For me, photography is the:

1. creative expression of an individual or group,

2. documentation of realities, and

3. interpretation of reality.

If you are an individual interested in photography, your mind subconsciously applies the principles of photography (composition, light, etc...) whenever you look at or a compelling subject. At that moment, you seek a tool to "capture the moment."

Introduction

When it comes to choosing a tool, as with any other profession, we have many choices, but, in photography, they generally fall under one of two categories: the nearest tool at our disposal or one that we purposely select to realize our photographic vision.

Mobile photography, a growing and disruptive phenomenon, is making huge strides in the field of photography. I call it a "phenomenon" because humans could have never known that we would need such images and "disruptive" because it constantly shakes the photography field by breaking new barriers.

Most casual photographers have switched from dedicated cameras to smartphones to capture photos. Some mobile photographers have even created names for themselves by hacking mobile photography and thereby creating a completely new tool-set to express their creativity.

Moving forward, the mobile phone photography space will evolve at an even faster pace, delivering tools that will enable casual photographers to capture images of an increasingly high quality, further reducing the need for many to own a seperate, dedicated camera.

In this article, I will explore several areas where mobile phone cameras are dominating or at least  complementing the dedicated camera market.

Street and/or journalism photography

Increasingly, people are becoming anxious over being photographed on the streets. Sometimes shooting with a dedicated camera may not be entirely feasible (and while many street photographers do interact with their subjects to ease their anxiety, it is not possible in all cases). This is where the inherently stealthy nature of mobile phone cameras comes into play. Combined with their ability to actively back up images to cloud storage and to provide software to quickly edit and share images, mobile phone cameras are definitely a worthy tool to replace or complement a dedicated camera for this genre.).

Social photography

It’s this type of photography that is most popular among smartphone owners. We document more images today than any of our predecessors — from family to friends, social gatherings, and political agendas — we are able to collect and store information from almost every area of our lives. While we probably don't need many of the pictures we capture on our phones, having easy access to means to store and share, makes us more likely to take pictures without any kind of vision or plan for future use.

In my life, software aided photography on smartphones has made photographing active kids a breeze. I photograph my kids almost entirely on my Google Pixel 2 these days, as it’s easier to match their speed and make good creative compositions than it is with my dedicated camera.

Commercial photography

While not that common, smartphone cameras are used in some commercial photoshoots. It is true that in many such photography sessions, accessories are added to the mobile phone camera, similar to a DSLR/MILC. It is quite common for mobile phone manufacturers to release "shot with x phone" campaigns to showcase the quality of their product.

Mobile phone photography is well suited to certain genres within commercial photography. For instance, images taken on a mobile phone can be mixed with pictures from a dedicated camera for a wedding. However, genres such as fashion, architectural, sports, stock and product photography are very technical in regards to factors like dynamic range, shutter speed, and the ability to retain details even in shadows and are thus beyond the capacity of mobile phone cameras. 

Landscape photography

This is another genre where mobile phones, with their excellent photography capabilities, shine. I often use my mobile phone camera to scout a new location or create compositions for sharing purposes. Many times, photographs I’ve taken with my smartphone have outdone the dedicated camera, though I can partly blame my impatience with the dedicated camera (and the ability to quick-compose and quick-edit on my mobile phone).

Skills

Creative skills such as composition, understanding light, and working out the right colors are as important in smartphone photography as they are in dedicated camera photography. The skills needed to produce a compelling photo go beyond the tool, hence, the phrase: it's not the camera that matters but who’s behind the camera. As with anything, if you are considering photography as a serious hobby or profession, you must spend some time honing these skills.

Another important benefit of mobile camera photography is the lack of distractions. Having fewer accessories (compared to a dedicated camera), and thus greater mobility, can consequently inspire you to find creative compositions and produce stunning images. Even if all you’re using is a smartphone camera, it is still always a good idea to spend some time reading skill-based photography books and to invest time in developing your skills.

The tools

Smartphone cameras come in all colors, makes, builds, sizes, and flavors. Hence, finding a camera with acceptable capabilities is very important. You don't have to own a multi-lens camera to get zoom capabilities. More often, physically getting closer to the subject provides you with better image compositions.

With that being said, in my opinion, a smartphone camera must be capable of 

• capturing pictures in low light conditions (via aperture range settings)

• producing less noise in low-light conditions

• producing at least an 8x10 print without losing image quality 

• effectively shooting wide angle as well as portrait (avoiding lens distortion on portraits is particularly important).

Apart from that, the default camera app must provide:

• good control (not necessarily full manual controls, but simple tap based controls)

• speed (photo processing times should be nearly instantaneous) 

• compatibility with decent post processing applications (in my case, Snapseed and Adobe Photoshop express) 

All other features are secondary and can be added as needed — although at that point, it's likely that one would opt for a dedicated camera instead.

Shortfalls of smartphone photography

As much as smartphone photography is excellent and growing, there are places where it simply cannot compete with a DSLR or mirrorless camera. It is important to be aware of this so that you can select the right tool for your photography needs:

Post processing - although some camera applications produce RAW images, the post processing  of these is very limited due to the smaller sensor not being capable of providing the required details in the picture. 

Printing - while pictures taken using mobile cameras allow you to print 8x10 images without losing clarity, resolution deteriorates as images are further magnified. Due to the sensor size, there aren't enough pixels in most smartphone images to scale them to larger print sizes, even despite the new 40 MP (or greater) phones. Technologies such as pixel binning have tried addressing this, but even still, the details in photos taken with smartphone sensors are no match against the details in photos taken with dedicated aps-c, full-frame or large format cameras.

Lens versatility - mobile phone cameras are still limited in terms of capability. There are certain applications of photography that require a specialty lens (such as wildlife photography or landscape photography where you need to zoom in on an animal, or match the speed of the animal or bird ) which are not yet possible with a smartphone camera. 

Ergonomics - for some individuals, this plays a big role in not considering mobile phones as a serious photography tool. Depending on the person, hand size varies and phones do not have grip equivalent to the camera. As a tourist, walking with a dedicated camera that has a good grip is much easier than handling a smartphone. Similarly, the tactile functionality provided by the dedicated camera to reach a particular speed, light or focusing is not present on smartphones.

Flash - the flash included with smartphones is not very effective, compared to all the lighting options that are available when using a dedicated camera. Software innovations such as Nightsight eliminate the need for flash in landscape photography, but even still, this is not a perfect solution.

Background separation (a.k.a Bokeh) - While software innovation has filled the gap for limited applications, smaller sensors mean that the lens need to have an extremely wide aperture to produce natural bokeh straight out of the camera — perhaps in the near future, continued software innovation would eliminate the need for this entirely. Software induced bokeh, although good, tends to produce unnatural blur with respect to the overall surroundings. 

Conclusion

Despite the drawbacks of mobile phone photography, we must acknowledge its impact in society and the field of photography. Perhaps mobile photography is here to complement dedicated camera photography rather than to eliminate it, and it would be better to embrace the change than to oppose it.

The future of mobile photography (and photography in general) wll be interesting. My advice to you is this: embrace mobile photography and let your creativity grow even more.