Palm Pilot Photography

My dad recently sent me this amazing photo he had taken on his 1.2 megapixel Palm Pilot. It's called Wild Acres Marsh. Click on the image to view it at full size. I have not compressed it at all, so that you can see the quality of it. Not bad, eh? I was pretty impressed that it came out so well given the cruddy resolution of Palm Pilots. All the credit goes, of course, to my dad (who was, incidentally, my earliest inspiration for photography). The composition is wonderful. I love the use of line, both the vertical lines of the dead trees in the marsh and the curving lines of the field leading the eye towards the living (though denuded for winter) tree. The colors are rich, and the mist swallowing up the receding background gives the whole thing a mystical quality. The latter is why it works at a lower resolution, I think.

This just goes to show you that you don't need ultra-high resolution on a camera or lots of fancy controls (any controls, for that matter, other than a shutter release) in order to do great work. The eye of the photographer is more important than the technical gadgetry. Photographers often bristle when someone praises our artwork by saying "Wow, that's a great photo. You must have a really awesome camera!" The best retort (thought of no doubt in a case of l'esprit de l'escalier) was "If a chef makes you a fine meal, do you say 'That was delicious. You sure must have some great pots and pans!'?"

As I told my dad, this photo reminds me of some of Paul Butzi's work in his Snoqualmie Valley gallery.