- iPhone Photography Awards 2026 Winners Announced, and First Prize Goes to Robyn Jensen
- The winning image of a volcano eruption was taken with an iPhone 15 Pro
- Another 12 category winners were announced, along with the various iPhones used
The iPhone Photography Awards have announced their award winners for 2026, and the image that received the Grand Prize really stopped me in my tracks.
Taken by Robyn Jensen from the Cayman Islands and submitted in the ‘Nature’ category, the winning image is a stunning low-light capture of a volcanic eruption in Yepocapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Showing the moment a drop of ash erupts from the volcano’s crater, with white-hot trails cascading around it, the image perfectly frames the dramatic moment against a starlit night sky.
What’s more, this image wasn’t even taken with the latest iPhone, but with a two-generation phone: the iPhone 15 Pro. I love how effectively it uses the phone’s inherent qualities to its advantage; For example, the smaller sensor on the iPhone 15 Pro, or any smartphone, will have a more limited dynamic range than a premium compact or mirrorless camera.
Robyn has made use of that, exposing the brightest point in the image (the lava and the light it casts at the bottom of the ash cloud) and allowing the rest to be shrouded in darkness. This increases the impact of the image, sacrificing detail in the mountain for the legibility of the key subject. But fortunately, we almost have those beautiful stars in the background.
Robyn has also used the wider 24mm equivalent lens, resisting the temptation to zoom in with the telephoto lens, and doing so allows us to appreciate the moment in its fullest context, giving a sense of scale. Its exposure lasts a full second, which means either the phone was mounted on a stand or it had the help of the iPhone 15 Pro’s excellent OIS (optical image stabilization). And the phone raised its ISO to 12,500 and still got a pretty clean shot. It’s a gorgeous image and a deserved winner.
Right place, right time
Something I particularly love about the iPhone awards is the wide variety of styles and themes, and this couldn’t be better illustrated than the contrast between Robyn’s image and the gold award winner, an image submitted in the ‘Children’ category by Hungarian photographer Gellért Gombai. A beautiful shot of a precious summer moment, its interplay of light and shadow is intensified by the decision to convert it to monochrome, and it was taken with an even older phone, the iPhone X released in 2017!
And this feeling of spaciousness continues when you look at the Silver and Bronze winners (below), although both were taken by American photographers and both are images of animals! Silver winner Arnold Plotnick’s street photo of a cat has a sense of complete serendipity, a perfectly framed and well-located moment. Also note how, again, the iPhone’s lower dynamic range actually helps the image, with the loss of detail in the cat’s fur and the door’s shadow increasing the contrast and impact of the shot.
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Meanwhile, Catherine Wang’s bronze winner couldn’t be more different. It’s a meticulously staged still life, with the watermelon, cup, and parrot elements clearly arranged with great precision, and the end result looks like something out of a gallery wall.
For me, almost all of the winning images exemplify one of the iPhone’s strongest assets for photographers: it’s the camera you always have with you. While there are exceptions, such as Catherine Wang’s still life, most images have the unmistakable feel of snapshots, of a photographer who was in the right place at the right time and had the wherewithal to make the most of it.
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Images like the pattern of frost on a car, a couple of dogs peeking out a window, a child preparing to jump over a puddle. These are not things you configure; They are moments that you detect, and many of them are moments that anyone could have detected.
I am especially outraged by the fact that the gold award was won by a photo of a cat on the street. Do you have any idea about the shots of cats on the street I have on my camera roll? Loads! And do you have any idea how many of them are as good as Arnold Plotnick’s? None!
But despite my personal bitterness, the iPhone Photography Awards have produced a magnificent crop of images this year and, in doing so, have provided some pertinent reminders of two of photography’s most important lessons. First, you don’t need the latest technology to create great images. Secondly, the best camera is always (always) the one you have on you.
You can see the full selection of images, including the second and third place winners, on the iPhone Photography Awards website.
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