Thanks Alex. I'm kinda torn about it. Here's the story. I was taking the dog for a walk early Friday morning and it was cold out. I thought there might be fog down by the lake and I almost grabbed the camera. I really didn't want to lug the camera and hold on to the dog for the entire walk so I decided to just use the phone as I like trying to get good images with it.
I like how the image turned out a lot. I'm pretty pleased with it for a "mobile image". On the other hand...I kinda like the image a lot and I almost wish I had taken it with the DSLR. I don't think I could print it larger than 5x7. Maybe.
I've actually been thinking about it all weekend. Did I miss out by not taking the DSLR or is the image important to me because it turned out pretty nice with a phone camera (and I know it just wasn't a lucky snap)? The next morning it was cold again and I thought about going down and trying to replicate it with the big camera but I stopped. Somehow it felt that trying to take the shot again would marginalize the first one. In the end this kind of felt like a step forward for me. I was satisfied with the image I took because it was the image I took in that moment (with purpose). No need to try to make it perfect.
Sorry to get all phylisophical on everyone. Just something I've been thinking about all weekend.
BTW...one correction. The leaf shot was edited in Snapseed. The B&W was edited with the new tools in IOS 8 Photos. They've added quite a bit.
Try not to beat yourself up about it; the grass will always be greener. Now a little story from myself. The best thing I ever did for my photography was buy a 35mm SLR from the 70s. There are plenty of articles online about how film cameras force you to slow down and think about the shot or whatever, but they don't mention about how it allows you to let go of the need for ultimate, best-in-class technical quality. Almost overnight, all my woes about ISO noise, lens crispness, colour processing, and the rest, evaporated because you can't control half as many of those things with a roll of film. Suddenly,
all the focus was on my composition. And frankly it was liberating.
I'm not trying to convince you to get a film camera. I'm saying you took a fantastic photo with great composition. Oh, and it just happened to be on an iPhone. The tech doesn't matter. What does matter, and ultimately what you will be judged on, is your skill. Which you have in bucket loads
Pep talk over. Let's take some photos
Alex
PS You mention about possibly printing it on a 5x7. Well, a 1080 screen resolution at 4:3 aspect ratio only has 1.56 megapixels. So an 8 Mp sensor should easily scale up to the size of an HD TV, and then some.