some new olives

taken with my BlackBerry Tour.

There's an entire universe of photography that has barely been explored (except by cam whores on Facebook): Camera Phones. When you see someone at a concert taking a picture with a big flashy Nikon that needs to be supported on a shoulder or a tripod, everyone thinks "oh, photographer". When you see someone with the same concentration and, apparently, same target as Mr. Flashy Nikon, you don't think anything at all. Fact is, the latter is as much a photographer as the former.

Not saying that everyone who picks up a camera is a photographer. But anyone who uses any sort of photographic equipment in order to create meaningful compositions is.

My BlackBerry's camera is 3.2 MP--that's the same as a lot of point-and-shoot cameras that were released before 2006. It takes good pictures. The quality may not to be top notch, but it does the job, and it does it reasonably well. The truth of the matter is that it doesn't take a state-of-the-art camera to take a good photograph, or create a strong composition, or make an impact; it takes a good photographer to take a good photograph, to compose a good shot, to make an impression.

I've considered blowing my savings on a really impressive camera with lots of fancy gadgets and superior quality. One day, when finances permit, I will, and it will improve the quality of my photos and add a certain "professional" appearance to my pursuits that I currently don't really possess with a Canon point-and-shoot that cost me as much as a dinner at Cactus Club.
But it won't make me a better photographer. That's up to me to look after all on my own.