As far as professional photography goes the advantages of having an DSLR to shoot with are still far greater than what any smartphone can offer and yet the gap between the two continues to grow smaller year by year with manufacturers packing better camera sensors and technology into devices that most of us now carry all of the time.

Because of this a smartphone makes the perfect device for snapping an opportunistic photo whenever and wherever and people are taking full advantage as proven by the winners of this years annual iPhone Photography Awards.

Exclusively for photos taken on iPhone the competition received thousands of entries from more than 140 countries with categories that range from Portrait, Abstract, Still Life and many more. Most of the photos you see below were taken on the iPhone 6, 6s and iPhone 7 and just show that when it comes to taking a great photo it’s not the camera that matters most but the composition, lighting and narrative behind it.

Children of Qayyarah by Sebastiano Tomada, Grand Prize Winner, Photographer of the Year

Dock Worker by Brendan O Se, 1st Place, Photographer of the Year

The Performer by Yeow-Kwang Yeo, 2nd Place, Photographer of the Year

The City Palace by Kuanglong Zhang, 3rd Place, Photographer of the Year

Photo by Dina Alfasi From Israel, 1st Place, People

Photo by Joshua Sarinana From United States, 2nd Place, Travel

Photo by Dongrui Yu From China, 2nd Place, Animals

Photo by Gabriel Ribeiro From Brazil, 1st Place, Portrait

Photo by Vlad Vasylkevych From Ukraine, 3rd Place, Portrait

Photo by Sergey Pesterev From Russia, 2nd Place, Landscape

Photo by Magali Chesnel, France, 1st Place, Trees

Photo by Maria K. Pianu From Italy, 3rd Place, The America I Know

Photo by Paddy Chao From Taiwan, 1st Place, Architecture

Photo by Naian Feng From China, 3rd Place, Architecture

Photo by Smetanina Julia From Russia, 2nd Place, Floral

Photo by Kuanglong Zhang From China, 1st Place, Sunset