Apple VP talks 'Shot on iPhone' challenge, how the company views photography

The iPhone maker announced the 10 winners of its macro-focused "Shot on iPhone" challenge on Wednesday. Shortly after, YouTuber and photographer Tyler Stalman sat down with Apple VP of iPhone Marketing Kaiann Drance to discuss the challenge and its winners.

"One of the things we believe at Apple is that the true potential of our products is fully realized when it gets into the hands of our users," she said. "This challenge, in particular, really showcases that beautifully as we have people from all different backgrounds."

Drance, for example, noted that macro photography has long been a technique used mostly by professionals and has long required special equipment.

"And now, on the iPhone 13 Pro, is this new macro capability that you can just bring the camera close and it'll automatically get into that really stunning sharp focus to be able to take such a tremendous detail and really illuminate an ordinary thing into an extraordinary thing," she said.

The Apple executive also spoke about, despite the fact that the iPhone is equipped with powerful and capable cameras, it's incredibly easy for both new and veteran photographers to use.

"We wanted to make it really easy," she said. "So you didn't have to understand the history of cinematic video, or you didn't have to understand what it means to have bokeh and how to create a portrait mode photograph. But really you can just go to your phone and start experimenting and playing with it — and just taking pictures."

Additionally, Drance shared other tidbits about iPhone photography, including how Apple places a high priority on balancing its engineering and technology with the human element. In the case of the iPhone, that's how images and pictures modes look to the human eye.

"We actually still sit down and review thousands of images looking with our eyes," Drance said. "And using that to balance not just the technology, but like, 'Hey, is this going to be a photograph and a memory you want to keep?'"

Stalman also spoke with several of the winners of the macro challenge, including Trevor Collins, Ashley Lee, Guido Cassanelli, Abhik Mondal, and Daniel Olah. Most of them shared details about their specific techniques, or how they captured their winning images.

The full interview is about an hour long and is available on YouTube.