Take Your Travel Photography to the Next Level with the Nokia Lumia 1020

41 megapixels. Panoramic capability, adjustable ISO, shutter speed and focus - that's right, they're all available on the Nokia Lumia 1020! I received a Nokia Lumia 1020 from Nokia when they invited me out to attend a photography workshop with Colby Brown Photography and I have to tell you...it was a dream come true!

As soon as I saw the Nokia Lumia 1020 advertised last fall, I knew that I had to have it. I used my AT&T upgrade right before the Nokia Lumia 1020 was announced by AT&T and each time I was on a trip, snapping away photos with my iPhone 5, or reaching for my Sony NEX DSLR in my bag, I would silently curse myself for not ponying up the money for the Lumia 1020.

When I received the Nokia Lumia 1020, it felt like the Dawn of a new day. Mobile photography is constantly evolving, and while I love the user-friendliness of the iPhone iOS system, the camera really sucks. Yes, it's great for up-close, full daylight photos, there's no denying. But as a frequent traveler, it's not very often that the iPhone really delivers the results I want to share. So I carried both the iPhone 5 and my DSLR, and switched between the two: one for sharing through social media in real time, and one for taking photos worthy of being included in a blog post when I go home.

It was a chore to say the least, and I longed for that Nokia Lumia 1020. To be able to learn how to my new camera phone with Colby Brown, an incredibly gifted photographer while tramping around the mountains, valleys and streams in Yosemite National Park? Well, if you know me, then you can probably guess that this was one of the best trips of my life.

Now, I have a DSLR, but I mainly shoot in automatic. Yep, I'm a lazy girl. I like to pick up a camera and have it be so great that I can just take photos and not worry about messing with the settings. After spending a morning on the riverbank in Yosemite, Colby changed my mind about that. Sure, the Nokia Lumia 1020 with its incredible Zeiss lens and Pureview camera take amazing photos all on their own. But guess what? All of those settings, right there on my phone, allow me to really kick my photography up a notch!

I totally felt like Ansel Adams. For real, guys. The Lumia 1020 captures the way the sun filters through the trees, the sparkling sunlight on the water, the movement of the rapids - it's amazing.

Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera Features

The main camera sensor is 41 megapixels and the camera focal length is 26 mm. The main camera focus type is auto, of course, and it has ZEISS optics with a 1 ⅕ inch sensor and a Zenon flash. Aperture is the only thing that isn't adjustable in the settings, and is f/2.2.

Main camera features 6-lens optics, Backside-illuminated image sensor, High resolution zoom 3x, Optical image stabilization, and of course, PureView. I had never heard of PureView before using my Nokia Lumia 1020, but it's pretty amazing! You can search the #PureView hashtag on Instagram to see the photos others have taken using their Lumia phones; it essentially makes it so that when you take a photo, it's a PURE VIEW of the image or scenery...you know how when you take a photo with an iPhone, it doesn't always capture what the scene really looks like? PureView takes care of that.

Photography Apps through the Windows Store

Now, there are a ton of apps to use with your Nokia Lumia 1020 through the Windows store, and while Windows phones do not have all of the same apps that you've probably come to know and love with your iPhone, there are some really great ones and I haven't felt that it was lacking yet. One of the biggest benefits of being on this trip and getting to know my new Windows phone while being taught by professional photographers like Colby Brown and Peyton Hale is that they gave me advice on which apps they use. JD Andrews of Earth Xplorer was also on this trip, and he also gave me some pointers on apps to use! I'll cover some of those later on in another post, so stay tuned!

Some of the basic camera apps available on the Nokia Lumia 1020 (as well as the 1520 and 925, which I've also received either from Nokia or through my Windows Champion ambassador program) come preinstalled or just need a quick upload through the Microsoft Windows Store. They really expand the capabilities of the camera and give you more options and lenses, like the Panorama lens, Bing vision, Cinemagraph lens, Creative Studio, Nokia Camera, Nokia Glam Me. I shoot almost exclusively with the Nokia Camera, but have played around with the Panorama lens while watching the sunset in Glacier Point. Unfortunately, I was freezing that night and my hands were a little shaky, so it didn't come out so great! ha!

That's JD Andrews out there on the ledge. Mad props to him for getting the perfect shot...I was nowhere near brave enough to venture out that far!

Basic Apps Available on Your Nokia Lumia Phones

The Nokia Camera: brings together the features from Nokia Pro Cam and Nokia Smart Cam modes into one application. It gives you the entire exclusive Nokia camera experience with fast access to editing and sharing.

Creative Studio: Get more out of your pictures with this quick and easy photo editor. Creative Studio’s editing tools let you quickly adjust color balance, remove red eye and apply filters. Then, share your pictures directly on Facebook and Twitter.

Cinemagraph: A magical blend of photo and movie-like animation, creating pictures that seem almost alive. Helpful on-screen assistance lets you select the animated area of your picture and easily create and edit a cinemagraph. You can share your cinemagraph with friends via social media, email and messaging.

Nokia Glam Me Lens: Glam Me is the leading face beautification app for Windows Phones. With Glam Me, you can automatically enhance your self-portraits with toning, eye resizing, teeth whitening and all sorts of artistic effects.

Panorama: Get the bigger picture with Nokia’s easy-to-use Panorama app. Simply take your pictures and the app automatically stitches them into a picture-perfect view. Once you’re done, share your panorama directly to Twitter and Facebook.

Nokia Storyteller: Nokia Storyteller organizes your photos into stories on an interactive HERE map by time and place. Cinemagraphs and smart photos play automatically. See points of interest around the photos taken and pull up contact info, call or email directly from Storyteller, enabling you to authentically re-experience your entire journey when the time comes.

Now, I am not a professional photographer, so much of the settings and capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 1020 are a bit foreign to me. All I know is that they make the camera awesome. Don't laugh! I got some great shots out there in Yosemite National Park, with zero professional training just with the help of the photographers and learning how to use the Nokia Lumia 1020. This smartphone makes it so that anyone can take amazing photos without a lot of knowledge or experience!

Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera - The Fine Details

Image capturingCapture modes: Video, Still
Scene modes: Automatic, Sports, Night
White balance modes: Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Daylight, Automatic
Light sensitivity: Automatic, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO 3200
Photos viewed by: Month, Photo editor, Album, Timeline, Camera Roll, Favorites, Nokia Storyteller, Photos from social networks

Secondary cameraSecondary camera resolution: 1280 x 960 pixels
Secondary camera f-number/aperture: f/2.4
Secondary camera - other features: Video recording, HD 1.2 MP wide angle, Still image capture, Video call

Pretty sweet, right? One of my biggest complaints with the iPhone has always been that it is crap in low light situations. The Nokia Lumia 1020, on the other hand, it thrives in low lighting! We were inside a beautiful hotel one day and the lighting was not very good, yet the Lumia 1020 captured this gorgeous hotel lobby perfectly. You can even play around with the focus to get a soft blur on lighting, like I did with the candelabra.

I had so much fun exploring Yosemite National Park with the #LumiaExplorers team, and being able to learn from Colby and Peyton was such an honor. I am a lucky, lucky girl, I tell ya! I'll share more photos from Yosemite and give you a bit more information about the park in a separate post...otherwise this post could easily be 2000 words and no one has that kind of time, am I right?

All of the photos in this post are free of any type of editing. They were all shot using the Nokia Cam on the Lumia 1020, without flash and have not gone through any filters. I didn't even use any sharpening or auto-correcting when formatting them for this post - I just cropped them down to size.

I got some really great shots, and because it is a 41 megapixel camera, I could easily blow up any of my photos and turn them into wall art for my home!

You can find out more about the Nokia Lumia 1020, which is only available for the AT&T network (luckily for me, I am a longtime customer) on Nokia.com.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 comes in white, yellow and black, and there are already plenty of accessories available in the Microsoft Store. It is available at both the AT&T store and the Microsoft Store, and you can buy it for as little as $99.00 with a new AT&T contract, or buy it at the full price of  $609 without a contract. You can find all of the pricing and offers available here.

Happy travels!