Virtually everyone these days seems to have an iPhone in their pocket, or perhaps some lesser smartphone like a Black Berry or Android.  Actually this statement isn’t too far from the truth as I read this week that it is predicted that there will be 30,000,000 cell phones activated in Canada by 2013 and that the market penetration of smartphones will increase to 50% by that time (from 32% in 2010).  So it seems that soon everyone in Canada will have a cell phone and half of them will be smartphones.

The versatility of smartphones is amazing and they can even be used effectively in nature photography.  The camera phones are sporting processors with 5-7 megapixels which rival those of professional DSLR bodies of only a decade ago (I know…. that’s like comparing apples & oranges however the point is image quality is great in today’s smartphones).

So next time you are out for a trail walk, take your iPhone and have fun with it.  Talking pictures is far more enjoyable than catching up on your email.  Take some bird seed and it wont be long before the chickadees will find you.  Put you camera on your wrist, some seeds in your hand and practice your timing to take the picture.  The camera phones can focus to very short distances so just snap away.

The technique resulted in this image, taken at Halls Road in Ajax.

Don’t forget to have your camera phone ready when you see the big animals as well, however when you take ‘full frame’ shots of a Moose with your iPhone you are probably too close to the moose.  This image was taken on the Mizzy Lake Trail in Algonquin Park.

Taking videos with smartphones is also a lot of fun and certainly helps capture the memories  of the day.  Here is a friend of mine providing the most expensive perch I’ve ever seen used for taking pictures of Chickadees with an iPhone 🙂

You can see more images of Chickadees in the Chickadees, Nuthatches & Creepers Gallery and more Moose can been seen in the Wildlife Gallery