Still Wading in the Kiddie Pool of the Profound

After many weeks of heavy, unwieldy and complicated ideas, I’m
really surfing in the shallow end of the thought pool right now, and have been
over the past few days. So today I thought I would write about moments I’ve
captured with my cell-phone camera.

Like this one, at Navy Pier.

When you think about the Star Trek-level device most of us carry around with us these days, think about what we would have thought of them when we were kids (and if cell phones have been around your whole life, then tie your shoes, pull up your pants, and stop making me feel old), it’s really incredible. We’ve come a long way since Zack Morris’s cell phone/bread-maker (and hey, aforementioned youngsters, if you don’t know who that is, go find out and watch “Saved by the Bell” on Hulu or Netflix or something. You’re in for some awesome surprises and wholesome lessons).

In the year since I’ve had a smartphone that has nearly the same number of megapixels as my real camera, I’ve had many moments where I’ve thought, I wish I had my camera. And then I realize, wait, I do.

Like during the blizzard this winter, when I’d forgotten to charge the battery to my camera, or it died from sheer exhaustion.

And right after, when suddenly the sky cleared.

Or these photos from an unplanned trip to the Botanic Gardens, my favorite subject of all. Going on whim, I was cameraless.

Except for my phone.

I withstood the amused looks from the digital SLR’d around me, and persevered.

The key is accepting what you have and using it to your advantage. Embracing the fixed focus. Learning to have fun with the fixed focus. Getting a lot of out-of-focus pictures with the fixed focus.