Let’s try to put a positive spin on this story: I shot these images with my phone! Instead of my state-of-the-art, deadweight brick of a DSLR that I lugged all the way to Greece, I explored the islands a little less encumbered.

The reality? I couldn’t carry my kit (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and Sigma 24-105 f/4 ART lens) around on our adventures – which included water sports, sand, wind and partying. I learned a valuable lesson about packing for the trip at hand. It’s not about choosing the best of the best of your equipment, but being practical and decisive. In Greece, I wasted precious weight and space by the set-up I barely even used. Since then, I’ve invested in a sweet mirrorless camera, a Sony Alpha a7II, that I now carry with me day-to-day. It’s smaller, lighter and unless I squint really hard, I can’t tell the difference in my photos.

So let’s look at these and enjoy them for what they are: snapshots using a pretty impressive piece of technology, my smartphone.

All images shot with my phone – a Samsung Galaxy S8, at the time.

Greece

A slice of Little Venice in Old Mykonos Town, Mykonos. Mykonos had so much to offer – quaint alleys like this one as well as restaurants, bars, nightlife and shopping.

One of the icons of Mykonos – their windmills.

The view from our villa in Mykonos.

This was actually a sculpture on the island of Ios set inside a shipping container. I took the same photo during the day but I’m glad I stuck around after the sun went down too!

The iconic Santorini. While this tiny sliver of the island was quite beautiful, it was also packed with tourists and one of our least enjoyable stops during our trip.

Me around our neighborhood in Santorini.

The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Built in 330 BC as a simple horse racecourse, it is the site of the first modern Olympic games and the world’s only all-marble stadium.

A sweet sunset in Ios with more beautiful Greek islands in the background.

All images shot with my phone – a Samsung Galaxy S8, at the time.