GoKawiilRyan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR A pro wildlife photographer has been using his Galaxy S25 Ultra and winning global awards.
Steven Scott Grogin’s images of reptiles have won several awards for mobile photography.
One of their submissions was entered into the general wildlife photography category, where they received the 70th position globally.
In the last few years, smartphone photography has evolved faster than human imagination, thanks to computational photography and the commoditization of capable camera modules. Evidently, there hasn’t been clear parity in how quickly brands have moved. Regionally influential phone brands such as vivo and OPPO have been pushing the limits of smartphone cameras with an enthusiast-friendly approach and contraptions that mimic actual cameras. Meanwhile, other, more prominent ones, including Apple, Samsung, and Google, have largely bet on software-related improvements rather than on hardware revisions with each passing generation.
Among these, Samsung has received the most criticism for making among the fewest changes to its flagship phone cameras. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s camera, for instance, continues to use a camera system that’s largely identical to the S24 Ultra. Despite that, a professional photographer has shown that vision matters more in photography than equipment.
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Steven Scott Grogin is a camera ace who has been relying on their Samsung Galaxy phones to capture unimaginably spectacular wildlife and macro shots. His work has been recognized by the Mobile Photography Awards, where he secured the top spot in the “Macro & Details” category, and by 35AWARDS, where he ranked seventh globally in the “Mobile Photography” category. Groggin’s entry eventually surpassed the phone-only category and entered the general photography classification, where it secured the 70th position in “Wildlife Photography” globally.
Grogin told Android Authority that his “work is built entirely from real wild encounters across Florida and Michigan, often using immersive ground-level and water-level perspectives of overlooked wildlife such as alligators, frogs, snakes, moths, insects, and swamp species.” You can see plenty of danger noodles and swamp puppies (if you get that reference, we can be best friends!) in their portfolio on 500px. We recommend supporting his work by following him on 500px and sharing it with others.
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