Cell Phone "Photography"... Anyone? Opinions?

[VisualOddity]

So, I got the blog RSS this morning from Chase Jarvis about his iPhone portfolio, and it was also mentioned in this thread, so this got me thinking. I have been an avid fan of his for a long time, so he tends to inspire me, which leads me too...

Cell phones obviously do not make the best cameras, or best option for photography, but that could be a plus too, right? It seems that a phone's lack of camera awesomeness could make for a good challenge. The results would be different than with your pro'ish body, or even decent P&S, but the creativity could be the same, if not more. I am tossing around the idea of a couple of things. Maybe a blog where I can post straight from my phone via email (or a web interface since meh phone is teh shiz), or maybe I could make a site where everyone can do that? I don't want to do a straight up portfolio, especially since it would kinda be stealing his idea, but more of a place to share the pics w/ a description, etc. My phone GPS tags all my pics, so maybe they could auto-populate on a google map (especially since the OS on my phone is Google's Android)? I'm also thinking (probably going to) of doing a picture-a-day like this. It will be way easier than pulling out the 30D and PP stuff w/ my schedule. lol

I dunno, just tossing around idea's, thought I'd get input...

[kenw]

since I don't have a cell cam (for many reasons), my opinion may be a bit useless, well, maybe moreso than normal, but here goes:

1st, it’s a valid idea.

I think the idea of a cell-cam challenge has to be narrowly defined and part of that is to limit the scope to just the cell-cam. So that leaves us with purely unedited images. No post-processing whatsoever. Otherwise it becomes a photoshop challenge.

To me, the true essence of the challenge is to show creativity of the user and their mastery of the device, since the technical aspects are off the table by definition.

Chromic abberations, pincushioning, etc? Not part of the challenge.

Subject? Situation? Lighting aesthetics? Artistic interpretation? You bet! (those last 2 can be a can of worms…)

My 2 cents…

[johnastovall]

Why not? People use pin hole cameras made out of oatmeal boxes. It's the creative mind not the gear that counts in the end.

[midlight21]

I have a 1.3 MP cam on my cell phone and I'm surprised at the number of options that are now in place to help create the best photo you can from a cell phone. Mine for instance allows you to zoom, set a self timer, there's a multishot function, white balance adjustment, and color tone adjustment. I've seen others with a flash and much better mp than mine. I've also seen news stories about cell phone art as its becoming a bit popular now.

I agree, the cell phone cam can yield a good challenge to come up with creative shots using the limited functions of the cam. A pic a day blog from a cell phone camera would be interesting.

[VisualOddity]

Thanks for the thoughts. I setup a kind of side-blog at my site, which I am going to use for this. It's basic, and I am going to use it as a pic-a-day type experience for now. Probably multiple pics per day, but at least one. I may buy another domain name for something bigger if this turns out cool... I'll probably get it going tomorrow and start...

I too have a decent camera on my G1. It's 3.2mp camera with a Mechanical Auto-Focus (cool for a cell phone), and does more cool things than I could imagine. It's all tied in w/ my Google acct, so everything syncs 2 ways and what not. Cool stuff! :)

[toverman]

I'm just kind of bummed my expensive digital SLRs don't have phones in them.

[VisualOddity]

hahaha...


I'm going to do it here:
edit

[ShaneKislack]

I'm convinced. I started one on my site.

[VisualOddity]

Edit...

I am going to use my spare domain. www.bittenlips.com ... I also figured out the GPS based auto-map tagging for it. Go there and look below the pic for the "show this photo on a map" link. Pretty good stuff...

VisualOddity added 19 Minutes and 49 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by ShaneKislack

I'm convinced. I started one on my site.

Very nice! I like the slide-out thumbs...

[rcgsavage]

Next time I upgrade I think I'm going to look with something that has better resolution. Cell phone cameras are nice since I normally don't carry any kind of camera on me.

[studiocygnet]

I do believe Brad had a cell phone challenge as one of the monthly assignment topics about a year ago now.