These days, if you don’t have a camera phone, you are pretty much a Stone Age guy. No, taping your digicam to your cordless home telephone does not work it. A camera phone is defined by a camera integrated in a cellphone, or a cellphone integrated in a camera (heck, I don’t know if there’s any of it ever invented). And for the sake of simplicity and practicality, no, you’ll never find a camera phone that uses Polaroid. Get it, Einstein?

Hold it steady

Camera phones are smaller than a jumbo jet, obviously. Therefore, they are prone to shaky-shaky conditions that can resulted in blurry photos. The bad part is, there is no existing camera phone that has tripod mount on it. How to get crispy looking pictures, then? Two ways: take pictures only in brightly lit areas, and use your body as a substitute to a tripod. Lean against something rock-hard and solid, or better yet, one of your big friends. Treat them a lunch later.

Beware of light

Watch the lighting condition of the area. Better an over-exposed background than an under-exposed friend. Put it simply, make sure any sources of light in that area illuminate your subject. Stand with your back behind the light sauce source, and your friend in front of you. This trick is especially useful to camera phones that don’t have built-in flash (most camera phones don’t have it anyway)

Up, close, and personal

Whenever possible, shove the camera phone right under the nose of the subject you are taking picture of. Don’t use the digital zoom provided, or you’ll curse the manufacturer of your phone when you see the result. Because of low resolution of camera phones (this is due to the sensor’s size, which is smaller than your thumb print), it will always be a bad idea to use digital zoom (who invented this useless function, anyway?). Furthermore, it will make your picture look nicer.

More of it later!