My husband is turning 50 this year. One of his bucket list places to see was the beautiful country of Iceland. He spent months planning a road trip around the diverse island.

Before we left, we had conversations about what cameras to pack. We both decided on taking only two- our digital and one film camera. It was a tough choice. We knew it was a once in a lifetime trip, but we also knew we would be packing up the car every other day or sometimes just staying in a place for one night, my husband was looking into renting a van from somewhere like Rent.is to tour some of Iceland in, allowing us some more space but it wasn’t really needed we made up our minds. We wanted to travel light, and that included our camera gear.

I don’t regret my choice one bit. We have just returned late Friday night, so my images are still on my camera, and my many rolls of film are ready to take to the developer, but there is always one camera that I consistently forget to count that seems to be invaluable on these trips.

I wrote about how handy having our iPhone is on vacation last year, and this trip proved this again. There were many times we were just jumping out of the car for a moment, and I just grabbed a quick shot, and there were other moments that were so gorgeous; all three cameras captured the same moment.

While I am excited to get my film back and the images off my digital camera, my iPhone delivered beautiful results that were quick and gave me instant gratification. My trusty iPhone made sharing my adventure with friends and family was easy to do, in the moment and immediately.

I was reminded once again, the best camera you have is the one you have on you. And sometimes that includes the one that you can operate without taking off your warm and protective gloves.

~Staci Lee