At the age of seven, my father gave me my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, complete with flash cubes and several rolls of film. At 13 he upped the ante and gave me a Minolta SLR, with three lenses, and taught me darkroom skills. Nowadays, though I own a DSLR, most of my favorite shots are taken with my trusty iPhone.

There is a way to look at the world through the lens of a camera that I find endlessly edifying. Here are a few of my favorites.

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