I am an amateur photographer.
Until recently I was considering buying a point-and-shoot compact digital camera, something like a Canon Powershot or similar variety, but, after upgrading to an iPhone 4, I’ve changed my mind.
I had an iPhone 3G for over two years, and while the phone had a camera, it wasn’t the best and didn’t take exceptional photos. It snapped grainy, low resolutions pictures like most other camera phones. The iPhone 4 takes much better pictures with its upgraded camera which boasts higher resolution, increased megapixels and LED flash.
Quality is certainly a factor in a camera purchase, but a secondary consideration I had was pocket space. I don’t carry a man purse, messenger bag, or any other such device for hauling stuff around with me. My every day inventory is limited to what I can hold in my pockets. Currently that is a wallet, a moleskin notebook, a pen, a pocket knife, my keys, my iPhone, and on days that are sunny, my sunglasses. I don’t have an extra pocket for a camera, and even if I did, many small cameras are still bulkier than I want to shove into a pocket.
My last concern was ease of use, and while this isn’t a problem with actual cameras (power on-point-shoot-repeat), it was with the iPhone. My 3G was feeling its age, and barely was able to run the iOS 4 software and that made taking pictures painful. I would have my nieces over, and one of them would do something cute, and I would want to capture it, but by the time I whipped out my iPhone, unlocked it, activated the app, and waited for it to ready the camera, my ever-in-motion niece would no longer be in the same place doing the same adorable thing. To my satisfaction the super-speedy upgraded hardware that inhabits the iPhone 4 activates the camera app as quickly as my fingers can manipulate the touchscreen and I am ready to take a photo in seconds.
Having decided to make my iPhone my camera, I looked into apps that would further facilitate my creative impulses. There are a plethora of photo taking apps available in Apple’s app store, and if you’ve an iPhone or iPod Touch, I recommend having a look around. My go-to app, thus far, is Instagram. 
I like Instagram so much that I have decided to challenge myself to take one picture with it every day for an entire year. So far I have taken 11 consecutive photos which you can see here. I plan to peruse the App store and try out other photography apps, and when I do, I will post reviews of the ones I like and choose to use.
Photography is a huge field, but what I really appreciate is the breadth of opportunity within it. There are high end, expensive, well-crafted cameras for the expert photographers and there are ordinary, cheap, well-crafted cameras for the amateur photographer. For my simple purposes, there is an iPhone with an app for that.
a simple man 