Taking Great Cellphone Pictures

These days, I have ditched my various cameras for my cellphone. To me, the convenient, always-available, light-weight, instant-share options of the cellphone outweigh the technical benefits of having a semi-professional (I never made it to "professional".) camera with real lenses and fine control. When I think about it, deliberately, nothing beats proper, high-quality equipment that allows me to control so much about a picture before I take it. But when I am running out of the house or hiking on a mountain, what I end up having with me is always ... my cellphone.

A different view on snake food:

As a photographer, I am somewhere in that great mass of people who take many pictures, most of them for personal memories or to document a short article. Occasionally, I get lucky, and something turns out just right. I use photo editing software at work, but for my personal images, I rarely do more than cropping. I see the cellphone as a challenge: Just how much can I do with that little box in my pocket?

Taking Great Cellphone Pictures by Adam Hadhazy, TechNewsDaily - an introductory article. This gallery really illustrates how much more important composition is than hardware. And here is the Shawn Rocco's website with more. Flickr has a group dedicated to cellphone photography. Just search for "cellphone photography", and you will find amazing images by amateur and professional photographers.

If you prefer books, Food Styling and Photography by Alison Parks Whitfield has a ton of good advice that is generally applicable to all still photography, such as reptile setups, equipment, and eggs. I tried my hand at it - be inspired to do much, much better!

And lastly, remember that professionals often take hundreds of pictures to get that one shot that will take your breath away.

Note: None of these images have been processed.

Box Turtle Breakfast:

Lens effect that made it possible to take a picture of the solar eclipse: