, and the results are stunning. They make the case that good photography is about seeing the world around us, and not limited to $10k camera kits. Developing a creative eye is no different than developing an ear for music. Or a talent for cooking, painting, or writing.
That is the inspiration that created Bluewater Imaging and this newsletter. There are so many facets to iPhone photography, but pure creativity and the ability to share our vision of the world around us is at the heart of it.
I encourage everyone to view this year’s gallery at IPPAWARDS and be inspired too.
PHOTO SHARING ACROSS PLATFORMS
Shared Albums has long been a popular way to share photos and videos among family and friends. In Apple Photos you just choose the images, save them as a Shared Album, and invite the people to view them.
It’s an easy way to create what’s essentially an online gallery of photos from a trip, event, or a running collection of day-to-day pictures. The invitees accept the invitation, and your Shared Album appears in the Albums Collection of their own Apple Photos Library.
Nifty.
The feature works great for all-Apple participants who just want simple picture sharing in an organized way. No hunting through mail attachments or Messages threads, and it doesn’t take up precious storage space.
But Shared Albums has limitations on image size and cross platform sharing that have frustrated people who wanted to actually share original sized images and have an easy interactive experience.
Welcome to OS 27.
Among the new features coming to Apple Photos in the Fall, Shared Albums gets a major bump in functionality that should create a hero out of anyone who wants to share their images with the people they love.
As a photo manager, the two most challenging sharing requests are ways to share original quality images with metadata, and how to share with people on Android and Windows devices.
Apple Photos in OS 27 will do both. It’s a game changer.
Downloading and uploading to the Shared Album will be easier than before and adds the ability to make comments with emojis. Shared Albums can also be set to expire in 30 days.
Keep in mind that we are still early in the beta testing stage, so what features and limitations finally release is uncertain, but the fact that Apple has invested this much effort in a feature that’s relatively unchanged since it’s release in 2015 is more than encouraging.
I can’t wait.
ICLOUD STORAGE TRIAGE
There is one big change in the Shared Albums future that bears noting.
For years, Shared Albums has been excused from storage calculations because the images were downsized and took up relatively little space on Apple’s servers. Because OS 27 changes that and posts a Shared Album of Original sized images, your Shared Albums will now count against your iCloud Storage allotment.
When you make a Shared Album, iCloud Photo Library exports your chosen images to a Shared Albums gallery that is essentially a stand alone website. As of this writing it is uncertain how that transition will play out, but this is a good time to review your Shared Albums usage and your available iCloud storage space to consider impact.
Photos actually don’t take up as much storage as people think, but videos do. Also, like me, you may have bumped up your iCloud storage to the next largest tier which is a lot more than you need.
So, in my case, I have 44 Shared Albums, some of which are years old and haven’t seen activity since before I knew that N95 masks even existed. Those can go. And if I want them back, I can make them again.
But it’s also a reminder that many of those Shared Albums just aren’t relevant anymore. Some may have photos that my friends added and I’ll want to download them, but everything else I should have in my Library anyway.
This seems like a good time to do some housecleaning.
Stay tuned to 5 Minute Photos and I’ll let you know what I find out as Shared Albums and the impact on your iCloud Drive evolves.
Thanks for reading.
Great read, as usual, Paul. So, does this mean that we can't put assets into shared albums and delete them from our own feed? I do that with work assets and teach others to do that. It's really helpful for those who use their phones to create content.
another reason to bypass iCloud. Good writeup.