Is a Smart Phone camera better than a professional camera and photographer?

I have been hearing this lately, so I thought it essential to address the subject. First, smartphone cameras have advanced tremendously, and these photos are fine for social media and communication. However, they do not match the print quality of a professional camera. Plus, the training with lighting and composition, posing, and creativity of a professional photographer only comes with a professional photographer!

A lot of money and a great deal of training go into the complicated camera equipment used. In addition to the excellent print quality of a professional camera, your photographer spends hours going through hundreds of photos taken at a photo session to choose the very best. Once selected, your photographer spends time editing each photo to make it beautiful and pleasing to the eye. A trained portrait or family photographer makes us look our best; without that training, there is no guarantee! Family photos last through generations, and I don’t know about you, but I would rather have high-quality pictures of my family, horses and pets rather than smartphone photos.

I often wonder when I see the statement I mentioned above, will they take pictures of their daughter or son’s wedding with a smartphone?