Town Haul Diner, Harrison Montana

This picture has a wonderful composition and great color. At the same time it highlights both the possibilities and limitations of cell phone photography.

Jack. Thanks. I would love to get your thoughts on cell phone photography. I always feel like some of the craft is being removed with so much calculation being done for the user, but still enjoy easily capturing things when I see them.

Andrew, I'm one of the few creatures left on this planet who doesn't have a cell phone. I feel they've been largely instrumental in creating the sort of virtual reality in which it seems people spend increasing amounts of time. I'm not against cell phones per se but rather the way they have absolutely taken over people's lives. Having said that, if I needed one, I would get one but at this time I don't see the necessity. There are two features that I do like though: one is the built in translation dictionary which would be very handy here in Japan where my comprehension of the language remains at idiot level and the second is the camera. My concern is, as I expressed in the earlier comment, the degradation of image quality when the picture is enlarged. Of course I don't know if this is also true with the higher priced models, perhaps there it approaches camera level; I do like the idea of having a pocket camera with me everywhere I go and I'm not particularly opposed to cell phone cameras on philosophical grounds. Personally, I'm not a "technical" photographer (often to my detriment, I have to admit); working largely on the street, I'm always in a bit of a rush to capture the image by whatever means possible. In that regard and with the caveats I've expressed, I think a cell phone camera would be useful.

Your instincts on the cell phone are well founded. I have often contemplated going back to a little flip phone in order to reduce the huge amount of wasted time.