Pete Souza has been Barack Obama's chief White House photographer throughout the US president's two terms in office, having previously done the same job for Ronald Reagan. He's also an avid iPhone user. In advance of his official year-in-review curated gallery showcasing the best White House photos of 2015 (see the 2014 edition here), Souza has posted some of his iPhone-powered highlights, drawn directly from his Instagram feed. Now that Instagram supports higher-resolution and rectangular photos, Souza is increasingly uploading photos taken from professional DSLR cameras, though he continues to only shoot square photos with his smartphone.

It's obvious from the photos that Souza uses the camera on his phone the way most of us do. The square shots in his Instagram feed are typically of more casual occasions and fleeting moments. The White House photographer is also unafraid of using exaggerated filters and even frames around his images, two things that have long been considered outmoded in social photography. But that's really the point, as Souza explains it: he wants to engage with people, get their comments, feedback, and typo corrections. And if the product of his work turns out to just accidentally look like a #shotwithiphone commercial, so be it. We know Tim Cook approves, in any case.