2012-11-29 10.39.03 This past year has seen a tremendous change and advances in "convenient" camera photography. As I have quoted a couple of times "the best 2012-11-29 10.39.38 camera is the one you have with you". No question a large sensor, high pixel camera with a super-duper expensive lens will give the highest quality image. However, sensor technology and tiny lenses have advanced to where very nice pictures can be taken with cell phones. I replaced my aging smartphone this week with a Sony Xperia TL (yes, the James Bond one), principally because I got a deal. But the phone comes with a 13.1 megapixel camera. The tiny lenses on cell phones are best thought of as wide angle lenses which means they are good for tremendous depth of field and pretty close in focusing. Thus as long as the light is sufficient and you have a steady hand, both landscapes and macros can be done. With a new camera (cell phone) and the dropping of the Bradford pear leaves this week, I decided to see what I might do. There was sun streaming in the front window, so I propped a black foam board on an end table, taped a leaf to a lamp shade and took a picture (see setup). The picture is as shot other than some minor contrast adjustments and a square crop.